Deportations by ICE jumped to 10-year high in 2024, surpassing Trump-era peak

Deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement soared to a 10-year high in fiscal year 2024 under the Biden administration, surpassing the Trump-era high recorded in 2019, according to a government report released Thursday.

ICE deported more than 271,000 unauthorized immigrants in fiscal year 2024, the highest tally recorded by the agency since fiscal year 2014, when the Obama administration carried out 316,000 deportations. Fiscal years start in October and end in September.

While the incoming Trump administration has vowed to launch the largest deportation effort in American history next year, the statistics released by ICE show the Biden administration has already overseen a dramatic increase in deportations in its final year in office.

In fiscal year 2021, which included the first months of the Biden administration, ICE deportations plunged to 59,000, a record low for the 21-year-old agency. The drop was mainly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and rules enacted by the Biden administration that efficiently shielded most unauthorized immigrants from deportation if they were not serious criminals, national security threats or recent border crossers.

ICE deportations increased to 72,000 in fiscal year 2022 and then to 143,000 in fiscal year 2023, as the Biden administration increased deportations efforts in response to record arrivals of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, and as border officials relied less heavily on a pandemic-era expulsion policy known as Title 42. Expulsions of migrants under that measure were not counted as formal deportations because they were carried out under a public health law.

Border crackdown fueled jump in deportations

In the report it released Thursday, ICE said the sharp jump in deportations last fiscal year stemmed from increased steps to streamline the deportation process, as well as diplomatic efforts to convince countries to take back more deportees. The agency noted that it increased deportations flights to traditional migrant-sending countries in Latin America, but also to far-flung nations in Africa and Asia, including China, which did not accept U.S. deportations for years.

Most of the deportations in fiscal year 2024 involved migrants who were apprehended by U.S. border officials, as opposed to those arrested by ICE in the interior of the country, the agency report shows. Roughly 82% of the 271,000 immigrants deported that year were first arrested by Customs and Border Protection. The rest were initially arrested by ICE in jails or during operations in communities.

ICE’s deportation numbers don’t include removals and returns of migrants by Border Patrol officials at the U.S.-Mexico border. Those returns also increased this year after President Biden sharply limited asylum through a June executive order that, alongside Mexico’s efforts to interdict migrants, led to a dramatic decrease in illegal border crossings.

What’s awaiting the Trump administration?

While deportations rose significantly this past year, the Trump administration will still inherit a massive workload at ICE, which is tracking millions of unauthorized immigrants.

At the end of fiscal year 2024, ICE’s so-called non-detained docket of cases of immigrants facing deportation due to immigration violations had ballooned to nearly 7.7 million, up from 3.3 million at the end of fiscal year 2020. The spike in cases mainly reflects the record releases of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border during Mr. Biden’s presidency before he announced the asylum restrictions in June.

The incoming Trump administration has promised to start a wave of mass deportations as soon as the president-elect takes office on Jan. 20. Incoming border czar Tom Homan has said ICE will first target unauthorized immigrants with criminal records and the estimated 1.4 million people with pending deportation orders. But he has also stressed no one in the country illegally will be exempt from deportation.

To carry out the deportations at the monumental scale that incoming Trump administration officials have outlined, ICE would need a dramatic infusion in resources and manpower, as the agency currently has 41,000 detention beds and roughly 6,000 deportation offices. There were more than 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in early 2022, according to the latest government estimate. 

Homan has suggested enlisting the Department of Defense to help ICE, including by allowing the agency to carry out deportations using military aircraft. Incoming White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has also floated a proposal to deputize National Guard soldiers to arrest and deport immigrants living in the country illegally.

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