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How many noncitizens has the Biden administration removed each year since 2021?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows disagreement over which metric to use and varying year-by-year counts for “removals” and for broader categories that include returns/expulsions. ICE’s published removal totals cited by analysts list roughly 59,011 in FY2021, 72,177 in FY2022 and 142,580 in FY2023 (ICE removals under Biden), while other analyses count returns/expulsions and estimate far larger totals (e.g., about 775,000 returns/removals in a single year and roughly 1.5 million removals/returns across FY2021–FY2024) [1] [2] [3].
1. What “removed” can mean — competing definitions that drive different numbers
Journalists and analysts use at least two different official concepts: (A) ICE removals — the number of noncitizens ICE says it physically removed from the United States — and (B) the broader set of “removals, returns and expulsions,” which combines ICE removals with border returns (CBP turn-backs) and Title 42 expulsions; counting method (B) produces far larger annual totals [1] [4]. The Heritage Foundation, America First Policy and advocacy groups emphasize ICE removals to argue Biden removed far fewer people than Trump [1] [5]. By contrast, Migration Policy Center and others look at the combined returns-and-removals picture and report much higher totals [2] [3].
2. ICE removals by fiscal year (the “interior removals” view)
One widely cited breakdown for ICE removals under the Biden administration gives 59,011 in FY2021, 72,177 in FY2022, and 142,580 in FY2023; those figures are presented by critics who argue interior removals dropped compared with prior administrations [1]. TRAC and American Immigration Council reporting also note that interior enforcement and ICE detention figures fell in Biden’s term compared with some prior years, which is the basis for the lower three-year ICE-removal sums [6] [7].
3. Returns/expulsions plus removals — the broader enforcement tally
Migration Policy Center and other analysts counting “removals and returns” find much larger totals: for example, Migration Policy reports that when Title 42 ended the administration saw a ramp-up in deportations under Title 8 and that in the 12 months after Title 42 ended authorities “removed or returned 775,000 unauthorized migrants,” and that approximately 1.5 million deportations/returns occurred from FY2021 through FY2024 [2] [3]. The Guardian similarly reported a large spike in FY2024 removals and returns, noting ICE removed people to 192 countries and that FY2024 removals were the highest since 2014 [8].
4. Why the tallies diverge — policy shifts, Title 42 and data timing
Discrepancies arise because Title 42 expulsions (a public-health-era border expulsion policy) were used in some periods and then ended; including Title 42 makes recent totals much larger, while excluding it yields lower ICE-removal counts [4]. Analysts also point to diplomatic arrangements that returned migrants directly to third countries or Mexico, which inflate “returns” without necessarily reflecting ICE interior removals [2]. Timing and the exact data source (ICE annual report, DHS monthly tables, CBP encounter data) also produce variations [2] [3].
5. How advocates and critics use the numbers — different framings, different agendas
Conservative groups and policy shops such as America First Policy and the Heritage Foundation emphasize low ICE removal counts to argue the administration has weak interior enforcement [5] [1]. Migration Policy Center, the Guardian and some news outlets emphasize the large combined removals/returns to show the administration’s enforcement has been robust at the border and by returns [2] [8]. Each framing serves political aims: proponents of stricter enforcement highlight ICE removals as the meaningful metric; defenders point to the overall volume of removals/returns to claim strong enforcement [1] [2].
6. What the public record does and does not allow us to say
Available sources do not provide a single, universally agreed “annual number” labeled simply “noncitizens removed by the Biden administration” without specifying removals vs. returns/expulsions. If you want the ICE-only interior removal series, cite the FY2021–FY2023 ICE counts [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [1]. If you want the broader enforcement footprint that includes border returns/expulsions, use the Migration Policy / aggregated DHS framing that yields much larger one-year and multi‑year totals (for example, ~775,000 in the 12 months after Title 42 ended and ~1.5 million across FY2021–FY2024) [2] [3].
7. How to proceed if you need a single, comparable series
Decide which concept you need: ICE removals (interior enforcement) or combined removals/returns/expulsions (border and interior). Then pick a consistent official source—ICE Yearbook for removals or DHS/CBP monthly tables and Migration Policy compilations for combined totals—and report the fiscal-year figures with that caveat. Migration Policy provides the aggregated FY2021–FY2024 estimate and the 775,000 one-year figure; ICE/advocacy fact sheets provide the lower ICE-only annual counts [2] [1].