In Data - Trump 2.0: Mass deportation plan. What's his record?

MEXICO CITY - In June, Trump deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell protests against immigration raids ramped up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

He invoked a wartime law to quickly deport immigrants alleged to be gang members without court hearings, sent hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador's CECOT prison and ended Temporary Protected Status for thousands of people.

Trump says he hopes his "Big Beautiful Bill" will be passed by lawmakers to increase funding for mass deportations, which could cost up to $1 trillion in a decade, according to estimates by the libertarian Cato Institute.

While the Trump administration has touted the arrest and deportation of violent criminals, an analysis by Context/Thomson Reuters Foundation of ICE data shows an increase in the arrests of immigrants with no criminal charges or convictions.

How many have been deported so far?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it exceeded 142,000 deportations during the first 100 days of Trump’s administration in April.

In a May interview, Trump's border czar Tom Homan said the administration had deported about 200,000 people over the four months since January.

Exact numbers are unclear as the DHS stopped publishing detailed statistics on removals and returns since Trump took office in January.

These numbers, however, are fewer than the nearly 257,000 returns and removals recorded between February and May 2024 during President Joe Biden's administration, DHS figures show.

Mexico's statistics on nationals deported by the U.S. also show a fall from 18,000 in April 2024 to 10,000 of April this year.

While the Biden administration recorded high deportation numbers by quickly returning people at the border, deporting people from within the U.S. is limited by insufficient detention capacity and resources, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute.

How many have been arrested and detained?

ICE has carried out immigration raids at workplaces across California, including farms, hotels and restaurants, and is arresting people following their immigration court hearings in multiple cities.

The DHS said in April it had arrested 158,000 immigrants since Trump's inauguration in January, and most recent ICE data shows it had more than 51,000 people in custody as of June 1.

The average of daily arrests is currently at 750, up from the 350 daily arrests registered between 2015 and 2024, according to Reuters.

The daily quotas of arrests have also increased from 1,000 to 3,000 a day, sources told Reuters.

Trump's administration has increased the arrest of people who only have immigration-related violations from 870 in October 2024 to more than 6,000 in May of this year, ICE data shows.

While the arrest of people convicted or with pending criminal charges has also risen since January, the detention of people charged only with immigration violations has risen by nearly 490%.

Most recent ICE data shows 40% of arrested people with criminal convictions were accused of non-violent crimes like immigration and traffic offences.

What was Trump’s record during his first term?

Deportations under Trump from 2017 to 2020, while high, were less than half the number registered during Biden's 2021 to 2024 term, data shows.

Deportations typically come after a removal order by an immigration judge, and those who re-enter face criminal charges.

Another expulsion route is a 'return,' usually carried out at a border crossing or airport, which does not require a formal removal order, can be voluntary and does not carry penalties.

While Trump's policy focuses on removals of immigrants within the United States, the Biden presidency had a higher number of returns of immigrants at the border.

Nearly 1.2 million people were deported through removal orders during Trump's first administration, and almost 600,000 were returned.

Topping that, Biden's administration returned 1.3 million immigrants and removed more than 681,000 as of August 2024.

Such an approach could have earned Biden the title of "Returner in Chief," according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Almost 2.8 million other people were expelled during the Biden administration under the Title 42 order, a pandemic-related restriction that allowed the quick expulsion of migrants to Mexico and was officially lifted in May 2023.

Under Trump, more than 200,000 people were expelled using Title 42.

Although Title 42 mostly applied to Mexicans, the restriction was expanded to nationals from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

In total, the Biden administration deported roughly 4.7 million people in four years, more than twice as many as were expelled under Trump, according to DHS data.

This article was updated on July 1 2025, to include the latest developments.

(Reporting by Diana Baptista; Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ellen Wulfhorst.)