ICE Deportation Statistics: Removals, Destinations, and Costs

ICE deportation statistics for fiscal year 2024 show 271,484 removals to 192 countries, nearly double the 142,580 recorded in FY 2023 and the highest annual total in more than a decade.¹ Preliminary FY 2025 numbers point higher still: through late September 2025, removals had already exceeded 319,000, putting the year on pace to set another record.

Removals by Fiscal Year

ICE reports its activity on the federal fiscal year, which runs from October 1 through September 30.² The trend line over the last five years is steep decline followed by rapid escalation:

FY 2021: roughly 59,011 removals, a historic low tied to pandemic restrictions, reduced court operations, and narrowed enforcement priorities.
FY 2022: 72,177 removals as operational capacity resumed.
FY 2023: 142,580 removals, nearly doubling the prior year.³
FY 2024: 271,484 removals to 192 countries.¹
FY 2025 (partial): more than 319,000 removals through late September 2025.

The FY 2023 jump coincided with the May 2023 expiration of Title 42, the pandemic-era public health order that had allowed the government to expel migrants at the border since March 2020 without formal immigration proceedings. Once encounters ran through standard immigration law again, each departure carried a formal removal order, and the count reflected it.

Arrests vs. Removals

Arrests and removals are separate figures, and they moved in opposite directions between 2023 and 2024. Administrative arrests hit 170,590 in FY 2023, a 19.5% jump.³ In FY 2024 they dropped to 113,431 even as removals nearly doubled, reflecting a shift toward processing the large volume of people already in the system rather than generating new arrests.¹

The gap between the two figures is partly structural. ICE can apprehend people faster than the courts can adjudicate their cases, and the timing of a removal often has more to do with when a case finishes than when the arrest happened.

Where Deportations Originate

ICE splits its work between interior enforcement (arrests at workplaces, homes, jails, or courthouses) and border removals (people first apprehended by Customs and Border Protection and transferred to ICE for deportation). The border side has grown dramatically larger.

In FY 2023, interior operations produced 46,705 removals against 95,875 border-related removals.³ By FY 2024, border security removals had jumped to 180,476, dwarfing the roughly 91,000 removals from public safety, national security, and other interior categories combined.¹

That ratio may shift. In January 2025, the administration revoked the Biden-era executive orders that had established tiered enforcement priorities focused on national security threats, recent border crossers, and people with serious criminal records. The replacement order broadened ICE’s mission to any noncitizen present without authorization.⁴ A separate directive rescinded the “protected areas” policy that had discouraged enforcement actions at schools, churches, and hospitals.

Criminal History of Those Removed

The share of deportees with criminal records varies sharply depending on whether you look at arrests or removals. ICE’s FY 2024 report counted 88,763 individuals removed with criminal histories, about 32.7% of that year’s total.⁵ Among people arrested that year, the share was far higher: 81,312 of the 113,431 arrestees, or about 71.7%, had either a conviction or pending charges.¹

In FY 2023, ICE removed 43,665 people with at least one criminal conviction and another 18,139 with pending charges at the time of arrest.³ The most common offenses in removal records that year were DUI (over 20,000 charges or convictions), assault (roughly 14,000), and drug offenses (about 8,000).⁶

ICE also tracks specific high-priority categories. In FY 2024, the agency reported removing 237 known or suspected terrorists, 3,706 known or suspected gang members, and eight individuals accused of human rights violations.¹

Top Destination Countries

Mexico receives the largest share of deportees each year, followed by Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Colombia. Those five countries account for the bulk of removals, a pattern driven by geographic proximity and existing repatriation agreements. FY 2024 also saw the geographic footprint widen: ICE reported removing people to 192 different countries that year.¹

ICE Air Operations, which runs the agency’s fleet of chartered and commercial deportation flights, reported more than 2,250 removal flights to 79 countries between January 2025 and January 2026. That is a 46% increase over the prior year’s roughly 1,544 flights and included first-time deportation flights to 25 countries, with growth concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

When a country refuses to take back its nationals or delays travel documents, the United States can impose visa sanctions under Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Secretary of Homeland Security notifies the State Department, which can then restrict or halt visa issuance for that country’s citizens.⁷ Countries that have faced these sanctions include Cambodia, Eritrea, Burma, Laos, and Sierra Leone, though the active list changes as cooperation shifts.

Detention Capacity and the Court Backlog

Two operational numbers shape everything else in the deportation pipeline: how many people ICE can hold at once, and how quickly immigration courts can decide cases.

The daily detention population exceeded 37,000 by the end of FY 2024 and rose above 41,000 by early February 2025. The Department of Homeland Security’s FY 2026 budget request seeks $11.3 billion for ICE, with funding for 50,000 detention beds.⁸ That is a substantial jump from roughly $8.7 billion in FY 2023.⁹ The stated administration goal is 100,000 beds.

The court system is the tighter constraint. As of February 2026, more than 3.3 million cases were pending before the nation’s immigration courts, with roughly 570 active judges. Average wait times have stretched to nearly 900 days, and asylum cases account for close to 40% of the pending docket. Many people in removal proceedings wait years for a hearing; some are released on bond or placed on ankle monitors, while others remain in custody. The persistent gap between arrests and completed removals is largely a function of that bottleneck.

Removals vs. Returns, and What a Removal Costs Legally

The headline numbers count formal removals, not returns. A removal is a deportation order issued by an immigration judge or through an expedited process, and it goes on a person’s permanent immigration record. A return is a supervised voluntary departure without a formal order, less common in recent years and far less punishing.

After a formal removal, the standard bar on reentry is ten years for most people and twenty years for those removed after an aggravated felony conviction. Attempting to reenter after a removal order is a separate federal crime carrying up to two years in prison for most people, up to ten years for those with a prior felony, and up to twenty years for those with a prior aggravated felony.¹⁰ Criminal reentry prosecutions have become a growing share of the federal criminal docket.

1
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Annual Report FY 2024
2
USAGov. The Federal Budget Process
3
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Releases Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Report
4
The White House. Protecting The American People Against Invasion
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Releases Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Report
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Annual Report FY 2023
7
eCFR. 22 CFR 41.123 – Discontinuance of Granting Nonimmigrant Visa Pursuant to INA 243(d)
8
Department of Homeland Security. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement FY 2026 Congressional Budget Justification
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Department of Homeland Security. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Budget Overview FY 2024 Congressional Justification
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 8 – 1326 Reentry of Removed Aliens