Over the past seven months, the Trump administration has deported 145,419 undocumented migrants from the United States. June alone saw the highest number, with 27,970 deportations. During this period, an additional 4,241 individuals voluntarily returned to their home countries in response to President Donald Trump’s call.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disclosed the figures to the media on September 4. Notably, this is the first official report to include detailed country-by-country deportation data.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that arrests and deportations of undocumented residents under Trump’s second term have already surpassed previous records. However, monthly breakdowns of such figures had not been released until now. By contrast, during President Joe Biden’s tenure, ICE regularly published monthly updates on its website. For comparison, in July last year under Biden, 25,000 migrants were deported, while this July the figure stood at 23,250.
Commenting on the data, David Bier, Director of Immigration Studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said, “Deportation numbers in the first eight months of this year are not higher than last year’s.” He argued that fear of arrest has driven many migrants into hiding, hampering local police efforts to gather intelligence on criminal networks.
The Trump administration, however, maintains that its primary focus is the removal of migrants involved in criminal activity, emphasizing that the crackdown is aimed at restoring public safety. According to Secretary Noem, the accelerated deportations have nearly eliminated illegal border crossings into the United States via Mexico.