Joe Biden is now deporting more people than Donald Trump ever did as president, amid a record high number of people crossing the US-Mexico border illegally
In June, Biden implemented a sweeping new asylum ban aimed at quickly deporting more recent border crossers to their home countries or Mexico.
Even with the tougher border policy, Biden has continued to work to protect longer-term immigrants in the U.S. illegally, including through a new effort announced in June that would ease the path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of people married to U.S. citizens. He has shifted enforcement priorities within the country to focus on removing migrants deemed public safety threats by the U.S.
Trump’s pledge echoes his 2015 campaign promise to deport some 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally. After winning office in 2016, he said his administration aimed to deport 2 million to 3 million people with criminal records.
However, during Trump’s term from January 2017 to January 2021, deportations by U.S. immigration and border authorities were lower than most years of his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, whom some immigrant advocates dubbed the “deporter-in-chief.”
Biden had even fewer deportations than Trump during his first two years in office, not counting rapid expulsions under a COVID-era health measure, which was used millions of times to turn people back to Mexico. Faced with much higher numbers of migrants arriving at the border, he greatly increased deportations—including those of families—in federal fiscal year 2023 and the first five months of the 2024 fiscal year, outpacing Trump.
Total deportations and returns of migrants by fiscal year
Deportations conducted by Customs and Border Protection
Deportations conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- 800,000
- 600,0002024 deportations are on pace to exceed all previous Trump and Biden years.
- 400,000
- 200,000
FY 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 (through Feb.)
- 1.1 mln
- 1.5 mln
- 1.9 mln
Total deportations: 2.9 mln
Obama’s first term | Obama’s second term | Trump’s term | Biden’s term
Bar chart of the number of people deported from the U.S. by year shows a drop from the Obama to Trump years, a further drop at the beginning of Biden’s presidency, but a rise in 2023 and 2024 to levels higher than under Trump.
Note: CBP numbers include returns, which do not require a formal court order and can be voluntary. U.S. government fiscal years run from Oct. 1-Sept. 30. American presidents are inaugurated on Jan. 20 or 21, more than three months into the fiscal year.
During the first presidential debate on June 27, Trump was asked to explain how he would deport millions of people but declined to give details, saying, “We have to get a lot of these people out, and we have to get them out fast.” Biden highlighted a recent drop in migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border under his new asylum ban but did not directly address efforts to step up deportations.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can deport both those arrested at the border and immigrants who have been living in the country illegally for years. In addition to ICE deportations, there are other ways the government removes migrants from the country. Many recent crossers are quickly deported by officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is separate from ICE, or sign documents agreeing to voluntarily return to their home countries. Both agencies are part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Single adults can be encountered by immigration authorities and placed into deportation proceedings in a number of ways. (Unaccompanied children are subject to different processes.)