Background
During Donald Trump's second and current tenure as the president of the United States, his administration has pursued a deportation policy generally described by both advocates and detractors as "hardline", [a] "maximalist", [8] and as a "mass deportation" campaign, [5] involving the detention, confinement, and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of immigrants. [5] The Trump administration has claimed that around 140,000 people had been deported as of April 2025, though some estimates put the number at roughly half that number. [9] On August 28, 2025, CNN reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) alone had deported nearly 200,000 people in seven months since Trump returned to office. [10]
On January 23, 2025, ICE began to carry out raids on sanctuary cities, with hundreds of immigrants detained and deported. The Trump administration reversed the policy of the previous administration and gave ICE permission to raid schools, hospitals and places of worship. [11] [12] The use of deportation flights by the U.S. has created pushback from some foreign governments, particularly that of Colombia. [13] Fears of ICE raids have negatively impacted agriculture, [11] construction, [14] and the hospitality industry. [15] The total population of illegal immigrants in the United States was estimated at 11 million in 2022, with California continuing, from ten years prior, to have the largest population. [16] [17] ICE agents conducting raids frequently travel in unmarked vehicles, wear plainclothes and facial coverings, and refuse to identify themselves or present warrants. The deportations have been faced with widespread controversy and protests, such as the one in Los Angeles. [18] [19] [20] [21]
The administration has used the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport suspected illegal immigrants with limited or no due process, [22] [23] and to be imprisoned in El Salvador, which was halted by federal judges and the Supreme Court. [24] [25] It ordered the re-opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to hold potentially tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, [26] [27] but has faced logistical and legal difficulties using it as an immigrant camp. [28] The majority of detentions have been for non-violent matters. [29] [30] [31] Several American citizens were mistakenly and unfairly detained and deported. [32] Administration practices have faced legal issues and controversy with lawyers, judges, and legal scholars. [22] Thousands of people detained by ICE have disappeared from ICE records and their whereabouts are unknown. [33]
Trump had discussed deportations during his presidential campaign in 2016, [34] [35] during his first presidency (2017–2021), and in his 2024 presidential campaign. [36] [37] At the time of the 2016 lead-up to his first presidential term, approximately one-third of Americans supported deporting all immigrants present in the United States illegally, and at the time of the January 2025 start to his second presidential term, public opinion had shifted, with a majority of Americans in support, according to a January 2025 review. [38] As early as April 2025, multiple polls found that the majority of Americans thought that the deportations went "too far". [39] [40] [41] [42]
