After numerous attacks on border security from right-wing supporters, President Joe Biden is actually set to surpass the number of deportations that Donald Trump had during his first term as president.
More than 935,000 people were removed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under Trump, while only about 340,000 were removed under Biden. However, between May 12, 2023, and May 12, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security said it deported more than 742,000 people, as reported by KEYE.
Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration attorney, said that Biden's executive order in June denying asylum seekers entry, as well as Title 42, which did not end until this year after turning away migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributed to Biden's high numbers.
"So over the entire administration, the numbers of deportations or rejections under the Biden administration have been elevated due to all of these policies," Lincoln-Goldfinch told KEYE.
Trump's deportation numbers ended at more than 1.5 million, but are closely followed by Biden's 1.49 million, Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, told CNN. She noted that the immigration system is "overwhelmed and under-resourced," as more than 1.3 million people have yet to be deported despite receiving notice.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, told CNN that partnerships between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities could also be a factor to Trump's low numbers after those relationships became strained. He said this tension ramped up during Trump's presidency after beginning during former President Barack Obama's administration.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have deported almost 66,000 people this year, as reported by KEYE.
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