These records are from the Department of Homeland Security’s Enforcement Integrated Database (EID) which Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel manage. This is the official repository and most comprehensive source of immigration enforcement data covering not only actions by ICE, but also by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Data are structured to follow each noncitizen from the initiation of their case to final outcome. Records cover the period from 2008 to the present, with some individuals’ immigration histories going back to the 1920s or earlier.

Despite the reassignment of personnel from other agencies to immigration enforcement, the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) and with it, a substantial increase in resources for immigration enforcement activities, the number of immigration removals conducted by DHS has actually declined. During the first full month of Trump’s second term, for example, a total of 30,893 removals were recorded by the agency. During July 2026, the last full month for which data are available, the number declined to 26,908 – a drop of 13 percent.

The Trump administration’s record has also lagged behind a number of past administrations. Analysis of these recently released case-by-case records systematically tracking all individuals DHS has sought to remove since 2008 documents that the greatest number of removals occurred in FY 2024, the final full fiscal year of the Biden administration. The number of removals during the last 12 months under President Trump is also less than in any fiscal year from FY 2008 to FY 2016 during the George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s administrations.

When ICE speaks about removals, in the fine print they usually include removals plus returns. Removals bar an individual from legally returning to the United States for a period of years. For returns, reentry is not legally barred. This broader measure (“deportations”) includes voluntary departures and voluntary returns along with removals. Even with voluntary departures and voluntary returns added to traditional removals, these EID records document that deportations are not as high or are about the same as the number of deportations twenty years ago. Documented deportations during the last two decades peaked at 489,251 in FY 2009 under former President Obama and were also about the same under the final year of President Bush’s administration in 2008.

In July 2026, under the second Trump administration, the number of monthly deportations reached 42,399 far above actual monthly removals of 26,908. Removals made up only 63 percent of total deportations in both July and August 2026. Voluntary departures had risen to 31 percent, while voluntary returns made up the remaining 6 percent. Voluntary departures ordered by Immigration Judges soared during FY 2026. This rise is likely attributable to a number of factors including the sharp rise in asylum denials, increased exigency with which removal proceedings are being conducted and the denial of bond for detained foreign nationals. The increase in voluntary returns may also reflect the use of a “stipulation” that waives an Immigration Court hearing and agrees to deportation, which ICE began using in the spring of 2025.

Further details on these findings and information about this initial court-ordered data release covering 19.9 million individuals are found in the full report.