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The ICE deportations record the Department of Homeland Security claimed on Thursday is real on the department’s own terms, but it was built differently from past records. DHS says Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 483,200 people in fiscal 2026, the most in the agency’s history, while new case-level data from Syracuse University show that formal removals fell and voluntary departures ordered by immigration judges grew more than tenfold.
The distinction matters now because the number will anchor the oversight fight with a Democratic House that takes power in January, and because the two kinds of exit carry different legal consequences.
What DHS reported for fiscal 2026
The figures come from DHS data obtained by CBS News, which reported them on Nov. 12; DHS had not posted them publicly. According to CBS, ICE deported 483,200 people in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from 442,640 in fiscal 2025, an increase of about 9 percent based on those two figures. ICE also recorded more than 491,000 arrests, nearly 475,000 of them administrative arrests for civil violations. The totals exclude Customs and Border Protection.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement reported by CBS that ICE’s fiscal 2026 arrests exceeded all three full Biden fiscal years combined. DHS put the deportation total about 18 percent above the 409,849 removals of fiscal 2012, the Obama-era high, and about 78 percent above fiscal 2024. Both percentages check out against the figures DHS supplied.
Why the removal count tells a different story
A day earlier, TRAC at Syracuse University published an analysis of DHS enforcement case records it obtained through Freedom of Information Act litigation, current through Aug. 24, 2026. TRAC counts removals, which follow a formal order, separately from voluntary departures and voluntary returns.
| Measure (TRAC) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Projected FY2026 deportations (removals plus voluntary departures and returns) | 481,008 |
| Projected FY2026 formal removals | About 316,000 |
| Removals, Aug. 2025 to July 2026, compared with FY2024 | About 29% lower |
| Voluntary departure orders by immigration judges | More than 100,000 (FY2026) vs. about 9,000 (FY2024) |
| Formal removals as share of July 2026 deportations | 63% |
TRAC’s broad deportation projection lands close to the DHS figure, so the headline total is not out of line with the case records. What has changed is the mix. Voluntary departures made up about 28 percent of fiscal 2026 deportations in TRAC’s count, and the record depends on them. TRAC cautions that its data are an initial release with definitions that differ from official DHS statistics.
The shift has a simple logic. Voluntary departure lets a judge close a case without a contested removal order and moves people out without detention beds, travel documents or charter flights. The practical effect is that the enforcement surge increasingly runs through immigration court dockets rather than ICE’s planes.
Who is being deported
The total says nothing about criminal history, which is where the administration’s “worst of the worst” description meets the most resistance. The Migration Policy Institute found that about 20 percent of the roughly 980,000 ICE and CBP deportations from January 2025 through July 2026 involved someone with a criminal conviction. DHS’s position is that anyone in the country unlawfully is subject to removal, and it pointed CBS to cases involving murder and attempted-murder charges or convictions.
In the CBS News national exit poll for the 2026 midterms, 58 percent of voters said enforcement had gone too far, 22 percent about right and 20 percent not far enough. President Trump has said his approach may have been too tough, while the White House, now led by chief of staff Stephen Miller, has vowed no slowdown.
The pace is unlikely to fall soon: the July 2025 budget law gave ICE about $75 billion, including $45 billion for detention, according to CBS. The open question is oversight. Democrats who plan subpoenas and hearings will likely press DHS to publish removals, voluntary departures and criminal history separately, the same breakdown that would settle the dispute over Mullin’s 3,600 deportations a day claim and the MPI 18-month count. Until then, the record is a DHS figure reported by one outlet, and the most detailed public data show it was reached with fewer formal removals.
The harder question about voluntary departure
Does voluntary departure count against me like a deportation order if I want to come back?
Not in the same way, if you leave on time. A person who departs within the period a judge grants under section 240B of the Immigration and Nationality Act has no removal order, so the 10-year reentry bar that follows removal under section 212(a)(9)(A) does not apply. Separate unlawful presence bars under section 212(a)(9)(B) can still apply. Missing the deadline is costly: section 240B(d) imposes a $1,000 to $5,000 civil penalty and 10 years of ineligibility for voluntary departure, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status and certain other relief.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- CBS News: ICE deportations and arrests hit record high as Trump faces reckoning over immigration crackdown (Nov. 12, 2026; DHS data for fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2026, CBS exit poll)
- TRAC at Syracuse University: Immigration Removals Fall During the Second Trump Administration (Nov. 11, 2026; data through Aug. 24, 2026)
- Migration Policy Institute: U.S. Deportations and “Self-Deportations” in the First 18 Months of the Second Trump Term (October 2026; data through July 31, 2026)
- 8 U.S.C. 1229c (INA section 240B), voluntary departure
- 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9) (INA section 212(a)(9)), aliens previously removed and unlawful presence
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