Trump promised to deport 1 million migrants a year. But his administration didn't come close to that

Source: The Independent

Wednesday 15 April 2026 12:06 EDT


Donald Trump’s administration set a target of 1 million deportations a year, with at least 3,000 immigration arrests a day. But according to figures released by the Department of Homeland Security to members of Congress to justify its mammoth budget, the administration didn’t come close to that scale of removals within the first nine months of Trump’s return to the White House despite the president’s government-wide anti-immigration agenda.

Budget requests to Congress reveal Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now preparing to hit those goals. ICE deported 442,637 people within the 2025 fiscal year, which began in the final months of Joe Biden’s administration and ended September 30, before federal agents surged into cities and made thousands of arrests in street-level dragnets.

The Office of Homeland Security Statistics has not updated its data since last November, but deportation data shared with Congress offers a first glimpse at ICE’s impact within the bulk of Trump’s first year back in office — and plans for the fiscal years in the remainder of his term. ICE told Congress that the agency plans to deport 1 million people — and hold at least 99,000 people on any given day in ICE detention centers — in the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years.

In a statement recognizing Trump’s first year back in office, Homeland Security claimed 2.2 million “self-deportations” and “more than 675,000 deportations” since January 20, 2025. That figure, if accurate, would still be far below the 778,000 removals in the final full fiscal year of the Biden administration — and tens of thousands short of a goal to remove 1 million people per year.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-ice-deportation-data-b2958351.html