How many deportations occurred during the Biden administration's first year in office, 2021?

1. What the available counts say: FY2021’s removals

The clearest, sourced figure in the provided reporting is 59,011 deportations for FY2021, which Factchequeado presents as the removals count for that fiscal year ^[1]. That number aligns with consolidated government reporting practices that traditionally use fiscal years to report ICE removals and is the best single-number answer available in the supplied material for the year that overlapped Biden’s entry into office ^[1].

2. Why fiscal-year figures matter—and why they can be misleading

Federal agencies and analysts usually report “removals” by fiscal year, not by a president’s calendar-year “first year in office,” so a FY2021 figure covers parts of two presidential terms and thus does not map perfectly to the Biden calendar-year of 2021; that reporting convention is an important caveat when assigning a single “Biden first-year” number ^{[2] [1]}. Media and advocacy groups often conflate removals, administrative returns, and Title 42 expulsions—three separate categories with very different legal implications—which produces inconsistent comparisons across outlets ^{[3] [4]}.

3. Expulsions vs. removals: a much bigger number in a different column

While formal ICE removals in FY2021 were relatively modest, the number of rapid expulsions under the COVID-era Title 42 policy was orders of magnitude larger and mostly occurred under the Biden years—Reuters documented roughly 2.8 million Title 42 expulsions through the Biden period up to when the policy was lifted in May 2023—yet those expulsions are legally distinct from deportations/removals and do not always carry the same long-term bars or criminal consequences ^[3]. Migration Policy and Reuters have emphasized that counting Title 42 expulsions alongside formal removals inflates the impression of traditional deportation activity unless the distinction is made explicit ^{[4] [3]}.

4. The early moratorium and legal pushback that shaped 2021 totals

On his first day in office President Biden ordered a 100‑day pause on most deportations, a policy that was quickly challenged in court and enjoined by a federal judge—reporting from Politifact, the American Immigration Council, and other sources documents both the moratorium and the legal rulings that limited its implementation, which affected enforcement practice and caseload scheduling in early 2021 ^{[5] [6] [7]}. AP contemporaneous reporting also noted that several hundred people were deported in the administration’s early days despite the pledge, reflecting how the injunction and operational constraints produced uneven enforcement in the first weeks ^[8].

5. Competing narratives and methodological disputes

Conservative research groups and some commentators argue removals and interior arrests plunged under Biden compared with Trump-era levels, using ICE datasets selectively to show sharp drops in certain categories such as criminal-aliens removed ^{[9] [10]}. Conversely, reporting from Migration Policy and Reuters highlights that, when administrative returns and Title 42 expulsions are included across the entire Biden period, the overall counts of people turned away or returned approach or exceed prior administrations’ totals—emphasizing different metrics and policy tools to tell opposing stories ^{[4] [3]}.

6. Direct answer and transparency about limits

If the question is read as “How many deportations occurred in FY2021,” the sourced figure is 59,011 removals ^[1]. If the question intends “calendar year 2021” or seeks a combined total including Title 42 expulsions or administrative returns, the supplied reporting does not offer a single authoritative calendar‑year number and those totals vary substantially depending on definitions; available sources show that Title 42 expulsions under Biden were in the millions but are legally distinct from ICE removals ^{[3] [2]}. The record is clear only if one specifies the metric used.