Deportation 101: How removing people from the US really works

Who should be allowed to stay in the United States? 

That question lurks beneath the nation’s immigration debate.

Former President Donald Trump is vowing he would start “the largest deportation operation in American history” as he campaigns to be elected again. Meanwhile, fast-tracked deportations are picking up steam in the current White House. 

President Joe Biden had come into office on promises of reforming the U.S. immigration system to be more humane. Then in June, after coming under Republican fire for months amid record-high levels of illegal immigration, he limited access to asylum along the U.S. southern border. The White House says that measure has led to more deportations of people who are not authorized to stay in the U.S.

Deportation continues to feature in the 2024 presidential election, even with Mr. Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. She faces conservative criticism that she was ineffective at curtailing unauthorized immigration. Mr. Trump’s deportation plan draws ire from the left.

As debate swirls around immigration policies, here’s some context on how deportation works in practice – and the different shapes it can take.

What is deportation, and how does it work?

The U.S. has long repatriated immigrants who violate laws, sending individuals back to their home country or a third country. Generally, though, these individuals may seek relief, such as asylum, even if they entered the country illegally. That relief just isn’t guaranteed.

The nation’s deportation power emerged in the late 1800s, as the federal government began to cement its authority over matters of immigration. 

“Deportation has long been a bipartisan effort,” says Adam Goodman, who teaches history at the University of Illinois Chicago and authored “The Deportation Machine.” “The federal government has always used a combination of force, coercion, and fear campaigns” to compel people to leave, he says.

People the government considers deportable include those who entered the country unlawfully, or entered lawfully then overstayed their visa, as well as lawfully present noncitizens who commit crimes. 

Immigration officials have discretion around whom they arrest, detain, and deport, informed by each administration’s priorities. During Mr. Biden’s first year in office, 2021, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called for a focus on unauthorized immigrants who “pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security.” 

Jae C. Hong/AP

Female migrants, mostly Mexican nationals recently deported from the U.S., eat dinner at a migrant shelter in Nogales, Mexico, June 25, 2024. Many migrants who fail interviews are deported to Nogales.

Removals, returns, and expulsions

“Deportation” can refer to a few different things.

Two main buckets of deportations are what the government refers to as “removals” and “returns.” Their subcategories carry different penalties – sometimes yearslong bans and potential criminal prosecution if they reenter. Removals typically involve harsher consequences than returns do.

• “Removals” are confirmed departures that are based on an order of removal. One example could involve Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deporting an individual back to their country, via a chartered flight, after an immigration judge grants a final order of removal. 
• “Returns” are confirmed departures that are not based on an order of removal. Individuals, not the government, may arrange their own departure this way. For example, officials can grant unauthorized immigrants a voluntary return, which avoids putting an order of removal and its consequences on an individual’s record. 

Because of these two categories, analysts draw different conclusions about the rates of deportation under recent presidents. Those that take a broad view – including the Department of Homeland Security – count both removals and returns as deportations. Others, like the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, generally consider only “removals” as official deportations. 

This matters because some critics of Mr. Biden say his deportation rate is inflated to look tougher on border security by including “returns” as well as “removals.” (Former President Barack Obama, dubbed by critics the “Deporter in Chief” while in office, also faced this debate over his record.)

Then, separately, there are “expulsions.”

Expulsions were carried out under Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden only during the pandemic – nearly 3 million times total – and didn’t promise access to asylum or penalties for reentry. This period coincided with a sharp spike in recidivism, or repeated efforts by individuals to illegally cross the U.S. southern border. Such efforts are tracked by the Border Patrol, which operates between ports of entry.

What makes it hard to deport certain immigrants back to their home countries? 

In a phrase, it’s international relations. The U.S. relies on coordination with other countries to accept repatriations. But not all countries do – especially when diplomacy is strained. 

ICE labels as “uncooperative” or “recalcitrant” those countries whose lack of cooperation delays or inhibits deportations of their citizens. Asked for the current list of countries, the agency referred the Monitor to the State Department, which declined to comment on the record.

One such country, China, recently accepted what the U.S. calls the “first large charter flight since 2018” of deported Chinese nationals. That followed an uptick in illegal border crossings by Chinese immigrants. 

Regional cooperation has been key. Mexico, for example, accepts certain migrants on behalf of the U.S. And the new president of Panama, inaugurated last month, has pledged to crack down on migration through the Darién Gap, a dangerous jungle that historically high numbers of migrants have traversed en route to the U.S. In exchange, the Biden administration has agreed to fund migrant deportation flights out of Panama. 

Expanding deportation comes down to governments’ capacity and coordination, says Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. 

Deportation can require “not only a massive amount of resources, both at the border and in the interior, but also the ability to negotiate with a lot of different countries,” she says. “It’s really quite a multistep process.”

How do the Trump and Biden administrations compare on deportations? 

According to a Monitor analysis of Department of Homeland Security data, Mr. Trump oversaw more removals, and Mr. Biden has overseen more enforcement returns.

Combining those categories, Mr. Trump’s 1.4 million total deportations have outstripped Mr. Biden’s 1.2 million so far. Current figures are available through April, so there are still several months of data to come for the incumbent. Worth noting is that the president has been scaling up: More than half of his overall deportations were carried out within the past year. 

Nonetheless, Mr. Biden has overseen historically high illegal immigration along the southern border. As of the end of June, Border Patrol agents have recorded some 7 million encounters between ports of entry at the southern border during his presidency. By comparison, there were around 2 million such encounters during Mr. Trump’s term in office.

Read these companion articles:

Trump calls for mass deportations. How would that work?
The Republican Party has sought to capitalize on voter concerns over record-high illegal immigration during the Biden years. Here we look at the feasibility of a pillar of Donald Trump’s plan for addressing that influx and disincentivizing such crossings.

How Biden and Trump compare on border crossings and immigration
Immigration is a top issue in the U.S. presidential race amid questions about the pace of illegal border crossings and candidate track records. Here’s what the available data tells us.