ICE Sets Deportation Record: 483,200 Removed in Fiscal Year 2026

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 483,200 people in fiscal year 2026, the most in the agency’s history, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday. The total beats the previous record of 442,640 deportations set in fiscal year 2025, according to DHS.

ICE also made more than 491,000 immigration arrests during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, including nearly 475,000 administrative arrests, which DHS said is by far the highest total in ICE’s history. CBS News, which first obtained the figures, reported that administrative arrests are those made for civil immigration violations rather than criminal charges.

ICE SHATTERS ARREST AND DEPORTATION RECORDS IN FY 2026

ICE recorded more than 491,000 immigration arrests and 483,000 deportations in FY 2026 — the highest totals in agency history, with more than EIGHT times as many deportations and SIX times as many arrests as in Biden’s first… pic.twitter.com/1CW8jyRXjk

— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) November 12, 2026

‘Unleashed’: Mullin Hails the Numbers

“I couldn’t be prouder of the brave men and women of ICE, who just broke more historic records,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement released by the department. “The total number of ICE arrests in Fiscal Year 2026 was more than all three full fiscal years under Biden combined, as the patriots of ICE work around the clock to make America safe again,” Mullin said, adding that “ICE has been unleashed to target and remove illegal aliens so that we can save American lives.”

According to DHS, the fiscal 2026 deportation total is almost the same as the 486,000 deportations ICE carried out across the three full Biden-era fiscal years, 2022 through 2024, combined. DHS said the total is also more than eight times the just over 59,000 deportations recorded in fiscal year 2021, President Biden’s first fiscal year in office.

CBS News reported, citing DHS, that the new total is about 18% higher than the 409,849 removals ICE recorded in fiscal year 2012 under President Obama, long seen as an agency benchmark, and nearly 78% higher than the 271,484 deportations in fiscal year 2024.

Record Months for Arrests

DHS said ICE made more than 48,000 arrests and carried out 44,000 removals in September alone. August set the single-month arrest record at 50,925, topping July’s 50,208, according to the department.

DHS also said more than 3 million migrants have left the United States under President Trump, and that as of October the administration had deported nearly 1.2 million illegal aliens and arrested more than 1.25 million.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin noted in a post on X that because the border is so quiet, the Trump-era numbers are overwhelmingly interior enforcement, with ICE arresting and removing people inside U.S. cities, while most Obama-era deportations were border cases first apprehended by Customs and Border Protection.

How the Count Works

CBS News reported that ICE’s deportation figures include voluntary departures and returns and do not match governmentwide statistics that separate formal removals from those categories. A Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse analysis published Wednesday found formal removals made up 63% of deportations in July and August 2026, according to CBS News.

The record lands as Democrats prepare to take control of both chambers of Congress in January. Multiple administration officials told CBS News they do not expect the crackdown to slow, and CBS News reported that ICE officials have been instructed to aim for roughly 19,000 arrests per week.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• CBS News
• ICE on X
• Bill Melugin on X

Compiled from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.