Fact check: How many illegals has Donald deported in 2025

1. Summary of the results

Based on the available analyses, there is significant uncertainty and conflicting information regarding the exact number of deportations carried out during Donald Trump's second presidency in 2025. The Trump administration has claimed around 140,000 people had been deported as of April 2025, but some estimates suggest the actual number is roughly half that amount ^[1].

What is more clearly documented is that ICE has made over 109,000 arrests during the first five months of Trump's second term, with the majority occurring in border and Southern states ^[2]. However, arrests do not directly translate to completed deportations. The analyses reveal that the number of people deported by ICE has not been regularly released to the public, though NBC News has obtained internal ICE data ^[3].

Additionally, ICE detentions have roughly doubled from an average of seventeen thousand per month between January and April to nearly thirty-five thousand in June ^[4], indicating increased enforcement activity even if the deportation numbers remain unclear.

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question lacks several important contextual elements that emerge from the analyses:

• Public opinion data shows that Trump's deportation policies are facing significant opposition, with 59% of Americans disapproving of Trump's handling of deportations and 56% disapproving of ICE's job performance ^[5].
• The human impact of these policies is substantial, with deportations affecting immigrant families' ability to pay rent and access housing services, particularly in California ^[6].
• The Trump administration has implemented innovative deportation strategies, including deporting migrants to third countries through prisoner swaps with El Salvador and Venezuela, raising questions about the legality and morality of this approach ^[7].
• There is an ongoing federal campaign against sanctuary cities, with the administration creating lists of states, cities, and counties deemed to have policies that obstruct federal immigration enforcement ^[8].

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question contains loaded language by using the term "illegals" to refer to undocumented immigrants, which is considered dehumanizing and politically charged terminology. This framing suggests a particular ideological perspective rather than neutral inquiry.

Furthermore, the question assumes that reliable, official deportation numbers are readily available, when the analyses clearly show that the Trump administration has not been regularly releasing deportation figures to the public ^[3]. The question also implies that any claimed numbers would be accurate, despite evidence that official administration claims may be inflated compared to independent estimates ^[1].

The phrasing "Donald deported" personalizes the deportation process to Trump himself, potentially oversimplifying the complex bureaucratic and legal processes involved in immigration enforcement that involve multiple agencies and legal procedures.