Keep Factually independent
Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way.
Which nationalities had the highest rates of criminal deportations from the US in 2025?
Executive Summary
The available analyses disagree on specific rankings, but multiple datasets and summaries identify Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador/Colombia and Venezuela among the top countries of origin for removals or criminal-related deportations in 2025. Source inconsistencies, different definitions (criminal removals vs overall removals), and partial or undated data make a single definitive ranking impossible from the materials provided; the most repeatedly cited top origin is Mexico (by a large margin) [1] [2] [3].
1. What the claim says — a quick harvest of the competing assertions that matter
The submitted analyses extract several competing lists of top nationalities for criminal deportations in 2025. One summary reports Mexico [4], Honduras [5] [6], Guatemala [7] [8], Venezuela [9] [10], and Colombia [11] [12] as the top five [1]. Another identifies Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and Colombia, with Mexico accounting for 69,364 arrests and 35.8% of the total in an ICE-centric dataset [2]. Other materials highlight broad ICE enforcement summaries without nation-by-nation breakdowns [13] [3]. The consistent theme is Mexico leads by far; other Latin American countries recur but their order and counts vary across sources.
2. Why the numbers differ — parsing definitions and counting rules that change the results
Different datasets conflate or separate “criminal removals,” “removals,” “arrests,” and “deportations,” which produces divergent tallies. Some summaries report ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) removals and arrests [13], others present aggregated deportation totals or country-by-country tallies from third-party trackers [1] [2]. When records count only individuals removed following criminal convictions, totals fall and the national mix can shift; when all removals (including administrative or illegal-entry cases) are counted, Mexico’s predominance grows. The analyses furnished explicitly note these definitional gaps and sometimes lack clear publication metadata [14] [3].
3. How reliable the sources are — dates, provenance and caveats that matter
The government-derived ICE summaries referenced are authoritative for arrests, detentions and removals but the provided ICE extracts in the packet did not include a clear 2025 country-level criminal deportation table [13]. Third-party trackers and “global statistics” sites provide country breakdowns and totals [1] [2] but their methodologies and sourcing are not uniformly transparent in the supplied analyses; some entries lack publication dates or are compilations that draw on ICE or other agency reports without full documentation [15] [14]. Given those limitations, government ERO datasets would be the primary source when properly disaggregated by removal type and nationality; the packet did not supply a fully consistent ICE country-by-country criminal-removal table for 2025.
4. Context that changes interpretation — migration patterns, enforcement focus and legal categories
Enforcement priorities, border flows, and legal categories shape yearly national patterns. The analyses note that Latin American countries dominate removals and arrest tallies in 2025, reflecting both geographic proximity and the largest migration flows [2] [3]. One analysis emphasizes that only a small share (1.59%) of new cases sought deportation orders based specifically on alleged criminal activity apart from illegal entry, signaling that many removals are tied to entry or immigration status rather than new criminal convictions [1]. Thus a list of “criminal deportations” can overstate the role of criminal conviction if the dataset includes many administrative removals tied to entry offenses.
5. Reconciling the evidence — the best-supported headline and its limits
Across the packet, Mexico is the clearest top nationality for removals and criminal-related enforcement actions in 2025, cited in multiple summaries with the largest counts [1] [2] [3]. Beyond Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela appear repeatedly but with inconsistent order and differing totals [1] [2] [15]. Because the provided materials mix arrest counts, removals, and different definitions of “criminal,” the most accurate claim supported here is that Mexico tops the list and several Central and South American countries follow, but precise ranks and counts vary and cannot be confirmed from the supplied sources alone.
6. What to do next — how to get a definitive, auditable answer
To produce a definitive, auditable ranking of nationalities with the highest rates of criminal deportations in 2025, obtain the ICE ERO national-level removal tables for 2025 disaggregated by removal reason (criminal conviction vs administrative removal) and cross-check with Justice Department or EOIR case dispositions when available (the packet points to ICE and data aggregators but lacks a clear 2025 criminal-removal table) [13] [2]. Requesting the ERO “Removals by Nationality and Removal Reason — 2025” table or equivalent official monthly enforcement tables will resolve the definitional ambiguity and produce an auditable ranking.