RIYADH: Of the 980,000 migrants deported during the first 18 months of US President Donald Trump’s second term, only 20 percent were individuals with a criminal conviction, according to a report published on Thursday by the Migration Policy Institute think tank.
The study, authored by Marc Rosenblum, a former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics, provides one of the most comprehensive assessments of immigration enforcement under Trump’s second administration.
The report found that the US Department of Homeland Security, through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), carried out about 980,000 deportations between Jan. 20, 2025, and July 31, 2026.
Only around 190,000 of those deported had criminal convictions, despite Trump’s repeated pledges to target what he has described as “the worst of the worst” criminals living in the United States.
Majority of deportees had no criminal convictions
According to the report, 80 percent of all deportations during the period involved people with no criminal record.
Among immigrants who had lived in the United States for two years or more, 71 percent of those deported had no criminal conviction. The trend also extended to long-term residents, with 61 percent of deportees who had lived in the country for a decade or longer having no criminal record.
Even among formal removals, where criminal offenders have traditionally represented a larger share of deportees, only 31 percent had criminal convictions. The report said that was significantly lower than the 44 percent average recorded between fiscal years 2009 and 2021.
The findings suggest that immigration enforcement has increasingly focused on migrants living inside the country rather than on recent border arrivals.
Deportations rise but remain below early-2000s levels
The report said annual deportation levels under Trump’s second term have surpassed those recorded during former President Joe Biden’s administration and Trump’s first term.
However, deportations remain well below the levels routinely seen during the early 2000s.
Of the nearly 980,000 deportations recorded during the first 18 months of Trump’s second term, about 580,000 were classified as removals, 300,000 as enforcement returns and 110,000 as administrative returns.
The study also found a sharp increase in immigration arrests within the US interior. Deportations stemming from interior arrests rose from around 8,000 per month in early 2025 to about 19,000 per month by mid-2026, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all deportations nationwide.
Meanwhile, encounters along the US-Mexico border have fallen to historically low levels, shifting enforcement priorities deeper into the country, according to the report.
Expanded enforcement apparatus
The findings come as the Trump administration has significantly expanded immigration enforcement resources.
Congress approved $240 billion in immigration enforcement funding for DHS through fiscal year 2029, enabling ICE to hire an additional 12,000 officers, more than doubling the agency’s operational workforce.
The administration has also increasingly relied on voluntary departures and enforcement returns to speed up removals and avoid heavily backlogged immigration courts.
According to the report, about 170,000 deportations involved ICE grants of voluntary departure or return, a record level that allowed migrants to leave without going through formal deportation proceedings.
The study also questioned administration claims that more than three million immigrants have left the country through a combination of deportations and voluntary “self-deportations.” Researchers estimated total departures of immigrants who had lived in the US for at least one year at between 790,000 and 1.9 million.
Debate over crackdown continues
Trump has argued that his immigration crackdown and deportation campaign are necessary to improve public safety and enforce immigration laws.
The administration says expanded interior arrests help restore the rule of law and deter illegal immigration.
Civil rights groups and immigration advocates have sharply criticized the policies, arguing that they have eroded due process protections, fostered fear among immigrant communities and increased concerns about racial profiling.
The administration’s immigration measures have faced multiple legal challenges with mixed outcomes in US courts.
Separately, the State Department said this week that the Trump administration has revoked more than 300,000 US visas during the president’s second term.
Among the revocations criticized by rights advocates were those involving pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting Israel’s war in Gaza and foreigners whose social media posts referred to the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
• With Reuters