Deportations climb under Trump but fall short of White House target, a
new report finds
[October 23, 2026]
By REBECCA SANTANA
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration is on track to
deport about 660,000 people over the past year, a new report released
Thursday shows, as arrests ramp up across the country fueled by billions
of dollars meant to supercharge his immigration agenda.
The report by the Migration Policy Institute shows deportations
increased from 620,000 during the first year of Trump's second
administration. The numbers fall short of previous highs in the early
2000s and fail to meet the Trump administration's promise, made when it
received the billions from Congress, that the money would allow for 1
million deportations annually.
The report, based on publicly available data obtained through Freedom of
Information Act requests, comes after the Trump administration in
January 2025 stopped publicly releasing similar figures compiled by the
Department of Homeland Security.
Trump, a Republican, returned to power last year promising to stanch
crossings at the southern border and crack down on immigration. His
administration has pushed through restrictions on both legal and illegal
immigration and launched high-profile arrest operations in its bid to
force migrants out.
More people being deported, but not at all-time highs
The analysis found that the Department of Homeland Security carried out
980,000 deportations during the first 18 months of the second Trump
administration.
During the last fiscal year — when the Trump administration's
immigration enforcement mechanisms were shifting into high gear — an
estimated 660,000 people were deported.
According to MPI's analysis, that's a 26% increase from the yearly
average from 2021 to 2024 during the administration of President Joe
Biden, a Democrat, but well below the 1.86 million deportations recorded
in 2000, under President Bill Clinton, another Democrat.
Despite the surging arrests, the report details some of the challenges
to the Trump administration reaching its deportation targets.
Historically, many immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization
were from Mexico and didn't often seek asylum. But in recent years,
migrants have come to the U.S. from a wide range of countries, which can
make it more complicated to deport them. And immigration courts, which
ultimately decide whether someone can be removed from the country, face
more significant case backlogs.
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Voluntary departures are increasing as are interior arrests
The report said voluntary departures — when people give up their
cases in immigration court and agree to leave the country — were at
an “all-time high,” with 170,000 choosing to do so since Trump
returned to office in January 2025. People who choose voluntary
departure could one day return to the U.S. But some immigrant
advocates and lawyers say that people give up their court fight and
agree to leave simply to get out of U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, or ICE, detention.
The Trump administration was also increasingly deporting people it
arrested in the country's interior, the report said, reflecting how
it was stepping up enforcement against migrants who have been in the
country for a long time. In 2025, about 28% of the people deported
were arrested inside the country, but by July of this year that had
risen to 39%.
Migrants arrested at the southern border still make up a large
number of deportations, the report said — 69% of all deportations
between Jan. 20, 2025, and July 31, 2026, were of people initially
intercepted at the border.
People in the country longer may have more opportunities to contest
their removal while the government typically has greater authority
to fast-track deportations for people arrested at the border.
The analysis said most people deported have never been convicted of
a crime, despite the Trump administration claiming to be targeting
the “worst of the worst.” Previous data has showed the same.
In response to the MPI report, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis
said: “President Trump has delivered the largest reduction in
illegal immigration in modern history.”
Trump administration no longer regularly releases immigration
data
Homeland Security stopped releasing similar data when Trump took
office, making it difficult to track one of his key campaign
promises. Figures the Trump administration has released are
inconsistent and unverifiable.
The administration says it is transparent. On Tuesday, it released
some of its own figures as part of a document boasting of its
achievements on immigration, including that 1.2 million migrants
have been deported or removed during Trump’s second term. The
discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.
In the absence of regular data, analysts and activists interested in
immigration trends have relied on information obtained through
lawsuits or limited and sporadic information released by federal
agencies to track deportation data.
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