How many removals did ICE/DHS report each year under Trump, Obama, and Biden?
Executive summary
The raw counts of “removals” reported by ICE and DHS vary greatly by administration, by fiscal year, and by the statistician counting them; available public reporting shows Obama-era totals in the millions over two terms, Trump-era totals reported inconsistently but cited in the low millions for his first term and hundreds of thousands in individual fiscal years, and Biden-era annual totals that reached roughly three-quarters of a million in FY2024 depending on definitions used (removals vs. repatriations vs. returns) [1] [2] [3].
1. Obama-era totals: the multi-year picture
Across two full terms, news reporting aggregates put Obama-era deportations and repatriations at roughly 5.3 million people removed or repatriated during his eight years in office, with Obama’s first fiscal year registering an especially large single-year total of about 973,937 removals or repatriations in some compilations [1] [4]. These tallies historically mixed Border Patrol turn‑backs, removals, and other categories, so the multi-million headline reflects aggregated actions over eight years rather than a single consistent statistical category [4].
2. Trump-era totals: conflicting claims and partial tallies
Public figures for removals under President Trump are inconsistent in the sources: one aggregation attributes about 2,001,280 removals during his first (2017–2020) term [1], while DHS and ICE under the subsequent Trump administration public statements and reporting have claimed figures such as 622,000 “removals” in a referenced period that analysts warn mixes categories and time windows, making direct comparisons treacherous [2] [1]. TRAC and independent analysts also report fiscal‑year granularities—TRAC’s review of ICE releases indicates hundreds of thousands of removals in FY2025 alone with a split between removals that occurred while Biden was still president and those after Trump assumed office, but the numbers depend on how the fiscal year is sliced relative to presidential transitions [5] [6].
3. Biden-era totals: annual tallies and internal debates
For the Biden administration, the most-cited single-year figure is roughly 778,000 “repatriations” in FY2024 reported by some analysts and institutions, but ICE’s own removal-focused data provide lower counts for pure removals—TRAC and other analysts put ICE ERO effectuated removals in FY2024 at about 271,480 while FY2025 removals rose to an estimated 329,018 based on ICE biweekly spreadsheets [2] [3]. ICE’s public dashboard offers quarterly and year-end dashboards through December 31, 2024, but those dashboards themselves and DHS statements draw distinctions among removals, returns, and expulsions that complicate apples‑to‑apples comparison across administrations [7] [3].
4. Why the numbers don’t line up: categories, timing, and political framing
A large part of the discrepancy stems from what agencies label “removals” versus “returns” or “expulsions” (border turn‑backs under CBP vs. ICE ERO removals), the fiscal‑year timing that spans presidencies, and selective public releases: ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations dashboards begin detailed monthly reporting only in October 2020 and quarterly updates can be revised later [8] [7]. Analysts warn that DHS press tallies sometimes combine removals and enforcement returns or cite partial‑year spans to emphasize political claims, while researchers who recompile ICE’s biweekly spreadsheet arrive at lower or differently framed numbers—illustrating a persistent methodological dispute [3] [2].
5. Bottom line: what can be stated with confidence
It is possible to state with confidence only the specific figures reported by specific sources for specific time windows: news compilations cite roughly 5.3 million total removals/repatriations across Obama’s two terms and about 973,937 in Obama’s FY2009 [1] [4]; some aggregations list roughly 2,001,280 removals for Trump’s first term while DHS/ICE public statements during the Trump 2.0 period have cited figures such as 622,000 for specified periods that mix categories [1] [2]; and for Biden the prominent FY2024 repatriation count of about 778,000 sits alongside ICE-derived removal estimates nearer to 271,480 for FY2024 and roughly 329,018 for FY2025 depending on how the fiscal year and categories are parsed [2] [3]. Any side-by-side comparison requires explicit agreement on definitions (removals vs. returns/expulsions), the fiscal window, and inclusion/exclusion of border actions—areas where reporting and political messaging diverge [7] [3].