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By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that in the first two weeks of President Donald Trump's second term, nearly 5,700 illegal immigrants had been deported.
If the new administration continues at that clip, one expert told Newsweek, then it would be on track to deport half the number of migrants removed during former President Joe Biden's last full fiscal year in 2024.
Newsweek reached out to DHS for comment via email Wednesday afternoon.
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Why It Matters
Trump was elected off the back of an election campaign that heavily focused on border security, with accusations that Biden had allowed millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the country, and a promise of mass deportations on levels not seen before. That policy drew positive reactions from voters across the board, with support from both Republicans and Democrats before and after Election Day.
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What To Know
The second Trump administration has been keen to promote its immigration enforcement work over the past two weeks, with almost daily updates on social media on the number of arrests and immigration detainers. Tuesday's video, which included the number of deportations and removals, is the first time such data has been published since January 20.
According to DHS, 5,693 people were deported or removed to 121 countries in the two weeks between Inauguration Day until February 3, 2025. The last monthly figures available from Biden's presidency, for November 2024, show 48,970 total removals, averaging around 12,200 a week.
The Trump administration's plans for deportations saw a bumpy start, testing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela on their willingness to accept repatriated detainees.
Earlier this week, the first flights to an expanding detention center at Guantanamo Bay took place, although the migrants held here may not count towards removal statistics, as they are still under U.S. custody.
While it also dealt with record numbers of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration also rapidly increased its deportation efforts over the past four years. Over 4.6 million people were removed from the U.S. between January 2021 and November 2024, according to government data, with March 2022 seeing the highest number of people leaving, at 147,080.
During his first term, Trump oversaw 2.1 million removals. The highest monthly total came in in October 2020, when 91,120 immigrants were either deported or removed.
Across his two terms, former President Obama oversaw 5.3 million people removed from the country. Monthly data is not available for the first five years of Obama's time in office, but his first year, in 2009, saw the largest total of the entire eight years, at 973,937.
Not all of those removed will have been arrested deep within the country by ICE. Many will have been detained at the southwest or northern borders by Border Patrol and effectively turned around or sent back home. Others will have been in detention for multiple years before removal orders are given.
For President Trump, the data will matter when it comes to fulfilling his sweeping immigration promises. With an estimated 11 million people in the U.S. without legal status, all of whom Trump promised he would deport, there is a long way to go in achieving his aim.
Border czar Tom Homan recently insisted that illegal immigrants who had committed or were accused of serious or violent crimes would be the focus of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations for now while the White House asks Congress for more funding, both for officers and additional detention space, with reports some of those arrested had already been released.
What People Are Saying
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, an immigration expert at Ohio State University, told Newsweek: "I am doubtful that they could produce an accurate report of ICE's enforcement actions so quickly. The video was released on Tuesday morning and claims to report data through Monday. I would be astonished if an agency that has never proven itself capable of releasing accurate data in a timely manner could process into its detention system people as late as Monday afternoon, then someone at DHS headquarters could count and produce this video by first thing the following morning."
DHS in its post on X, formerly Twitter: "In his first two weeks in office, [President] Trump delivered on his promise to the American people to begin mass deportations of violent criminals within our borders."
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, on X: "Our DHS enforcement officers have arrested thousands of dangerous criminal aliens. Arrests in just the last few days include convicted murders, rapists, child abusers, drug traffickers, MS-13 gang members, cartel members. Under President Trump, America is no longer a safe haven for violent criminals."
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, on X: "We don't know the breakdown of removals, interior versus border. ICE was averaging 143 interior removals/day in FY 2025. So if half of these removals are from the interior, then it would mean a doubling in the rate of interior removals. But it appears that most were border."
What's Next
Pressure on the administration to ramp up its enforcement activities is already increasing, with some supporters replying to social media posts from DHS that, while the current rate of removals is a "good start," the numbers should be higher. Homan has said it will take time to increase operations, but the administration is likely to continue its publicity around arrests across the U.S. in the coming days and weeks to show it is acting on its promises.
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