(José Niño, Headline USA) The U.S. government has handed out citizenship faster than it handed out deportation orders over the past year, according to publicly available statistics.
The Twitter/X account AF Post drew a comparison between two immigration statistics this week that circulated widely, and federal records back up each one, even as the underlying trajectories move away from each other.
“Almost 900,000 legal immigrants have been naturalized over the past 12 months, while fewer than 800,000 illegal immigrants have been deported since President Trump took office,” the account wrote.
Almost 900,000 legal immigrants have been naturalized over the past 12 months, while fewer than 800,000 illegal immigrants have been deported since President Trump took office.
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/jXEweBBT1u
— AF Post (@AFpost) August 2, 2026
What sparked this post was Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s speech at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Oklahoma City this past Saturday.
At the event, when questioned about immigration reforms, Mullin responded, “We have naturalization ceremonies every single day in the United States. In fact, we’re real close to 900,000 individuals that have been naturalized in the last 12 months. There is a legal system to go through,” per a report by Hindustan Times.
Compare Mullin’s statement to deportations: ICE has logged close to 600,000 deportations dating to late January 2025 and currently runs about 1,250 a day. TRAC, whose tallies come from FOIA records instead of agency announcements, lands nearer 290,603.
Meanwhile, naturalizations seem to be slowing down after averaging about 870,400 for the first four years of the 2020s. The tempo climbed even higher for a stretch under President Donald Trump, when approvals in a single month reached 88,488 during 2025, a record going back to the start of monthly reporting in 2022.
Then the trend broke. Completions per month dropped from 78,379 in September 2025 down to 37,832 by January 2026, with approvals sinking to 32,862 across that same window. According to the Niskanen Center, USCIS wrapped up only 27,569 naturalization cases in April 2026, about one quarter of the 97,000 it handled in April 2025. Denials rose to 18 percent of completions, better than double the previous year’s share, and the typical case took 9.5 months instead of 6.4.
Washington set most of that slowdown in motion. Applicants from 39 designated countries saw their decisions frozen, and fresh vetting requirements piled on. A DHS proposal would push the N-400 filing fee to $1,330 from $760 and strip away reduced fees and waivers for most filers, effectively pushing lower income green card holders out of reach.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
