Comparing deportations under Trump's first term to past presidents

In the early weeks of U.S. President Donald Trump's second presidential term, a post circulated on X allegedly comparing numbers of immigrants deported under recent presidencies. According to the post, immigration authorities deported fewer people during Trump's first presidential term than during both Barack Obama's and George W. Bush's administrations.

The claim spread after the president promised mass arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants during his second presidential term.

The post claimed during Trump's first term between 2017 and 2021, immigration authorities deported 1 million people "despite a strong focus on immigration enforcement." Meanwhile, it said deportations reached roughly 2 million under Bush between 2001 and 2009 and 3.2 million under Obama between 2009 and 2017, supposedly giving Obama the nickname "Deporter-in-Chief."

It also claimed that about 870,000 people were deported during former President Bill Clinton's two terms.

Elon Musk, who's leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Trump, shared the now-deleted post on his X platform, where it amassed more than 53 million views. The claim also appeared on Facebook (archived) and Reddit (archived).

In short, immigration authorities repatriated fewer people during Trump's first term than they did during Bush's two presidential terms as well as Obama's, according to figures released by the Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS).

However, the statistics in the social media posts were incomplete and lacked important context, as outlined below.

Namely, it was misleading to compare deportation figures during a roughly eight-year period or two presidential terms to numbers during an approximately four-year period or Trump's first term. Secondly, immigration officials require people to leave the country under various circumstances and have different terms for each, though the posts omit those details. Finally, federal authorities' processes for categorizing and tracking repatriations have changed over the decades.

Where the figures come from

Social media users who posted the alleged deportation figures did not cite a source for where the numbers supposedly originated. However, a review of data compiled by the OHSS showed the post's author likely looked to that government department to create the comparisons.

The OHSS's "2022 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" contains the most recent statistics, as of this writing, and the relevant data is available within "Table 39" — titled "Noncitizen Removals, Returns, and Expulsions: Fiscal Years 1892 to 2022" — of the "Immigration Enforcement Actions 2022 Data Tables" spreadsheet. The data can be found by scrolling to the "Download Data" tab.

The federal department tracks different types of repatriation with four categories: "removals," "administrative returns," "enforcement returns" and "expulsions." It defines those as (parenthetical additions are ours):

• Removals: Removals are the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or removable noncitizen out of the United States based on an order of removal. A noncitizen who is removed pursuant to a removal order has administrative or criminal consequences placed on subsequent reentry owing to the fact of the removal. DHS (Department of Homeland Security) removals include removals completed by ICE/ERO (Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Enforcement and Removal Operations) and those completed by CBP (Customs and Border Protection).
• Administrative Returns: The sum of Title 8 removals, Title 8 returns, and Title 42 expulsions of noncitizens to their country of citizenship or a third country.
• Enforcement Returns: Returns are the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable noncitizen out of the United States not based on an order of removal. Administrative returns are returns completed by OFO (Office of Field Operations) resulting from administrative encounters, including withdrawn applications for admission in cases in which expedited removal or other immigration removal proceedings were not considered and foreign crew members without entry visas who are required to remain aboard their ships.
• Expulsions: Expulsions pursuant to CDC's (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Title 42 public health order (which allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border by citing the possible spread of COVID-19) occurred between March 20, 2020, and May 11, 2023.

Snopes used the Homeland Security Department's spreadsheet for the calculations below. 

To ensure consistency across presidencies, we considered data organized by fiscal calendars (Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 annually). Monthly data is only available from October 2013 onward. That said, using fiscal years results in some error for each president's total repatriation figures because presidential terms run from January to January on a four-year cycle. (Snopes asked the OHSS for numbers by calendar month before October 2013 and will update this report if the agency replies.)

Calculating former presidents' deportation figures

Numbers in the social media posts varied in accuracy per homeland security data. 

For example, Clinton's alleged figure of 870,000 deportations during his time in office between 1993 and 2001 was roughly correct if only considering his official "removals" figure — 869,646. If "enforcement returns" under Clinton were also included, his number would be closer to 13 million.

However, Obama's purported figure of 3.2 million deportations during his two terms between 2009 and 2017 was slightly higher than his official "removals" figure — 3,062,466. When combining that total with other types of repatriations — if you also consider "administrative returns" and "enforcement returns" — his total would be between 5.2 and 5.6 million people. (During Obama's first term, a total of 3,175,685 "removals," "administrative returns" and "enforcement returns" occurred, which is possibly where the post's author got the 3.2 million figure.)

Snopes calculated total repatriation figures for each president mentioned in the social media posts to fully determine their accuracy.

(Because OHSS's data organized by fiscal years was the most comprehensive, we did two calculations for each president: one that ends with their final full year in office and another that includes roughly 11 months after their term's end. For example, Clinton's final full year in office was 2000, but his presidency officially ended with Bush's inauguration in January 2001. This means some numbers overlap between presidencies.)

Bill Clinton: 1993-2001

• Removals between 1993 and 2000 = 869,646
• Removals between 1993 and 2001 = 1,058,672
• Enforcement returns between 1993 and 2000 = 11,421,259
• Enforcement returns between 1993 and 2001 = 12,770,630
• Administrative returns = N/A
• Expulsions = N/A
• Overall repatriations between 1993 and 2000 = 12,290,905
• Overall repatriations between 1993 and 2001 = 13,829,302

George W. Bush: 2001-2009

• Removals between 2001 and 2008 = 2,012,539
• Removals between 2001 and 2009 = 2,392,278
• Enforcement returns between 2001 and 2008 = 8,316,311
• Enforcement returns between 2001 and 2009 = 8,839,464
• Administrative returns between 2001 and 2008 = N/A
• Administrative returns between 2001 and 2009 = 59,409
• Expulsions = N/A
• Overall repatriations between 2001 and 2008 = 10,328,850
• Overall repatriations between 2001 and 2009 = 11,291,151

Barack Obama: 2009-2017

• Removals between 2009 and 2016 = 3,062,466
• Removals between 2009 and 2017 = 3,346,831
• Enforcement returns between 2009 and 2016 = 1,792,915
• Enforcement returns between 2009 and 2017 = 1,878,295
• Administrative returns between 2009 and 2016 = 393,512
• Administrative returns between 2009 and 2017 = 408,584
• Expulsions = N/A
• Overall repatriations between 2009 and 2016 = 5,248,893
• Overall repatriations between 2009 and 2017 = 5,633,710

Donald Trump: 2017-2021

• Removals between 2017 and 2020 = 1,196,427
• Removals between 2017 and 2021 = 1,282,210
• Enforcement returns between 2017 and 2020 = 307,578
• Enforcement returns between 2017 and 2021 = 357,242
• Administrative returns between 2017 and 2020 = 291,404
• Administrative returns between 2017 and 2021 = 419,743
• Expulsions between 2017 and 2020 = 206,770
• Expulsions between 2017 and 2021 = 1,277,844
• Overall repatriations between 2017 and 2020 = 2,002,179
• Overall repatriations between 2017 and 2021 = 3,337,039

As seen from the breakdown above, Trump oversaw fewer "removals" and "enforcement returns" than Bush and Obama, while his "administrative returns" figures were similar to Obama's and greater than Bush's. However, those raw numbers lacked this important context: the OHSS only started categorizing certain repatriations as "administrative returns" in 2009 as Bush was leaving office. 

Likewise, Trump was the only president under whom "expulsions" occurred because they were exclusive to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In sum, the number of repatriations during Trump's first term was indeed lower than the totals during the Bush and Obama presidencies. However, it was misleading to make a direct comparison between the figures of a one-term president and those of a two-term president and the social media posts with the alleged figures omitted crucial context.