Deportations of illegal immigrants in southern California have plunged in the last three years.

From October 1, 2014 to March 7, 2015, 2,527 immigrants were deported from the Los Angeles region. That’s just a shadow of the number deported – 28 percent, in fact – in the same time frame in 2012.

Experts aren’t surprised, given the drop coincides with President Obama’s executive amnesty.

“It alarms me but it doesn’t surprise me,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, tells the L.A. Times. “This administration just does not want to be deporting anybody except for the very worst.”

Pro-amnesty activists are taking credit for the drop, saying their protests, sit-ins and hunger strikes have given politicians pause.

“This is happening because our community pushed back,” says Pablo Alvarado, the director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

The news may be a double whammy for fiscal conservatives, as it is anticipated the taxpayer-funded Medi-Cal heath care program may see an increase of some 500,000 illegal immigrants enrolled if Obama’s order stands.

“Between 360,000 and 500,000 immigrants living in California would become eligible for Medi-Cal if they receive temporary protection from deportation and permission to work as a result of recent executive actions by President Barack Obama,” according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

Illegals who are protected by Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, are not eligible for coverage under Obamacare, but qualify for Medi-Cal under California state policy.

“We have left behind millions of undocumented workers and students who are excluded from health coverage options under the Affordable Care Act,” says Laurel Lucia, a policy analyst at the Labor Center.

Nationwide, deportations are also down compared to previous years.

According to federal data published by the Times, 101,201 people have been deported by ICE nationwide, a decline from 151,238 during the same period in 2012.