Roughly 980,000 deportations were carried out during the first 18 months of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
The figure fell short of the Trump administration’s stated goal of 1 million deportations annually. MPI estimated about 620,000 deportations in fiscal year 2025 and projects roughly 660,000 in fiscal 2026, which would be 26 percent higher than the annual average during the Biden administration.
The analysis, published Thursday, covers January 20, 2025, through July 31, 2026. It uses publicly available government data to estimate deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at a time when the federal government has released fewer detailed immigration enforcement statistics.
More than two-thirds of the deportations involved people initially encountered at the U.S. border, according to the MPI.
The Trump administration said that more than 3 million undocumented immigrants have left the United States since Trump returned to office in January 2025, including an estimated 2.2 million who departed voluntarily. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) previously told Newsweek that as of September 7, nearly 1.1 million people had been deported and more than 1.1 million arrested. The government's figures cover a longer period than MPI's analysis, which ended July 31.
The increase in ICE arrests and deportations comes as the administration has received billions of dollars in additional funding to expand immigration enforcement. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill supercharged ICE with billions in additional funding for immigration enforcement.
Newsweek has contacted DHS for comment via email.
What Does The Study Say?
Of the estimated 980,000 deportations, about 340,000 involved migrants intercepted at the border and turned around by CBP. Another 340,000 involved people initially arrested at the border and later deported by ICE, while roughly 300,000 involved people initially arrested inside the United States.
The share involving arrests inside the country increased over the period studied, from 28 percent between January 20 and December 31, 2025, to 34 percent in the first six months of 2026 and 39 percent in July.
The number of deportations involving people arrested inside the country also rose from an average of about 8,000 per month during the administration’s first three months to around 19,000 per month between May and July 2026, according to the institute.
About 20 percent of all deportations during the 18 months involved people with criminal convictions, the analysis found.
Among immigrants who had lived in the United States for at least two years, 71 percent of those deported had no criminal conviction. That figure was 61 percent among those who had lived in the country for at least a decade.
The institute also found that 61 percent of deportations carried out by ICE, excluding people turned around at the border, involved people who had spent at least two years in the United States. About 15 percent involved people who had lived in the country for at least a decade.
The institute used publicly available government data, information obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, and records from the University of California’s Deportation Data Project to produce its estimates. The report’s author, Marc Rosenblum, previously served as executive director of DHS' Office of Homeland Security Statistics and resigned from the department in July, citing what he called the administration’s “war on immigrants” and “war on facts.”
“At a time when unprecedented resources and policy attention are being directed at increasing arrests and deportations, this analysis fills a critical gap in understanding immigration enforcement trends,” Doris Meissner, director of MPI’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program, said in a statement.
The total would still be well below the roughly 1.86 million deportations recorded in fiscal year 2000 during President Bill Clinton’s administration.
The institute said its estimates were necessary in part because DHS has reduced its publication of detailed immigration enforcement data. The agency last published a detailed monthly enforcement report covering both ICE and CBP in January 2025.
The study separately estimated that between 790,000 and 1.9 million immigrants who had lived in the United States for at least a year left the country through deportation or self-departure during the period studied.
The administration has faced logistical and legal hurdles in expanding its deportation campaign. Migrants living in the United States come from a wider range of countries, which can complicate removals to countries that won't accept their citizens, while immigration court backlogs can lengthen proceedings.
The administration’s enforcement policies have also faced extensive litigation, including habeas corpus petitions challenging ICE detention, while sanctuary states and cities have sought to limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and Dave Siminoff.