The federal immigration enforcement agency set an all-time record for arrests and deportations in fiscal year 2026, the Trump administration said on Thursday.
More than 491,000 immigration-related arrests and more than 483,000 deportations were carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the fiscal year 2026, which ran through the end of this September, surpassing the previous record set in the fiscal year 2025 when more than 442,000 deportations were tallied, said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a news release.
For fiscal year 2026, nearly 475,000 administrative arrests were recorded by the agency, which is by far the highest figure recorded in the immigration agency’s history, DHS said. Fiscal year 2026 ran from Oct. 1, 2025, through Sept. 30, 2026.
Since President Donald Trump took office a second time, according to the department, “more than 3 million migrants” have departed the United States.
Meanwhile, as of October, nearly 1.2 million illegal immigrants have been deported since Trump was sworn in in January 2025, while more than 1.25 million illegal immigrants have been arrested, DHS said.
The fiscal year 2026 deportation total is nearly the same number as three full combined fiscal years recorded under the Biden administration in the years 2022, 2023, and 2024, it said. In those years, 486,000 deportations were carried out.
DHS added that the fiscal year 2026 total was more than eight times the number of deportations in President Joe Biden’s first fiscal year, when just over 59,000 deportations were recorded.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the brave men and women of ICE, who just broke more historic records,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement, adding that September 2026 was the highest September arrest total in the history of ICE, which was established in March 2003.
“The total number of ICE arrests in Fiscal Year 2026 was more than all three full fiscal years under Biden combined, as the patriots of ICE work around the clock to make America safe again,” added Mullin, who was confirmed to be the Homeland Security secretary in March after former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was removed by Trump.
Like it has done in other press releases, DHS highlighted illegal immigrants with previous criminal records who were either arrested or deported.
Some of the people who were included in the release include illegal immigrants from Mexico, Laos, Honduras, Venezuela, Russia, Brazil, India, and the United Kingdom who had faced a range of charges and convictions including second-degree murder, aggravated sexual battery, criminal sexual conduct, negligent manslaughter with a vehicle, felony hit and run, felony animal torture, and others.
The illegal immigrant from Brazil, arrested by ICE in North Carolina, was accused by DHS of being the former commander of two Brazil-based foreign terrorist organizations: Primeiro Comando da Capital and Comando Vermelho.
Trump, in his 2024 campaign, said he would make mass deportations a key pillar of his administration while also bolstering security at the U.S.–Mexico border.
However, the president has said that his deportation agenda could have been “too tough” for some voters who cast their ballots during the Nov. 3 midterm elections that saw Republicans suffer significant losses in Congress, returning control to Democrats.
When asked in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired over the past weekend whether his administration’s deportation policy was too tough, he said, “I think it might be too tough.”
But in a post on Thursday morning, Trump wrote that he would double his tariffs on Mexico if the country does not deal with a caravan of migrants approaching the southern border and likened the migrant push to an invasion of the United States.
“Huge CARAVANS are forming and beginning their illegal march through Mexico,” he wrote.
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