A goodly part of those “deportations” were simply “catch and release” who kept on coming back into the US a repeated number of times. Same guys, over and over, who made their delivery (of drugs, or human traffic, or various concealed weaponry, or whatever), and got sent back at US government expense to make ANOTHER run.
Nobody was ever sent back to STAY. Clearly, there is no penalty for repeat offenders.
That’s right!