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In fiscal year 2016, Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 240,255 people from the country, a rate of more than 20,000 people per month. | Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP

The U.S. is deporting people more slowly than during the Obama administration despite President Donald Trumps vast immigration crackdown, according to new data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

From Feb. 1 to June 30, ICE officials removed 84,473 people a rate of roughly 16,900 people per month. If deportations continue at the same clip until the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, federal immigration officials will have removed fewer people than they did during even the slowest years of Barack Obama's presidency.

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In fiscal year 2016, ICE removed 240,255 people from the country, a rate of more than 20,000 people per month.

In fiscal year 2012 the peak year for deportations under Obama the agency removed an average of roughly 34,000 people per month.

The lower rate of deportations doesnt mean Trump has embraced a hands-off approach to immigration enforcement. But it may mean that deportations are lagging behind arrest rates or removal orders, which by all accounts have soared since Trump took office.

Soon after being sworn in, Trump signed an order greatly broadening the universe of people who could be targeted for deportation. In the next 100 days, immigration arrests rose by nearly 38 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.

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However, an arrest doesnt always translate into a speedy deportation, and several factors have suppressed the removal rate.

First, the number of people caught trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped precipitously under Trump, an indication that his hard-line enforcement has scared people away.

Another factor is the immigration courts, which face a backlog of more than 610,000 cases, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

The case backlog grew exponentially during the Obama administration partly the result of Central Americans seeking asylum in the U.S. but the pileup has worsened under Trump. It has expanded by nearly 100,000 cases so far in the current fiscal year, an 18 percent increase.

The courts are more paralyzed than ever before, said John Sandweg, who was acting director of ICE from 2013 to 2014.

Sandweg partly blames Trumps decision to scrap policies that required federal immigration officers to place a priority on apprehending serious criminals instead of non-criminals and lower-level offenders.

When you go out and you arrest a whole bunch of people willy-nilly, [the judge] has got to fill his docket time hearing those arguments, Sandweg said.

Still, the immigration courts, which fall under the purview of the Justice Department, could get additional help in coming months.

The DOJ announced Tuesday that it had hired dozens of immigration judges since Trump took office, to meet levels funded by Congress. On top of that, the president's fiscal year 2018 budget requests 75 additional judges to help clear the backlog.

The department said it is also reviewing internal practices, procedures, and technology in order to identify ways in which it can further enhance immigration judges productivity without compromising due process.

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Trump deportations lag behind Obama levels - Politico

Vanity Fair

Michelle Obama's Post-White House Style Is Consistently on Point Vanity Fair It's been nearly 200 days since the Obamas moved out of the White House. In that time, Barack Obama may have become a style star, but Michelle Obama has simply remained one. The former First Lady is as supportive of a wide range of up-and-coming ...

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Michelle Obama's Post-White House Style Is Consistently on Point - Vanity Fair

WASHINGTON President Trump appears to have found himself a new national security adviser.

His name is Barack Obama.

Recent days have brought evidence of two foreign policy successes for the Trump administration:

Then,on Saturday, China and Russia joined in a unanimous U.N. Security Council vote to approve a U.S.-sponsored resolution with tough new sanctions on North Korea, a forceful world response to that countrys missile tests.

These two developments, in addition to being successes, had another thing in common: In both cases, the Trump administration essentially embraced Obama administration policies policies Trump previously derided as a total failure.

On North Korea, Trump has long been making threats and ultimatums, promising severe things and raising the possibility that South Korea and Japan could build nuclear arsenals. He was harshly (if vaguely) critical of the Obama administrations handling of North Korea, saying Obama and Hillary Clinton who were pushing for tougher sanctions werent being strong enough.

And now? Last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered soothing words about North Korea: We do not seek a regime change, we do not seek a collapse of the regime, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th Parallel, he said. We are trying to convey to the North Koreans: We are not your enemy, we are not your threat.

Those words cleared the way for China and Russia to support the sanctions resolution at the United Nationson Saturday, as The Washington Posts Karen DeYoung reported. Representatives of both countries mentioned Tillersons statement in casting their votes.

Under the headline Trumps North Korea policy resembles Obamas, Politicoon Mondayreported that administration officials were privately sending signals that a pre-emptive attack on North Korea is not on the table and that the Trump administration is pursuing a five-part strategy similar to the strategy undertaken by the Obama administration.

On the Islamic State, likewise, Brett McGurk, a top State Department official under both Obama and Trump, announced that steps taken by Trump notably his delegation of decision-making authority from the White House to commanders in the field contributed to the reclaiming of 8,000 square miles of Islamic State territory.

Trumps decision to give more authority to field commanders makes the military more nimble. The Obama White House was justifiably criticized for its plodding micromanagement of military strategy.But this change is a massage not a reversal of an Obama strategy Trump repeatedly derided as weak and a disaster. By the time Trump took over, the territory controlled by the Islamic State had already fallen substantially from its peak in early 2015.

Trump promised to replace the Obama strategy with a secret plan of his own. But, as DeYoung reported, Trumps Islamic State strategy looks very much like the one the Obama administration pursued: denying territory to the militants while avoiding conflict with Iran and staying out of Syrias civil war.

Its not as if Trump is about to usher in a third term for the Obama national security team. But even if these two cases turn out to be isolated and temporary, they show that within the Trump administration there is at least some instinct to tone down the wild talk and, ever so quietly, to bend to reality.

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Milbank: Meet President Trump's new foreign policy adviser Barack Obama - The Mercury News

BARACK DAY

It's only been seven months since Former President Barack Obama left office, and already he will have his own state holiday.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner officially declared Aug. 4 (Obama's birthday) "Barack Obama Day" in the state, according to NBC Chicago. The holiday will be celebrated each year starting in 2018.

