How have criminal‑alien deportation rates changed under Biden compared with the Trump and Obama administrations, by comparable metrics?
Executive summary
Deportation totals and the composition of those removed have shifted across the Obama, Trump and Biden presidencies: Biden’s administration has overseen high aggregate removals but a larger share have been “returns” rather than formal removal orders, while Trump and Obama years differed in both volume and the proportion of deportations tied to criminal convictions [1] [2] [3]. Comparing “criminal‑alien deportation rates” requires separating total removals, interior removals, and the share with criminal histories—metrics that move in different directions under each administration and are reported inconsistently by agencies and advocates [4] [5].
1. Overall removals: Biden large in volume but different in type
By raw counts, Biden-era removals are substantial and in some periods exceed Trump’s comparable spans, with reporting noting Biden-era totals surpassing Trump’s first-term totals and Biden deporting people to more than 170 countries—possibly a record—largely driven by diplomatic repatriations and returns rather than formal removal orders [1] [6] [2]. News outlets and analysts disagree on simple rank ordering—some reporting Trump’s multi‑year totals as very large and Obama’s historically high—but the Migration Policy Institute stresses that a defining Biden-era trend is that most deportations have been voluntary “returns” rather than formal removals [1] [2].
2. Criminal‑alien share: smaller under Biden by some interior metrics
When the focus is specifically on deportations of people with criminal records, several sources show a shift: under Biden, a lower share of interior arrests and removals involved people with criminal histories compared with some prior periods, while Trump-era enforcement rhetoric and policy sought to emphasize criminal removals even where aggregate removals did not always keep pace with past high years like Obama’s peak [4] [3]. For example, analysis of ICE interior arrests from February 2021 to December 2024 found just over half of those arrested lacked criminal records beyond illegal entry/reentry, and fewer of those without records were detained and removed—pointing to a lower proportion of criminal‑history deportations in interior operations under Biden than under Trump II in certain comparisons [4]. Independent reporting also notes that the proportion of removals by removal order directed at convicted criminals fell in recent years compared with prior administrations [3].
3. Interior vs border removals, and the returns/removals distinction
A critical metric is interior removals—deportations of people living inside the U.S. after removal orders—which are distinct from border expulsions or returns; sources emphasize that many Biden-era “deportations” are returns that require voluntary acknowledgement of unlawful entry rather than formal removal orders, shifting the practical composition of removals even as totals rise [1]. NBC and TRAC reporting stress that counting and categorizing removals is uneven across administrations, with interior removals often lower than headline totals and with Title 42, diversion programs and diplomatic agreements affecting volumes differently over time [5] [7].
4. Policy drivers, data limits and competing narratives
Policy choices—prioritization memos, Title 42, diplomatic repatriation efforts—and agency reporting practices shape the numbers: Biden’s prioritization guidance narrowed whom ICE targets even as DHS pursued mass returns after Title 42’s end and expanded repatriations [1] [8]. Conversely, Trump administrations emphasized criminal enforcement in rhetoric and expanded interior arrests in later terms, but media and watchdogs note that arrest counts do not always translate proportionally into deportations and that public claims of “mass deportations” have at times been overstated [5] [7]. Analysts and advocacy groups also highlight that different datasets (removals vs returns, interior vs border) and inconsistent agency disclosures hamper apples‑to‑apples comparisons across presidencies [4] [9].
5. Interpretation: what changed and what remains contested
The clearest change is compositional: Biden-era deportations are more often diplomatic returns and a smaller share of interior removals appear to involve people with criminal convictions compared with some Trump periods, even as total removals in certain years or spans are comparable or higher than Trump’s totals and lower than some high years under Obama [1] [2] [3]. Alternative readings exist—advocates and some analysts argue Biden still pursued substantial criminal removals and that Trump’s rhetoric sometimes outpaced verified deportation numbers—so any definitive ranking depends on which metric is chosen (total removals, returns vs removal orders, interior removals, or share with criminal records) and on accepting the datasets each side cites [7] [9].