(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump’s administration has overseen a gradual surge in deportations since his return to office in January 2025.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has removed nearly 200,000 people in just seven months, placing the agency on track for its highest volume of removals in more than a decade, according to a report by CNN.
Administration officials insist the numbers could exceed 300,000 by the end of the fiscal year, a figure last seen during the Obama presidency in 2014. While the removals mark an aggressive return to interior enforcement, they still trail Trump’s much-publicized goal of deporting one million people annually.
The latest wave reflects more than just changing policy. Congressional passage of a $170 billion immigration enforcement bill this summer delivered a 300 percent increase to ICE’s budget.
Funds are earmarked for expanded detention capacity, the construction of new border security infrastructure, and a boost of 10,000 new deportation officers. CNN has reported that ICE’s operational footprint now includes a rapidly growing number of chartered deportation flights and new commercial airline partnerships.
By any statistical measure, Trump’s policies have not yet achieved the mass removals his rhetoric promised. The United States deported more than 400,000 people annually at peak levels during the Obama era, meaning that even the current intensified ICE activity would fall short of the current administration’s stated aims.
Despite deportation numbers falling below preliminary Census Bureau data, reviewed by the Pew Research Center, indicates that more than 1.2 million immigrants dropped out of the labor force between January and July. This figure includes both illegal aliens and legal residents.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
