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How many people have been deported from the United States each year since 2000?
Executive summary
Official annual counts of deportations (removals) come primarily from DHS components such as ICE and the Office of Homeland Security Statistics; ICE publishes removal totals and OHSS provides monthly and fiscal-year event datasets [1] [2]. Public summaries and independent sites show large year-to-year swings—e.g., aggregate counts noted for the 2000s through 2018 and headline totals in recent years—but available sources in this set do not provide a single, year-by-year table from 2000 through 2025; readers should consult ICE’s statistics page and OHSS monthly tables for the authoritative, fiscal‑year series [1] [2].
1. What “deported” means — definitions matter
DHS components use specific terms—“removals,” “returns,” “repatriations,” and “voluntary departures”—and agencies warn that aggregate counts mix events at the border and interior enforcement; ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations statistics are the primary source for formal removals, while OHSS constructs a persist dataset of immigration events and notes that a single person may be counted more than once across reports [1] [2]. Any year-to-year comparison must therefore specify which category you mean (formal removals vs. all departures including voluntary/self‑deportations), because policy and counting methods change across administrations [1] [2].
2. Where to find the authoritative numbers
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations statistics page is the official repository for ICE removal counts and related metrics; the agency explicitly confirms the integrity of its posted datasets and notes that numbers “fluctuate until ‘locked’ at the conclusion of the fiscal year” [1]. The DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics publishes monthly tables that standardize component reports into the Persist Dataset and explains units and deduplication rules—useful for checking monthly and fiscal‑year totals and understanding methodological notes [2].
3. Reporting gaps and independent summaries
Several third‑party aggregators and media pieces provide summaries and multi‑year snapshots—WorldPopulationReview and USAFacts cite multi‑year totals and headline year figures (for example, USAFacts reports 1.1 million in 2023), while other sources highlight cumulative totals or rapid recent changes in removals—but these compilations rely on DHS component data or alternative aggregations and should be cross‑checked against ICE/OHSS raw tables [3] [4]. Be aware that some outlets also combine “self‑deportations” and voluntary departures with formal removals when describing total people who have left the U.S., which inflates comparisons unless you separate categories [5] [6].
4. Recent context: big swings and political framing
Reporting in 2024–2025 documents dramatic fluctuations: removals fell sharply from 2020 to 2021 then rose again by 2025 according to aggregators, and the DHS has issued high‑profile release statements claiming hundreds of thousands of deportations in 2025 [7] [6] [8]. Journalistic outlets such as Reuters note that DHS stopped issuing some detailed enforcement reports after political transitions, complicating independent verification of immediate trends and making reliance on ICE/OHSS datasets important for precise annual counts [9] [1] [2].
5. How reporters and researchers reconcile different counts
Economists and policy analysts caution that aggregate deportation figures can be misleading because they mix border repatriations with interior removals—each has different implications for communities and labor markets—so rigorous year‑by‑year comparisons require selecting the right variable (for example, ICE “removals” vs. CBP “returns”) and checking fiscal‑year definitions; Econofact and OHSS explain these methodological caveats [10] [2]. For historical series since 2000, researchers typically extract annual “removals” from ICE annual reports or DHS statistical yearbooks and note programmatic or legal changes that affect comparability [1] [2].
6. Recommended next steps to get the year‑by‑year list you asked for
If you want a precise list of deportations per calendar or fiscal year from 2000 onward, consult ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations statistics page and OHSS Persist Dataset monthly/fiscal tables and extract the ICE “removals” field for each fiscal year; ICE is the authoritative source and explicitly publishes the arrest/removal counts and methodology [1] [2]. Use USAFacts or WorldPopulationReview only as cross‑checks and be explicit whether you report ICE “removals” (formal deportations) or a broader departures figure that includes voluntary/self‑deportation [4] [3] [5].
Limitations: the provided sources do not include a single consolidated year‑by‑year table from 2000–2025 in this dataset; the best available route is to pull and compile ICE’s annual removal figures and the OHSS tables directly from the cited official pages [1] [2].