A pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants helped propel President Donald Trump back to the White House.
"It's going to be called a Trump mass deportation," Trump said during a campaign rally on Aug. 12, 2024. "We will begin the largest deportation operation in American history."
He appointed a border czar, Tom Homan, to increase expulsions.
"I will run the biggest deportation operation the country has ever seen," said Homan, a week after Trump won the election.
The Trump administration has embraced a shock and awe approach to immigration enforcement designed for maximum publicity. The homeland security secretary has attended and posted video of early morning arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump has deployed more armed forces to the border and used military planes to ferry away immigrants. He has also sent alleged Venezuelan gang members to a terrorism prison in El Salvador before they could have a day in court.
But federal data shows there has not been a significant jump in immigrants deported since Trump took office. Mass deportations have not occurred. The numbers show removals are lagging behind levels during the Biden administration.
"Frankly I was shocked," said Sue Long, co-founder of the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse that tracks immigration statistics at Syracuse University.
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Early on the Trump administration touted the number of daily immigration arrests but has never shared detailed deportation figures.
Long was able to calculate recent deportation figures using a cumulative number deep inside a spreadsheet ICE is required by law to keep updated for Congress.
"They're lower," Long said. "Their daily average is simply 10 percent lower."
The White House told Scripps News that because border crossings are down, so are deportations. It is an argument Homan also makes.
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"We're down border crossings 96 percent, so we don't have millions of people coming across the border," Homan told reporters at the White House. "Just to compare our removal numbers to (Biden's) is just ridiculous."
Homan also told the New York Times, "We need to increase the arrests ... They're not high enough."
There are still an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.
Homan says more funding from Congress would boost immigration enforcement efforts. Costs are high to arrange and transport individuals out of the U.S. to their home countries. Logistics are another challenge, as countries must agree to receive deported immigrants.
