McALLEN, Texas — In a recent report, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed that over 270,000 individuals were deported to 192 different countries within a 12-month span. This figure marks the highest annual count in ten years, underscoring some of the financial and logistical hurdles that lie ahead for President-elect Donald Trump as he aims to fulfill his commitment to mass deportations.
ICE, which is the primary agency tasked with the removal of unauthorized individuals from the country, recorded a total of 271,484 deportations in the fiscal year ending September 30. This number is nearly double that of the previous year’s total of 142,580.
This represents ICE’s peak in deportation numbers since 2014, when it recorded 315,943 removals. During Trump’s first term, the highest deportation figure was 267,258 in 2019.
The surge in deportation numbers can be attributed to an increase in deportation flights, including operations on weekends, as well as more efficient procedures for sending individuals back to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Additionally, ICE arranged its first significant repatriation flight to China in six years and saw aircraft operations extend to countries such as Albania, Angola, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Mauritania, Romania, Senegal, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
On the same day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 46,612 arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico in November. This figure indicates a decrease of 18% from 56,526 the previous month and is over 80% lower than the record high of 250,000 arrests in December 2023. The arrests had previously been halved when Mexican authorities stepped up their enforcement measures a year ago, and again when President Joe Biden implemented strict asylum measures in June. The figures for November were the lowest recorded since July 2020, suggesting that an anticipated surge following Trump’s election did not occur right away.
According to the ICE report, Mexico was the top country for deportations, receiving 87,298 individuals, followed by Guatemala with 66,435 and Honduras with 45,923. Central American countries, along with Mexico, are expected to continue to see the majority of deportations due to their governments’ willingness to accept their citizens back and the relative ease of logistics.
However, ICE’s ability to manage these deportations is hindered by limited detention space and personnel. Over the last decade, the agency’s enforcement and removal staff has remained around 6,000 officers, while the immigration court caseload has swelled to approximately 7.6 million, increasing from 6.1 million in just one year.
On average, ICE held about 37,700 individuals per day during this reporting period, a number influenced by congressional budget approvals. Texas is responding to the challenges of limited detention space by offering rural land for use as a staging area for deportations.
During the same timeframe, ICE conducted 113,431 arrests, which represents a 34% decrease from the 170,590 arrests made the previous year. The agency cited a shift in resource allocation towards the U.S.-Mexico border as a factor that diverted attention from interior enforcement activities.
