Summary
The Trump administration claims that 2 million undocumented immigrants have been "removed or self-deported" since he took office. A large part of this number relies on self-reported data, which experts say can be unreliable. The Department of Homeland Security has not regularly shared detailed deportation statistics as previous administrations did.
Key Facts
- The Trump administration reports 2 million undocumented immigrants were removed or self-deported since President Trump took office.
- 80% (1.6 million) of these are counted as "self-deported" based on survey data.
- Experts caution that using survey data for deportation numbers can be unreliable.
- The survey data comes from the Current Population Survey, which surveys about 60,000 households.
- Critics say this survey data should not be used to estimate the number of foreign-born people.
- DHS has stopped regularly publishing some deportation data that was available in previous administrations.
- DHS reported almost 330,000 removals and 447,600 returns in fiscal 2024.
- President Trump’s administration introduced a "self-deportation" app but did not provide data on its usage.
