Nearly 980,000 immigrants were deported or otherwise sent out of the United States during the first 18 months of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. According to an analysis released by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), the figure covers the period from January 20, 2025, through July 31, 2026.
According to MPI, a nonpartisan research organization that studies U.S. immigration policy, the Trump administration has intensified its deportation campaign as part of its broader effort to tighten immigration enforcement. The analysis draws on data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Recent data indicate that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed approximately 980,000 immigrants during the first 18 months of Trump’s second presidency. On an annualized basis, the removal rate is higher than during the presidencies of Joe Biden and Trump’s first term, but remains below levels recorded in the early 2000s, according to MPI’s latest analysis.
MPI estimates that approximately 660,000 immigrants will be removed on an annualized basis in fiscal year 2026. The annualized rate during the first year of Trump’s current term was approximately 620,000, about 26 percent higher than the average from 2021 through 2024.
However, the current rate remains substantially below the 1.86 million removals recorded in fiscal year 2000. It also falls short of the Trump administration’s stated goal of deporting one million immigrants annually. In this analysis, removals include both formal deportations and people returned to their countries through other procedures.
69 Percent Were Apprehended at the Border
Despite historically low levels of immigration-related encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border, approximately 69 percent of the nearly 980,000 people removed by ICE and CBP between January 20, 2025, and July 31, 2026, had been apprehended while attempting to enter the United States at the border.
MPI reached this conclusion by analyzing data obtained from the Department of Homeland Security under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
However, the share of removals involving immigrants arrested within U.S. communities has also increased. According to Mark Rosenblum, an MPI visiting senior fellow and former executive director of the Office of Homeland Security Statistics at DHS, people arrested in the interior of the country accounted for 28 percent of removals in 2025. By July 2026, that share had risen to 39 percent.
Removals resulting from arrests within the United States have also increased significantly. During the first three months of Trump’s second term, an average of 8,000 immigrants per month were removed following interior arrests. From May through July 2026, the monthly average rose to 19,000.
Since January 2025, DHS has not published comprehensive monthly reports detailing ICE and CBP arrests and removals. MPI therefore relied on information obtained through FOIA, including data from the Deportation Data Project, to analyze the characteristics of people removed from the country.
The analysis examines the procedures used to deport or return individuals, where they were apprehended—at the border or inside the United States—how long they had lived in the country, and whether they had criminal convictions.
Doris Meissner, director of MPI’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program, said the analysis provides important information for understanding immigration enforcement trends at a time when unprecedented resources and policy attention have been devoted to increasing arrests and removals.
Long-Term Residents Also Affected
According to MPI’s analysis, when people immediately returned after being apprehended at the border are excluded, 61 percent of those removed by ICE—approximately 390,000 noncitizens—had lived in the United States for at least two years.
Of those, 15 percent, or approximately 90,000 people, had lived in the country for 10 years or longer.
Among those removed after living in the United States for at least two years, 71 percent, or approximately 280,000 people, had no criminal convictions.
Similarly, among those who had lived in the United States for at least 10 years before being removed, 61 percent, or approximately 57,000 people, had no criminal convictions.
Of the approximately 980,000 removals and returns carried out by ICE and CBP, only about 190,000 people, or 20 percent, were noncitizens with criminal convictions.
Among those formally deported, only 31 percent had criminal convictions. By comparison, the average proportion was 44 percent during fiscal years 2009 through 2021.
Among those with criminal convictions, 23 percent involved offenses related to unlawful entry or reentry. Another 21 percent involved driving-related offenses, including driving under the influence of alcohol.
Returns Through Other Procedures Increasing Relative to Formal Deportations
MPI’s analysis indicates that, compared with the period before the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing proportion of people leaving the United States are being returned through procedures other than formal deportation.
Of the nearly 980,000 people covered by the analysis, approximately 170,000 were allowed to leave voluntarily through ICE procedures or returned voluntarily.
The analysis notes that the Trump administration has sought to expedite returns through procedures that bypass the immigration court system, which is already facing a substantial backlog of deportation cases.
Disputed Government Claim That More Than 3 Million People Have Left the United States
MPI has also estimated the total number of immigrants who have been deported or have voluntarily left the United States during Trump’s second term, using public survey data and a new estimation methodology.
However, the institute says it is difficult to establish the actual number of voluntary departures because DHS does not collect data on everyone who leaves the United States by land across the U.S.-Mexico border.
MPI estimates that between 790,000 and 1.9 million immigrants who had lived in the United States for at least one year may have left the country between January 20, 2025, and July 31, 2026.
When people immediately returned after being apprehended at the border, along with other immigrants who had been in the United States for less than a year, are included, the estimated total rises to between 1.3 million and 2.4 million.
The Department of Homeland Security, however, has maintained that more than three million undocumented immigrants have left the United States since January 2025 through deportations or voluntary departures.
According to MPI, government estimates of voluntary departures may include some immigrants who were legally residing in the United States, as well as U.S. citizens.
The institute says this possibility is particularly relevant to Project Homecoming, a program under which people leaving the country can receive free airline tickets and departure incentives of up to $2,600.
MPI concludes that although the number of immigrants leaving the United States through deportation or voluntary departure is higher than during any comparable period since 2014, the claim that three million immigrants—and specifically three million undocumented immigrants—have left the country is unlikely to be accurate.
