Democrats have been throwing tantrums over Trump’s deportation agenda since he took office three weeks ago.
They’re acting like enforcing immigration law is some new radical policy.
But Joe Kernen asked Mark Warner one question about Obama that made the Democrat squirm.
Obama Deportations Hit 5 Million While Democrats Stayed Silent
Senator Mark Warner appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box Monday morning thinking he could lecture Americans about Trump’s immigration enforcement.
That didn’t go as planned.
Host Joe Kernen had the numbers ready and they destroyed Warner’s entire narrative in seconds.
“Now, I know Trump has deported or sent back 350-400,000 people. Barack Obama, ‘your guy,’ as you called Trump, ‘my guy,’ it was 5 million. It was 5 million over eight years,” Kernen told Warner. “Now we’re at 350,000. What changed with Democrats on that? I know Biden let in 12 million. Is it about votes? Why isn’t it a crime to be here, not that they haven’t committed a crime?”
Warner tried the usual dodge about securing the border versus “randomly picking up people based on quotas.”
Kernen wasn’t having it.
The real numbers tell the story Democrats don’t want voters to remember.
Obama’s administration conducted over 2.7 million formal removals between 2009 and 2016 according to Department of Homeland Security data.
When you include voluntary returns at the border, that number jumps past 5 million departures.
Warner finally admitted the obvious truth Democrats have been running from for months.
“The border being as open as it was under Biden was one of the reasons Trump got elected,” Warner said.
Biden Border Crisis: Why Democrats Let 12 Million Illegal Immigrants Enter
Kernen kept pressing on the one question Warner couldn’t answer.
Why did Democrats completely reverse course on border security after Obama left office?
“Senator, at this point, there’s 12 million people that are not supposed to be here. Why did that happen? Why was the border open? You said, ‘Oh, it shouldn’t have been,’ and you kind of punt on it,” Kernen said.
Warner tried claiming the border was open “for decades, under Bush, Obama.”
That’s when Kernen dropped the hammer.
“Nothing like during the Biden administration, obviously. Why? What was the rationale for that?” Kernen asked. “I have seen a lot of your comments about ‘people didn’t vote for this.’ I don’t think… Obviously, Democrats didn’t have a good idea what people were voting for, or you wouldn’t have lost the presidency in seven swing states in the Senate and the House. So you don’t know what people are voting for. They were voting for this!”
The facts back up what Kernen said.
Customs and Border Protection recorded over 10.8 million encounters nationwide since Biden took office in 2021.
That’s more than three times the 3 million encounters recorded during Trump’s entire first term.
The election results already settled this argument.
Trump won every single swing state promising exactly this agenda.
Democrat Senator’s Immigration Hypocrisy Exposed On Live TV
The most telling moment came when Warner tried pivoting to ICE training requirements.
He complained that ICE agents now train for 47 days instead of five to six months.
Warner claimed the 47 days was chosen “because Donald Trump’s the 47th president.”
Kernen shut that nonsense down immediately.
“Obviously I’m not gonna take that bait and say it’s a rational approach,” Kernen said.
Here’s what Warner won’t tell voters.
Obama deported more people than any president in U.S. history using similar enforcement tactics.
His administration focused heavily on border removals and expedited procedures that often didn’t involve immigration judges.
Obama relied on summary removals for most deportations – ranging from 58% to 84% annually depending on the year.
That’s the same approach Democrats now claim is somehow unconstitutional when Trump does it.
Warner also pushed the tired line about “path to legality” for the millions who entered illegally under Biden.
That’s like saying burglars should get to keep what they stole if they’ve been squatting long enough.
The fundamental dishonesty runs through every Democrat talking point on immigration.
They deported millions under Obama and nobody in their party complained.
Biden opened the border completely and let in over 10 million people.
Now Trump is enforcing the law and suddenly Democrats discovered civil liberties.
Warner’s live TV interview revealed the truth Democrats hope voters forget.
They deliberately chose to stop enforcing immigration law under Biden and it cost them everything in 2024.
Sources:
- Alexander Hall, “Democratic senator grilled on his party’s acceptance of mass illegal immigration under Biden,” Fox News, January 13, 2026.
- “The Obama Record on Deportations: Deporter in Chief or Not,” Migration Policy Institute, June 26, 2025.
- “Obama Has Deported More People Than Any Other President,” ABC News, October 20, 2016.
- “STARTLING STATS FACTSHEET: Fiscal Year 2024 Ends With Nearly 3 Million Inadmissible Encounters,” House Committee on Homeland Security, October 24, 2024.
- “Immigration policy of the Biden administration,” Wikipedia, accessed January 13, 2026.
- “US deported more than 3M people during Obama presidency,” Snopes, May 4, 2025.