During Donald Trump's second term as president of the United States, his administration has pursued a deportation policy generally described as "hardline",[a] "maximalist",[31] and as a "mass deportation" campaign,[30] involving the detention, confinement, and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of suspected undocumented immigrants and their family members.[30] 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.[32] 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.[33]
The use of deportation flights by the U.S. has created pushback from some foreign governments, particularly that of Colombia.[34] The total population of undocumented immigrants in the United States was estimated at 11 million in 2022, with the top three states of California, Texas, and Florida constituting over half of the total population.[35][36] The deportations have been faced with widespread controversy and protests, such as the one in Los Angeles.
At the time of the January 2025 start to Trump's second presidential term, a majority of Americans supported deporting all immigrants present in the United States illegally.[42] As early as April 2025, multiple polls found that the majority of Americans thought that the deportations went "too far".[43][44][45][46]
"in the last days of the Biden administration", Border Patrol led by Gregory Bovino had conducted "Operation Return to Sender" in Kern County which was described in The New York Times "as a blueprint for the broader immigration crackdown that was to come".[47] United Farm Workers v. Noem filed by the ACLU alleged Border Patrol "agents went on a fishing expedition, dispensing with reasonable suspicion and stopping people based on assumptions about their race or occupation instead", "made warrantless arrests", people arrested "were expelled to Mexico after being coerced to accept voluntary departure", "agents did not identify themselves", and "agents denied (...) repeated requests to call a lawyer".[48] In April 2025, Judge Jennifer L. Thurston granted a preliminary injunction forbidding Border patrol from conducting warrantless stops and acting without reasonable suspicion in the Eastern District of California.[49][50]
Trump's campaign heavily relied on fearmongering against immigrants.[51][52][53] He repeatedly used racial stereotypes and dehumanizing rhetoric to paint the influx of illegal immigrants as an assault—an "invasion"[54]—on the American public,[55][56] citing baseless accounts of their proclivity for crime.[57][58][59] On the campaign trail in December 2023, Trump said immigrants coming to the U.S. are "poisoning the blood of our country", a remark that quickly drew a rebuke from scholars, historians, and his political opponents likening the phrase to racial hygiene rhetoric and language used by Adolf Hitler.[60][61][62]
The New York Times reported that Trump planned "an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration", including "preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled", and that it "amounts to an assault on immigration on a scale unseen in modern American history". The New York Times also reported that Trump's advisors are preparing a 'blitz' strategy designed to overwhelm immigrant-rights lawyers, and that his plans would rely on existing statutes without the need for new legislation, although such legislation would also likely be attempted.[63] Economic reports from the Brookings Institution and Peterson Institute for International Economics have found that Trump's plans would result in a decrease in employment for American-born workers and result in "no economic growth over the second Trump administration from this policy alone"[64] while other estimates have it shrinking the American gross domestic product by 4.2-6.8%.[65]
Policy intentions and proposals
During his rallies, Trump said he would revoke the temporary protected status of Haitian migrants living legally in the US and deport them back to Haiti.[66] Trump did not rule out separating families with mixed citizenship status.[67]
The American Immigration Council says that a "highly conservative" estimate of Trump's plan would cost at least $315 billion, or $967.9 billion over a decade, and be unworkable without massive outdoor detention camps.[63]
Trump told a rally audience in September 2024 that the deportation effort "will be a bloody story".[68] He has also spoken of rounding up homeless people in blue cities and detaining them in camps.[69] The Trump team will also attempt to overturn the Flores settlement that prevents the indefinite holding of children.[63]
Trump has promised to reinstate his ban on entry to individuals from certain Muslim-majority nations, and have the Centers for Disease Control reimpose COVID-era restrictions on asylum claims by asserting immigrants carry infectious diseases such as the flu, tuberculosis, and scabies.[63] Trump has said he would build more of the border wall, and move thousands of troops currently stationed overseas to the southern border.[70]
Other proposals included revoking temporary protected status for individuals living in the United States, ending birthright citizenship for persons born in the United States to foreign parents, using coercive diplomacy by making immigration cooperation a condition for bilateral engagement, reinstating 'Remain in Mexico' and reviving 'safe third country' status with several nations in Central America, as well as expanding it to Africa, Asia, and South America.[63][71]
On January 22, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the administration was rolling back an Obama-era directive that had protected illegal immigrants in sensitive areas such as hospitals, places of worship, courtrooms, funerals, weddings and schools. A spokesperson stated that the Trump administration was not looking to tie the hands of law enforcement.[72][73]
On January 23, Huffman sent out a memo stating that immigrants admitted temporarily by the Biden administration could be removed.[74]
On February 19, the Trump administration issued a stop-work order to prevent the Office of Refugee Resettlement from funding organizations providing legal services to unaccompanied minors entering the United States; Mother Jones said the order stopped legal representation for 25,000 minors and education programs on rights for 100,000 others.[75]
As deportation flights have increased, airlines have increasingly sought to hide details about their planes from flight trackers.[78]
On September 5, a federal immigration court ruled that undocumented immigrants living in the US are ineligible to be released on bond, potentially subjecting millions of immigrants including longtime residents to mandatory detention while their cases are processed. Former immigration judge Dana Leigh Marks called the policy change a "cynical move to try to force people to litigate their cases while they're detained."[79]
In November, federal officials announced plans to hire thousands of "skip tracers" to conduct online and in-person verification of the home and work addresses of up to 1.5 million people living in the US.[80]
Speaking in a press conference on January 7, 2026 following the killing of Renée Good, JD Vance promised an escalation in immigration enforcement actions and policies. He said that over 10,000 additional ICE agents would be deployed in the United States, using personal data harvested by private contractors to identify targets for arrest. He said that agents would go "door to door" in the coming months to carry out Trump's mass deportation agenda.[80]
Diversion and support from other government agencies
In July, the Department of Defense increased the number of authorized military personnel designated to support ICE from 1,200 to 1,700 and rotated in National Guard personnel while sending Marines and Naval Reserve personnel to their home stations.[83]
In August, Trump froze training for non-ICE federal agencies through the end of the year to accommodate immigration enforcement hires.[84]
In September 2025, the Cato Institute found that ICE had diverted over 25,000 federal, state and local law enforcement officers from their jobs. Of those 25,000, 14,498 were from federal agencies and 8,501 were state and local police.[85] FBI data from October 2025 found that nearly 1/4 of FBI agents, including nearly half in major offices, had been reassigned to support immigration enforcement.[86]
By November 2025, immigration cases had overtaken drug and fraud cases in US courts. The number of immigration cases tripled on an annual basis while new fraud and drug cases fell by 17% and 27% respectively.[87]
Revocation of legal status
In May 2025, the Supreme Court permitted the Trump administration to revoke the protected status of 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants.[88] This action was described as "the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history".[89]
