Oct. 27 (UPI) — More than half a million undocumented immigrants have left the United States since Donald Trump became president again in January, the Department of Homeland Security announced Monday.
The agency described the 527,000 departures as “record-breaking” in a news release. That comes out to around 2,000 a day.
The agency’s release did not list the number of deportations but said “the Trump administration is on pace to shatter historic records and deport nearly 600,000 illegal aliens by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year since returning to office.”
Through November 2024, there were 311,990 removals.
“When we send an alien back to their country of citizenship or a third country, it’s called repatriation,” DHS said on its website.
Through November 2024, there were about 677,800 repatriations after 1.4 million each in 2020 and 2021, then 1.1 million in 2023. Trump left office the first time in January 2021.
The departures include those sent back at the border or ports of entry. DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol are involved in the process.
Of the 2 million who left the country since Trump took office, 1.6 million have voluntarily deported.
“In the face of a historic number of injunctions from activist judges and threats to law enforcement, DHS, ICE and CBP, have not just closed the border, but made historic strides to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country,” Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“This is just the beginning,” she said. “President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem have jump-started an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years.
The United States is offering undocumented immigrations $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport now.
She said they “are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence.”
McLaughlin also noted, “migrants are now turning back before they even reach our borders. Migration through Panama’s Darien Gap is down 99.99%.”
Seventy percent of arrests are charged or convicted of a crime in the United States, the agency added.
The number of encounters at the Southwest border, which stretches from Texas to California, fell 84.5%, from 1.53 million in 2024 to 237,538 in fiscal year 2025, which goes from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. It was 2.22 million in 2022 and 2.05 million in 2023.
In the United States, ICE is beefing up arrests, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Memphis, Tenn. They have been met with protesters.
National Guard troops have been called to Los Angeles and Memphis but they are being temporarily blocked by the federal courts in Chicago and Portland.
Gregory Bovino, the BPC commander, told WLS-TV nearly 3,000 people have been arrested in Chicago since the immigration crackdown began last month in Operation Midway Blitz.
“When we utilize force in law enforcement … it’s the least amount of force necessary to effect an arrest or to affect the successful outcome of any given mission that we’re on,” Bovino said.
“Whether it’s the use of tear gas. Or the use of hand techniques or any use of force by law enforcement, that’s that least amount of force necessary to positively affect the outcome of that mission. And that’s what we do here in Chicago.”
District Judge Sarah Ellis, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, has called him to testify on Tuesday about the techniques. Her case involves a lawsuit against DHS.
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