How many people were deported under the Biden administration by year (2021-2025)?
Executive summary
The available sources do not offer a single, uncontested “by‑year” count for deportations under President Biden (2021–2025); agencies report different categories (ICE ERO removals, DHS total removals, Title 42 expulsions, and administrative returns) that produce very different totals and trends [1] [2]. Where possible, the clearest published figures show extremely low ICE ERO removals in FY2021 and much higher removal counts by FY2024 (hundreds of thousands depending on the category), with FY2025 figures likewise disputed between ICE operational spreadsheets and DHS public tallies [3] [4] [5].
1. What “deported” means here — conflicting categories and why the numbers vary
“Deportation” is not a single statistic in official reporting: ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) reports removals from U.S. interior custody, DHS publishes broader “removals” and expulsions (including Title 42 and other administrative returns), and third‑party trackers like TRAC and Migration Policy Institute synthesize overlapping datasets, producing divergent totals and trends [1] [5] [2]. Analysts warn that comparing administration totals without matching categories (ICE ERO removals vs. DHS total removals vs. administrative returns) can be misleading, and some commentators explicitly challenge headline counts as rhetorically produced rather than directly comparable [4].
2. FY2021 — a clear low point in ICE ERO removals
The most specific number available for the start of the Biden era is ICE’s FY2021 ERO removals figure of 59,011, which many compilers highlight as “the lowest in decades” and marks a sharp decline from prior years [3]. That figure pertains to fiscal year 2021 and reflects the narrower ICE ERO removals category rather than the broader set of departures or expulsions counted by DHS [3] [1].
3. FY2022–FY2023 — steady rebound but category disputes
Across FY2022 and FY2023 removals rose substantially from the FY2021 low, but public sources in the dataset do not provide a single mutually agreed annual breakdown for those two years; Migration Policy’s synthesis reports that from FY2021 through February 2024 roughly 1.1 million removals had occurred, indicating substantial removals across FY2022–FY2023, yet that total mixes removal types and time windows [2]. Because DHS and ICE segment expulsions, administrative returns and ERO removals differently, precise year‑by‑year totals for calendar 2022 and 2023 cannot be determined from the provided sources without making category assumptions [1] [2].
4. FY2024 — the administration’s heaviest single‑year totals by some counts
By the end of FY2024, several published tallies show very large numbers: Migration Policy and other reporting cite that Biden’s DHS recorded roughly 685,000 total deportations/removals in FY2024 when broader categories are counted, and ICE’s ERO-specific removals for FY2024 are reported in the 271,000–272,000 range in other datasets — demonstrating how category choice drives the headline [6] [3] [5]. Analysts emphasize that the FY2024 total often cited in media reflects DHS’s broader removals and administrative returns, rather than ICE ERO removals alone [6] [2].
5. FY2025 / calendar 2025 — overlap with transition and disputed counts
Counting removals in 2025 is especially fraught because the fiscal year overlaps presidential transition: TRAC and ICE spreadsheets estimate that about 85,769 removals in FY2025 occurred while Biden was still president (i.e., through Jan 20, 2025), while other public DHS statements and media stories report larger short‑term tallies that mix post‑inauguration activity and earlier months; commentators dispute DHS’s phrasing and aggregation methods in those announcements [5] [4] [7]. One analyst using ICE operational data estimated ERO removals at roughly 329,018 for FY2025, but that figure and DHS’s public totals diverge depending on the window and categories used [4].
6. Bottom line and recommended reading for verification
There is no single authoritative “2021–2025 by year” deportation table in the sources provided because of differing definitions and overlapping fiscal/calendar periods; the clearest concrete figures in these sources are ICE’s FY2021 ERO removals and larger FY2024 totals that depend on category (ERO ≈271k vs. DHS broader removals ≈685k), and FY2025 estimates that are contested between ICE spreadsheets and DHS public counts [3] [5] [6]. Readers seeking an exact year‑by‑year breakdown should specify whether they want ICE ERO removals, DHS total removals/expulsions (including Title 42 and administrative returns), or calendar vs. fiscal years, and then consult the primary ICE statistics page and migration‑policy synthesis for matching categories [1] [2].