The second Trump administration has expanded immigration detention in the United States as part of the administration's mass deportation policy. 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.[90][91] Fears of ICE raids have negatively impacted the agriculture,[90] construction,[92] and hospitality industries.[93] ICE agents conducting raids frequently travel in unmarked vehicles, wear plainclothes and facial coverings, and refuse to identify themselves or present warrants.[94][95][96][97] The administration ordered the re-opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to hold potentially tens of thousands of illegal immigrants,[98][99] but has faced logistical and legal difficulties using it as an immigrant camp.[100] The majority of detentions have been for non-violent matters.[101][102][103] Several US citizens have been detained and deported.[104] Thousands of people detained by ICE have disappeared from ICE records and their whereabouts are unknown.[105]
Deportation
37,660 people were deported in Trump's first month in office, including both removals and returns, far fewer than the monthly average of 57,000 deportations under Biden in 2024.[106] CBP has reported a drastic decrease in encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, suggesting that a decrease in border crossings could explain the decrease in deportations.[107] 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.[32] 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.[108]
An October 27, 2025 DHS press release claimed that more than 2 million people had been removed from the country, with 527,000 being deported while 1.6 million "voluntarily self-deported".[109][110] The Center for Migration Studies called the statement "a self-serving fantasy", describing it as based on a flawed interpretation of population data and that a more realistic number was around 1/10th of claimed self-deportations.[111] The Brookings Institution estimated around 310,000 deported and 210,000 to 405,000 voluntary departures due to enforcement activity.[112][113]
Under immigration law, the government may deport individuals to third countries only when it is "impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible" to return them either to their home countries or send them to any previously designated alternative countries.[114][115] In 1994, the United States ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture, prohibiting the expulsion of any person to another country where there are "substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture".[116]
In February 2025, the DHS directed immigration officers to review all cases of people granted protections against deportation to their home countries to determine if they could be detained and removed to a third country.[117] Soon after, ICE deported a Guatemalan man to Mexico two days after he said in court that he had been abducted and raped in Mexico.[118]
A report on deportation to "safe third country" from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats, published in February 2026, said "in some cases paying more than one million dollars per person". The report "mentioned, several of the governments receiving U.S. funds have well-documented records of corruption, human rights abuses and human trafficking. Without oversight, it is unknown whether U.S. funds are facilitating corruption or other abuses." According to the report, "Countries With Third Country Deportation Agreements or That Have Received Third Country Nationals" include:[119][120]
According to documents obtained by CBS in August 2025, Honduras and Uganda signed agreements with the United States to accept deportees from other countries. Honduras agreed to accept up to 200 deportees from other Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, including families with children, while Uganda will accept deportees from other African countries, provided they have no criminal records.[121][122]
United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem touring the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador on March 26, 2025
On March 14, 2025, the Salvadoran government agreed to detain up to 300 alleged members of Tren de Aragua in return for US$4.76 million. The agreement incorporated several conditions including that none of the funds be used for legal counseling or referrals for the detainees.[123][124] On March 15, deportation flights operated by Global Crossing Airlines[125] carrying over 260 immigrants from Venezuela and El Salvador arrived in El Salvador where the immigrants were taken into custody at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). Neither the US nor Salvadoran governments offered any immediate evidence that those deported had been charged with crimes or had connections to any gangs.[126] A 60 Minutes investigation failed to find any U.S. or foreign criminal charges against 179 of those deported, only finding serious criminal charges against about a dozen.[127] A Cato Institute investigation determined that more than 50 of the Venezuelans deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration had come to the United States legally and broken no immigration laws.[128] US District Judge James Boasberg ordered that any planes in the air carrying those covered by his order be turned back and those individuals returned to the US. The Trump administration allowed the flights to proceed in spite of his order.[129][130][131] On April 8, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that Judge James Boasberg was without jurisdiction to issue his order, thus the order was a nullity as coram non judice.[132]
On March 28, US District Judge Brian E. Murphy issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting the DHS from deporting immigrants to a nation other than that covered in immigration proceedings without a "meaningful opportunity" to make a claim under the UN Convention against Torture.[133][134] Despite this order, on March 31 the US sent 17 immigrants it alleged without providing evidence to be members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 on US military planes to El Salvador to be confined at CECOT.[135][136]
African deportations
On April 18, 2025, Murphy granted a preliminary injunction requiring the government to follow the law by giving written notice before third-country removals and allowing claims under the UN Convention Against Torture. On May 7, 13 Laotian, Vietnamese, and Philippine immigrants learned that they would be deported the same day to Libya. Murphy prevented the flight with an order clarifying that the flight would violate the injunction.[137] On May 20, the DHS deported a group of immigrants from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan.[138]
The Trump administration expanded third-country deportations of immigrants to Africa, with many of them having no connections to the continent.[139] His attempted deportations to Libya and South Sudan were described by legal experts as violating federal law prohibiting "non-refoulment" which prohibits sending people to dangerous countries where they are at risk of possible torture or persecution.[140] On June 23, 2025, the Supreme Court granted a stay of Murphy's injunction, along ideological lines, allowing the administration to continue deporting individuals to countries other than their own while the case proceeds in the district court.[141] In May 2025, eight men, from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, and Vietnam, were told by officials that they were being transferred from an ICE facility in Texas to a facility in Louisiana. However, the plane actually flew to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.[142] The men were shackled to a shipping container for multiple weeks before being later deported to South Sudan in July 2025.[142][143]
Later that same month, a further five men were deported to Eswatini,[144] where they were detained in the Matsapha maximum security correctional complex. Reportedly, all the men, between the ages of 44 and 70, were living in the US after completing sentences for criminal offenses.[145] Ten more US detainees arrived in early October.[146] The US Department of State's 2023 human rights report on Eswatini noted credible reports of human rights violations including torture of some detainees.[147][148] One of the deportees, a Jamaican man who had been allowed to stay legally in the US since 2021 after serving out a prison sentence for murder, was taken into ICE custody while complying with his reporting requirements. He was transferred between detention facilities in New York, Louisiana and Texas and put on and then taken off a flight to Jamaica. The Jamaican government later stated it would have received him and he was in fact returned to Jamaica from Eswatini.[146]Human Rights Watch claimed Eswatini had agreed to accept up to 160 deportees from the US in return for US$5.1 million,[149] an amount Eswatini's finance minister later confirmed in testimony before the nation's parliament.[150] In a statement to the New York Times, DHS said that immigrants to the US who committed crimes should expect to “end up in [Salvadoran detention facility] CECOT, Eswatini, South Sudan, or another third country,”[151] while an attorney for two of those detained claimed “the United States is outsourcing their detention ... to purge the United States of immigrants and refugees and to make a spectacle of deportations.”[145]
