How did 2024 US deportation numbers compare to 2023 and 2022?
Executive summary
U.S. deportations rose sharply in fiscal year (FY) 2024: ICE reports roughly 271,000 removals (Oct. 1, 2023–Sept. 30, 2024), the highest in about a decade and higher than any year in Trump’s first term [1] [2]. Quarterly and monthly ICE and DHS dashboards show increases through 2024 — for example, ICE removed nearly 68,000 people in Q3 FY2024 alone [3] — while other trackers count large numbers of returns/repatriations and repatriations that use different definitions [4] [5].
1. Numbers on the record: FY2024 vs recent years
Official ICE and news reporting place FY2024 removals at roughly 271,000 people to 192 countries, a decade-high total and above removal counts during Trump’s 2017–2021 term [1] [2]. ICE’s quarterly release flagged nearly 68,000 removals in Q3 FY2024, showing that removals were sustained through the year [3]. These figures refer to ICE removals (enforced returns following removal orders) rather than broader categories like “repatriations” or CBP expulsions, which other trackers treat differently [4].
2. Apples and oranges: definitions matter
Different sources count different things. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) tallies “removals” carried out by ICE [6] [3]. DHS OHSS monthly tables include removals, returns, repatriations, expulsions and encounters with Border Patrol; some of those categories (for example, returns or repatriations) can be administrative or border expulsions rather than formal ICE removals [7] [4]. Migration Policy and other analysts emphasize that returns historically made up a large share of “deportations,” complicating direct year-to-year comparisons [5].
3. Year-to-year trajectory through 2022–2024
Available reporting shows removals rose markedly in 2024 compared with earlier years: news outlets described FY2024 as the highest in a decade, and ICE’s Q2–Q3 FY2024 stats showed a near 70% increase over a comparable quarter a year earlier [3] [1]. Reuters and Axios both cited the ~271,000 figure for FY2024 [1] [2]. Sources also show that removals had been climbing since early 2022, with monthly spikes (for example, March 2022 was flagged in reporting as an early high point) and substantially higher cumulative removals during 2021–2024 than in some prior periods [8].
4. What drove the rise in 2024? Policy, capacity and enforcement focus
Reporting points to multiple causes: administrations tightened asylum rules and prioritized certain enforcement actions, which along with diplomatic arrangements and increased removal flights boosted deportations, although DHS officials warned resource limits constrained how many flights could be arranged [5]. ICE’s own framing emphasizes targeted interior enforcement and intelligence-driven operations that ramped up arrests and removals in FY2024 [6] [3].
5. Conflicting counts and alternative tallies
Public trackers give different totals depending on inclusion of CBP expulsions, Title 42-era expulsions, “repatriations” and other administrative returns; for example, USAFacts reported 1.1 million repatriations in 2023 and a cumulative 2024 repatriation figure in the hundreds of thousands through November, which is not directly comparable to ICE’s removals number [4]. Migration Policy cautions that many historical “deportations” were returns rather than formal removals [5]. Analysts and advocates point out that some large-number claims in political messaging have been disputed when compared with ICE’s published dashboards [9].
6. What’s clear — and what remains unclear
What is clear in current reporting: ICE’s published enforcement reports and mainstream outlets cite about 271,000 ICE removals in FY2024, higher than recent years and characterized as a decade high [1] [2]. What’s less clear without drilling into raw administrative tables is the precise split in 2022–2024 among ICE removals, CBP returns/expulsions, and other repatriations — and how much of the year-to-year rise reflects operational changes (more flights, diplomatic arrangements) versus definitional or reporting shifts [7] [4]. Migration Policy flags the longstanding distinction between “returns” and “removals,” a distinction the public conversation sometimes elides [5].
7. How to interpret these figures going forward
Readers should treat the ~271,000 FY2024 ICE removals as the authoritative agency count of ICE-enforced removals for that fiscal year, while recognizing other large tallies exist for returns/expulsions that use broader definitions [1] [4]. For precise comparisons across administrations or years, consult the underlying DHS/OHSS monthly tables and ICE dashboards to match the same category (removals vs. returns vs. repatriations) and the same fiscal/calendar boundaries [7] [6].
Limitations: available sources do not provide a single reconciled year-by-year table in the search results supplied here comparing 2022, 2023 and 2024 across all definitions; the figures above rely on ICE’s removals reporting and contemporaneous media summaries [3] [1] [2].