How many illegal immigrants who are criminals have been deported

1. What proponents are asserting — Big numbers, criminal focus, safer communities

Advocates and administration statements emphasize large totals of removals and high criminality rates to argue enforcement is prioritizing dangerous individuals; DHS press releases state over 527,000 removals and claims that about 70% of ICE arrests are criminal noncitizens, and other DHS messaging combines removals and voluntary departures to exceed 2 million people allegedly out of the United States in months-long periods ^{[2] [4]}. These statements present aggregate exit counts and percent-criminal figures as proof that enforcement is focused on criminal noncitizens and that public safety is improved. The messaging mixes ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) administrative removals, Border Patrol expulsions, and voluntary “self-deports” or returns, creating a high-level narrative of both volume and criminal prioritization ^{[4] [5]}.

2. What the agency data actually say — numbers, breakdowns, and the strongest concrete figures

ICE’s published enforcement reports give the clearest, agency-level counts: in FY2023 ERO removed 142,580 noncitizens, with ICE reporting that 69,902 of those removed had criminal histories (roughly 49%), and agency datasets show 528,000 removals recorded across specific windows through mid‑2025 depending on which enforcement actions are counted ^{[1] [3]}. ICE’s FY2023 report also lists removals of 3,406 known or suspected gang members, 139 suspected terrorists, and hundreds of serious offenders, and ERO arrest tallies for that year include tens of thousands of people with criminal convictions ^{[6] [1]}. These quantified ICE program figures are the most specific public numbers tying removals to criminal histories, but they represent ICE ERO actions and do not capture every DHS action or state/local cooperative programs unless explicitly aggregated.

3. Why simple answers don’t exist — definitions, overlapping programs, and data gaps

Public statements conflate removals, expulsions, and voluntary departures while using different thresholds for “criminal.” ICE counts convictions and pending charges; DHS may cite arrests or removals plus self-deportations; CBP expulsions under Title 42 or other authorities can be reported separately, and voluntary departures are not always screened or categorized by criminal history in public summaries ^{[4] [3] [2]}. The result is non‑identical datasets and uneven definitions, so adding numbers from various releases risks double‑counting or misclassifying individuals. Agencies also report different timeframes (FY vs. calendar vs. rolling periods), and some public claims present rhetorical totals (e.g., “over 2 million left”) without a transparent methodology tying those exits to criminal-status counts ^{[4] [5]}.

4. Alternative perspectives and procedural context — what the numbers omit and who points it out

Independent analysts and oversight observers note that headline percentages can be misleading if not tied to case-level data: a high percent of ICE arrests being criminal does not mean the same percent of all removals or all people who left were convicted criminals, and many enforcement actions target immigration violations without criminal convictions. ICE’s own reports caution that removals and returns across DHS components are not uniformly included, and examples highlighted by ICE (e.g., individual deportations of convicted sex offenders or gang members) illustrate targeted priorities but do not establish the universe of criminal removals ^{[3] [7]}. The promotional tone in some DHS releases signals a policy or political agenda to show enforcement success, which requires cautious interpretation of aggregated claims ^{[4] [5]}.

5. Bottom line — what can be stated with confidence and the outstanding unknowns

With confidence: ICE and DHS publicly document hundreds of thousands of removals since 2023, and agency reports show that a large share of ICE ERO actions involve noncitizens with criminal histories — roughly half in FY2023 and higher percentages cited in some DHS statements ^{[1] [2]}. Not resolvable from the provided documents: a single, definitive national count of “illegal immigrants who are criminals who have been deported” across all agencies and categories, because of different definitions, overlapping programs, and aggregated reporting that mixes voluntary departures with formal removals and expulsions ^{[3] [4]}. To get a cleaner number would require case‑level analysis tying each removal/exit to conviction records across DHS components and timeframes, data not supplied in the cited summaries ^{[3] [7]}.