How many migrants were removed/expelled versus released during the Biden administration, by year?
Executive summary
The data landscape for removals/expulsions versus releases under the Biden administration is fragmented and metric-dependent: government and research organizations report millions of “encounters,” roughly 2.8 million removals/expulsions and roughly 2.5 million releases in initial processing across the administration’s tenure in cited snapshots, but year-by-year tallies vary by source and by the definition used (removals vs. returns vs. expulsions vs. releases) [1] [2]. Available official and research figures allow approximate annual framing—especially for FY2024, when removals spiked—but do not permit a single definitive, line‑by‑line annual table without reconciling differing DHS/ICE methodologies and time windows [3] [4] [5].
1. What the government counts as a removal, return, expulsion or release—and why that matters
DHS and ICE publish several overlapping series: “removals” (formal ICE deportations), “returns/expulsions” (including Title 42 expulsions and CBP returns), and “releases” (parole, release to the interior to await proceedings, or other forms of admission/processing); different releases may be temporary administrative parole or release into the U.S. pending immigration court, and Title 42 expulsions were counted separately until May 2023—so apples-to-apples annual comparisons require reconciling those categories across time [6] [3].
2. The headline numbers across the Biden term—high-level totals and the FY2024 spike
Multiple reputable analyses converge on large totals: Migration Policy Institute (MPI) reports roughly 1.5 million deportations (removals and enforcement returns) from FY2021 through FY2024 and documents a dramatic ramp-up in the 12 months after Title 42 ended—about 775,000 removed or returned in the roughly May 2023–March 2024 window, the largest single 12‑month total since 2010 [7] [3]. ICE and major outlets also flagged FY2024 as a high point: NPR reported 271,484 ICE removals in calendar 2024 (ICE’s removals figure) while other compilations placed total deportation/return activity for FY2024 in the roughly 685,000–775,000 range depending on whether one counts returns/expulsions as removals [4] [5] [3].
3. Releases and “allowed into the country” totals—what the data show
Analysts using DHS lifecycle and office statistics calculate that, across millions of encounters under Biden through October (year unspecified in the snapshot), about 2.5 million people were released into the U.S. during initial processing while about 2.8 million were removed or expelled—figures that underline how much the result depends on which interactions are counted and over what period [1]. MPI likewise reports that roughly 2.3–2.4 million people have been allowed into the country through various processes (parole, pending proceedings, CHNV parole, etc.), creating a large population in limbo [2] [7].
4. Why year-by-year precision is elusive—and how to read the best available estimates
Public sources differ in scope: ICE’s “removals” (e.g., 271,484 in 2024 reported by NPR) exclude many CBP returns/Title 8 expedited removals counted by migration researchers; MPI’s and other aggregators include those returns/expulsions to produce larger FY totals (e.g., 685,000–775,000 in FY2024 depending on the dataset) [4] [3] [5]. FactCheck and other analysts warn that simple percent‑released claims (such as “85% released”) are often monthly snapshots or misapplied aggregates; the most reliable public statement is that across the administration’s recorded encounters, millions were both released and removed/expelled, with FY2024 the clearest single‑year removals peak in the cited records [1] [3].
5. Bottom line—what can be stated with confidence and what remains uncertain
Confidently stated: researchers and DHS/ICE data indicate multi‑million aggregate movement under Biden—on the order of roughly 2.5 million releases and roughly 2.8 million removals/expulsions in the administration’s processed encounters in cited snapshots, and a pronounced surge in removals in FY2024 (with researcher tallies of ~685,000–775,000 that fiscal year and ICE counting ~271,000 formal ICE removals in calendar 2024) [1] [3] [4] [5]. Uncertain and not resolvable from the provided sources: a single reconciled, year‑by‑year breakdown that uniformly separates removals/expulsions from releases by the government’s multiple counting methods; producing that would require line‑level DHS/ICE crosswalks and consistent fiscal/calendar framing not present in the cited material [6] [1].