On August 14, a coalition of legal and human rights groups asked the High Court of Eswatini to declare the agreement allowing the deportations and detentions unconstitutional, stating, "this litigation signals to the continent and the world that African nations cannot serve as dumping grounds for unresolved issues."[152] The International Organization for Migration (IOM) also offered assistance to the deportees.[153]
On October 15, a Cuban man began a hunger strike to protest his deportation from the US and confinement in Eswatini.[154]
In mid-August 2025 seven migrants were deported to Rwanda. Rwanda had agreed in June to accept up to 250 migrants from the US, providing them with training, health care and accommodation,[155] in return for US$7.5 million.[149] The IOM also offered its assistance to these migrants. The Rwandan government provided no further information about the seven individuals. One activist told Agence France-Presse that Rwanda had agreed to accept US migrants in return for the money and an advantage in US-brokered talks between it and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[156] These deportations took place despite concerns about Rwanda's human rights record; the US Department of State's most recent human rights report for Rwanda noted numerous concerns including arbitrary killings and arrests, torture and degrading treatment.[157]
On September 5, 2025, the US flew 14 migrants from Alexandria, Louisiana to Ghana, including at least five from Nigeria and The Gambia who had immigration court orders preventing their deportation to their home countries.[158] The detainees were reportedly restrained in straitjackets for the 16-hour flight and not informed of their destination either before or after their arrival. Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama confirmed an agreement with the US to accept deportees on September 10.[159] On September 12, Asian Americans Advancing Justice filed suit on behalf of the five Nigerians and Gambians, four of whom were detained in Dema Camp under substandard conditions. Ghana had sent one former detainee on to The Gambia even though, as a gay man, the US immigration court held he could not be sent there under the provisions of the international Convention Against Torture.[160] In late September eight to ten of these migrants were taken to Togo where they were left to fend for themselves without identity documents or formal entry. Some of these migrants alleged they had been held in substandard conditions in Ghana and told they would be taken to a hotel before they were expelled.[161]
In her decisions on the lawsuit, US District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan called the US government's actions "a very suspicious scheme" intended as "an end run around the United States' obligations"[162] but that despite "the government’s cavalier acceptance of Plaintiffs’ ultimate transfer to countries where they face torture and persecution” her court did not have jurisdiction to rule on the case.[163][164]
On November 10, 2025, US Senator Jeanne Shaheen sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking for an explanation for a $7.5 million payment to the government of Equatorial Guinea in exchange for that nation agreeing to accept US deportees. The letter noted Equatorial Guinea's record of corruption and human rights violations, including several documented in State Department human rights and human trafficking reports. The payment, made from a fund intended for international relief to migrants and refugees, exceeded total US aid to Equatorial Guinea over the past eight years.[165] It followed approaches and meetings between high US government officials and Equatorial Guinean first vice president Teodoro Nguema Obiang, son and presumed successor of the nation's president. The younger Obiang reportedly received benefits from the US despite his court settlement there, conviction in France and subjection to international sanctions for corruption.[166]
Costa Rica
In the evening of February 20, 2025, 135 immigrants to the U.S. from Eastern European nations including 65 children arrived in Costa Rica. Five days later another group of 65 migrants including 16 children arrived.[167] Local authorities immediately loaded them onto buses for a six-hour ride to the Temporary Migrant Care Center near the border with Panama. The center is a former wood products facility that had been extensively remodeled in 2017.[168] The U.S. would reportedly pay for their transportation while the IOM would offer assistance with any onward migration.[169]
The office of Costa Rica's independent ombudsman (Defender of Inhabitants) met and interviewed the immigrants and issued a report detailing problems with their treatment. The ombudsman's office claimed immigrants had arrived in "visible distress" and were unaware of their destination after leaving the U.S.; were not allowed to contact overseas relatives; had their identity documents taken from them; and did not receive proper medical or other services on arrival. Costa Rica's security minister Mario Zamora stated that the immigrants did receive proper care on their arrival to the temporary care center and that the ombudsman's report was based on limited contact with immigrants at the airport, a contention the ombudsman rejected.[170][171][172]
As of late April, 85 deportees remained in Costa Rica. They were allowed to leave the care center and permitted to remain in the country for three months, after which they were to have accepted voluntary repatriation or obtained legal status. Without some legal status, however, they were not allowed to obtain work.[173]
On June 24, 2025, the Constitutional Chamber of the Costa Rican Supreme Court[es] ruled that the 28 migrants, including 13 minors, remaining at the care center be released; given an appropriate legal status in Costa Rica; have their economic and social needs evaluated and receive services to meet them; and be reimbursed for any damages suffered as a result of their confinement, all within 15 days.[174][175]
Earlier, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said his nation was receiving immigrants from the U.S. because it was "helping the economically powerful brother from the north who, if he puts a tax on the free trade zones, will wreck us".[176]
Panama
Panama agreed to accept US deportees from countries that US cannot deport directly to. These countries include Afghanistan, China, Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. Once in Panama, they are governed by Panamanian law and are treated as immigrants. Several have requested to be repatriated to their countries of origin. Panama is currently housing those who do not want to be repatriated in an immigrant camp. It is unclear what their further processing will involve.[177]
In the evening of February 12, 2025, the first of several U.S. military flights carrying deportees landed in Panama. President Mulino stated some 360 deportees/immigrants would arrive on these flights, be transferred to a camp in Darién and either repatriated or moved to still other countries at U.S. expense. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated it was providing support to these immigrants at Panama's request, as did the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.[178]
The Panamanian government initially confined these immigrants in the Decapolis Hotel. Attorneys and journalists were largely unable to contact them. Those immigrants able to communicate with journalists said they were asylum seekers who feared persecution or worse if returned to their countries of origin, though U.S. Department of Homeland Security representatives claimed none had asserted such fears during U.S. processing or custody. Legal representatives for the migrants later stated the majority of those flown to Panama had never been given the opportunity to make an asylum claim through the standard "fear interview" required by US law.[179] The immigrants also stated at least one of their number had attempted suicide, while another suffered injuries attempting to escape from confinement.
