How many deportations occurred under Biden?
Executive summary
Public reporting shows the Biden administration oversaw millions of returns, expulsions and removals—but totals vary by definition: government and research groups report roughly 4.4–4.6 million repatriations (including Title 42 expulsions and voluntary returns) between 2021 and late 2024, while the Department of Homeland Security’s own figures show about 778,000 repatriations in fiscal year 2024 alone, illustrating that “how many deportations” depends on which categories are counted [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The headline totals: multi‑million repatriations under Biden
Multiple analyses and news outlets report that when expulsions at the border, voluntary returns and formal removals are combined, the Biden years produced roughly 4.4–4.6 million repatriations between January 2021 and late 2024, with one roundup citing “nearly 4.4 million” and another calculating over 4.6 million removed through November 2024 [1] [2].
2. Fiscal‑year spikes and the 2024 peak
DHS and reporting based on DHS data show an especially large number in the final full fiscal year of the Biden administration: about 778,000 total repatriations in FY2024, a tally that analysts and news outlets have highlighted as the highest single‑year total in a decade [3] [4] [5].
3. Title 42 expulsions dominate the larger sum
A large share of the multi‑million figures comes from Title 42 expulsions during the pandemic era—about 3 million expulsions between March 2020 and May 2023, the vast majority occurring while Biden was president—which researchers say must be counted separately from interior removals because they were public‑health expulsions at the border rather than standard immigration removals [1].
4. Different labels, different math: removals, returns, expulsions, voluntary departures
Sources stress the definitional problem: “deportations” can mean formal removal orders, administrative returns at the border, or expulsions under public‑health rules; Migration Policy, Newsweek, The Guardian and Anadolu collectively show that counting returns and expulsions inflates totals compared with counting only formal interior removals, and that much of the Biden era’s high totals were voluntary or expedited border returns rather than interior forced removals [1] [2] [6] [7].
5. Comparisons to Trump and why they’re contested
Several outlets and data projects note Biden’s totals surpass many Trump‑era yearly figures, and sometimes even entire Trump first‑term totals, but comparisons are contested because administrations use different tools and publish different levels of detail; for example, TRAC and other analysts emphasize changes in daily averages and release practices that complicate direct head‑to‑head comparisons [8] [9] [3].
6. What the numbers don’t resolve: transparency and policy context
Reporting repeatedly flags limitations: DHS and ICE definitions and periodicity of data releases differ across administrations, and some figures (like counts of voluntary departures or CBP returns logged via apps) are handled differently or omitted in public summaries, which means available totals are accurate to the reporting method but may not capture every procedural nuance policymakers invoke [3] [4].
7. Bottom line — a precise but qualified answer
Answering “How many deportations occurred under Biden?” requires this qualification: if “deportations” includes expulsions, voluntary returns and formal removals, reporting places the Biden‑era total at roughly 4.4–4.6 million repatriations from 2021 through late 2024 [1] [2]; if the question focuses on the single peak fiscal year, DHS and journalists report about 778,000 repatriations in FY2024 [3] [4]. Exact counts change depending on which categories one includes and which source’s methodology one accepts [1] [2] [3].