Falls short of campaign pledge to deport 1 million per year

Obama-era record of 432,000 formal removals annually remains unbroken

Students, activists and local politicians gather in a Queens neighborhood in New York in August to protest the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. [Getty Images]
Students, activists and local politicians gather in a Queens neighborhood in New York in August to protest the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. [Getty Images]

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The United States deported about 980,000 immigrants in the 18 months following the launch of Donald Trump's second administration in January last year, the Washington Post reported Thursday (local time).

The Post cited a report written by Marc Rosenblum, the Department of Homeland Security's former chief statistician, who stepped down last July.

The tally covers both formal "removals" and "returns" as defined by the DHS. Formal removals involve an official order of removal and the physical expulsion of an individual from the United States, carrying administrative and criminal penalties for any future unauthorized reentry. Returns, by contrast, cover cases where individuals leave the country without a formal removal order — through voluntary departure, withdrawal of an application for admission or similar means.

When limited to formal removals only, the Trump administration averaged about 380,000 per year — slightly below the 392,000 annual average recorded during Barack Obama's first term, the report found. It added that the single-year record for formal removals was set in fiscal year 2013 under Obama, when 432,000 people were removed.

Trump has championed a hardline immigration policy and made a campaign pledge to deport 1 million immigrants per year.

The Trump administration's refusal to release detailed deportation statistics had made it difficult to assess the full picture, the Post said, adding that some immigration hard-liners have criticized Trump for moving too slowly on deporting undocumented immigrants.


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