One of the immigrants, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 27-year-old English teacher from Iran, said she had converted from Islam to Christianity, which is a capital offense in Iran.[180] With a pattern of persecution of Christians in Iran, Ghasemzadeh feared that she and other Iranian Christians would face the death penalty if she were to return there and has not agreed to be repatriated.[180][181] Ghasemzadeh also said a U.S. soldier who she was helping with translating information for other immigrants asked her not to mention that they were being taken to Panama[177] and that she had never been asked about or allowed to make a claim for asylum in the U.S.[182] Matthew Soerens, U.S. Director of Church Mobilization for World Relief, noted that in 2024, "30,000 of the 100,000 refugees resettled in the U.S. were Christians fleeing persecution."[181] Peyman Malaz, chief operating officer of the PARS Equality Center, noted that "Those who arrive at the border are often the most persecuted and desperate, such as Iranian Christians".[180] Other deported immigrants included a former Afghan military officer, ethnic minorities and LBGTQ+ individuals, and one young adult who had been separated from her family at the U.S. border.[183]
On the night of February 18, Panamanian authorities moved some 170 of the immigrants to the San Vicente camp four hours from Panama City, which previously housed people detained after crossing the Darien Gap. Journalists and attorneys were still unable to contact the immigrants.[184] In the meantime, at least one immigrant, reportedly a woman from China, escaped confinement,[185] while another woman from Ireland voluntarily returned there.[186] As of February 28, 2025, there were 9 additional Iranian Christian converts, including three children, detained in the camp. None have agreed to be repatriated to Iran.[182]
Panamanian politicians and commentators raised objections to these operations, stating that they were contrary to Panamanian and international law and that Panama should not become "the Guantanamo of Central America".[187][188] In mid-March 2025, Panamanian president Mulino said he did not know if more immigrant flights from the U.S. would arrive in Panama but that he was "not very inclined to do it, because they leave us with the problem".[183]
In late February 2025, lawyers representing immigrants being held in the Panamanian camp expressed concern that they had not been allowed to communicate with their clients, who they said had been flown out of the U.S. without being screened for asylum. Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino told a press conference he did not know why immigrants were being prevented from contacting legal counsel.[189] On March 1, lawyers filed suit against Panama before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) charging that the U.S. violated the group's asylum rights, challenging Panama's authority to detain them and asking for emergency orders that none of the detainees be deported to their countries of origin. A separate suit against DHS was anticipated.[190]
On March 8, 2025, Panama released the 112 immigrants from San Vicente, gave them permits to remain in the country for 30 days (renewable for an additional 60 days), and bused them to Panama City. On their release, immigrants reported substandard conditions in the San Vicente camp, including limited access to medical treatment; limited communication with families, legal representatives and journalists; and lack of information about their status and possible onward destinations. Several immigrants with possible claims to asylum said those claims had not been considered and that Panamanian authorities had told them "we do not accept asylum." Immigrants' legal representatives expressed concerns that the move was an attempt by Panama to wash its hands of the individuals the US sent to it and to affect the outcome of the case before the IACHR.[191][192] Representatives for the migrants stated that as of mid-May 2025 about half had left Panama, mostly for Mexico, while others remained in shelters provided by UNICEF or local churches.[179] As of late May none of the few applications migrants made for asylum in Panama had been approved while at least nine were rejected, most summarily.[193] Later, the migrants were allowed to remain in Panama until December 2025 but not allowed to work. While some eventually obtained asylum, others continued to face difficulties and they and representatives of charitable organizations complained of governmental indifference and a lack of support.[194]
Bhutan
"More than two dozen" refugees or the descendants of refugees who fled persecution in Bhutan were deported to Bhutan where Bhutan then forced refugees out. Those deported included an individual born in a refugee camp in Nepal who had never lived in Bhutan.[195][196][197]
On January 29, 2025, Trump ordered the preparation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to house tens of thousands of immigrants.[206] Since its opening in 2002, Guantanamo Bay previously held 779 detainees, mostly without charges or trial. Detainees had their legal rights restricted and were subjected to torture. The detention camp previously cost half a billion dollars per year, making it the most expensive prison in the world.[207]
In February, 178 Venezuelan immigrants were being held in the camp, of whom 126 had criminal records.[208] On February 20, a Homeland Security official stated "177 of the 178 migrants at Guantánamo Bay were deported...The one other person was sent to a detention facility in the U.S."[209]
The Trump administration has faced difficulties using Guantanamo as an immigrant detention facility. These included lack of planning, cost, uncertainty about whether ICE or the DoD would be responsible for the immigrants, the lack of policy guidance around support for facilities and services for immigrants, and the questionable legality of the transfers. A bipartisan congressional delegation was scheduled to travel to the camp, but was cancelled by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.[210]
As of March 3, the population of the camp was around 20,[210] and as of March 13, no immigrants were being held at Guantanamo.[211] By early April several dozen immigrants "on final orders supposedly to head to their final destination" were being temporarily held at Guantanamo, including Nicaraguans who had been added to a deportation flight originating in Louisiana.[212]
In June 2025, after administration efforts to dramatically increase detention of migrants,[213] Politico reported on plans to begin sending thousands of those detained to Guantanamo Bay. Those considered for transfer reportedly included 800 Europeans, some from nations considered to be cooperative in receiving their deported citizens.[214] According to U.S. Senator Gary Peters, detaining migrants at Guantanamo Bay cost $100,000 per day per detainee.[215] Days later, those plans appeared to have been put on hold and administration spokespeople denied their existence.[216]
Flights
The United States cannot unilaterally send deportation flights to other countries; there must be an established agreement with each nation to accept the deportation flights, and they must have diplomatic ties. Some countries, such as China, Cuba, and Venezuela, have largely refused to accept these flights. ICE has historically utilized handcuffs and chains to return deportees, which is stated to be a protection measure; however, since the start of the 2025 deportation flights, multiple countries have raised issues with the use of handcuffs and chains.[34] Legal and human rights observers have noted that such flights, to nations possibly under tariff and other threats from the U.S. and where some immigrants are detained without regular access to counsel, family communication or identity documents, may lack transparency and violate immigrants' rights.[217]
Conditions
The majority of deportation flights are undertaken by private contractors. A typical flight is staffed with more than a dozen privately contracted security guards, two nurses, an ICE officer, and flight attendants. Flights can carry more than 100 detainees, who are restrained for the duration of the flight. Flight attendants with Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX), a contractor for deportation flights, shared concerns with ProPublica about their experiences on board those flights. Attendants were given no instructions as to how to evacuate restrained passengers in an emergency, and some were informally told to save themselves and other government contractors while abandoning deportees. They also raised concerns over inadequate air conditioning and lavatory facilities, as well as rules prohibiting them from speaking with, making eye contact with or feeding detainees.[218] Leaked GlobalX data reviewed by The Guardian showed more than 1700 flights, mostly between US airports, carried migrants between January and May 2025. In that time GlobalX transported 1000 children, including 500 under the age of 10 and 22 infants. Migrants were moved repeatedly to locations far from their families, communities and legal representatives; not informed of their destinations; and reportedly threatened with long-distance transfers and separation from family if they did not agree to accept voluntary departure. Some 3600 were transferred five or more times including some who had been moved up to 20 times. DHS representatives denied these allegations without providing specifics.[219]
Colombia
On January 26, 2025, Colombian President Gustavo Petro barred two U.S. military planes carrying deported Colombian nationals from landing in the country, requesting that deportees be "treated with dignity" and sent to Colombia on civilian aircraft. Trump and Petro both threatened the other with tariffs. Later that day, U.S. officials assured Colombian officials that they would not place the deportees in handcuffs nor photograph Colombian citizens aboard the flights after they were returned, and that deportees would be escorted by Department of Homeland Security officials instead of military personnel.[220] The White House then announced that Colombia had agreed to allow the planes to land.[221] Former Colombian president Iván Duque criticized Petro's initial decision and stated on X: "It is urgent that the Petro government put the country above its populist prejudices and anti-US rhetoric and quickly establish protocols for receiving deported Colombians."[222]
