How does DHS count expulsions under Title 42 compared to removals and returns?
Executive summary
DHS treats Title 42 “expulsions” as a distinct category of repatriation separate from removals and returns: expulsions were actions taken under a public‑health order (Title 42) and are tracked in DHS/CBP repatriation statistics alongside but not as removals or returns [1] [2]. Removals are formal orders under immigration law that carry administrative penalties; returns are non‑ordered departures without those penalties—DHS’s Yearbook and KHSM tables record all three categories with different definitions and counting rules [1] [3].
1. What DHS means by “repatriation” and where expulsions fit
DHS defines “repatriation” as the umbrella term for sending a noncitizen back to their country of citizenship or to a third country and explicitly lists removals (orders under the Immigration and Nationality Act), returns (non‑order departures), and Title 42 expulsions (public‑health expulsions between March 2020 and May 2023) as separate subcategories [1]. The DHS Yearbook tables and OHSS metrics began including Title 42 expulsions in 2020 data, reflecting that CBP encounters producing expulsions were not recorded as routine Title 8 removals or simple returns but as a distinct data element [3] [4].
2. Legal basis and consequences that drive different counts
A removal is an action under Title 8 (the INA) that usually follows an order of removal or expedited removal and carries administrative consequences like multi‑year reentry bans; DHS contrasts that with Title 42 expulsions, which were executed pursuant to a public‑health authority and are not “removals” under immigration law and therefore do not trigger the same administrative penalties [5] [6]. Returns are counted separately because they are executed without an order of removal and do not carry the statutory penalties associated with removals [1] [3].
3. How DHS and CBP report and count expulsions versus removals/returns
CBP’s enforcement dashboards and DHS Yearbook tables explicitly included Title 42 expulsions as a category from the policy’s start (March 21, 2020) until the CDC’s termination of the public‑health emergency on May 11, 2023, and those expulsions were aggregated in CBP and OHSS tables rather than folded into standard Title 8 removal totals [2] [7] [4]. The KHSM and repatriations pages define expulsions as separate entries in repatriation metrics and explain that removals and returns are distinct lines in the same reporting framework, meaning totals for “deportations” can vary depending on whether analysts include Title 42 expulsions or only Title 8 removals [1] [3].
4. Why headline totals can be misleading: methodology and repeat encounters
Counting differences matter because the underlying operational practices—rapid expulsion under Title 42, expedited removal under Title 8, and informal returns—produce different encounter dynamics; Title 42’s rapid processing often meant multiple encounters of the same individual could appear differently in datasets, and DHS’s reporting methodologies have changed over time (for example, post‑2016 revisions to how administrative arrests are counted), complicating year‑to‑year comparisons [4] [3]. Analysts note that Title 42’s use reshaped encounter numbers by enabling faster turnovers and thus more recorded expulsions in CBP encounter statistics compared with the slower Title 8 removal pipeline [8] [9].
5. Contested interpretations and reporting caveats
Advocates and public‑health experts dispute the policy’s rationale and its effects—that Title 42 was a public‑health necessity versus a border‑control tool—and those debates feed differing readings of DHS’s numbers; organizations like the American Immigration Council and migration policy analysts highlight that Title 42 blocked asylum access and that expulsions were operationally and ethically distinct from removals [7] [10]. DHS itself signaled that counting systems and operational readiness would change once Title 42 ended, and CBP stopped updating the combined Title 8/Title 42 dashboard as of FY2024, advising users to consult other CBP pages for Title 8 statistics—an explicit acknowledgment that past reporting categories have shifted [2] [11].
6. Bottom line
DHS counts Title 42 expulsions as a separate repatriation category distinct from Title 8 removals and routine returns: expulsions were recorded under public‑health authority without immigration removal orders or the administrative penalties that removals incur, and DHS/CBP reporting segregated those figures in Yearbook and CBP tables—so any comparison of “deportations” must check whether expulsions are included to avoid conflating different legal processes and counting rules [1] [3] [2].