ICE’s Deportation Record Raises Questions of Scale and Accountability

MAMargaret Ashby · Conservative · Nov 12 at 1:25 PM

ICE deportations 2026 reached 483,200, according to the agency. ICE also made more than 491,000 immigration arrests in the fiscal year ending September 30. Both totals are records in the agency’s reported history. The deportation figure exceeds ICE’s prior high of 442,640 in fiscal 2025. The arrest total includes nearly 475,000 administrative arrests for civil immigration violations rather than criminal charges. CBS News obtained the figures. Their release places the administration’s central enforcement campaign at a consequential juncture.

The numbers are large, but their boundaries matter. ICE’s total is not a full accounting of removals by every federal agency. Nor does it break out formal removals, voluntary returns, and voluntary departures as broader government statistics may. A federal-records analysis by Syracuse University’s TRAC found that formal removals accounted for 63 percent of ICE deportations in July and August. The balance consisted of voluntary departures and returns. Thus, “deportation” in this tally covers more than one kind of departure. A record in ICE’s series does not, by itself, establish a record under every possible national measure.

The trend is nonetheless sharp. DHS says the 2026 total is about 18 percent above ICE’s 409,849 removals in fiscal 2012. It is nearly 78 percent higher than the 271,484 recorded in fiscal 2024, Biden’s last full fiscal year. ICE’s arrests roughly doubled from the 239,890 reported for 2025. They were more than four times the 113,430 reported for 2024, according to figures carried by the Associated Press. Arrests reached 50,925 in August, then remained above 48,000 in September. The figures show an operation of sustained scale, not a brief burst at the end of the year.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin praised ICE personnel. He said the agency had been “unleashed” to remove people and protect Americans. The administration has emphasized cases involving serious alleged or proven crimes. These include a Mexican national charged in Virginia in connection with the death of a two-year-old child. They also include a Honduran national whom DHS says was convicted of attempting to kill her newborn son. Those cases illustrate the grave risks officers may encounter. They cannot tell us what was true of hundreds of thousands of other arrests. The release also lacks the criminal-history breakdowns that prior administrations have provided. That leaves the public with less information about who was arrested and on what basis.

Other analyses complicate the picture. A Migration Policy Institute estimate cited in reporting put the number of people deported by ICE and Customs and Border Protection at roughly 980,000 over the relevant period. The institute estimated that about one-fifth had criminal convictions. Separately, an immigration-law researcher argued that comparisons across administrations omit more than two million expulsions under Title 42 during the Biden years. Those were recorded as expulsions rather than removals. These are not competing counts of precisely the same thing. They show why comparisons need a common definition and a common set of agencies. They also need comparable treatment of expulsions and departures.

There is also a political and institutional story. President Trump has acknowledged that enforcement may have been too severe in some cases. He referred to people working in sectors such as landscaping and hospitality. At the same time, Stephen Miller, the architect of many restrictive policies, has taken the White House chief of staff position. His promotion has been read as a sign of continuity. The president’s remarks have prompted attention to whether enforcement will be adjusted. The administration also has substantial resources. Its 2025 tax-and-spending law allocated roughly $170 billion to immigration and border security operations, with $75 billion earmarked for ICE over four years. That funding, and the reported target of about 19,000 arrests a week, make oversight more than a matter of rhetoric.

The next test will be transparency and review. Democrats are set to take control of both chambers of Congress in January. Some have said they intend to scrutinize ICE’s spending and methods. The agency has not published detailed monthly enforcement reporting covering ICE and Border Patrol since January 2025, according to one report. Officials and lawmakers will have to decide whether fuller records can verify the current totals. The dispute over deportation data has already prompted an oversight lawsuit. Separately, federal reporting has documented detentions of U.S. citizens. It notes that deporting a citizen is illegal. That makes reliable identity checks and accessible remedies essential, not optional (E1). A broader account of the administration’s campaign also describes sharply differing estimates of departures and deportations. It reinforces the need to distinguish government counts from independent estimates (E2).

The administration says tougher enforcement serves public safety. Critics point to arrests without criminal convictions, disputed accounting, and allegations of misconduct and inadequate detainee care. Reporting cited 148 open allegations of misconduct or possible criminal wrongdoing in internal records for fiscal years 2023 through 2025. Allegations are not findings, but they warrant careful examination. Trump’s own comments have raised the question of whether the policy went too far. For my part, I would like to see a clear accounting before either side declares victory. A number this consequential ought to come with definitions and enough underlying detail to let the public judge it.

That is what comes next: not merely another monthly tally, but a fuller explanation of who was arrested and which departures were formal removals. The public also needs to know how criminal histories were counted and how enforcement is being supervised. The records support the claim that ICE’s activity reached unprecedented levels in its own series. They do not settle every question about the campaign’s reach, effectiveness, or fairness. Congress has both the authority and the obligation to ask those questions. The administration has reason to answer them plainly.

Update, November 12, 2026: The reports add that September set a record for ICE arrests, and that the fiscal-year arrest count exceeded the combined total for Biden’s three full years in office. Trump has floated legal status for some working, taxpaying immigrants without criminal records, while Mullin signaled openness to a DACA-related measure but rejected amnesty. DHS has also offered some departing immigrants airfare and $3,000. Separate reporting identified recent hires with past misconduct or employment concerns and said an ICE officer who fatally shot a Colombian immigrant in Maine had bypassed full training.