Deportations of immigrants in the United States rose last year to the highest level since 2014, according to a US government report released Thursday, part of a broader push by outgoing President Joe Biden to reduce illegal immigration.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported about 271,000 immigrants to 192 countries in fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, according to the agency’s annual compliance report.
The count was the highest since Biden took office in 2021 and higher than any year of President-elect Donald Trump’s 2017-2021 administration, according to US government statistics. Biden, a Democrat, took office promising to roll back Trump’s more restrictive immigration policies, but he fought high levels of illegal immigration and gradually tightened his enforcement approach.
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Trump, a Republican, won another term in the White House in November by promising to deport a record number of illegal immigrants in the United States as part of a broader crackdown.
Some 11 million immigrants lacked legal status or had temporary protections in 2022, according to estimates by the Government and expert groups, a figure that some analysts now place between 13 and 14 million.
The incoming Trump administration plans to leverage resources from across the federal government to push forward with the planned deportation effort, Reuters reported last month. Trump attempted to increase deportations during his first term with limited success.
ICE removed 267,000 immigrants in fiscal year 2019, fewer than most years under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. When looking at both deportations by ICE and returns to Mexico by US border authorities, Biden had more in fiscal year 2023 than any Trump year.
While deportations increased in fiscal year 2024, the number of detentions of immigrants living in the United States illegally by ICE fell 33% compared to the previous year, according to the agency’s annual report, which attributed the decline to a greater number of agents who assist in border security operations.
With information from Reuters
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