ICE reports 483,200 deportations as a new analysis details what its totals count

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported 483,200 deportations in fiscal 2026, an agency record, while a new analysis of federal case records found formal removals accounted for 63% of the broader deportation total in July and August.[1][2][3]

CBS reported that DHS counted more than 491,000 ICE arrests during the year, including 474,850 administrative arrests under civil immigration law. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the annual arrest and deportation totals the highest in ICE’s 23-year history.[1]

DHS did not publish an annual breakdown of deportees’ criminal histories, AP reported. A separate Deportation Data Project analysis of ICE arrests leading to book-ins found 27% involved people with criminal convictions in July, its lowest share in the available data. Arrest records are not deportation outcomes.[2][4]

Marc Rosenblum, a former DHS official who oversaw immigration statistics, told AP the announcement did not provide enough detail to show what was driving the increase. AP said the 483,200 total also fell short of the White House goal of 1 million annual deportations.[2]

The number reported by DHS was 9% above ICE’s previous annual high of 442,640 in fiscal 2025 and 78% above the 271,480 reported for fiscal 2024, according to AP. DHS had not released comparable counts since President Donald Trump returned to office.[2]

The separate analysis, published Nov. 11 by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, used case-level information from DHS’s Enforcement Integrated Database obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. TRAC said those records track ICE and Customs and Border Protection actions and were current through Aug. 24.[3]

TRAC defines deportations as formal removals plus voluntary departures and voluntary returns. A formal removal bars a person from legally returning for a period of years; a return does not. The researchers said the latter two categories made up 37% of their combined July and August totals, leaving formal removals at 63%.[3]

In July, TRAC counted 42,399 deportations in the broader series and 26,908 formal removals. It also found voluntary departures had risen sharply in fiscal 2026. The analysis said immigration judges ordered more than 100,000 voluntary departures during the year, compared with 9,000 in fiscal 2024, and estimated about 134,000 people left after such orders.[3]

TRAC said faster proceedings, rising asylum denials and the denial of bond to detained people may have contributed to the increase. It also pointed to ICE’s use of stipulations that waive an immigration-court hearing. Those explanations are the researchers’ assessment; the public DHS figures did not address the shift in categories.[1][3]

TRAC’s series uses the date a person actually left the country, while the Office of Homeland Security Statistics has generally assigned removals to the date a case was closed. TRAC said 110,757 departures in fiscal 2024 were recorded as case closures in the following fiscal year, one reason its 446,180 removal count for 2024 differs from the agency’s published total.[3]

TRAC’s broader deportation series, which includes ICE and CBP, recorded 489,251 deportations in fiscal 2009 and projected 481,008 for fiscal 2026 from records through Aug. 24. Its projected total is close to DHS’s 483,200 ICE-only count, but the categories and data windows differ.[1][3]

TRAC’s 481,008 projection uses records through Aug. 24 and includes ICE and CBP actions, while DHS’s reported figure is ICE-only through Sept. 30. AP said the DHS release lacked a detailed breakdown; without a shared category-level table, the agency’s annual number cannot be separated into formal removals, voluntary departures and returns.[1][2][3]