Study Finds Majority of Trump-Era Deportees Had No Criminal Record

RIYADH — A report by the Migration Policy Institute found that most immigrants deported during President Donald Trump’s second term had no criminal conviction.

The analysis, published Thursday and authored by Marc Rosenblum, a former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics, examined enforcement during the first 18 months of the administration.

• The report counted approximately 980,000 deportations from January 2025 to July 2026.
• Only about 190,000 of those deported had criminal convictions, according to the study.

The findings indicate that roughly 80 percent of deportations during the period involved people without criminal records.

Among immigrants who had lived in the United States for two years or more, 71 percent of those deported had no criminal conviction, the report said. Among those who had lived in the country for a decade or longer, 61 percent had no criminal record.

The report also said that even among formal removals, where criminal offenders have traditionally represented a larger share of deportees, only about 31 percent had criminal convictions. That figure was lower than the 44 percent average recorded between fiscal years 2009 and 2021.

The findings suggest that immigration enforcement has increasingly focused on migrants living inside the country rather than on recent border arrivals.

The report said annual deportation levels under Trump’s second term have surpassed those recorded during former President Joe Biden’s administration and Trump’s first term. However, deportations remain well below levels routinely seen during the early 2000s.

Of the nearly 980,000 deportations recorded during the first 18 months of Trump’s second term, about 580,000 were classified as removals, 300,000 as enforcement returns and 110,000 as administrative returns.

The study found a sharp increase in immigration arrests within the U.S. interior. Deportations stemming from interior arrests rose from around 8,000 per month in early 2025 to about 19,000 per month by mid-2026, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all deportations nationwide, according to the report.

Meanwhile, encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen to historically low levels, shifting enforcement priorities deeper into the country, the report said.

The findings come as the Trump administration has significantly expanded immigration enforcement resources. Congress approved $240 billion in immigration enforcement funding for the Department of Homeland Security through fiscal year 2029, enabling ICE to hire an additional 12,000 officers and more than doubling the agency’s operational workforce.

The administration has also increasingly relied on voluntary departures and enforcement returns to speed up removals and avoid heavily backlogged immigration courts, according to the report. About 170,000 deportations involved ICE grants of voluntary departure or return, a record level that allowed migrants to leave without formal deportation proceedings.

The study questioned administration claims that more than three million immigrants have left the country through a combination of deportations and voluntary “self-deportations.” Researchers estimated total departures of immigrants who had lived in the U.S. for at least one year at between 790,000 and 1.9 million.

Trump has argued that his immigration crackdown and deportation campaign are necessary to improve public safety and enforce immigration laws. The administration says expanded interior arrests help restore the rule of law and deter illegal immigration.

Civil rights groups and immigration advocates have sharply criticized the policies, arguing that they have eroded due process protections, fostered fear among immigrant communities and increased concerns about racial profiling.

The administration’s immigration measures have faced multiple legal challenges with mixed outcomes in U.S. courts. Separately, the State Department said the Trump administration has revoked more than 300,000 U.S. visas during the president’s second term. Among the revocations criticized by rights advocates were those involving pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting Israel’s war in Gaza and foreigners whose social media posts referred to the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

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