WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Thursday that it had deported a record number of illegal immigrants in the past year — with nearly a half-million people living in the US without legal permission forced to return to their homelands.
The announcement did not say what percentage of the 483,200 deportees in fiscal 2026, which ended Sept. 30, faced criminal charges, though a handful of dangerous perps were highlighted in a Department of Homeland Security press release.
The number outpaced the 442,640 deportations in the prior year, which included part of Trump’s first year back in power.
Both years dwarfed the annual tallies under former President Joe Biden — with the latest number roughly equal to three years of enforcement under the prior administration.
“FY26’s 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,” DHS said.
“FY26’s arrest total includes nearly 475,000 administrative arrests, which is by far the highest total in ICE’s history.”
The release came one day after Syracuse University’s well-regarded immigration data hub reported that “contrary to news reporting and public perception, the number of individuals removed from the United States actually declined after President Trump assumed office in January 2025.”
The university’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) data, which runs through August, cited information gathered through Freedom of Information Act litigation.
The discrepancy in the two assessments may be the fact that, according to TRAC, the DHS figures include people who voluntarily self-deported — something that the Trump administration has incentivized with free plane tickets and $3,000.
“When ICE speaks about removals, in the fine print they usually include removals plus returns,” TRAC reported. “Removals bar an individual from legally returning to the United States for a period of years. For returns, reentry is not legally barred.”
DHS did not provide further clarification when asked for comment.
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