Ecuador
Since 2005, the US has deported thousands of Ecuadorians. In 2023, 18,449 Ecuadorians were deported. In 2024, 13,589 Ecuadorians were deported, according to the Ecuadorian ministry of foreign affairs.[223][224]
From January to March 2025, 1,828 Ecuadorians had been deported so far[225] on 18 flights that travel Thursdays and Tuesdays each week.[226] The usual trip goes from Texas to Guayaquil.[224]
The second Trump administration continued the Biden administration's deportation of Salvadoran immigrants to their country of nationality. In 2024, an average of ten deportation flights per month arrived in El Salvador from the US.[227] As of early February 2025, a Salvadoran government official stated there had been no massive deportations from the US to El Salvador.[228]
Kilmar Armando Abrego García, a Salvadoran with withholding of removal status in the United States, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador on March 15, 2025, an action the Trump administration admitted was an "administrative error"[229] while also accusing him of being a member and leader of the MS-13 gang.[230] Despite a withholding of removal prohibiting his removal to El Salvador due to the risk of persecution, he was detained by ICE and transferred to the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) in Tecoluca.[230] His wife, a U.S. citizen, and their disabled son filed a lawsuit over the deportation and on April 4 a court ordered the government to return him to the U.S. by April 7.[231] On April 10, the Supreme Court ordered Trump to facilitate his return to the United States, finding his deportation to El Salvador had been improper.[39]
In a whistleblower complaint filed in June 2024, government attorney Erez Reuveni alleged multiple instances of misconduct around these deportations involving senior Trump administration officials. These included misleading and withholding information from the courts, willfully violating injunctions, keeping information and guidance about injunctions from government agencies, instructing him not to inquire or communicate in writing about possible violations of court orders and making arguments and statements known to be false. Reuveni was fired after refusing to sign an appeal brief in Abrego Garcia's case that included assertions and arguments he believed to be untrue.[232][233]
Guatemala
In late January 2025, a Guatemalan governmental official stated that three military flights from the US carrying 265 individuals had arrived in Guatemala.[234]
On August 29, 2025, CNN reported the administration planned to return 600 Guatemalan minors who had arrived in the US unaccompanied.[235] The Guatemalan government stated it had reached a bilateral accord with the US, presented by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during her visit to Guatemala in June, that would guarantee the safe return and family reunification of Guatemalan minors in the US who otherwise might have been placed in custody and provide the returnees with Guatemalan government assistance. The National Immigration Law Center and the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights filed a class action suit to block the removals of the Guatemalan minors. After a hearing on August 30, District of Columbia District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ordered that no unaccompanied Guatemalan minors be removed from the US for at least 14 days.[236] Government lawyers confirmed that after the judge's ruling children who had been put on planes headed to Guatemala, at least one of which might have taken off but then returned to the US, were removed and returned to the Office of Refugee Resettlement.[237]
On September 18, federal district judge Timothy J. Kelly extended Judge Sooknanan's emergency order to all Guatemalan minors who entered the US alone and have not exhausted their immigration appeals.[238] Judge Kelly's order enjoins the government from removing these minors from the US. In his order, Judge Kelly noted there was no evidence any of the children's families had asked for their return as the government had claimed; referenced a whistleblower report to Congress that at least 30 of the children had been abused in Guatemala;[239] and warned the government against taking his decision as an invitation to remove minors from other countries, some 2,000 of whom are in government facilities.[240] Judge Kelly was appointed by Donald J. Trump.
Mexico
On January 23, 2025, Mexico denied a United States military plane the ability to land, causing the plane to never take off while two others bound for Guatemala did. Later that week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted that Mexico accepted four deportation flights in one day from the ICE Air Operations and government-chartered flights.[241]
On February 14, 2025, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that 13,455 immigrants had been deported to Mexico, 2,970 of which did not originate from Mexico.[242]
The Guardian reported two deportation flights carrying about 80 Russian asylum applicants left Louisiana for Cairo in June and August 2025. In Cairo, the deportees were forced onto planes to Moscow. Russian security services interrogated some en route; at least one, a military deserter facing a 10-year sentence in Russia who claimed to have entered the US lawfully, was tied to his seat. Another Russian asylum seeker reported poor conditions and treatment in the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi that had caused him to lose 24 kilos. Activists called the deportations "cruel and shameful" and asked Canada to offer asylum to Russian government opponents under US deportation orders. DHS declined to comment on these deportations.[244]
Mixed-status immigrant families with U.S. citizen children
In February 2025, a mixed-status family was removed from the U.S. to Mexico after stopping at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, about 90 miles from the border. The parents in the family are Mexican citizens, and several of the children are U.S. citizens. The family had been living in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and were en route to Houston, where their 10-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen recovering from brain cancer, had been receiving treatment. Despite having previously been allowed to pass the checkpoint with a doctor's letter, during their February trip they were detained and questioned, the daughter's medication was allegedly confiscated, and they were held overnight at a federal processing facility near the border before being walked into Mexico the next day. The mother said "[we] were confronted with the hardest decision to make, which was separate permanently from our children, or be deported together".[245][246]
A two-year-old U.S. citizen, V.M.L., was taken into custody with her mother and older sister during a "routine check-in" with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Louisiana on April 22, 2025.[247] A "next friend" of V.M.L. petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus to obtain toddler's release, and for a temporary restraining order preventing her deportation.[248] The government responded that V.M.L.'s mother was being deported and wished to take V.M.L. with her to Honduras, and presented the court with a hand-written letter saying so, allegedly written by the mother. On April 25, Judge Terry Doughty asked to speak with the mother to confirm this and consider the petitions. But ICE had already put the mother and two girls on a plane,[247] and although they were still in flight to Honduras when Doughty asked to speak with the mother, ICE did not respond until after they had deplaned in Honduras.[248] Doughty ordered a hearing for May, saying that it was "In the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process".[247]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated that another family, with U.S. citizen children ages four and seven, was deported from Louisiana the same day. The ACLU added that one of the children has a rare form of metastatic cancer and "was deported without medication or the ability to consult with their treating physicians–despite ICE being notified in advance of the child's urgent medical needs".[247]
The administration has focused its catch and revoke program on foreign students who have engaged in pro-Palestinian speech, characterizing them as pro-Hamas.[249] On March 25, 2025, the state department issued a directive stating that visa applicants would be ineligible if their social media activity indicated that they were "advocating for, sympathizing with, or persuading others to endorse or espouse terrorist activities or support a designated foreign terrorist organization", and that similar activity could result in the revocation of existing visas.[250] On April 9, 2025, the DHS announced it will screen social media accounts for what it deems to be "antisemitic".[251][252]
On April 8, 2025, in response to the large number of student visa revocations, Inside Higher Ed started tracking the number of known visa revocations for students and recent alumni, and mapping the colleges and universities reporting visa revocations. As of the morning of April 9, the tracker showed 419 students and recent alumni from over 80 institutions of higher education across the U.S. In many cases, immigration authorities have not notified the institutions of the reasons for the visa revocations.[253]
Court ordered returns
As of 24 June 2025, there have been four deportees that US courts have ordered be returned to the US. They include:
Kilmar Ábrego García a Salvadoran who was deported to the CECOT prison in El Salvador despite a court order barring his deportation to El Salvador and despite never having been charged or convicted of a crime. He has since been returned to the US to face newly filed charges of human smuggling. He is currently awaiting trial.[254]
Jordin Alexander Melgar-Salmeron who was deported to El Salvador despite a court order barring his deportation to El Salvador. A US Court of Appeals has since ordered his return, but he has not been returned yet.[254]
Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a Venezuelan who was deported to the CECOT prison in El Salvador despite a court order barring his removal. He has not yet been returned.[255][254][256]
