Since President Donald Trump resumed office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stepped up deportations, removing nearly 200,000 individuals in the first seven months, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official.
This pace could lead to ICE’s highest annual total in over a decade, though it remains below the administration’s goal of one million deportations annually.
These figures are part of a total exceeding 350,000 removals since January, which also includes deportations by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Coast Guard, and voluntary self-deportations encouraged by government campaigns.
Before Trump’s return, ICE deported approximately 71,400 people between October and December 2024. Including these, ICE is set to surpass 300,000 removals by the end of the 2025 fiscal year—the most since around 316,000 deportations under President Obama in 2014.
To ramp up enforcement, the administration has deployed various federal agencies across key cities such as Los Angeles and Washington, DC. CBP alone has conducted over 132,000 deportations and recorded about 17,500 voluntary departures this year.
“In the face of a historic number of injunctions from activist judges, ICE, CBP, and the U.S. Coast Guard have made historic progress to carryout President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country. Additionally, illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence,” a senior DHS official stated.
Despite these advances, officials privately express concern as ICE’s interior arrests, although roughly double those under the previous administration, still average between 1,000 and 2,000 per day, short of the 3,000 daily target.
Preparing for further expansion, ICE is set to receive nearly $75 billion up to 2029, with funding directed towards detention centre capacity and frontline enforcement. Alongside these efforts, DHS is investing heavily in multimillion-pound ad campaigns to promote voluntary departures.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently praised these initiatives, crediting President Trump’s “strong message.”