Trump Migrant Deportation Numbers Compared to Obama, Biden

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that in the first two weeks of President Donald Trump‘s second term, nearly 5,700 illegal immigrants had been deported.

If the new administration continues at that clip, one expert told Newsweek, then it would be on track to deport half the number of migrants removed during former President Joe Biden’s last full fiscal year in 2024.

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According to DHS, 5,693 people were deported or removed to 121 countries in the two weeks between Inauguration Day until February 3, 2025. The last monthly figures available from Biden’s presidency, for November 2024, show 48,970 total removals, averaging around 12,200 a week.

The Trump administration’s plans for deportations saw a bumpy start, testing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela on their willingness to accept repatriated detainees.

Earlier this week, the first flights to an expanding detention center at Guantanamo Bay took place, although the migrants held here may not count towards removal statistics, as they are still under U.S. custody.

While it also dealt with record numbers of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration also rapidly increased its deportation efforts over the past four years. Over 4.6 million people were removed from the U.S. between January 2021 and November 2024, according to government data, with March 2022 seeing the highest number of people leaving, at 147,080.

During his first term, Trump oversaw 2.1 million removals. The highest monthly total came in in October 2020, when 91,120 immigrants were either deported or removed.

Across his two terms, former President Obama oversaw 5.3 million people removed from the country. Monthly data is not available for the first five years of Obama’s time in office, but his first year, in 2009, saw the largest total of the entire eight years, at 973,937.

Not all of those removed will have been arrested deep within the country by ICE. Many will have been detained at the southwest or northern borders by Border Patrol and effectively turned around or sent back home. Others will have been in detention for multiple years before removal orders are given.

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Pressure on the administration to ramp up its enforcement activities is already increasing, with some supporters replying to social media posts from DHS that, while the current rate of removals is a “good start,” the numbers should be higher. Homan has said it will take time to increase operations, but the administration is likely to continue its publicity around arrests across the U.S. in the coming days and weeks to show it is acting on its promises.