Approximately 80% of immigrants deported during the first 18 months of President Donald Trump's second term had no criminal convictions, according to a new Migration Policy Institute report that also challenges the administration's claims about the overall scale of immigration enforcement.
The institute estimates that approximately 980,000 deportations occurred between January 20, 2025, and July 31, 2026, with only one in five involving people convicted of crimes. Its figures include formal removals and returns, including some voluntary returns, rather than forced deportations alone.
Nearly 70% of those deported had initially been apprehended at the border, while approximately 390,000 had lived in the United States for at least two years before their departure. Of those longer-term residents, about 280,000, or 71%, had no criminal convictions, the Migration Policy Institute found.
Among approximately 90,000 deportees who had lived in the country for at least a decade, 61% lacked criminal convictions.
The findings contrast with Trump's stated emphasis on removing immigrants with serious criminal histories. Even among those convicted of crimes, the most common offenses were illegal entry or reentry, accounting for 23% of criminal removals, and traffic violations, including driving under the influence, accounting for 21%.
Although border apprehensions accounted for most deportations, enforcement inside the United States has accelerated. Monthly deportations resulting from interior arrests more than doubled, from approximately 8,000 in early 2025 to 19,000 between May and July 2026.
The administration's overall deportation pace was 26% higher than the average under former President Joe Biden but remained below levels recorded in the early 2000s and Trump's stated target of one million deportations annually.
The report also disputes the administration's assertion that more than three million immigrants have left the United States through deportations or voluntary departures since January 2025.
Using government enforcement data and estimates of voluntary departures, researchers calculated that between 1.3 million and 2.4 million immigrants left during the period studied. They cautioned that precise figures are unavailable because departures across the southern land border are not comprehensively recorded.
The analysis was authored by Marc Rosenblum, a former senior official in the Department of Homeland Security's statistical office, using government records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.
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