How many illegal aliens have been deported under the Trump administration?
Executive summary
Official tallies and independent analyses disagree, but the best reading of available reporting is that the Trump administration has overseen roughly a half‑million to two‑thirds of a million deportations in its first year back in office, with precise totals varying by date, agency statement, and counting method [1] [2] [3].
1. The administration’s public tallies: large, rising headline numbers
Department of Homeland Security statements repeatedly touted headline-shattering totals: DHS reported more than 527,000 deportations in late October and subsequently claimed figures above 605,000 and then more than 675,000 as operations continued into early 2026, while simultaneously combining those removals with large numbers of voluntary “self‑deportations” to reach multi‑million totals [1] [4] [2]. The White House also published a lower snapshot—“nearly 200,000” deportations in another post—reflecting how different agency releases at different points in time produce different headline numbers [5].
2. Independent press and data analyses paint a narrower picture
Investigations by major news organizations and data projects offer a more constrained estimate: a New York Times analysis of federal data tallied about 230,000 removals of people arrested inside the country and roughly 270,000 at the border—together about 500,000—over the administration’s first year, a figure consistent with internal ICE metrics cited by reporters [3]. Reuters and CBS reporting likewise documented rapid increases in arrests and removals but noted the pace still fell short of the administration’s 1‑million‑a‑year target and that prior high points (e.g., FY2012 under Obama) remained benchmarks for comparison [6] [7].
3. Counting rules, categories and voluntary departures drive differences
Part of the divergence is definitional: DHS messaging frequently bundles deportations (removals) with voluntary departures, administrative returns and Title 42 expulsions to magnify totals, and has promoted “self‑deportation” via an app that the agency counts toward its out‑of‑country figures [1] [8]. Independent analysts and newsrooms typically parse internal ICE/OHSS data into interior removals versus border removals and distinguish forced removals from voluntary repatriations, producing lower, more granular totals [3] [7].
4. Transparency, litigation and political context complicate verification
Multiple sources warn that official transparency declined as the administration curtailed routine OHSS reporting and shifted messaging to public relations releases; nonpartisan watchdogs and researchers say this makes independent verification harder and leaves room for politically driven inflation or selective framing of figures [9] [10]. Advocacy groups and policy researchers add that the administration’s simultaneous revocation of statuses like TPS and expanded administrative pathways to render people “deportable” mean many affected individuals were not physically removed but were reclassified as undocumented, a change that affects how the scale of enforcement is perceived [11] [10].
5. Bottom line and credible range
Taking DHS statements and independent analyses together yields a defensible range: roughly 500,000 deportations as measured by major news analysis up to about 675,000 according to later DHS press releases, with the spread explained by timing, inclusion or exclusion of voluntary departures and repatriations, and reduced public reporting from the government [3] [2] [1]. Because the government has scaled back some public, detailed statistics, a single definitive number cannot be independently confirmed from the sources compiled here [9].