By a black liberal writer in the Washington Post.

As protests against ICE spread around the country, and Americans wake once again to the reality of our brutal deportation practices, people clearly long for Obama to be the permanent cheerleader-in-chief. Just one problem: Obama himself advanced the draconian systems his successor is now employing so gleefully. How does this make sense?

Americans seem to have forgotten that during Obama’s administration, he fully earned the title “deporter in chief” by removing people — nearly 3 million in all — from the country. Combining Donald Trump’s first term with the beginnings of his second, he still has a long, long way to go to top that mark.

And no, these were not all immigrants convicted of crimes. Between 2014 and 2016, nearly 40,000 cases involving families with children were closed through the Obama administration’s “rocket docket” fast track — 70 percent of them processed without legal representation. Children were forced to represent themselves in court. The Obama administration was sued for detaining families as a supposed deterrent to immigration.

In fact, Tom Homan, the current White House border czar, was appointed by Obama. Yes, the Homan who said in March: “I don’t care what the judges think.” In 2015, as head of ICE enforcement and removal operations, Homan deported so many people that Obama gave him a presidential medal.

And for those facing militarized local police while protesting ICE: Have we forgotten Ferguson, Missouri? Standing Rock Sioux Reservation? Under the Obama administration, local police received hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus military equipment under the federal 1033 Program. Despite an executive order to limit these transfers after the unrest in Ferguson, investigations showed that local police were still receiving transfers, including armored vehicles.