Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record 483,200 people in fiscal year 2026, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday, Nov 12. ICE also reported more than 491,000 immigration arrests in the same year, also a record.
The fiscal year ended Sept 30. The deportation total beat the prior record of 442,640 in fiscal 2025, and it was about 78 percent higher than the 271,484 deportations in fiscal 2024, the last full fiscal year under President Joe Biden. It was also about 18 percent higher than the 409,849 removals in fiscal 2012, a longstanding benchmark from the Obama years.
ICE said nearly 475,000 of the arrests were administrative arrests, for civil immigration violations. In September alone, ICE made more than 48,000 arrests and carried out 44,000 removals, according to DHS.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said fiscal year 2026 saw the highest number of ICE deportations and arrests for any year in ICE's history. He credited President Donald Trump's leadership and said ICE has been unleashed to target and remove people in the country illegally.
The numbers, in context
Here is the breakdown DHS reported, via DHS:
- Fiscal 2026 deportations: 483,200
- Fiscal 2025 deportations: 442,640
- Fiscal 2024 deportations: 271,484
- Fiscal 2026 arrests: more than 491,000, including nearly 475,000 administrative arrests
- August 2026 arrests: 50,925, a monthly high
As of October, DHS said it has now deported nearly 1.2 million people and arrested over 1.25 million since Trump returned to office. Those are cumulative totals, not just fiscal 2026.
At the same time, border apprehensions fell sharply. DHS reported nearly 98,700 apprehensions of people illegally crossing the border during the fiscal year that ended Sept 30, the lowest annual total since 1968. The administration points to that as proof the border crackdown is working.
What the record does not settle
A record total does not mean every case was counted the same way. A new analysis published Nov 11 by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, found that formal removals fell during the second Trump administration, while voluntary departures ordered by immigration judges grew more than tenfold. TRAC said formal removals accounted for 63 percent of deportations in July and August 2026.
In plain terms, DHS counts deportations broadly, including voluntary departures and returns, not just formal removal orders carried out by ICE. That does not make the 483,200 number false, but it does mean it is not directly comparable to older removal counts without that caveat. The DHS release also did not break down how many of those arrested had criminal histories, a breakdown earlier administrations have reported.
Critics of the crackdown, including Democrats in Congress, say the scale and methods have gone too far. Supporters say the numbers show Trump is keeping a central campaign promise, to enforce immigration law after years of lax enforcement.
Recent operations show the same focus on criminal targets. In a weeklong Houston operation, ICE arrested 422 suspected illegal immigrants, including 262 with criminal convictions, according to ICE figures reported by Fox News. One man was wanted for murder in Colombia, and others had convictions for arson and other serious crimes, ICE said. That operation was a recent example, not the source of the Nov 12 record total.
The debate now is not whether enforcement rose. It did, by a lot. The debate is whether the record pace is sustainable, and whether voters who backed tougher borders still back the methods being used to get there.
Sources:
- DHS: ICE Breaks Records in Fiscal Year 2026, With Most Arrests and Deportations in Agency's History
- WGHN: ICE deportations and arrests hit record high
- Fox News report via aggregator: ICE arrests 422 illegal migrants in Houston sweep, including suspects wanted for murder, arson