Biden deported more than trump
Executive summary
Yes — by the measures most widely reported and analyzed, the Biden administration carried out more deportations and repatriations than the Trump administration’s first year in office, though comparisons are complicated by changing definitions, big swings in border encounters, and administration-specific accounting choices (see Migration Policy Institute, DHS/ICE analyses, Reuters, and The New York Times) [1][2][3][4].
1. The headline numbers: Biden’s totals outpaced Trump’s early tally
Several independent analyses and major outlets found that Biden-era removals and returns, taken together, exceeded the numbers reported under Trump’s early second term; Migration Policy Institute reported roughly 1.1 million deportations in Biden’s term through Feb. 2024 on pace to match four-year Trump totals and emphasized Biden-era expulsions under Title 42 that pushed overall repatriations higher [1], DHS and independent trackers put Biden’s last full fiscal year well above Trump’s initial monthly and annual rates [2][5], and The New York Times’ aggregation concluded Trump’s cumulative deportations were lower than Biden’s last two years [3].
2. Apples and oranges: definitions and categories matter
A central reason for confusion is that “deportations” can mean different things: formal removals, voluntary returns, Border Patrol expulsions (including Title 42-era expulsions), and DHS “enforcement returns” are sometimes blended in political statements; commentators have warned that DHS and White House claims often mix categories in ways that prevent direct historical comparisons [6][4]. Analyses that compare the same categories — for example ICE ERO removals alone — find smaller gaps or even parity in daily rates, whereas aggregating expulsions and removals together tends to amplify Biden’s lead because his term included very large Title 42 expulsions [4][1].
3. Timing and enforcement context shifted totals
Part of why Biden’s totals are larger is timing: high border encounters in 2023–2024 produced many more Border Patrol expulsions and returns that are relatively easy to process and count as repatriations, inflating aggregate numbers compared with a later period of fewer border encounters under Trump 2.0 [1][2]. The Reuters analysis found Trump deported about 37,660 people in his first month — far below the monthly average in Biden’s last full year — and experts warned that Trump’s early push had not yet translated into higher sustained removal rates [2].
4. Administration rhetoric, selective release of data, and political agendas
Both administrations have incentives to frame numbers to political advantage: Trump’s team has promoted large-sounding totals and high-profile flights while sometimes omitting category detail, prompting watchdogs to label some claims “apples-to-oranges” [4][6]; meanwhile, those critical of Biden stress that many repatriations were expulsions at the border rather than interior removals, implying different enforcement choices with distinct humanitarian and legal implications [1][5].
5. What the best-read evidence supports and where uncertainty remains
The best-annotated public data and independent trackers show Biden’s recent years produced more total deportations/repatriations than the comparable early period of Trump’s second term, but when one isolates specific categories (ICE interior removals versus Border Patrol expulsions) results can narrow or reverse; independent reporting and think-tank analyses caution that lack of uniform accounting, pauses in public reporting, and policy changes (e.g., Title 42, TPS revocations) make definitive apples-to-apples claims difficult without granular DHS/ICE breakdowns that are not always public [1][4][6].
6. Bottom line — framed: did Biden deport more than Trump?
Framed broadly — counting removals, returns, and expulsions together — Biden’s administration produced higher totals than the Trump administration’s first year, according to Migration Policy Institute, media aggregations, and DHS-adjacent reporting [1][5][3]; framed narrowly — looking only at specific ICE removal categories or daily averages adjusted for fiscal-year timing — the gap shrinks and some analyses find parity or small differences, meaning the simple “Biden deported more than Trump” claim is true in common aggregated counts but must be qualified by which categories and time windows are compared [4][7].