O.C.G. a Guatemalan who was deported to Mexico despite claiming to have been raped and held for ransom there. He has since been returned to the US and is in ICE custody.[254][257]
Several other migrants have been deported in violation of law and/or court orders. Guatemalan migrant Maribel Lopez, who has a US citizen child and a pending asylum case, was wrongfully deported to Guatemala and then returned to ICE custody in September 2025.[258]Britania Uriostegui Rios, a Mexican transgender woman, was deported to Mexico in violation of an immigration court order in November 2025. Her wrongful deportation was discovered only after her lawyers made inquiries. ICE has said it would allow her to reenter the US; she sued to force ICE to release her from custody on her return.[259][260]Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was detained by ICE while attempting to fly from Boston to Texas to visit her family for Thanksgiving. She was sent to a Texas detention facility and then to Honduras despite an emergency federal court order prohibiting her deportation.[261] On December 7, federal agents appeared at Lopez's family's Austin, TX home but left after two hours.[262] The administration was reported to have apologized for deporting Lopez Belloza.[263] Following the administrations refusal to facilitate Lopez Belloza's return,[264]Richard G. Stearns ordered the administration "to make amends".[265][266]
During the second presidency of Donald Trump, federal immigration enforcement policies and operations have resulted in the documented arrest,[267] death,[b] detention,[274] and removal[275][276] of American citizens. As of October 2025, the U.S. government was not tracking the number of detained or missing citizens, but ProPublica confirmed at least 170 citizen detentions by that time.[277] The deportation of U.S. citizens from the United States is illegal.[c][278]
Congressional Democrats have challenged the Trump administration to justify the detention of U.S. citizens and have been blocked by the Trump administration from investigating, passing laws limiting abuses, or overseeing immigration actions affecting U.S. citizens.[290] Trump, other Republicans, and administration officials alternately confirmed,[274] defended,[291] and denied[291] reports of American citizens being arrested, deported, and detained. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was confirmed by independent review and U.S. judges to have violated laws including the Immigration Act of 1990 by interrogating and detaining people without warrants or review of their citizenship status.[267]
The Trump administration's treatment of U.S. citizens has raised concerns among civil rights advocates.[267] Some activists have compared the impact of ICE on American citizens to concentration camps such as Manzanar, where Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II.[292][293] Between 110,000 and 120,000 U.S. citizens[294] were imprisoned by the U.S. government during the internment of Japanese Americans for political reasons from 1942 to 1945.[292][293] The Cato Institute called Trump's immigration regime damaging to American interests.[267] Legal and immigration experts have stated that these legal violations were caused by Trump administration pressure to deport people quickly without safeguards.[285]
Impact
Immigrant communities
According to the Brazilian news outlet g1, Brazilian illegal immigrants living in the US report that they are skipping work and avoiding sending their children to school for fear of arrest. They are also using messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, to share real time information on the movements of ICE. In some instances this has led to panic due to misinformation, such as a false report of ICE drones flying over neighborhoods. Social organizations, such as Boston's Brazilian Worker Center, have hosted information meetings where immigrants can learn their rights and set up custody documents for their children in case the parents are deported. Many of these meetings are held online since people are afraid to go out of their homes.[295]
An 11-year-old girl in Gainesville, Texas named Jocelyn Carranza committed suicide after students at her school started a rumor that ICE would deport her family.[296]
After a man named Maher Tarabishi was arrested by ICE in October 2025, his 30 year-old son Wael, who was diagnosed with Pompe disease, suffered multiple serious health emergencies. The Tarabishi family called for Maher's release on humanitarian grounds, as Maher was Wael's primary caregiver and his detention compromised Wael's health.[297] Wael died of complications of Pompe disease on January 23, 2026.[298]
Education
Some school districts, such as in California, New York, Georgia, and Illinois, have already issued sweeping directives stating that district teachers, officials and administration were not to comply with ICE officials or allow them on school grounds unless they were presented with a valid court-issued warrant.[73] Several schools reportedly had parents and guardians of students calling shortly after the inauguration about concerns of ICE agents being able to access school grounds.[299] An article from WBTV shared that on March 5, students from Monroe High School located in Monroe, North Carolina walked out in order to protest against ICE raids in schools to share their support for their peers.[300] In June 2025, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced plans to implement a security perimeter around graduation sites to protect students and families from ICE.[301]
In 2024, the American Immigration Council estimated the cost of conducting a million deportations at $967.9 billion in federal government spending over a decade.[302]
Deportations are a lucrative business and the WSJ reported in May 2025, how billions are spent each year in detaining people, in frequently moving them from one of the one hundred US detention centers to the next, and in providing toiletries, food and telecommunication services. In FY 2023 enforcement and removal operations alone cost $4.5 billion.[303]
After it was announced that Trump was utilizing military planes to deport individuals, it was estimated that each flight cost over $850,000. Each of the recent deportation flights had about 80 people on board.[304][305] In February 2025, the Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations released a report which found that deals with five governments; Equatorial Guinea,Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini and Palau have cost more then $32 million due to agreements where governments are offered money, political favor or both to accept deportees.[306]
Impact on growth and productivity
Construction, manufacturing, agriculture, service, and childcare are among the sectors that employ large numbers of illegal immigrants.[307][308][309][310]Adam Tooze said that the planned deportations would cause "a series of rolling shocks to a large part of the U.S. economy" and would also affect people outside those sectors by raising prices.[308] Manuel Cunha Jr., the president of the Nisei Farmers League in California, said, "If you took away my workforce, you wouldn't eat.... The country will stop, literally stop because the food system won't move."[311] Lack of childcare would prompt some people to leave the workforce.[310]
Shortly after Trump took office in January 2025, rumors of mass deportations and fears of increased ICE raids impacted the agriculture sector with massive drops in field workers who showed up for work the day after the inauguration.[72] Preliminary data from the Census Bureau showed that 1.2 million immigrants had left the US workforce between January and July 2025. The agricultural sector was particularly affected, with watermelon, cantaloupe, corn and cotton harvests delayed and crops wasted. Contractors in the construction sector were also unable to fill job openings. The largest regional loss of construction workers was in California, where more than 13,000 workers were lost.[312]
Healthcare
After it was reported that ICE might arrest people at hospitals, hospitals in Washington[313] and Georgia[314] advised staff to alert security guards or supervisors if they were questioned by ICE. The states of Texas and Florida required healthcare facilities to "to ask the immigration status of patients and tally the cost to taxpayers of providing care to immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization".[315]
In Minnesota, ICE personnel entered a hospital without a judicial warrant. They handcuffed one patient to their bed, and remained in the patient's room for one day. After 28 hours, the ICE officers were confronted and removed from the hospital. Some advocates asked for hospitals to change policies to prevent ICE from entering emergency rooms and hospitals, though no policy change was reported.[316][317]
It was reported in February 2025 that law enforcement had arrested individuals in at least three states that were allegedly impersonating ICE officers during the ramping up of deportations. Sean-Michael Johnson was arrested in South Carolina and charged with kidnapping and impersonating a police officer after reportedly detaining a group of Latino men. Johnson was recorded by one of the men saying "Where are you from, Mexico? You from Mexico? You're going back to Mexico!". In North Carolina, Carl Thomas Bennett was arrested for impersonating an ICE officer and sexually assaulting a woman threatening to deport her if she did not comply. A Temple student was charged as one of a group of students, wearing shirts with "Police" and "ICE" printed on them, that attempted to enter a residence hall and then moved to disrupt a local business in Pennsylvania.[318][319]
On Native Americans
In early January 2025, tribal leaders of the Navajo Nation in Arizona reported that they have received calls and text messages from Navajo people living in urban areas who have been stopped, questioned, or detained by ICE, prompting a detailed discussion of the topic during a Naabik’íyáti’ Committee meeting. State Senator Theresa Hatathlie, who represents Arizona's 6th legislative district, joined the committee meeting and shared her report in the Navajo language.[320] Hatathlie reported to the Council that she received a call about a case involving eight Navajo citizens who were detained for hours with no cell phones or ability to contact their families or tribes.
