Which US government agencies track Muslim deportation numbers and what are their findings for 2025?

1. Who officially “tracks” deportations — the government’s reporting architecture

DHS is the umbrella that compiles enforcement statistics, with ICE reporting removals and detention figures and CBP reporting border expulsions and removals; the DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics says it constructs a Persist dataset from component operational reports and updates monthly, positioning OHSS as the statistical system of record inside DHS ^[1]. ICE maintains operational datasets and press pages but has historically only released full-case data unevenly; advocacy groups have obtained FOIA releases and built public databases from those ^{[5] [6]}.

2. What DHS and its components reported for 2025 — large, administration‑driven numbers

DHS press statements in 2025 touted record figures: one October release said “more than 527,000” removals and claimed 2 million people “removed or self‑deported” since January, and other DHS statements announced 1.6 million people had left the U.S. in a stated 200‑day period ^{[2] [7]}. Those public DHS tallies are the most prominent government numbers available in the reporting set provided ^[2].

3. Independent analysts push back — different methods, lower estimates

Independent research organizations flagged different totals and methodological issues: the Migration Policy Institute estimated ICE conducted about 340,000 deportations in FY2025 based on publicly available figures and agency releases, a notably lower figure than some DHS claims ^[3]. Journalists and outlets such as Axios and NPR reported that DHS used unorthodox counting (including voluntary departures or “self‑deportations”) and in some cases stopped publishing the long‑standing detailed tables used to validate headline numbers, raising transparency concerns ^{[4] [6]}.

4. Why the discrepancy matters — definitions and inclusion/exclusion choices

A core reason numbers diverge is definitional: DHS press messaging has combined deportations (formal removals) with voluntary departures and so‑called “self‑deportations” to produce headline totals; independent researchers often treat removals and voluntary departures separately and rely on ICE operational datasets or court/immigration‑court orders to count formal removals ^{[2] [3] [4]}. Several analysts and news outlets note DHS has changed what it posts publicly, making independent verification harder and creating room for political messaging to shape the headlines ^{[4] [1]}.

5. What the sources say specifically about Muslim deportations for 2025

Available sources do not provide an official tally that isolates deportations of Muslims as a religious group in 2025; DHS and ICE publish nationality, enforcement, and sometimes country‑of‑origin data but do not publicly report removals by religion, and the provided reporting does not include a government breakdown identifying “Muslim deportation numbers” (available sources do not mention deportations by religion; ^[1]; p4_s2). Advocacy organizations and community reporting estimate tens of thousands of Arab and Muslim‑origin people are at risk or affected, with one advocacy piece citing an estimate of between 30,000 and 50,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants “at risk” as of mid‑2025, but that is not a government count of removals ^[8].

6. Ground reports and legal advocacy that provide context beyond raw counts

Reporting documents many individual detentions and community impacts — arrests of Muslim community leaders, visa revocations, and claims of targeted enforcement against people from Muslim‑majority countries — illustrating how policy and enforcement choices can disproportionately affect Muslim communities even if religion‑specific deportation tallies are absent from government tables ^{[9] [10] [11]}. Civil‑liberty groups and legal clinics also track cases and litigate; their data tend to be case‑based rather than comprehensive national counts ^{[12] [8]}.

7. Bottom line and what to watch for

For 2025, DHS/ICE/CBP remain the official sources for deportation statistics, but headline DHS claims of very large totals have been questioned by independent analysts ^{[2] [3] [4]}. No government dataset in the provided reporting breaks removals down by religion, so precise “Muslim deportation” totals are not available from government sources (available sources do not mention deportations by religion; p3_s2). Watch for OHSS monthly tables and ICE’s operational datasets — and for external audits or Congressional requests — to clarify methodology and reconcile the divergent public counts ^{[1] [5]}.