Trump's deportation numbers: A comparison to past US presidents
NEW YORK (PIX11) — During the first days of his second term in the White House, President Donald Trump issued multiple executive orders on immigration. However, the Trump administration has yet to scratch the surface with immigration arrests and deportations.
'On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history,' Trump had promised during a campaign rally last year at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
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Since Trump took office, ICE has conducted immigration enforcement raids in New York City and the surrounding areas, much to the concern of local officials and immigration advocates. The tri-state area is home to over 1 million undocumented individuals, with New York City making up nearly half of that population, according to the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
Trump's immigration efforts echo the most extensive deportation effort in American history, an Eisenhower-era campaign in 1954, History.com reported. More than 1 million people were apprehended during the Eisenhower-era immigration raids, according to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).
'Though short-lived, the operation used military-style tactics to remove people of Mexican descent—some of them American citizens—from the United States,' the NASW wrote.
Trump has praised the Eisenhower-era raids without directly using the name. He promised voters he would begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history, exceeding the 1950s.
Data from the Cato Institute, a libertarian and nonpartisan think tank, suggests that Trump still has far to go to uphold his promise of the largest deportation in American history.
Under President Joe Biden, 545,252 undocumented people were removed from the United States for the fiscal years 2021- 2024, according to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operation Statistics. During Trump's first term, there were 975,694 removals from 2017 through the end of 2019, according to DHS data. The agency did not provide removal numbers for 2020.
The table below shows the number of removals by other past U.S. presidents, according to the Department of Homeland Security and Cato Institute. DHS defines 'removal' as the process of formally deporting an individual from the United States.
President
Removals
Political Party
Barack Obama
3,066,457
Democrat
George W. Bush
2,012,539
Republican
Bill Clinton
869,646
Democrat
Donald J. Trump
551,449
Republican
Franklin D. Roosevelt
171,939
Democrat
Ronald Reagan
168,364
Republican
Calvin Coolidge
164,913
Republican
Woodrow Wilson
162,371
Democrat
George Bush
141,326
Republican
Harry S. Truman
140,553
Democrat
Herbert Hoover
110,275
Republican
Dwight D. Eisenhower
110,019
Republican
Jimmy Carter
105,378
Democrat
William H. Taft
83,150
Republican
Gerald R. Ford
82,316
Republican
Richard M. Nixon
81,022
Republican
Theodore Roosevelt
76,390
Republican
Warren G. Harding
60,652
Republican
Lyndon B. Johnson
48,737
Democrat
John F. Kennedy
23,969
Democrat
William McKinley
17,642
Republican
Grover Cleveland
9,069
Democrat
Benjamin Harrison
2,801
Republican
This story comprises reporting from The Associated Press.
Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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