The new holiday will be "observed throughout the State as a day set apart to honor the 44th President of the United States of America who began his career serving the People of Illinois in both the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate, and dedicated his life to protecting the rights of Americans and building bridges across communities."

Democratic efforts to make Obama's birthday a "legal" state holiday raised concerns with some lawmakers because other presidents, like Reagan, do not have the same holiday standards. A "legal" state holiday would require schools and offices to close, but not state banks or other businesses.

Despite some lawmakers declining from voting on the bill, it passed both houses without a single vote against the bill.

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Barack Obama Is Getting A Holiday - Daily Beast

President Donald Trump has vowed a "very severe" response to North Korea's escalating development of missiles and nuclear weapons. But behind closed doors, the Trump administration is pursuing a strategy that's not all that different from President Barack Obama's approach.

Administration officials are saying privately that a preventive military attack is "not on the table," said Bruce Klingner, a veteran intelligence agent who works as a senior research fellow for northeast Asia at the influential Heritage Foundation. Instead, he said, theyre pursuing a five-part strategy similar to what the Obama administration employed one that includes increasing pressure on both North Korea and the other countries that facilitate Kim Jong Uns weapons program.

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Other elements include increasing military readiness and capabilities, building up U.S. missile-defense capabilities and expressing openness to diplomatic discussions with Pyongyang but refusing to negotiate with North Korea until it accepts the premise it must give up its nuclear program.

Pieces of that strategy played out in recent days with no sign yet of ending North Korea's defiance. On Saturday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-supported sanctions package that threatens to cut off about a third of North Koreas exports, although questions remain about how strictly nations will enforce the penalties. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson opened the door Monday to negotiating a rollback of sanctions if Kim stops his missile testing but North Korea responded with an aggressive statement that threatened military action against the U.S.

Despite the saber rattling and mixed messages about what it will take to bring North Korea to the table, Klingner said that, privately, the administration has a more coherent strategy than it might seem.

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"The Trump administration to date has not yet distinguished its policy toward North Korea from that of Obama," he added. "The president and others have been talking tough about sanctions, as Obama did, but have not yet followed through on any significant increase."

Other experts agree that, despite Trumps declarations that hes abandoning Obamas strategic patience with North Korea, the basic strategy of ramping up pressure on the regime to end its missile program is a carryover from the past eight years.

I would certainly agree that the bellicose rhetoric has increased under the Trump administration, but the policy of trying to ratchet up pressure on North Korea using sanctions and offering talks only after North Korea meets some onerous preconditions is similar to the Obama administration, said Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.

But at least the rhetoric from Trumps team and other Republicans has toughened in recent months. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said last week that the president told him he would be willing to start a war with North Korea regardless of the huge casualties likely to result in the region if thats what it takes to keep Kim from developing missiles and nuclear weapons capable of striking the U.S.

If thousands die, theyre going to die over there. Theyre not going to die here, Graham said, adding that Trump has told me that to my face.

Trumps appointees have similarly stressed that military options are not off the table. While U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley stressed that a peaceful resolution would be preferable, she said after last weekends sanctions vote that America is prepared to do whatever it takes to defend ourselves and our allies.

Unlike Obama, Trump has also taken repeated public swipes at China and its unwillingness or inability to help defuse the North Korea crisis. These criticisms often take the form of tweets, with Trump saying last month that he is very disappointed in China, which could easily solve this problem.

Asked about the disconnect between its behind-the-scenes strategy and its public rhetoric, Klingner said the administration "just has trouble with its signaling and messaging."

The North Koreans most recently launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 28, and experts estimated that the weapon had the power to hit in the U.S. mainland as far as Denver or Chicago.

That fact "has everybody's attention," said Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), vice chairman of the House Financial Services Terrorism and Illicit Finance Subcommittee, which has investigated North Korea's illicit efforts to acquire missile and other military technologies.

Pittenger said he thinks the administration saw Kim "as a goofy guy, but now with all these tests, he's very provocative." He added: "They are the single biggest threat to our security we have right now."

At the Pentagon, spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis declined to get into specifics about steps the administration is considering, saying the military plans for any situation.

"We are always looking at military options. We don't have anything to announce, though," he said.

If the Trump administration wants to do something different, think tank experts suggest that taking military action or withdrawing completely are both bad solutions. They also say there's no magic fix to the problem and, ultimately, the best path may just be more of the same.

Some experts advocate for increased sanctions on North Korea and on the Chinese banks that facilitate the regime's missile program.

The president often complains that China isn't doing enough to help stop North Korea from developing its nuclear weapons. But Klingner said Trump is also not doing enough when it comes to secondary sanctions, such as financially penalizing Chinese banks that participate in the U.S. financial system but do not follow American rules and regulations.

Klingner pointed specifically to the sanctions the U.S. imposed on the Bank of Dandong in late June for its dealings with North Korea. He urged more sanctions like this on top of those approved by the United Nations.

Pittenger also urged more sanctions against North Korea.

He said one first step would be passing an amendment to the House version of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act H.R. 2810 (115) that would prohibit the Defense Department from doing business with telecommunications firms mainly Chinese government telecommunications organizations that support North Korean cyberattacks.

Davenport said, however, that sanctions alone are not going to change North Koreas behavior and urged the administration to pair sanctions with a diplomatic strategy to begin negotiations.

Sanctions can provide leverage to get North Korea to the negotiating table. Then you test the possibility of an agreement, he said.

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Trump's North Korea strategy: A lot like Obama's - Politico