Which ICE office publishes national removal statistics for 2025?

1. Who officially publishes ICE removal numbers: ICE ERO’s dashboards

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) maintains the agency’s public statistics dashboards and tables, and the official ICE statistics site states that the new dashboards present arrests, detentions, removals and alternatives to detention through December 31, 2024 and will be updated quarterly, with published data one quarter in arrears ^[1]. For 2025 removals specifically, mainstream media and data projects cite ICE’s own semi‑monthly and monthly releases as the original source for removals and deportation counts ^{[3] [4]}.

2. A second official source: DHS OHSS monthly tables

DHS’s Office of Health and Statistical Services (OHSS) compiles monthly “Immigration Enforcement and Legal Processes” tables drawing from the OHSS Persist Dataset, which the office constructs from DHS component operational reports; those tables explicitly include “ICE ERO Removals and Returns by Citizenship, Criminality, and Initial Arresting Agency” and are updated monthly ^[2]. OHSS presents itself as DHS’s statistical system of record and notes collaboration with DHS component statistical officials to standardize methods ^[2].

3. How independent trackers use ICE releases

Independent projects and news outlets (for example the Deportation Data Project and The Guardian) take ICE’s published tables and semi‑monthly releases as their primary inputs, then clean, archive or visualize the raw ICE data; the Deportation Data Project explicitly hosts raw ICE data covering enforcement actions into 2025 and states it includes ICE-origin files in its releases ^[5]. The Guardian’s data pieces on arrests, detentions and deportations cite ICE tables such as “Removals: FY2025” and “Currently Detained” when constructing media graphics ^{[3] [6]}.

4. Timing and caveats about the numbers

ICE itself cautions that its statistics are published one quarter in arrears and that future quarter‑end and year‑end reports may include corrections that supersede earlier figures ^[1]. OHSS likewise notes it compiles data from component operational reports and identifies sourcing notes for particular tables, indicating differences in timing or methodology can exist between component releases and consolidated DHS tables ^[2]. Independent analysts (e.g., TRAC, Deportation Data Project) show how semi‑monthly ICE reports are used to derive cumulative removals and that varying release cadences can affect near‑real‑time counts ^{[4] [5]}.

5. Why two places matter for a single “official” number

ICE ERO publishes the agency’s operational removals counts directly (the primary source for “ICE removals” numbers) and DHS OHSS publishes consolidated monthly tables that include ICE ERO removals as part of the DHS statistical record; both are official but serve different functions—ICE provides operational dashboards and more frequent semi‑monthly items, and OHSS produces standardized monthly tables intended as DHS’s system of record ^{[1] [2]}. Media and researchers therefore commonly cite ICE for the most immediate operational totals and OHSS for consolidated monthly tabulations ^{[3] [5] [2]}.

6. How reporters and researchers should cite the data

For the most direct, agency‑level “national removal” count attributable to ICE operations in 2025, cite ICE ERO’s statistics/dashboards (ICE’s published removals tables and semi‑monthly reports) and note ICE’s one‑quarter lag and correction policy ^[1]. For DHS‑standardized monthly figures that aggregate across DHS reporting systems and apply the Persist dataset methodology, cite OHSS’s monthly immigration enforcement tables and acknowledge methodological notes in table sourcing ^[2]. Independent data projects can be cited for cleaned or historical series but they rely on ICE/OHSS source files ^[5].

7. Limitations, disputes and independent scrutiny

Available reporting shows independent groups (Deportation Data Project, TRAC, journalists) actively reprocess ICE’s releases and sometimes highlight discrepancies, duplicate records, or timing artifacts; researchers should expect revisions and should cross‑check ICE’s semi‑monthly dashboards against the OHSS monthly tables for reconciled figures ^{[5] [4]}. If you need a single citation for “national removals” in 2025, ICE ERO is the primary publisher of removal statistics ^[1] and OHSS is the DHS statistical counterpart that provides consolidated monthly tables ^[2].