At first blush the Trump administration’s deportation numbers reflect an unparalleled effort to remove vast numbers of illegal immigrants. However, internal data — and the delayed release of the administration’s annual enforcement report — tells a more complicated story.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted slightly over 35,500 deportations from Oct. 1, 2025 to late February, according to internal figures obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Unlike publicly available figures that conflate deportation with border turnarounds and voluntary departures, the internal data only pertains to deportations of foreigners under an order of removal by an immigration judge.
ICE annual reports give a comprehensive breakdown of all enforcement actions taken by the agency throughout the prior fiscal year, with the 2024, 2023 and 2022 ICE reports released in December of those years, respectively. However, at the time of writing, the 2025 annual report still has not been released.
The last time an ICE annual report was delayed for a prolonged period was in March 2022, when the Biden administration posted the lowest deportation numbers in the agency’s history.
At its current pace, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) will have only deported slightly over 85,000 illegal migrants with final orders of removal by the end of fiscal year 2026. Such a number pales in comparison to the more than 675,000 deportations the Trump administration touted for 2025 and the roughly 271,000 removals in fiscal year 2024 — both figures which do not provide specifics on final order ERO removals.
“A removal in the truest sense and the figure above is the physical deportation of an illegal alien under a formal order issued by an immigration judge or through administrative proceedings,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) source told the DCNF, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to provide internal data. “The person is escorted onto a plane or to a port of entry and physically expelled from the country, with a legal bar on future re-entry.”
“It is the only metric that means someone actually left, ICE ERO only,” the source continued. “Not an arrest, not a detention, not a voluntary departure, not a border turnaround, hand off from [Customs and Border Protection] — a completed, executed deportation with a paper trail in ICE’s system.”
ICE declined to confirm or deny the validity of the internal deportation numbers in a statement to the DCNF.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the government is finally doing what it should have all along — making America safe by removing illegal aliens from our country,” an ICE spokesperson told the DCNF. “Those who are here illegally can take control of their departure with the CBP Home App.”
“The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now,” the spokesperson continued. “We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
ICE removed nearly 530,000 non-citizens between Jan. 20, 2025 and March 1, which include returns and expulsions, according to information provided by the agency. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem declared in January that her department deported roughly 675,000 illegals in 2025.
President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement a top policy priority since re-entering the White House, overseeing an unprecedented hiring surge in ICE agents and securing billions in additional funding within the Big Beautiful Bill for enforcement agencies. These efforts have resulted in a surge in arrests in and detention capacity compared to the Biden administration.
However, the back end of the enforcement system — such as cooperation from foreign governments and immigration court capacity — have proven to be major obstacles for mass deportation.
Recalcitrant governments that have historically refused to take back their deported citizens, such as Venezuela, which became one of the highest sources of illegal immigration into the U.S., can completely upend the repatriation process. But Venezuela has become more cooperative in recent months following the Trump administration’s successful ouster of dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Texas GOP Rep. Chip and other Republicans have pushed to solve the issue by withholding aid from all recalcitrant countries, or in other situations, the administration has deported illegal migrants to third countries.
The backlog of immigration court cases has exceeded well over three million as of December, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. High-profile illegal migrants who’ve been able to use the court system to drag out or otherwise completely undo their deportation orders, such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia or Lucio Tomar, serve as examples of how immigration courts can torpedo mass deportation aims.
The Trump administration, for its, part, has worked to chip away at the court backlog and has made use of military judges in order to beef up the system.
The Trump administration in January celebrated the execution of more than 675,000 deportations throughout 2025, but immigration hardliners that spoke to the DCNF say this figure does not convey the entire story. Foreign nationals processed for expedited removal or voluntary departure that are turned over to ERO for detention are counted as ICE removals, according to the agency.
Under the Obama administration, ICE removed 240,255 foreign nationals in fiscal year 2016, a 2% increase from the previous fiscal year, but a 24% decrease from fiscal year 2014, according to the agency. Deportation rates plummeted when Joe Biden first entered office, with ICE reporting barely over 59,000 removals in fiscal year 2021.
While interior enforcement has proven more difficult, Trump has managed to shut down the flow of illegal immigration across America’s borders.
Border Patrol agents have released zero illegal migrants into the country for the ninth month in a row, a phenomenon achievable due to the sharp drop in unlawful crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to CBP. The administration has since hailed the first decline in the foreign-born population in over half a century.
“The Biden administration embraced mass migration and allowed millions of illegal aliens into our country,” Matt O’Brien, deputy executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a group that advocates for tougher immigration enforcement, told the DCNF. “In contrast, under President Trump, new illegal immigration to the United States has fallen to historic lows as his administration moved quickly to restore order and fulfill the mandate given to him by voters.”
“But the president must now bring that same level of resolve to carrying out his promise to deport the millions of people who are still in this country illegally,” O’Brien continued, encouraging the administration to vigorously conduct worksite enforcement, target visa overstays and crack down on illegal migrants with outstanding orders of removal.
FAIR is one of several major conservative organizations earlier in February that collectively launched the Mass Deportation Coalition. The group wants Trump to deport one million illegal migrants by the end of 2026 and says it will soon be releasing a comprehensive playbook on how to achieve this.
“The American people deserve nothing less,” O’Brien said.
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