How does the Department of Homeland Security define removals versus returns, and where are the year‑by‑year tables?
Executive summary
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) distinguishes "removals" as departures under an order of removal with legal and administrative consequences, while "returns" are confirmed departures not based on a removal order (often voluntary or administrative) — definitions and nuances are set out in DHS’s Yearbook and OHSS guidance [1] [2] [3]. Year‑by‑year tables documenting removals, returns, expulsions and related enforcement outcomes appear in DHS’s Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (Table 39 and related tables) and in OHSS monthly and lifecycle data products, with separate ICE and CBP publications that sometimes use different counting rules [2] [3] [4] [5] [6].
1. What DHS calls a "removal" — legal force and consequences
DHS and its components treat a removal as an action executed under statutory removal authority (typically Title 8) that carries administrative or criminal consequences for subsequent re‑entry and is recorded as such in OHSS and ICE metrics; ICE describes removals as occurring after a final order of removal in many cases and notes the operational complexity of executing such removals [1] [5]. OHSS guidance also explains that ICE bases removal and return dates on an "Action Date" derived from case closure and departure dates, and that removals are defined differently for Border Patrol (USBP) records when specific dispositions (e.g., administrative deportation, reinstatement, expedited removal) are present [7].
2. What DHS means by a "return" — voluntary or administrative departures
Returns are recorded when an inadmissible or deportable noncitizen leaves the United States without an order of removal — a category that includes voluntary departures, administrative returns of crew members, and other enforcement returns — and OHSS explicitly defines returns as confirmed movements out of the country not based on a removal order [2] [3] [7]. OHSS and related DHS products further split returns into subtypes (administrative returns, enforcement returns, repatriations), and note that some returns (e.g., crew member returns and administrative withdrawals) have shifted in classification over time [3] [7].
3. Where to find the year‑by‑year tables (Yearbook Table 39 and Yearbooks back to 1892)
The canonical year‑by‑year tables showing removals and returns are published in DHS’s Yearbook of Immigration Statistics — notably Table 39, which reports “Aliens Removed or Returned” across fiscal years (with versions covering FY 1892–2019 and updated editions through 2022 and 2024) and is hosted on the OHSS Yearbook pages (see Table 39 entries and the 2022/2019 Yearbook pages) [2] [3] [1] [8] [9].
4. Monthly and operational tables: more granular, evolving counts
For more current, operationally nuanced counts, OHSS publishes monthly immigration enforcement tables and the Enforcement Lifecycle reports that link person‑level events across datasets; these monthly/operational tables report removals, returns, expulsions, encounters, and other enforcement metrics and note that data are extracted from live systems and may be revised as records mature [4] [7] [10].
5. Why different DHS components’ statistics can look different
DHS components compile separate statistics: OHSS/Yearbook aggregates removals and returns by both ICE (interior) and CBP (border), ICE also publishes its own ERO statistics that may exclude CBP counts, and counting methodologies have changed over time (for example, administrative arrest counting was revised for ICE ERO in 2016) — a reason readers should consult both Yearbook Table 39 and component tables and read methodology notes [6] [4] [2].
6. Context, caveats and reporting disagreements
Scholars and policy groups emphasize the practical difference in use: returns are quicker and cheaper to execute and dominate border enforcement outcomes in some years (noted by Migration Policy and the American Immigration Council), while removals reflect formal adjudication and longer administrative consequences; OHSS and ICE also recorded extraordinary expulsions under public‑health authority (Title 42) during the COVID era, which some products label “expulsions” rather than removals or returns — readers must watch labels and methodological footnotes across OHSS Yearbook, monthly tables, ICE site releases, and external analyses [11] [12] [3] [5] [10].
7. How to use the sources and where to click first
Begin at the OHSS Yearbook page and Table 39 for stable, year‑by‑year series (Table 39 pages and Yearbook landing pages), then consult OHSS monthly tables and the FY Enforcement Lifecycle report for recent revisions and person‑level linkage; consult ICE’s statistics page when seeking ICE‑only ERO metrics and read each table’s methodology footnotes for definitions and historical reclassifications [2] [3] [4] [5] [10].