Flashback: There Was a Time Democrats Were Okay With Separating Illegal Immigrant Families

Democrats in Minneapolis and elsewhere have long opposed ICE deporting illegal immigrants, and for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that they believe it's wrong to "separate families." Of course, like most Leftist arguments, that one doesn't hold up under scrutiny either. The family of an illegal immigrant, including children, is free to leave the country as well. The Left also doesn't object to "separating families" in any other circumstance. Remember: many Democrats wanted to take away children from their unvaccinated parents, and they push to take "trans" kids from their parents as a matter of state law.

There was a time when Democrats didn't feel that way, however. And that includes former President Barack Obama. This is a great catch, and it seems there's always a video of Democrats once professing positions they know disavow.

2013. Obama is asked if he would at least stop deportations of parents of children brought here illegally.

In other words, would he stop family separations and stop deportations of people who have “done nothing wrong.”

Obama: “That is not an option.”pic.twitter.com/GaEXsWgn7u
— MAZE (@mazemoore) January 11, 2026

"As time goes on, a thousand deportations on average a day. People are wondering...won't you at least consider unilaterally freezing deportations for the parents of deferred action kids?" reporter Jose Diaz-Balart asked.

"Here's the problem that I have, Jose, and I've said this consistently," Obama replied, "my job in the Executive Branch is supposed to be to carry out the laws that are passed. Congress has said, 'Here's the law when it comes to those who are undocumented,' and they allocate a whole bunch of money for enforcement."

"And what I have been able to do is to make a legal argument that I think is absolutely right," Obama continued, "which is that given the resources we have, we can't do everything that Congress has asked us to do. What we can do is then carve out the Dream Act folks, saying, young people who have basically grown up here are basically Americans that we should welcome. We're not going to have them operate under a cloud, under a shadow."

"But if we start broadening that, then essentially I would be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally," Obama said. "So that's not an option, and I do get a little worried that advocates of immigration reform start losing heart and immediately think, well, somehow there's an out here. If Congress doesn't act, we'll just have the president sign something and that'll take care of it and we won't have to worry about it."

There are a couple of interesting takeaways from this. First, Obama admitted — and Democrats never objected — to his enforcing immigration laws. In fact, Obama said it was his duty to carry out laws passed by Congress. He was also right that by continuing to broaden exceptions, he'd be ignoring the law. Lastly, he said that Congress should act to change the immigration laws that they do not like.

All of this is not only correct but reasonable. The problem for the Left is: President Trump is operating under this same standard. But now it's suddenly different because a Republican is in the White House.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.

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