U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 271,484 immigrants to nearly 200 countries last fiscal year, the highest tally in a decade, according to the agency’s annual report published Thursday.
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Most deportees had crossed the U.S. southern border illegally, part of a record number of people fleeing authoritarian regimes, poverty and economic collapse in the Western Hemisphere after the pandemic. The ICE report covered enforcement operations from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30.
The report is ICE’s final accounting of immigration enforcement under the Biden administration before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump has promised to immediately launch the largest deportation campaign in American history, though he has offered few or conflicting details about how he would manage it. Staffing levels of immigration enforcement officers have been stagnant for years.
“Our agency is chronically underfunded, but our workforce is adaptable, resilient and agile, and they set the bar high within the federal government,” said ICE’s top official Patrick J. Lechleitner, in a statement. “ICE is an apolitical agency, and one thing I can tell you about our workforce is that they’re here to investigate crimes and enforce the laws Congress sets forth.”
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Biden took office in 2021 pledging to pause deportations, and he sent Congress a bill that would have allowed most of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country to get on paths to citizenship. But surging border crossings derailed his plans, and Biden officials ended up expanding rather than reducing detention and deportations.
Illegal border crossings have plunged since Biden implemented new rules last summer that sharply restrict asylum claims, resulting in far more migrants being deported than released into the United States with a pending court case.
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The Washington Post analyzed more than 4.1 million U.S. immigration court records from the past decade to find out where migrants come from and where they live once they arrive in the country.
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Deportations by ICE during Trump’s first term peaked at 267,260 during the 2019 fiscal year, data show. Under Trump, deportees were more likely to be individuals arrested in the interior of the United States, rather than recent border-crossers.
Federal immigration officials said several factors drove the overall increase in Enforcement and Removal Operations during the past year, particularly to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which accepted more flights transporting those deported from the United States.
“These actions enhanced ERO’s ability to scale up removal operations and laid the groundwork for the increase of removals in FY 2024,” the report said.
ICE also expanded after “intensive diplomatic efforts” the number of charter flights last year to countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, including the first large removal flight to China since fiscal 2018.
Five hundred deportees were dispatched to China last year, down slightly from fiscal 2019. Other flights went to Albania, India, Senegal and Uzbekistan.
Records show Biden largely kept his promise to focus on immigrants who are a top priority for removal, including recent border crossers and people who posed a threat to national security or public safety.
Immigration officials typically remove a tiny fraction of the nation’s undocumented immigrants each year, in part because of huge backlogs in U.S. immigration courts, budget constraints and public opposition to removals in many states.
The 2024 report shows that the highest numbers of immigrants removed from the United States went to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, in that order.
Those countries typically cooperate with deportations, and their citizens are likely to be significant targets for removal under the Trump administration.
Venezuela, however, is less cooperative. People from that South American country are among one of the largest groups on ICE’s deportation docket. But last year just 3,256 people were deported.
Trump and his surrogates have provided few details about how they would steer a dramatic expansion in enforcement.
ICE has about 6,000 immigration enforcement officers, roughly the same staffing level that it had a decade ago, the report shows. During that time, the number of people with pending immigration cases on ICE’s docket — individuals who are not detained but under ICE’s management — has nearly quadrupled to about 8 million.
Trump also promised to aggressively increase deportations during his first term, but because of resistance from Democrat-led cities and states, he never surpassed the Obama administration’s record of more than 400,000 removals a year.
You are what you read. Reveal your 2024 reader type with Newsprint.
Most deportees had crossed the U.S. southern border illegally, part of a record number of people fleeing authoritarian regimes, poverty and economic collapse in the Western Hemisphere after the pandemic. The ICE report covered enforcement operations from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30.
The report is ICE’s final accounting of immigration enforcement under the Biden administration before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump has promised to immediately launch the largest deportation campaign in American history, though he has offered few or conflicting details about how he would manage it. Staffing levels of immigration enforcement officers have been stagnant for years.
“Our agency is chronically underfunded, but our workforce is adaptable, resilient and agile, and they set the bar high within the federal government,” said ICE’s top official Patrick J. Lechleitner, in a statement. “ICE is an apolitical agency, and one thing I can tell you about our workforce is that they’re here to investigate crimes and enforce the laws Congress sets forth.”
🌎
Follow World news
Biden took office in 2021 pledging to pause deportations, and he sent Congress a bill that would have allowed most of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country to get on paths to citizenship. But surging border crossings derailed his plans, and Biden officials ended up expanding rather than reducing detention and deportations.
Illegal border crossings have plunged since Biden implemented new rules last summer that sharply restrict asylum claims, resulting in far more migrants being deported than released into the United States with a pending court case.
Skip to end of carousel
4.1 million migrants
The Washington Post analyzed more than 4.1 million U.S. immigration court records from the past decade to find out where migrants come from and where they live once they arrive in the country.
End of carousel
Deportations by ICE during Trump’s first term peaked at 267,260 during the 2019 fiscal year, data show. Under Trump, deportees were more likely to be individuals arrested in the interior of the United States, rather than recent border-crossers.
Federal immigration officials said several factors drove the overall increase in Enforcement and Removal Operations during the past year, particularly to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which accepted more flights transporting those deported from the United States.
“These actions enhanced ERO’s ability to scale up removal operations and laid the groundwork for the increase of removals in FY 2024,” the report said.
ICE also expanded after “intensive diplomatic efforts” the number of charter flights last year to countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, including the first large removal flight to China since fiscal 2018.
Five hundred deportees were dispatched to China last year, down slightly from fiscal 2019. Other flights went to Albania, India, Senegal and Uzbekistan.
Records show Biden largely kept his promise to focus on immigrants who are a top priority for removal, including recent border crossers and people who posed a threat to national security or public safety.
Immigration officials typically remove a tiny fraction of the nation’s undocumented immigrants each year, in part because of huge backlogs in U.S. immigration courts, budget constraints and public opposition to removals in many states.
The 2024 report shows that the highest numbers of immigrants removed from the United States went to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, in that order.
Those countries typically cooperate with deportations, and their citizens are likely to be significant targets for removal under the Trump administration.
Venezuela, however, is less cooperative. People from that South American country are among one of the largest groups on ICE’s deportation docket. But last year just 3,256 people were deported.
Trump and his surrogates have provided few details about how they would steer a dramatic expansion in enforcement.
ICE has about 6,000 immigration enforcement officers, roughly the same staffing level that it had a decade ago, the report shows. During that time, the number of people with pending immigration cases on ICE’s docket — individuals who are not detained but under ICE’s management — has nearly quadrupled to about 8 million.
Trump also promised to aggressively increase deportations during his first term, but because of resistance from Democrat-led cities and states, he never surpassed the Obama administration’s record of more than 400,000 removals a year.
