Did president biden deport any illegals
Executive summary
President Joe Biden’s administration did carry out removals and returns of noncitizens—commonly described as “deportations”—throughout his term; U.S. government and independent analyses show more than a million removals and returns from FY2021 through early 2024, putting Biden-era totals on pace with or exceeding comparable periods under President Trump [1]. Reporting and datasets disagree on scope, definitions and which categories (formal deportations, administrative returns, Title 42 expulsions, interior vs. border removals) to count, producing sharply different headlines and partisan claims [2] [3].
1. What “deportation” means in the numbers being cited
Official enforcement statistics separate formal removals ordered after proceedings from administrative returns and expulsions (Title 42-era expulsions were tracked separately by ICE), and different outlets count different mixes—so whether Biden “deported” more people than Trump depends on which mix is used [2]. Migration Policy Institute summarized that roughly 1.1 million deportations and returns occurred from FY2021 through February 2024—figures that, on their face, put Biden on a trajectory to match the 1.5 million removals in Trump’s four years—while ICE’s own reporting distinguishes Title 42 charter expulsions and other categories [1] [2].
2. The public data: removals, returns and shifting policy priorities
DHS and ICE data show large volumes of removals and administrative returns under Biden, and the administration explicitly prioritized recent border crossers and threats to public safety rather than broad interior raids in its 2021 prosecutorial-discretion guidance—yet removals continued at high absolute levels as arrivals surged and policy shifted, including later executive actions that limited asylum and encouraged returns [1]. ICE’s enforcement-and-removal operations datasets note categories that include people with no criminal convictions as well as those with prior orders of removal or reentry offenses, and the end of the COVID emergency (May 11, 2023) changed the enforcement landscape for expulsions [2].
3. Conflicting interpretations: who benefits from which framings
Advocates and researchers emphasize different slices of the data. Some conservative analysts and groups argue Biden reduced enforcement against criminal aliens and arrested/deported fewer criminals than Trump, pointing to steep percentage declines in “criminal alien” arrests in certain comparisons [3]. Others—think tanks and news outlets citing DHS and ICE tallies—emphasize total removals and returns and diplomatic cooperation that increased repatriations, leading to coverage that Biden-era totals match or exceed Trump’s in certain timeframes [1] [4]. Each framing serves an implicit political agenda: advocates for stricter enforcement highlight reduced criminal removals, while critics of the administration highlight high aggregate return numbers to undermine Biden’s asylum pledges [3] [4].
4. Independent trackers and the chronology through 2025–2026
Third-party trackers such as TRAC and media analyses continued to compare daily removal averages and year totals, sometimes finding Biden-era daily removal averages higher than early Trump-era figures, and at other times noting Trump’s later acceleration, producing narratives that Trump’s second administration still lagged or in some measures equaled Biden’s enforcement footprint [5] [6]. Post‑2024 coverage also shows disputes over recent years’ totals, with some outlets reporting dramatic increases in interior arrests or removals under a later administration while TRAC and others caution about apples‑to‑oranges comparisons across fiscal years and categories [5] [6].
5. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
The simple, direct answer is: yes—under President Biden the federal government removed and returned substantial numbers of unauthorized migrants; migration-policy analysis and government data document about 1.1 million deportations/returns through February 2024 and continued large volumes thereafter [1] [2]. However, whether that constitutes “more” or “fewer” deportations than Trump depends on which categories, time windows, and definitions are used—and partisan analysts draw opposing conclusions by selecting differing datasets and metrics [1] [3]. Reporting limitations include inconsistent public breakdowns by category (formal removal vs. return vs. expulsion), evolving policies (Title 42’s end) and differing date ranges, so definitive apples‑to‑apples comparisons remain contested in the sources reviewed [2] [1].