Trump Is Falling Miles Short of His Big Deportation Promise
The Trump administration is struggling to deport the thousands of migrants it arrests every month.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Donald Trump is nowhere near delivering on his promise to oversee the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, and is not even improving on the numbers recorded during the Obama administration.
Figures obtained by NBC News reveal that while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are arresting migrants at record rates, deportation numbers aren’t keeping pace. In June, ICE detained around 30,000 immigrants, yet deportations totaled just over 18,000.
A similar pattern was seen in May, when Trump’s administration arrested about 24,000 immigrants, but only deported a little more than 15,000.
What stings even more for Trump, who made hardline immigration crackdowns a key pledge of his 2024 campaign, is that his administration’s deportation numbers lag well behind those of Barack Obama.
Barack Obama deported more immigrants on average during his second than Donald Trump has so far managed.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
According to NBC News citing ICE figures, Trump’s second term has averaged 14,700 deportations per month. During Obama’s second term in 2013, his administration recorded an average of 36,000 deportations.
Even Joe Biden, who Trump routinely slammed for being soft on immigration, especially at the southern border, posted comparable deportation numbers. Between February and April 2024, Biden’s administration averaged 12,660 deportations per month, including those apprehended at the southern border by Customs and Border Protection.
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Immigration lawyers told NBC News the gap between arrests and deportations under Trump could be due in part to court interventions, including judges blocking removals and pending asylum cases clogging the system.
The Trump administration is pushing ICE to detain more migrants, and is on track to become the largest law enforcement agency in the U.S. because of allocated funding.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Elsewhere, NBC also reports that around 60,000 immigrants are currently being held in ICE detention facilities, way above the 41,500 beds which Congress approved funding for. This has led to reports these facilities are overcrowded, unhygienic, and severely lacking in food and medical supplies.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, pushed back on claims the detention facilities of substandard conditions as “categorically false.”
“All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” McLaughlin told NBC News. “As we arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens and public safety threats from the U.S., ICE has worked diligently to obtain greater necessary detention space while avoiding overcrowding.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from the Daily Beast.
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