How many immigrants were deported under Trump's second term DHS
Executive summary
The most defensible, reported totals vary by source but converge around a figure in the low six‑hundreds of thousands for formal deportations since the start of Donald Trump’s second term: DHS and multiple news outlets reported between roughly 527,000 and 622,000 removals, while the department also counts roughly 1.6–1.9 million “self‑deportations” or departures that it frames as voluntarily leaving the United States [1] [2] [3] [4]. Independent analysts and news organizations caution that DHS has stopped publishing its regular, detailed removals statistics, leaving important questions about definitions and breakdowns unanswered [4] [5].
1. Reported headline totals: DHS’s public claims and how outlets summarized them
DHS itself issued press releases saying more than 527,000 people had been “removed” under the administration’s enforcement push and claimed that more than 2 million people had left the country — a figure that DHS framed as including roughly 1.6 million voluntary self‑deportations [1] [2]. By winter, DHS officials and White House spokespeople were citing a broader headline of about 605,000–622,000 deportations, a figure picked up and repeated by Axios, Newsweek and the New York Times in December and January reporting [3] [6] [4].
2. What “deported” means here — the definitional and data problems
Journalistic and research accounts stress that the administration’s totals mix several different categories — interior removals, border removals, instances of voluntary departure or formal “self‑deportation,” and expulsions under emergency rules — and DHS has not been publishing the detailed Office of Homeland Security Statistics breakdowns that previously allowed clear apples‑to‑apples comparison [4] [5]. As the New York Times noted, DHS declined to provide a detailed breakdown of the “more than 622,000” figure, and the department’s statistics division has not resumed its once‑routine detailed reports [4].
3. Independent trackers and watchdogs push back on the headline claims
TRAC and other independent trackers documented large increases in arrests and removals but warned DHS’s headline claims are not fully transparent and sometimes overstate comparability with prior administrations because of methodological shifts and withheld detail [5]. The Guardian and other outlets reported enforcement numbers — for example around 352,000 arrests with a “similar number” deported in reporting on enforcement impacts — but those accounts also emphasized the difficulty of verifying totals without DHS’s customary public data series [7].
4. Political messaging, incentives and contradictory figures
Both the administration and its critics are operating with incentives to emphasize particular numbers: the White House and DHS tout headline removal totals and voluntary departures as evidence of success, while advocacy groups, watchdogs and some outlets highlight data gaps, prosecutorial choice, and the inclusion of self‑deportations or expulsions under emergency authorities to argue the figures are inflated or non‑comparable [8] [9] [5]. Migration Policy and other analysts point to major increases in budget and enforcement posture — including a roughly $170 billion DHS budget allocation cited as enabling a large scale‑up — as context for the claimed totals even while noting practical constraints to mass expulsions [10].
5. Bottom line and limits of the record
The defensible answer based on public reporting is that DHS and major outlets report roughly 527,000–622,000 formal removals/deportations during the early period of Trump’s second term, with DHS additionally counting roughly 1.6–1.9 million voluntary departures or self‑deportations in its broader “left the U.S.” totals [1] [2] [3] [4]. However, the precise tally — and what share are interior removals versus border expulsions versus voluntary departures — cannot be independently verified from the published sources because DHS has curtailed its detailed statistical releases and would not provide a full breakdown when asked [4] [5].