BORDER IMMIGRATION DONALD TRUMP / Modified mar 26, 2025 12:57 p.m.

Deportations decline under Trump

ICE Data shows immigration removals are actually down under Trump.

ICE HSI Department release photo of police with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

A data analysis by TRAC, from Syracuse University, found that the number of ICE removals has decreased by nearly 11% under Trump, while arrests have increased by 7%.

John Sandweg, an acting director of ICE during the Obama administration, says Biden was removing more people crossing the border while the Trump administration is doing more internal enforcement, making people harder to remove due to backlogs in immigration court.

“But I think these numbers are going to continue to climb, especially as the Trump administration … starts doing more of these kind of area-sweep type operations where they're just pulling over all sorts of people, running a quick Id check on them and arresting them if they're undocumented,” Sandweg said.

In Tucson, multiple ICE operations reportedly involved numerous agents going into businesses but not arresting anyone.

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