How do ICE, CBP, and DHS each define and count deportations and voluntary departures in their public reports?
Executive summary
Federal immigration statistics prove to be a stitched-together mosaic: DHS’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS) aggregates and “cleans and validates” removal and return records reported by ICE, CBP’s Office of Field Operations (OFO) and the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) [1], ICE publishes its own Enforcement and Removal Operations tallies and notes specific administrative categories such as Title 42 expulsions [2], while CBP now promotes a CBP Home app to register “voluntary self-deportation” and treats a range of border exits as “returns” distinct from formal removals [3] [1].
1. How DHS (OHSS) defines and compiles removals versus returns
DHS’s OHSS distinguishes removals (enforced departures based on orders or administrative dispositions) from returns (non-removal exits such as voluntary departures, withdrawals, or Visa Waiver returns) and explicitly says it receives detailed records from ICE, USBP and OFO which it then cleans and validates for publication [1]; OHSS public tables list monthly “removals, returns, repatriations” and derive action dates from agency case data to standardize counts [4] [1].
2. How ICE defines and counts deportations and voluntary departures
ICE frames its public “removals” as administrative removal and return records coded in its systems (book-outs, case status codes) and bases its removal/return dates on an “Action Date” derived from case closure and departure dates, with ICE book-outs recorded when an alien is released from custody to be removed — a category that expressly includes persons ordered removed by an immigration judge, those granted voluntary departure by a judge or agency, and Title 42 expulsions [5] [1]. ICE’s published Enforcement and Removal Operations pages discuss Title 42 expulsions as a type of rapid expulsion used at the border, and ICE’s overall statistics reflect both interior and border-origin removals depending on custody and disposition [2].
3. How CBP (OFO and USBP) defines and counts removals, returns, and voluntary self-deportation
CBP separates OFO “removals” (inadmissibility determinations with dispositions such as expedited removal or reinstatement) from OFO “returns” (dispositions including voluntary departure, withdrawal, or VWP return), and USBP returns are tracked for Mexican/Canadian nationals with dispositions of voluntary return who do not book into ICE custody — CBP/USBP therefore reports a large set of non‑removal returns at the border distinct from formal removal orders [1]. Separately, CBP now markets a CBP Home Mobile App as a mechanism for “voluntary self-deportation,” where unauthorized noncitizens can register intent to voluntarily depart and potentially receive travel assistance and incentives; CBP presents departures verified through the app as voluntary departures rather than enforcement removals [3].
4. What “voluntary departure” means across agencies and in immigration law
Voluntary departure is legally defined by EOIR guidance as the departure of an alien without an order of removal, sometimes granted by DOJ immigration judges or DHS, allowing a person to leave at their own expense and avoid a formal removal on their record — but failure to depart converts the grant into a removal and can trigger fines and bars [6]. Advocacy and legal guides treat voluntary departure as both a pre-hearing DHS grant and a post-conclusion IJ grant with similar consequences, and note practical limits (eligibility requirements, need for travel documents) [7] [8]. CBP’s app frames “self-deportation” as a voluntary exit that is operationally counted as a return rather than an order-based removal [3] [1].
5. Key caveats, overlap and limits in public reporting
DHS’s public methodology acknowledges that counts are assembled from three agencies’ different disposition codes and custody processes and that OHSS standardizes those records — a process that can mask operational differences such as who “books out” to a repatriation flight versus who is processed as a voluntary return at the border [1] [5]; Migration Policy and DHS summaries stress that CBP and ICE play distinct operational roles (border v. interior) and that DHS-wide totals therefore combine removals, expulsions, and returns from different authorities [9] [10]. Sources supplied here do not fully document every technical rule used to reconcile duplicate records, nor do they provide a single, agency‑agnostic line-by-line algorithm for counting conversions (e.g., voluntary departure that later becomes removal), so a residual transparency gap remains in public reporting [1] [5].