What were the year-by-year ICE deportation totals for fiscal years 2009–2016 and how were they categorized?
Executive summary
The available government and advocacy reporting shows that ICE-era removals were large and shifted in character between FY2009 and FY2016: DHS and advocates calculate more than 2.7 million removals across FY2009–FY2016, ICE reported 240,255 removals credited to ICE in FY2016, and year-to-year totals are affected by agency counting rules and “lag” adjustments that changed how removals were allocated to fiscal years [1] [2] [3].
1. What the raw totals say — the headline numbers and what can be verified
A precise, fully-sourced year-by-year table for FY2009–FY2016 is not contained in the documents provided to this brief; the sources do, however, supply key checkpoints: ICE-credited removals in 2016 totaled 240,255 according to analysis that draws on ICE data [2], DHS reporting counted 450,954 removals and returns in FY2016 across agencies with 530,250 total apprehensions that year [1], and the Department reports that the sum of removals under the Obama administration from FY2009–FY2016 exceeded 2.7 million [1]. ICE also published adjusted annual tallies for 2012 (402,919, excluding a prior-year “lag”) and 2013 (363,144, excluding the previous year’s lag), indicating that annual totals are published but sometimes reallocated between years for confirmation timing [3].
2. How those totals were categorized — removals vs. returns, interior vs. border, criminality and administrative processes
ICE and DHS distinguish “removals” (compulsory, order-based departures) from “returns” (confirmed movements not based on a removal order), and their public tables separate removals/returns by arresting agency (e.g., Border Patrol versus ICE interior enforcement) and by criminality (criminal aliens versus noncriminal administrative cases) [4] [3]. By FY2016 a larger share of deportations credited to ICE originated from border apprehensions—advocates and analysts note two-thirds were border cases in recent years—while interior removals (those of people arrested by ICE inside the U.S.) fell substantially from the mid‑2010s levels [2] [1]. Criminal‑alien removals were also reported separately: criminal removals fell from 63,127 in 2015 to 60,318 in 2016, according to ICE-sourced charts cited by analysts [2].
3. The administrative categories that matter — expedited removals, reinstatements and credible-fear claim impacts
Between 2009 and 2016 DHS and analysts documented a rising share of administrative removals that bypass full immigration-court proceedings—expedited removals and reinstatements of prior orders—and these categories contributed to the volume of annual removals [5]. Meanwhile, an increase in asylum-related and credible-fear claims at the border altered processing in FY2016: ICE and DHS noted a spike in defensive asylum claims—101,639 in FY2016—affecting how many people entered full removal proceedings versus expedited processes [3].
4. Methodology, “lag,” revisions and why simple year‑to‑year comparisons can mislead
ICE “locks” fiscal-year removal statistics on October 5 and excludes removals not confirmed by that cut‑off from that year’s locked totals; confirmed removals received after that date are counted in the next fiscal year, producing a documented “lag” that creates revisions and complicates direct year-to-year comparisons [3]. The Homeland Security Yearbook and ICE note methodological revisions over time—such as how administrative arrests were counted—which further complicate straight comparisons across the 2009–2016 span [4] [6].
5. Interpretation and competing narratives — what advocates and analysts emphasize
Immigrant-rights groups and policy analysts emphasize that while aggregate removals were high (more than 2.7 million across FY2009–FY2016), the enforcement emphasis shifted away from interior community arrests toward border and expedited administrative removals after 2014, a change they attribute to enforcement‑priority memos and operational choices [1] [5]. Other analysts stress that much of the year‑to‑year fluctuation reflects counting rules, agency lag and the split between CBP and ICE responsibilities rather than only policy changes [3] [7]. The sources provided reflect these competing emphases: DHS/ICE provide the raw categories and methodological caveats [3] [6], while advocacy groups highlight the human and policy consequences of where and how removals occurred [1] [2].
Limitations: the source set supplied does not include a single consolidated ICE table listing a validated, line‑by‑line FY2009–FY2016 series in this packet; authoritative year-by-year counts are published by DHS/ICE and the Office of Homeland Security Statistics and must be consulted directly for a definitive fiscal-year table [3] [4].