How many people were deported from the US in 2025 and how many were Muslim-majority-country nationals?

1. What the headline numbers say — competing tallies

Independent researchers cited by Migration Policy Institute and outlets estimate about 340,000 deportations in FY2025, a figure that includes formal removal orders and voluntary departures ^{[1] [2]}. At the same time, Department of Homeland Security has issued public statements counting "hundreds of thousands" of deportations and separately tallies more than 1.6–2 million people who have "self‑deported" or otherwise left the U.S. since January 20, 2025 — figures DHS presents as evidence of large enforcement effects ^{[3] [7] [8]}. Journalists and court records note tens of thousands were deported during specific periods such as the federal government shutdown, with The Guardian reporting about 56,000 deportations during that interval using ICE data ^[9].

2. Why the numbers differ — definitions and counting choices

Disagreement stems from what agencies and analysts count as a "deportation." MPI and court‑data trackers combine formal removals with voluntary departures from detention; DHS often reports a broader "removed or self‑deported" total that mixes enforced removals with voluntary exits and administrative departures. ICE’s own statistics are provisional until year end and subject to later revision, which fuels differing public tallies ^{[1] [10] [11]}.

3. Geographic and procedural shifts affecting totals

Experts say 2025 enforcement shifted inland: removals from the U.S. interior outnumbered border deportations for the first time since 2014, increasing deportations from communities away from the border and inflating interior removal counts used by the MPI estimate ^{[1] [2]}. The administration also expanded expedited removal and fast‑track processes, although a federal appeals court recently blocked expanding some of those powers nationwide, a legal constraint that could affect later removal totals ^{[1] [12]}.

4. What the sources say about Muslim‑majority‑country nationals

Available sources document policy actions that target or affect nationals from multiple Muslim‑majority countries — for example, proclamations and bans listing Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and others — and civil‑rights groups and legal centers warn these actions disproportionately affect immigrants from Muslim‑majority countries ^{[5] [13] [6]}. However, the publicly available counts and summaries cited here do not provide a definitive, sourced total of how many deportees in 2025 were nationals of Muslim‑majority countries; those specific disaggregated numbers are not found in current reporting provided (not found in current reporting).

5. Evidence of disparate targeting and advocacy concerns

Legal and advocacy organizations argue that policies expanded in 2025 revive or extend earlier forms of country‑based and religion‑tainted restrictions, and they point to historical and structural precedents (e.g., NSEERS legacy) and 2025 travel‑ban proclamations as evidence of disproportionate scrutiny of Muslim‑majority nationals ^{[6] [13] [5]}. Independent reporting and nonprofits also document removals and expulsions of Muslims in other countries (e.g., India) to illustrate global trends in Muslim‑targeted deportations, but that is context, not U.S. deportation tallies ^{[4] [14]}.

6. What can and cannot be concluded from the available sources

We can conclude that 2025 saw a major uptick and a shift in where and how many people were removed — independent estimates cluster around 340,000 removals for FY2025 while DHS emphasizes much larger combined figures when including self‑deportations ^{[1] [3] [2]}. We cannot, from the sources provided, produce a reliable, sourced count of how many 2025 deportees were nationals of Muslim‑majority countries because disaggregated, public statistics for that question are not included in these reports (not found in current reporting).

7. Bottom line for readers and journalists seeking clarity

Reporters and researchers should treat the DHS "removed or self‑deported" headline as a mixture of enforced removals and voluntary departures and rely on independent datasets (ICE locked statistics, MPI, court and EOIR trackers) for conservative estimates of formal deportations — roughly 340,000 in FY2025 per analysts cited here — and explicitly note that disaggregated counts by country‑religion status are not available in the cited material (p1_s6; ^[2]; ^[10]; not found in current reporting). Advocacy groups and legal observers warn of disproportionate impacts on people from Muslim‑majority countries and point to policy instruments that single out those countries, a claim supported by policy texts cited in reporting but not quantified in removal totals ^{[5] [13]}.