In November 2025, a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community was put on a detainer for ICE due to a clerical error. The error was resolved by family and local authorities, and she was not detained by ICE.[321]
In January 2026 in Minnesota, ICE detained four enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. DHS refused to release information on the men unless the entered tribe into an agreement with ICE, which tribal leadership refused to do, saying it would violate their treaty laws.[322][323][324] As of January 15, 2026, three of the men remained in ICE custody.[325]
Also in January 2026, ICE followed and stopped a member of Red Lake Nation in Minnesota. ICE officers dragged him out of his car, repeatedly struck him, and detained him, despite his attempts to comply and despite being informed that he was an American citizen and tribal citizen. His aunt captured the event on her camera. ICE accused the citizen of assaulting an officer, told him he would face charges, and released him later that evening.[326][327]
April Ignacio, who grew up and lives on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation (whose tribal lands are on both sides of the Arizona-Mexico border and where U.S. Customs and Border Protection has had a presence for decades) said that the Trump administration's new policies are taking aim at tribal communities "in new and shocking ways", which will draw attention to the communities and spur tribal responses.[citation needed]
Termination of humanitarian parole
The termination of the humanitarian parole program by Donald Trump's administration in March 2025 will particularly impact hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who had entered the United States legally under the policy implemented by President Joe Biden. The measure, scheduled to take effect on April 24, 2025, will revoke work permits and deportation protections for these immigrants, requiring them to leave the country or face removal.[328] Originally designed to provide a legal and orderly pathway for Venezuelans fleeing a severe political and economic crisis, the program allowed applicants to enter the U.S.[329] with the support of a financial sponsor and gain immediate access to the labor market.[330]
Out of the more than 500,000 individuals admitted through this mechanism, a significant proportion were Venezuelan nationals who relied on this route to avoid dangerous and illegal border crossings. The program also applied to immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua, the Venezuelan diaspora represented the largest contingent, driven by one of the most extensive displacement crises in Latin America. The Department of Homeland Security argued that the program failed to effectively reduce pressure on local communities and support systems, citing the continued high levels of illegal immigration. The repeal reflects a broader shift in immigration policy under Trump toward stricter border control measures, supported by Republican critics of Biden's more open immigration stance, despite the parole program's role in reducing illegal immigration flows from Venezuela.[331][332]
Transportation
Los Angeles Metro saw a 10% to 15% decline in bus and rail ridership from June 6 to June 20, 2025, following immigration raids in the Los Angeles area.[333][334]
Statistics
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2025)
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement has a webpage with statistics of its "enforcement and removal operations". It says it is "updated quarterly", but as ofJune2025[update], it had not been updated since the previous year-end (before Trump took office).[335] One study by the Center for Immigration Studies suggested that from January to July 2025, the total foreign-born population of the United States fell by 2.2 million, including 600,000 non-citizens with legal status. However, researchers cautioned that the limited sample size of this survey and the reluctance of immigrants to respond to surveys in a time of increased enforcement may have led to survey results that over-state the impact of Trump's deportation policies.[336]
When Trump took office, ICE began posting its statistics on X.
Immigration lawyers and former judges described the administration as taking multiple actions in an attempt to bypass immigration courts and the right to due process, including moving protections from deportation, canceling grants to provide legal representation to children, firing judges responsible for hearing cases, and deporting migrants to prisons in third countries. Trump and administration figures frequently criticized giving due process to immigrants.[346] Trump's attempts to limit due process for immigrants using the Alien Enemies Act and obscure provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act stoked controversy with federal judges and the Supreme Court, with many attempted deportations being halted.[37] Large numbers of sitting federal judges, included ones appointed by Trump himself, condemned the attempts to erode due process, warning that erosion of due process for alleged "terrorists" and "gang members" could easily be expanded to other groups.[347]
In late January 2026, at the time of ICE's Operation Metro Surge, chief Minnesota federal district judge Patrick J. Schiltz compiled a list of 94 court orders ICE had violated in 74 cases.[348][349] In response to a New Jersey district court request, government attorneys identified a further 56 court orders ICE had violated through mid-February 2026 including missed deadlines, transfers and deportations after court injunctions were issued, late releases of individuals from ICE custody and incomplete production of evidence required by the court.[350][351] In response, New Jersey district judge Michael E. Farbiarz ordered the government to explain its procedures for ensuring court orders were followed consistently and on time.[352]
On January 25, it was reported that some immigrant rights groups in Chicago filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration against the deportation plans, claiming the specific targeting of sanctuary cities such as Chicago violated the US Constitution. The executive director of Raise the Floor Alliance, Sophia Zaman, claimed the motives of the raids were retaliatory by the Trump administration against the cities policies.[353]
Shortly after the announcement of the rollback of an Obama-era directive that protected immigrants in sensitive areas such as hospitals, places of worship and schools, a coalition of Quakers filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block ICE raids on houses of worship. The coalition included the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Adelphi Friends Meeting and the Richmond Friends Meeting.[354] The Quakers coalition argued that the practice of communal worship is uniquely harmed by the possibility of immigration arrest or search, as worship commonly involves multiple congregates sitting in silence to await a message from God.[355]
On February 11, 2025, a coalition of more than two dozen Christian and Jewish denominations sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) et al. over its decision to allow ICE agents to raid houses of worship to make arrests. The groups are asserting that the raids will violate their religious freedom rights under the First Amendment. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.[356]
Numerous challenges have been made in court to the deportation policies. In April 2025, the US Supreme Court ruled against deportation of Venezuelans held in Texas.[40]
After dozens of farmworkers and laborers were arrested in California's Central Valley, Judge Jennifer Thurston ordered an end to ICE's raids in the region, saying they were stopping people without warrants or reasonable suspicion.[357]
Several members of Congress complained that they were denied access to detention facilities in violation of federal law.[358][359][360][361]
On June 11, 2025, the United States Department of Justice Civil Division released a memo directing its prosecutors to focus efforts on bringing cases in federal courts against certain naturalized US citizens with the aim of stripping them of their US citizenship. The categories specified in the memo included individuals with "a nexus to terrorism", gang members, those engaged in financial fraud and those who may have misrepresented facts in their citizenship applications.[362] Immigration experts expressed concern that such court cases could be abused to target opponents of the Trump administration who, once their citizenship had been removed, could be deported.[363]
After reports that the administration planned to offer unaccompanied minor migrants US$2,500 to waive their rights and return to their countries of origin,[364] US Representative Delia Ramirez (D-IL 3) and 21 others sent a letter to DHS requesting information on the plans and the steps DHS would take to ensure compliance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and other legal requirements covering the treatment of such migrants.[365]
Reactions
By January 2026, The Associated Press reported that a "broad cultural revolt" against ICE and Trump's immigration agenda was forming across American culture, business, sports, and entertainment.[366]
Polling
By April 2025, CNN/SSRS polling found 52% of Americans felt the level of deportations went "too far", with AP-NORC polling finding that about half thought he had gone "too far".[43][44] By July 1, Marist polling found that the number of Americans finding deportations went "too far" was at 54%.[45]
Gallup polling released on July 11, 2025, showed the number of adults saying immigration was a "good thing" for the country increasing "significantly", including among Republicans. Polling showed 79% of all Americans saying it was a good thing, an increase from 64% in 2024, and up to 64% by Republicans from 39% in 2024. Gallup described the polling as a high-point in a 25-year trend and that the shift was primarily driven by Republicans and independents. It found the number of Americans who wanted less immigration decreasing from 55% to 30%, and that Republican's sharp anti-immigrant views had largely faded since the 2024 presidential election. It also found 85% supporting a pathway to citizenship for those brought to the US illegally as children, and a nearly as many supported a pathway to citizenship to all illegal immigrants as long as they met certain criteria with the largest increase among Republicans. Americans who supported deportations also reduced to roughly 4 in 10 from 5 in 10 from 2024.[46]
Harvard Harris polling from December 2025 showed that 80% of Americans supported the deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.[367]
Protest against mass deportation in Dallas, February 2, 2025
Demonstrations emerged nationwide against enhanced immigration enforcement policies under the Trump administration and the increasing activity of ICE. Demonstrations occurred locations including Texas,[368]California,[369] Alabama,[370] South Carolina,[371] Indiana,[372] and metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles.[369]
↑Sources that have described Trump's approach to immigration and deportation as "hardline":
"Protests over Trump's immigration raids spread across the US". France24. June 6, 2025. Protests over hardline immigration tactics ignited across the United States Wednesday after days of demonstrations in Los Angeles, as California prepared for a legal showdown with the White House over Donald Trump's deployment of the military.
