Talking about immigration usually turns into a shouting match within thirty seconds. People throw around terms like "open borders" or "mass deportations" like they’re scoring points in a game. But if you actually sit down and look at the numbers—the hard data from the Department of Homeland Security—the reality of how many people deported under Biden is a lot more complicated than a soundbite.
Honestly, the Biden administration was a bit of a statistical paradox. On one hand, they oversaw record-breaking "encounters" at the border. On the other, they ended up carrying out more repatriations than almost any single presidential term in decades.
The Raw Numbers: Breaking Down the Biden Record
When people ask about deportations, they usually mean "removals." But the government uses a bunch of different buckets: Removals, Returns, and the pandemic-era Expulsions. If you lump them all together under the term "repatriations," the Biden-Harris administration moved a massive number of people out of the country.
From the start of fiscal year 2021 through early 2024, the administration carried out roughly 4.4 million repatriations.
To put that in perspective, that's more than any single term since George W. Bush’s second stint in the White House. It’s a number that catches people off guard because the narrative usually suggests the administration was just letting everyone stay.
But we have to be careful with how we define "deportation."
- Title 42 Expulsions: These were the big ones. Used during the pandemic, they allowed the government to kick people out immediately without an asylum hearing. Under Biden, there were about 3 million of these before the policy finally died in May 2023.
- Title 8 Removals: This is the "traditional" deportation. It’s a formal legal process that usually carries a five-year ban on coming back.
- Enforcement Returns: This is where a migrant agrees to leave without a formal removal order. It’s faster, but it doesn't carry the same legal "teeth" as a removal.
Why the Post-Title 42 Era Changed Everything
When Title 42 ended in May 2023, everyone expected the border to just collapse. It didn't happen exactly like that. Instead, the administration ramped up Title 8 deportations to levels we haven't seen in over ten years.
In the twelve months following the end of Title 42, the government removed or returned about 775,000 people.
That’s a huge jump. It was actually the highest number for a single fiscal year since 2010. They were basically trying to prove that even without the "easy button" of pandemic health rules, they could still move people out of the country.
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The Interior vs. The Border
This is where the nuance really kicks in. While the total numbers were high, where people were being picked up mattered.
Under Biden, the focus shifted almost entirely to the border. If you were already living in the U.S. interior—maybe you'd been here ten years, had a job, and no criminal record—the chances of you getting deported were significantly lower than under the Trump or Obama years. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was told to prioritize people who were threats to national security or public safety.
Basically, the "net" was being cast very wide at the border but was much more selective once you got past the initial zone.
Comparing the Biden and Trump Eras
It’s the question everyone wants the answer to: Who deported more?
If you look strictly at formal removals (Title 8), Trump’s numbers and Biden’s numbers are actually surprisingly similar when you account for the total time in office. Through February 2024, Biden had carried out about 1.1 million deportations, which put him on pace to nearly match Trump’s four-year total of 1.5 million.
The big difference? The volume of people coming.
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Under Biden, border encounters hit over 9.4 million. When you have that many people arriving, even "record" deportation numbers can feel like a drop in the bucket. It's like trying to bail out a boat with a thimble while a fire hose is running.
- Trump Era: Lower total encounters, higher percentage of people in the interior targeted for removal.
- Biden Era: Massive encounters, massive repatriations at the border, but very few "at-large" arrests in the middle of the country.
The Backlog Problem
You can't talk about how many people deported under Biden without mentioning the courts. By the time the administration was winding down, the immigration court backlog had swelled to about 3.7 million cases.
Think about that.
That means for millions of people, a "deportation" might not actually happen for years—if it happens at all. They are in the system, they have a court date, but the system is so jammed that they are effectively living in the U.S. indefinitely while they wait for a judge to see them. This is what critics call "catch and release," though the administration preferred the term "humanitarian release pending proceedings."
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception is that "encounters" equals "entries."
When you hear a politician say "10 million people crossed the border," that doesn't mean 10 million people are now living in your neighborhood. A huge chunk of those people were immediately sent back via Title 42 or Title 8.
Another thing? The "Returner in Chief" label. Some experts at the Migration Policy Institute started calling Biden this because of the sheer volume of enforcement returns. In 2023 alone, there were 289,000 returns, the most since 2010. Most of these were Mexican nationals who were caught and sent right back across the line.
Actionable Insights: Navigating the Data
If you're trying to make sense of these stats for a project, a debate, or just your own sanity, keep these points in mind:
- Check the Fiscal Year: Government data runs from October to September. Comparing a "calendar year" to a "fiscal year" will always give you wonky results.
- Look for the "Repatriation" total: If a source only lists "removals," they are ignoring more than half the story. You need removals + returns + expulsions to see the full picture.
- Distinguish between Border and Interior: This is the most important metric for understanding policy. A high number of border deportations doesn't mean the local ICE office in Ohio is busy.
- Follow the OHSS: The Office of Homeland Security Statistics is the "gold standard." They release monthly tables that are actually pretty easy to read once you get the hang of the terminology.
The reality of immigration enforcement is never as simple as the headlines make it out to be. Whether you think the numbers are too high or too low, the data shows that the Biden administration was far from "inactive." They moved millions of people out of the country; they just did it while facing a scale of migration that the system wasn't really built to handle.
To get the most accurate current view, always look for the "Enforcement and Removal Operations" (ERO) annual report from ICE. It breaks down exactly how many people had criminal convictions, which is often the missing piece of the puzzle when discussing why certain people are being targeted over others.