The Trump administration deported approximately 980,000 migrants from the United States during the first 18 months of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new analysis published Thursday.
Trump began his second presidency on Jan. 20, 2025, pledging to carry out mass deportations at a rate of 1 million migrants annually. However, his administration stopped publishing detailed deportation figures, making it difficult to independently assess immigration enforcement activity. Some advocates of stricter immigration policies have criticized the administration, arguing that its efforts to remove undocumented immigrants have fallen short of expectations.
The latest analysis was prepared by Marc Rosenblum, who previously led the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics before leaving the position in July. Because comprehensive official figures were unavailable, the report drew on alternative government records obtained through public information requests and examined by independent organizations.
The reported deportation total includes two categories of immigration enforcement actions: DHS “removals,” which carry more serious legal consequences, and “returns,” which generally involve less severe penalties.
When considering formal removals alone, the Trump administration recorded an annual average of approximately 380,000, below the 392,000 yearly average documented during President Barack Obama’s first term, the analysis found. During Obama’s second term, the average number of migrants formally removed each year was slightly under 380,000.
The report also identified fiscal year 2013, during the Obama administration, as the period with the highest recorded number of formal removals, reaching 432,000.