Deportations During First 18 Months of Trump Administration Reach Highest Level in Years, Albeit Short of All-Time Highs

Even as Interior Arrests Climb, Most Deportations Have Been of Individuals Intercepted at the Border

WASHINGTON, DC — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) completed about 980,000 deportations during the first 18 months of the second Trump term, a pace higher than under the Biden and first Trump administrations, but still well below early-2000s levels, a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysis reveals.

On an annualized basis, the administration was on track to complete about 660,000 deportations in fiscal year (FY) 2026, up from an annualized count of 620,000 during the first year of the current Trump administration. That is 26 percent above the average for FY 2021–2024 but below the 1.86 million deportations recorded in FY 2000 and well short of the administration's goal of 1 million a year. (Deportations include both removals and returns.)

Even with U.S.-Mexico border encounters at historic lows, 69 percent of the 980,000 deportations carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) between January 20, 2025 and July 31, 2026 were of unauthorized immigrants initially intercepted at the border, MPI’s analysis of data obtained from DHS under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) finds. 

Still, arrests that originated in communities in the U.S. interior accounted for a growing share of deportations, rising from 28 percent in 2025 to 39 percent in July 2026, according to MPI Visiting Senior Fellow Marc Rosenblum, former executive director of the DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics. And the pace of deportations resulting from interior arrests has more than doubled, increasing from 8,000 per month on average in the first three months of the second Trump term to 19,000 per month on average between May-July 2026.

DHS has not released a detailed monthly enforcement report spanning ICE and CBP arrests and deportations since January 2025. Drawing on data obtained under FOIA, including by the Deportation Data Project, the fact sheet breaks down ICE and CBP deportations by type of removal and return, by arrest location (border vs. U.S. interior), years of U.S. residence and criminality.

“At a time when unprecedented resources and policy attention are being directed at increasing arrests and deportations, this analysis fills a critical gap in understanding immigration enforcement trends,” said Doris Meissner, director of MPI’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program.

Examining the first 18 months of the second Trump term, the analysis finds that: 

• 61 percent of ICE deportations (excluding those resulting from a border turnaround) were of non-citizens who had been in the United States at least two years—390,000 deportations in all—and 15 percent (90,000) were of immigrants who had been in the country 10 or more years.
• Among deportations of individuals with two or more years of U.S. residence, 71 percent (about 280,000) had no criminal conviction. For those with 10 or more years of U.S. residence, 61 percent (57,000) had no criminal conviction. Across all 980,000 deportations carried out by ICE or CBP, 20 percent (190,000) involved a non-citizen convicted of a crime. And just 31 percent of removals were of convicted criminals, compared to an average 44 percent criminality rate for FYs 2009–2021. The most common convictions were for illegal entry or re-entry (23 percent of all criminal removals) and traffic offenses, including driving under the influence (21 percent).
• In a major break with the pre-COVID-19-pandemic period, a growing share of deportations have been returns rather than formal removals. Of the 980,000 deportations, about 170,000 were ICE grants of voluntary departure or voluntary return as the Trump administration has sought to bypass the backlogged immigration courts, which hear removal cases.

The fact sheet also uses publicly available survey data and a new MPI methodology to broadly estimate the number of total immigrant departures—that is, the sum of deportations and “self-deportations” so far during the second Trump term. A comprehensive number on total departures cannot be compiled because DHS does not collect data on most land exits across the U.S.-Mexico border and therefore does not have a complete picture of self-departures.

MPI estimates there were between 790,000 and 1.9 million total departures of immigrants with at least one year of U.S. residence. If border turnarounds (which are near-immediate) and other deportations of immigrants present for less than one year were included, MPI’s estimate would rise to between 1.3 million and 2.4 million total departures for January 20, 2025, through July 31, 2026.

DHS has said repeatedly that more than 3 million unauthorized immigrants have left the country via deportation or self-departure since January 2025. The DHS self-departure numbers likely include certain lawfully present immigrants and U.S. citizens who have left through the Project Homecoming initiative, which provides a free flight out of the country and an exit bonus of up to $2,600.

“While the total number of immigrants departing the United States through deportation or ‘self-deportation’ are much higher than at any previous time dating back at least to 2014, it is highly unlikely that 3 million immigrants have departed the country—much less 3 million unauthorized immigrants,” the fact sheet concludes. 

The fact sheet, U.S. Deportations and "Self-Deportations" in the First 18 Months of the Second Trump Term, is available at www.migrationpolicy.org/publication/us-deportations-second-trump.

For all MPI work looking at the first and second Trump terms, click here.