The Biden Administration Is on Pace to Match Trump Deportation Numbers—Focusing on the Border, Not the U.S. Interior
JUNE 27, 2024
POLICY BEAT
By Muzaffar Chishti and Kathleen Bush-Joseph
The Biden administration took office amid heightened debate in some circles over the merits and tactics of deportations, yet it is on track to carry out as many removals and returns as the Trump administration did. The 1.1 million deportations since the beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2021 through February 2024 (the most recent data available) are on pace to match the 1.5 million deportations carried out during the four years President Donald Trump was in office. These deportations are in addition to the 3 million expulsions of migrants crossing the border irregularly that occurred under the pandemic-era Title 42 order between March 2020 and May 2023—the vast majority of which occurred under the Biden administration. Combining deportations with expulsions and other actions to block migrants without permission to enter the United States, the Biden administration’s nearly 4.4 million repatriations are already more than any single presidential term since the George W. Bush administration (5 million in its second term).
In This Article:
In response to record numbers of irregular arrivals, the administration is advancing policies to disincentivize unauthorized crossings
Enforcement guidelines prioritize unauthorized immigrants who recently crossed the border or pose threats to national security or public safety
For the first time since the early years of the Obama administration, most deportations have been returns
Diplomatic negotiations have pushed countries to accept their deported nationals
The presidential election features a showdown of different visions for immigration enforcement
In the 12 months after Title 42 ended, the Biden administration ramped up deportations under the standard U.S. immigration framework, Title 8, and removed or returned 775,000 unauthorized migrants—more than in any previous fiscal year since 2010. From May 2023 through March 2024, 316,000 migrants were processed via expedited removal, more than in any prior full fiscal year. And for the first time since FY 2010, in FY 2023 more migrants were returned directly across the border, mostly to Mexico, than were removed from the U.S. interior. Whereas President Barack Obama was labeled by some as the “deporter in chief,” this new trend may earn President Joe Biden the title of “returner in chief.” Notably, authorities have deported migrants to more than 170 countries during the current administration, which may be the most ever.
This enforcement record comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented scale and demographic shifts in migrant arrivals, as more are arriving as families and coming from all parts of the world. In FY 2023, more than half of U.S.-Mexico border encounters were of people from countries other than Mexico and northern Central America, up from just 3 percent in FY 2010 and 12 percent in FY 2020. For legal and logistical reasons, it is harder to deport families and nationals of far-flung countries than single adults from Mexico or northern Central America. And the sheer scale of arrivals is different. From FY 2021 through February 2024, authorities encountered unauthorized migrants about 9.4 million times, more than three times as many as under Trump (although many encounters were of migrants who had attempted to cross multiple times). Border officials must process people each time they are encountered, straining government resources. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for example, has reported that its agents conducted fewer removals because they were deputized to process migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border after Title 42 took effect.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-deportation-record
