Where can I find DHS year-by-year interior removal (formal deportation) counts for FY1993–FY2024?
Executive summary
For a year-by-year series of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) interior removals (formal deportations) covering FY1993–FY2024, the authoritative source is the Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS) Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, specifically the tables that list removals, returns, and expulsions by fiscal year; the Yearbook’s Table 39 (and its updated iterations) provides the long-run series that includes FY1993 onward [1] [2] [3]. Where the Yearbook’s annual tables omit the most recent months or fiscal year, DHS’s OHSS monthly enforcement tables and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) statistics page supply more granular and current tallies to bridge any gaps [4] [5].
1. Where the official year-by-year counts live: the Yearbook and Table 39
DHS’s Yearbook of Immigration Statistics is the canonical compilation for annual immigration measures, and its removals/returns/expulsions tables give the historical, fiscal-year series needed to assemble FY1993–FY2024 counts; Table 39 in particular is the long-format table that lists aliens removed or returned by fiscal year and spans back through the 20th century in OHSS releases of the Yearbook [1] [2] [3]. For users seeking a contiguous FY1993–FY2022 (and earlier) series, the 2019 and 2022 Yearbook Table 39 pages are explicit entry points—OHSS publishes the tables online so researchers can extract the count-by-year rows directly [2] [3].
2. Filling the most recent fiscal-year gaps: Yearbook 2024 and monthly enforcement tables
For FY2023 and FY2024, the OHSS Yearbook 2024 collection is the first place to check because it compiles the latest annual enforcement tables, including removals, returned noncitizens, and expulsions; the Yearbook 2024 landing page gathers those enforcement tables together [6]. If the Yearbook has not yet published a finalized FY2024 consolidated table, OHSS’s Monthly Immigration Enforcement Tables publish encounter- and removal-level counts on a rolling basis and can be used to assemble a fiscal-year total through the most recent month available [4]. Both the Yearbook and monthly tables are hosted on OHSS’s site, which centralizes DHS statistical releases [7].
3. Cross-checking with ICE ERO statistics and DHS metrics
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) statistics page maintains operational statistics and is a useful cross-check for removals attributed specifically to ICE actions; the ICE statistics portal is an official source for ERO removals and trends and can corroborate Yearbook totals or provide alternative tabulations if needed [5]. DHS also publishes Key Homeland Security Metrics (KHSM), such as DHS repatriations, which can clarify how DHS categorizes removals versus repatriations or returns—an important distinction when assembling a clean “formal deportation” series [8].
4. Methodological caution: definitions, categories and combining sources
Researchers must be explicit about definitions: Yearbook Table 39 aggregates “removed or returned” and across releases DHS has separated removals, returns, and expulsions in different subtables, so assembling a single “interior removals (formal deportation)” series requires selecting the correct column and being consistent across year-to-year releases [2] [3]. When Yearbook tables and ICE operational tallies diverge, the Yearbook remains the statistical standard DHS publishes for year-by-year historical series, while ICE provides operational counts that may reflect different classification rules or time lags [1] [5].
5. Practical step-by-step: how to compile FY1993–FY2024 counts
Start at the OHSS Yearbook landing page, then open Table 39 in the Yearbook editions that cover FY1892–2019 and FY1892–2022 to extract FY1993–FY2022 rows [1] [2] [3], then consult Yearbook 2024’s enforcement tables for FY2023–FY2024 totals or use OHSS monthly enforcement tables to sum fiscal-year months into FY totals if the Yearbook’s annual table is not yet finalized [6] [4]. Use ICE’s ERO statistics to verify recent operational removals and DHS KHSM pages to resolve classification questions such as repatriation versus removal [5] [8]. If precise FY2024 final counts are not yet published in the Yearbook at the time of review, cite the most recent OHSS monthly and ICE operational tallies as provisional [4] [5].
6. Transparency and limitations
The foregoing points rely on what OHSS and ICE publish publicly; if a specific fiscal year’s final, reconciled “interior removal” figure is not yet posted in the Yearbook, that absence limits the ability to present a finalized FY1993–FY2024 series without noting provisional monthly/operational tallies [6] [4]. For context beyond raw counts—budget, performance, or program changes that affect removals—consult DHS’s Performance & Accountability Reports and related budget analyses [9] [10].