US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deported fewer immigrants in February 2025 than they did during the same month a year ago under the Biden administration. At the same time, the number of border violators has decreased significantly under Trump.
This was reported by NBC News, citing data from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to these data, in February - the first full month of Trump's term in office - about 11,000 migrants were deported, compared to just over 12,000 in February 2024 - during the presidency of Joe Biden.
It is indicated that one of the main reasons for the increase in the number of deportations under the Biden administration was the increase in traffic from attempts to cross the border, both legal and illegal, in 2024 compared to 2025.
People who were first apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which usually means being apprehended at the border, accounted for the majority of deportations in February 2024 under Biden.
If we remove recent border crossings from the total and count only immigrants who were deported after first being apprehended by ICE, nearly 4,300 immigrants were deported in February of this year, compared to about 2,100 in February 2024.
One of Trump’s key promises was on immigration, which he reiterated in his inaugural address: “We will begin the process of sending millions and millions of criminal aliens back to where they came from.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Head Tom Homan has consistently said that the administration’s deportation policy is “worst first,” meaning that people with criminal records or suspected national security threats will be prioritized.
Last year, ICE told Congress that as of July, it had identified 435,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records who were not in custody.
Spokespeople for Customs and Border Protection, ICE, and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP and ICE, did not respond to questions about how many of those 435,000 people had been arrested by ICE or deported since Trump took office. The spokespeople also did not respond to NBC News’ questions about last month’s deportation figures.
About half of the people deported in February had no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, according to the data. The number of immigrants without criminal records arrested by ICE and deported has increased only slightly since the end of the Biden administration, from 223 in December to 390 in February, according to the data.
While the overall number of deportations is lower than under Biden, Trump’s immigration policies have been successful in other ways. For example, the number of border violators has dropped significantly.
Border apprehensions are reportedly at their lowest since tracking began 25 years ago. One reason is that the Trump administration has ended the CBP One program, which allowed migrants to schedule asylum appointments via a phone app while waiting at the border. Migrants are now being turned away at the border even as they approach legal ports of entry, a policy that immigration advocacy groups have challenged in court.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, immigration enforcement arrested more than 20,000 immigrants in Trump’s first month in office, a 111% increase over the average monthly arrests during the previous fiscal year.
According to open agency data, ICE is holding 10 percent more detainees under Trump than it did at the end of the Biden administration. As of the end of February, ICE was holding nearly 44,000 immigrants, according to the data.
Not every ICE arrest results in immediate deportation, or even necessarily deportation at all.
Some of those arrested by ICE, including those under the Trump administration, have been released into the United States under a monitoring program because ICE detention facilities are running out of space.
The Trump administration has been pushing Congress to allocate more money to expand detention facilities and staff Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is also using federal prisons and is exploring the use of military bases as potential locations for expanded detention facilities, which could allow ICE to arrest, detain, and deport more people.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, US President Donald Trump has spent 50 days in office. The White House said that during this time, the Trump administration has already achieved 50 significant wins.
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