How many people were returned through Title 42, asylum expulsions, or other border expulsions in FY2024 and FY2025?

1. Title 42 itself: not operative in FY2024–FY2025

Title 42 expulsions were a pandemic-era public‑health authority that “began March 21, 2020, and ended on May 11, 2023,” so by statute and agency practice Title 42 produced no new expulsions after May 2023 and therefore did not directly generate FY2024 or FY2025 Title‑42 expulsions (CBP dashboard and explanatory pages) ^{[4] [5]}. Multiple policy analyses and fact sheets treat Title 42 as a concluded program and measure its cumulative toll through May 2023 rather than attributing expulsions to that authority in later fiscal years ^{[6] [7]}.

2. DHS counting shifted: “removals,” “returns,” and “encounters”

After Title 42’s end, DHS and CBP reporting emphasize other categories — “removals and returns,” “Title 8 apprehensions,” and “encounters” — which are not simple one-to-one replacements for Title 42 expulsions and are reported differently across dashboards and fact sheets ^{[1] [2] [8]}. CBP’s December 2024 monthly update states that DHS completed roughly 700,000 removals and returns in FY2024 — the agency’s headline figure for enforcement activity that fiscal year — and also notes large numbers processed under new administrative measures beginning June 2024 ^[1].

3. No single authoritative sum in available sources for FY2024–FY2025 expulsions

Available sources do not publish a single, consolidated number labeled “Title 42, asylum expulsions, and other border expulsions” for FY2024 or FY2025. Instead, the record offers: historical totals for Title 42 expulsions through May 2023 (millions), CBP encounter totals and encounter subcategories for FY2024, and DHS removal/return totals for FY2024; FY2025 dashboards are ongoing and partial ^{[9] [2] [1]}. Congressional and policy briefings note that agencies revised counting conventions and deployed new asylum‑limiting measures in mid‑2024, complicating direct comparisons ^{[10] [11]}.

4. Historical scale: Title 42’s cumulative footprint (context for scale)

Multiple analyses cite cumulative Title 42 expulsions from April 2020 through May 2023 in the millions — figures such as “over 2.5 million single adult expulsions” and estimates of roughly 2.9–2.9 million expulsions to Mexico over the Title 42 period — demonstrating the enormous scale of expulsions under that authority prior to FY2024 ^{[12] [9]}. These historical totals explain why DHS’s later counting and new policies attract intense scrutiny and why analysts emphasize continuity of expulsive outcomes even after Title 42 ended ^[6].

5. FY2024 enforcement: removals/returns and policy drivers

CBP’s December 2024 release summarizes that from June 5 through December 2024 DHS removed or returned more than 271,000 people and that in FY2024 DHS completed roughly 700,000 removals and returns — the largest total since 2010 — reflecting the administration’s June 2024 asylum restrictions and subsequent operational activity ^{[1] [11]}. Congressional and policy reports link those FY2024 numbers to new asylum‑limiting rules, Presidential Proclamation 10773, and operational cooperation with Mexico and third countries ^{[11] [10]}.

6. FY2025: partial data and shifting definitions

CBP’s FY2025 dashboards and custody/transfer pages exist, but FY2025 reporting in the sources is partial or in‑progress; CBP notes FY2025 runs Oct 1, 2024–Sept 30, 2025 and that data may be updated and are subject to change, and the FY2025 nationwide encounters and custody dashboards report categories still including “Title 42 Expulsions” in their definitions for continuity though Title 42 was ended in 2023 ^{[3] [13]}. Congressional briefs issued through mid‑2025 analyze CBP OFO reporting for FY2025 months but treat FY2025 as incomplete in many datasets ^[10].

7. How to get a precise answer and why labels matter

If you need a strict fiscal‑year breakdown that sums expulsions/removals/returns under specific legal authorities, the current reporting requires pulling: (a) cumulative Title 42 expulsions up to May 11, 2023 (historical), (b) CBP encounter tables and custody/transfer tables for FY2024 and FY2025 and (c) ICE ERO removals/returns datasets — then reconciling overlapping categories and double‑counting risks because “encounters,” “returns,” and “removals” can refer to distinct or overlapping events ^{[2] [1] [14]}. Available sources do not already present that reconciled FY2024–FY2025 total in one place ^{[1] [3]}.

Limitations: This analysis uses only the provided documents; any precise, reconciled fiscal‑year totals would require downloading and reconciling the underlying CBP and ICE data tables (not consolidated in the sources supplied) ^{[2] [1]}.