These deportations were carried out in the 2024 financial year, which covers 12 months from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024. This period largely coincided with the US presidential election campaign, in which Donald Trump made the fight against immigration one of the main issues and threatened to deport millions of migrants.
This number of deported migrants is the largest since fiscal year 2014 – even higher than in any of the first years of Trump’s presidency.
Most of those forced to leave the U.S. had crossed the country’s southern border with Mexico illegally, according to a report released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
About a third of them had criminal convictions or were accused of criminal offences.
Illegal border crossings spiked after Joe Biden took office as US president, but fell sharply in the past year after his administration tightened asylum-seeking rules.
An estimated 11 to 15 million people live in the United States illegally. Trump and his supporters, however, insist that the true number is much higher.
The US deported the largest number of migrants since 2014 in the 2024 financial year. [1] Most of these deportations involved individuals who had crossed the US southern border with Mexico illegally. [1] Approximately one-third of those deported had criminal convictions or were accused of criminal offenses. [1] This surge in deportations occurred during the US presidential election campaign, where immigration was a central issue for Donald Trump. [1]
