ICE deportations climb to all-time high during Trump's 2nd term

Ice removals going back to 2010.

Deportations and arrests climbed to a record high during President Trump's second term, according to new figures released Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security. 

For the 2026 fiscal year, ICE deported 483,200 illegal immigrants, the highest number of annual deportations in the agency's history, eclipsing last year's record of 442,640 deportations. That goes along with more than 491,000 arrests made in fiscal year 2026. Some 475,000 of those were administrative arrests, when illegal immigrants are detained for civil violations as opposed to criminal allegations, according to CBS News -- also a record, the DHS said. 

The number of deportations represent a 78% increase from the 2024 fiscal year, the last under Joe Biden's presidency, underscoring the difference in approach to illegal immigration since Trump returned to office. The 2026 "total is also more than eight times the number of deportations in Biden’s first fiscal year, as FY21 saw just over 59,000 deportations," according to the DHS.

The number of deportations is also an 18% increase over the number of deportations recorded in 2012, under then President Barack Obama, previously the highest total in the agency's history. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of the brave men and women of ICE, who just broke more historic records,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. "Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, ICE has been unleashed to target and remove illegal aliens so that we can save American lives.”

All told since the beginning of Trump's second term, "more than 3 million migrants have left the U.S.," the DHS said, adding that nearly 1.2 million illegals have been deported since Trump returned to office. For more on the story, watch the video below.