Us deportation statistics annual
Executive summary
Annual U.S. deportation figures vary by agency, definition and year, but recent federal data and independent analyses show hundreds of thousands of departures per year when combining border “repatriations/returns” and interior removals—roughly an average of about 352,000 total DHS removals/returns per year in FY2020–24, with ICE interior removals much lower and trending down while CBP border repatriations account for the bulk of the total [1] [2].
1. What "deportation" means and why counts differ
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and researchers use multiple terms—“removals,” “returns,” “repatriations,” and “encounters”—and these categories are counted by different components (ICE for interior removals, CBP/Border Patrol for border repatriations), so headline totals can mix legally distinct actions and produce very different annual totals [3] [2].
2. Recent annual totals and the split between border and interior
Analysis from Migration Policy notes DHS carried out an average of about 352,000 deportations per year in FY2020–24, and that ICE was responsible for roughly 146,000 of those on average each year while CBP accounted for the larger share from border encounters—a pattern that shifted over the last few years as border enforcement increased and interior removals fell [1].
3. Trends over time: interior removals down, border returns up
Interior removals by ICE have fallen substantially over the past 15 years—Migration Policy documents a decline from averages above 155,000 per year in FY2009–16 to 38,000 per year in FY2021–24—whereas removals following border arrests rose, reaching 224,000 in FY2024 as resources shifted toward border operations [1].
4. Why presidential-era totals can be misleading
Comparisons of total deportations across administrations are fraught because DHS components report differently and methodologies have changed; the New York Times and other outlets showed large headline counts attributed to different administrations, but analysts warn these figures often mix repatriations at the border with interior removals, making apples-to-apples comparisons difficult without reconstructing historical methodologies [4] [5].
5. Independent tallies and reporting practices
Journalistic tracking (The Guardian) and independent sites standardizing government tables (US OHSS monthly tables and yearbooks) provide the most transparent source material for annual counts, but researchers still must reconcile two-week or monthly updates and later year-end "locked" figures; OHSS says it constructs its Persist Dataset from component operational reports and validates formats, but notes revisions over time [6] [2] [7].
6. Context and implications beyond the headline numbers
Experts emphasize that aggregate deportation statistics obscure important differences—border returns often reflect migratory flows and short-term expulsions (including public-health-era expulsions), while interior removals affect long-term residents and have different social and economic consequences, so policy debates should focus on the composition of removals not just raw totals [8] [9] [1].
7. Caveats, data limits and what to watch next
Current reporting leaves gaps: DHS periodic summaries and component tables are the primary sources but methodologies (what is included in a "DHS" total) have changed and some public claims lack detailed sourcing; journalists and researchers therefore rely on the OHSS Persist Dataset and component tables while urging administrations to publish consistent, comparable time-series data for meaningful year-to-year or administration-to-administration comparisons [6] [5].