What were annual ICE deportation numbers under Biden by fiscal year?
Executive summary
The clearest hard number in the provided reporting is that ICE recorded roughly 271,000–272,000 removals (deportations) in fiscal year (FY) 2024 (ICE/agency reporting summarized by TRAC and BBC) [1] [2]. Broader datasets show the Biden years produced large totals — roughly 1.1 million deportations from FY2021 through February 2024 — but the available sources mix “removals,” “returns,” and Title 42 expulsions and do not supply a clean, source‑by‑source FY2021–FY2023 table in the materials provided here [3] [4].
1. What the most solid FY number shows: FY2024 (~271k removals)
Fiscal year 2024 is consistently reported by ICE and independent trackers as about 271,000–272,000 deportations (removals), a figure cited directly in ICE summaries and picked up by TRAC and the BBC’s reporting [1] [2]; those counts refer to removals reported by ICE for the fiscal year rather than to every border “encounter” or informal return.
2. The cumulative picture through early 2024: 1.1 million since FY2021 (through Feb 2024)
Migration Policy notes that from the start of FY2021 through February 2024 the Biden administration carried out about 1.1 million deportations (removals and returns combined by DHS reporting), a total the author writes is on pace to approximate the 1.5 million under the Trump presidency over four years — a comparison that depends heavily on which categories (returns vs removals, CBP vs ICE) are included [3].
3. Why simple year‑to‑year tallies are messy: definitions, Title 42 and multiple data streams
Counting “deportations under Biden by fiscal year” is complicated because DHS and analysts use distinct categories — “removals” (formal orders), “returns” (voluntary departures), and Title 42 expulsions processed at the border — and ICE’s public dashboards and DHS OHSS monthly tables separate or aggregate those differently; the ICE statistics page and OHSS monthly tables document those different data streams but the provided snippets do not deliver a single, consistent FY table for FY2021–FY2023 in this packet [4] [5].
4. Other reported summaries and alternative readings
Migration Policy emphasizes that much of the Biden‑era total consists of returns and border‑processed encounters and points to a surge of expulsions and expedited removals after Title 42 ended — for example noting 775,000 removals/returns in the 12 months after Title 42’s end under the standard Title 8 framework — while TRAC and other groups have used ICE‑posted cumulative figures to derive slightly different daily or annual removal totals and to question administrative claims, illustrating how methodology produces divergent headline numbers [3] [6] [7].
5. What reporting gaps remain and where to look for full FY breakdowns
The materials provided give strong anchors (FY2024 ≈271–272k; cumulative FY2021–Feb2024 ≈1.1 million) but do not include a single, source‑verified table listing ICE removals for each fiscal year 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 in one place; the original DHS/OHSS monthly tables and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations statistics are the primary datasets that contain the full year‑by‑year breakdown and should be consulted for an apples‑to‑apples fiscal‑year series [5] [4].