ICE deported 483,200 people in fiscal year, setting a 23-year record

Minneapolis, Minnesota. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 483,200 people from the United States during the fiscal year that ended in September. Homeland Security announced the figures on Thursday, marking the highest total in the agency’s 23-year history.

The new total exceeds the 405,090 deportations recorded in 2014 under President Barack Obama. It also represents a 9% increase from the previous year’s high of 442,640. Compared to the last year of the Biden administration in 2024, when 271,480 people were deported, the 2026 figure is up 78%.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin attributed the volume to increased operational capacity. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, ICE has been unleashed to target and remove illegal aliens so that we can save American lives,” Mullin said. The administration has directed additional funding toward deportation officers, detention facilities, and flights.

Despite the high totals, the department provided limited detail in the release. The announcement did not specify how many deportees had criminal histories or provide a detailed statistical breakdown. Marc R. Rosenblum, a visiting fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and former DHS statistics official, called the numbers accurate but noted the lack of granularity. “It is accurate that ICE is making record numbers of arrests,” Rosenblum said. “They have record resources. They've doubled their staffing. They’re getting a lot of support from other law enforcement agencies.”

Rosenblum added that the sparse data means officials “can't really see what’s going on in any kind of detailed way.” The agency previously published monthly arrest and deportation data and maintained an online dashboard. That routine reporting stopped at the beginning of the current administration. Scott Mechowski, a visiting fellow at the Oversight Project and former ICE deputy field office director, expressed skepticism about the figures. “Show me the data,” Mechowski said. “Even if the numbers are what they said they were, even then, it’s going to fall short of the president’s campaign promise.”

The Oversight Project has filed a lawsuit to obtain more deportation data from the government. The group argues the administration can reach its annual target of 1 million deportations by increasing arrests and enforcing immigration rules at worksites. The 483,200 figure released Thursday is well below that White House goal.

Public reaction to the enforcement efforts has influenced local politics in Clark County and beyond. Trump campaigned on targeting the “worst of the worst” among migrants. However, a July report from the Deportation Data Project found that only about one-quarter of deportees had criminal convictions. More than half were not facing charges. In rural Republican areas, voters watched longtime migrant neighbors in agricultural and meat processing jobs get arrested, leading to some Democratic victories in last week’s midterm elections.

The enforcement strategy shifted earlier this year in Minneapolis. More than 2,000 federal officers deployed to the city, where they faced thousands of protesters. Two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, were killed in confrontations with officers. Following those events, the administration moved away from high-profile operations. Arrests dropped temporarily but soon returned to record levels through quieter sweeps.

Historical context shows that the highest recorded deportation numbers occurred in the early 1950s. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s crackdown on migrants from Mexico saw numbers peak at 1.1 million in 1954. The current administration’s figures, while a modern record for ICE, remain below that mid-20th century peak.