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What were the top countries of origin for ICE removals in 2025 and how did that mix change from prior years?
Executive summary
ICE removals in 2025 showed a marked shift in scale and destination mix compared with prior years: reporting and independent trackers describe a large surge in deportation flights and removals since January 2025, with Mexico and Central American countries continuing to be prominent destinations while the administration also began using “third‑country” returns to places such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and expanding flights to countries with strained diplomatic relations [1] [2] [3]. Available federal dashboards and OHSS monthly tables are the official sources for removals by citizenship; independent projects (Human Rights First, Guardian, DeportationData, Newsweek) document operational changes — more flights, more countries receiving deportees, and new policies to send people to countries other than their own [4] [3] [2] [5] [6].
1. The headline numbers: a surge and more airlifted deportations
ICE’s own materials and watchdog projects report an operational surge in 2025: ICE said it removed hundreds of thousands in recent years and has expanded use of ICE Air and charter flights; Human Rights First tracked at least 8,877 enforcement flights between January 20 and September 30, 2025, and documented new routing and carrier arrangements that enabled more removal destinations [1] [3]. Independent analyses place removals and deportation flights well above recent prior years and show an increasing number of destination countries reached compared with FY2023–FY2024 [7] [3].
2. Top countries of origin remain Mexico and Central America — but composition matters
Decade‑long patterns remain relevant: over the past decade Mexican citizens accounted for the largest share of ICE removals (about 51.8% historically), with Guatemalans and Hondurans also prominent [8]. Reporting through 2024 and early 2025 indicates Mexico plus Central American nations continue to be top sources of removals, even as the raw volumes have risen in 2025 compared with the pandemic‑affected troughs of 2020–2021 [8] [1].
3. What changed in 2025: third‑country returns and a wider destination map
A significant operational change in 2025 was the use of “third‑country” removals and a conscious push to find countries willing to accept deportees — Reuters and Newsweek documented new memos and deals enabling deportations to countries other than the migrant’s origin, and Human Rights First and other trackers reported flights to more and sometimes unconventional destinations [6] [9] [3]. The Guardian’s analysis found the administration had funneled large numbers to Honduras, El Salvador and Venezuela among others since late January 2025, indicating broader destination diversity relative to prior years [2].
4. Criminality and prioritization: changing rhetoric, consistent emphasis
ICE public releases and archived dashboards emphasize that a large share of interior removals are people with criminal convictions or pending charges; ICE in early 2025 reiterated that the “vast majority” of interior removals had criminal convictions or pending charges (92 percent in an archived ICE briefing) even as critics say many removed or expedited cases include non‑serious offenses [1]. Media outlets point out political messaging frames the surge as focused on public‑safety priorities while advocacy groups and court filings describe expedited processes and due‑process concerns [1] [10].
5. Data sources, limitations and where to look for the exact country rankings
Official, disaggregated removals by country are available through ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations statistics and OHSS monthly tables; the OHSS Persist Dataset is described as the system of record and is updated monthly [11] [4]. Independent datasets (DeportationData, TRAC, Human Rights First, Guardian, Newsweek) offer complementary tracking but cover different slices (flights, arrests, FOIA releases) and sometimes exclude parts of ICE’s official removals tables [5] [3] [12] [2]. For precise 2025 country‑by‑country rankings and year‑over‑year percentage changes, consult the ICE removals dashboard and the OHSS monthly tables; those datasets are the only sources in the record that will list top countries of citizenship with exact counts [11] [4].
6. Competing interpretations and implicit agendas
Federal ICE/OHSS releases present the surge as resource‑driven enforcement focused on public safety and fugitives [1] [11]. Journalistic analyses (Guardian, Newsweek, Human Rights First) emphasize scale, humanitarian, and legal risks from rapid expansion and third‑country removals, and document flights into countries with strained relations [2] [3] [9]. Advocacy or industry sources may accentuate either the security benefits or the human‑rights risks; readers should note those implicit agendas when weighing claims [1] [2].
7. Bottom line and next steps for verification
In short: Mexico and Central American countries remain the largest origins historically and into 2025, but the removal mix in 2025 changed in scale and destination pattern — more flights, more countries, and new use of third‑country returns. For exact country rankings and quantified year‑over‑year shifts, consult ICE’s removals dashboard and the OHSS Persist Dataset as the authoritative, regularly updated data sources [11] [4].