Is President Obama’s claim to have increased criminal deportations accurate?

One of the key arguments made by President Obama in his speech outlining his actions to address undocumented immigrants was his insistence that his administration had made the borders more secure. "Today, we have more agents and technology deployed to secure our southern border than at any time in our history," Obama said -- a claim that we've evaluated before.

Later in the address, he made a different argument, one that bolstered his idea that the government should prioritize deporting criminals over law-abiding immigrants. "Over the past six years," Obama said, "deportations of criminals are up 80 percent."

That appears to be accurate. Since Obama took office, there's been a relatively modest increase in the number of people deported -- "removed," in the parlance of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS publishes statistics on an annual basis tracking numbers related to its work. And while apprehensions flattened out after a long-term drop, deportations have moved upward.

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