As President-elect Donald Trump promises the largest mass deportation operation in the nation’s history, a new report by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows that the number of deportations hit a decade-high. ICE deported 271,484 migrants in fiscal year 2024, which ended in September, according to the agency’s report released Thursday, Dec. 20.
That represents a significant increase compared to the previous year when ICE reported 142,000 deportations.
Nearly 89,000 deportees had criminal charges or convictions, according to ICE, with fewer than 1% arrested for homicide.
Overall, it is the largest number of deportations since President Barack Obama deported 315,943 migrants in 2014.
However, it is considerably small compared to the more than 11 million migrant encounters reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under the Biden administration over the last four years.
CBP agents encountered more than 2.9 million migrants this year, with 2.1 million of those encounters occurring at the U.S. southern border.
With Trump’s inauguration in one month, his incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, said earlier this week that the administration’s deportation plan will begin on day one.