Santos, Sofia Ferreira (May 13, 2025). "What is the 1798 law that Trump used to deport migrants?". BBC News. Retrieved June 12, 2025. At core of US President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policy is his use of a 1798 wartime authority allowing presidents to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy country.
↑U.S. citizen Keith Porter was killed in Los Angeles on December 31, 2025 by an ICE agent.[268] U.S. citizen and Minneapolis, Minnesota resident Renée Good was shot and killed during an ICE operation on January 7, 2026.[269][270][271][272] U.S. citizen Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis by ICE agents on January 24, 2026.[273]
↑Arrests for the day total are arrests for the day prior, as ICE shifted on January 29 to announcing the total of the previous day to the total for the day of, as reflected in the change in caption on the bottom of each X post.
123Chung, Andrew (June 2, 2025). "Trump gets key wins at Supreme Court on immigration, despite some misgivings". Reuters. Retrieved June 12, 2025. The U.S. Supreme Court swept away this week another obstacle to one of President Donald Trump's most aggressively pursued policies - mass deportation - again showing its willingness to back his hardline approach to immigration.
↑Danner, Chas (May 3, 2025). "All the U.S. Citizens Who've Been Caught Up in Trump's Immigration Crackdown". New York. Archived from the original on April 30, 2025. Retrieved May 4, 2025. It's not a matter of if U.S. citizens are getting caught up in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and mass-deportation efforts but, rather, how and how many. Some have just been collateral arrests and detentions, in which people are briefly questioned or detained by ICE agents, while others have been jailed for hours or days. Some U.S.-born children have been swiftly deported along with undocumented family members.
12Edwards-Levy, Ariel (April 30, 2025). "CNN Poll: Majorities oppose Trump deporting migrants to Salvadoran prison, canceling international student visas". CNN. Retrieved May 11, 2025. Just over half, 52%, say Trump has gone too far in deporting undocumented immigrants, up from 45% in February. A similar 52% now say that Trump's immigration policies have not made the US safer. And most, 57%, say that they do not believe the federal government is being careful in following the law while carrying out deportations.
12Linley, Sanders (April 25, 2025). "Immigration is Trump's strongest issue, but many say he's gone too far, a new AP-NORC poll finds". The Associated Press. Retrieved May 11, 2025. About half of Americans say Trump has "gone too far" when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. About one-third say his approach has been "about right," and about 2 in 10 say he's not gone far enough.
12"U.S. Attacks on Iran, July 2025". Marist Poll. July 1, 2025. Retrieved July 7, 2025. A majority of Americans (54%) describe the actions of ICE in upholding immigration laws as having gone too far.
↑Bier, David J. (June 20, 2025). "65 Percent of People Taken by ICE Had No Convictions, 93 Percent No Violent Convictions". Cato Institute. Retrieved June 23, 2025. New nonpublic data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicate that the government is primarily detaining individuals with no criminal convictions of any kind. Also, among those with criminal convictions, they are overwhelmingly not the violent offenses that ICE continuously uses to justify its deportation agenda. ICE has shared this data with people outside the agency, who shared the numbers with the Cato Institute.
↑Danner, Chas (May 3, 2025). "All the U.S. Citizens Who've Been Caught Up in Trump's Immigration Crackdown". New York. Archived from the original on April 30, 2025. Retrieved May 4, 2025. It's not a matter of if U.S. citizens are getting caught up in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and mass-deportation efforts but, rather, how and how many. Some have just been collateral arrests and detentions, in which people are briefly questioned or detained by ICE agents, while others have been jailed for hours or days. Some U.S.-born children have been swiftly deported along with undocumented family members.
↑"ESWATINI 2023 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT"(PDF). www.state.gov. US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
↑Aleaziz, Hamed; Correal, Annie; Abi-Habib, Maria; Turkewitz, Julie (February 13, 2025). "U.S. Deports Migrants From Asia to Panama". The New York Times. Retrieved February 19, 2025.
The lawmakers and other officials, arrested around 3:45 pm local time, say they were "attempting to conduct oversight" following claims that people appearing for court hearings were being confined for hours or days without proper food, medical care, or contact with attorneys.
↑Ferré-Sadurní, Luis; Parnell, Wesley; Latson, Samantha (September 18, 2025). "11 N.Y. Officials Arrested Trying to Access ICE Detention Cells". New York Times. Archived from the original on September 18, 2025. Federal officers arrested 11 Democratic elected officials inside a federal building in Lower Manhattan on Thursday after the officials demanded access to cells used by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to detain migrants.
The officials, including Brad Lander, the city comptroller, and city and state lawmakers, were arrested after they showed up at 26 Federal Plaza and sought to inspect the 10th-floor holding cells, which are operated by ICE and closed to the public. The cells have drawn scrutiny following complaints of unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, leading a federal judge to order ICE to improve the conditions last month.
↑Cheney, Kyle (May 10, 2025). "Judges warn Trump's mass deportations could lay groundwork to ensnare Americans". Politico. Retrieved May 11, 2025. Across the country, judges appointed by presidents of both parties — including Trump himself — are escalating warnings about what they see as an erosion of due process caused by the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. What started with a focus on people Trump has deemed "terrorists" and "gang members" — despite their fierce denials — could easily expand to other groups, including Americans, these judges warn.
↑"Congress of the United States"(PDF). ramirez.house.gov. Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez, Illinois' 3rd District. September 29, 2025. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
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