How many immigrants were deported under trump currently

1. What the government says: six‑hundred thousand plus and counting

DHS and the White House have issued headline figures claiming that "more than 622,000" or "more than 605,000" people have been removed since Trump returned to office, and have paired those tallies with claims that 1.9 million people have “self‑deported” as part of an overall 2.5 million departures tied to enforcement actions ^{[1] [6]}. The White House has repeatedly publicized large round numbers and broken out aggressive categories—such as removals of those with criminal convictions—to underscore a narrative of historic enforcement ^{[7] [1]}.

2. What independent tallies and reporters find: a lower, more fractured total

Independent audits and mainstream reporters reach lower totals: a New York Times analysis estimated about 230,000 removals of people arrested in the interior plus roughly 270,000 at the border in the first year, yielding about 500,000 removals for the Jan. 20, 2025–Jan. 20, 2026 period ^[3]. TRA Reports, using ICE’s fiscal‑year accounting, noted ICE reported 56,392 removals in FY2026 to date and that combining FY2025 and FY2026 public ICE figures produced a total of roughly 290,603 removals during the administration—far below DHS’s headline claims ^[2].

3. Why the numbers diverge: definitions, agencies, and opaque bookkeeping

Discrepancies arise because different actors count different things: ICE removals, CBP‑initiated expulsions, “returns” vs formal deportations, self‑deportations, and administrative attrition are not uniformly defined or publicly tabulated ^{[3] [4]}. DHS has aggregated removals across multiple agencies and sometimes included voluntary departures or turns‑aways, while ICE’s publicly posted removals follow fiscal‑year accounting and may omit CBP actions or other categories cited by DHS ^{[2] [3]}. Analysts warn that DHS’s aggregation and public messaging can inflate the appearance of formal deportations unless categories are fully disclosed ^{[4] [5]}.

4. Independent context: detention numbers, policy changes, and modeling

Even where removals remain disputed, enforcement intensity is clear: daily ICE detention counts rose from a ~39,000 average when Trump returned to near 70,000 as of January 7, 2026, reflecting a major expansion of detention capacity and staffing ^[8]. Brookings modelers and policy researchers have used observed rates to project future removals—estimating scenarios that place deportations in 2026 at roughly half a million or more depending on sustained daily removal rates—illustrating how plausible totals diverge from raw agency releases ^[9].

5. Verdict and reporting limits: a defensible range, not a single number

The defensible conclusion is a range: DHS’s public claim is north of 600,000 removals since Jan. 20, 2025 ^{[1] [6]}, while ICE’s consolidated public removals add up to roughly 290,000 through overlapping fiscal counts ^[2], and investigative reporting and analysis support a midpoint estimate near 500,000 for the administration’s first year depending on how border and interior actions are classified ^[3]. This spread reflects substantive methodological disputes about what counts as a “deportation” and which agencies’ actions are included; public sources do not yet reconcile those differences in a fully transparent way ^{[4] [5]}.

6. Why the debate matters beyond pounds and pence

Counting choices have policy and political consequence: whether one presents “removals” as narrowly defined ICE removals or broadly aggregated DHS departures changes assessments of scale, legality, and humanitarian impact—and also shapes public perception and congressional oversight ^{[4] [1]}. Given the administration’s rapid detention buildup and recruitment push, numbers will continue to shift and require granular transparency on definitions and sources to be independently verifiable ^{[8] [10]}.