By Sophia Doan
Graph depicts surge in deportations (econofact.org).
Recently, President Donald Trump has begun to fulfill his commitment of increasing the number of active deportations in the United States. In July 2025, Trump signed a bill that led to Congress providing $76 billion in funding to Immigration and Customs. Gage Jackson, a journalist for Scripps News, writes that the number is “nearly 10 times [ICE’s] current annual budget” (scrippsnews.com). Intending $45 billion for immigration detention centers and $30 billion for enforcement operations, the money will be given to ICE over a 4-year period. Albert Sun notes in a recent New York Times article, “at least 180,000 people have been deported by ICE under Mr. Trump so far.” However, the Department of Homeland Security places that number at nearly 332,000.
Former President Barack Obama received scrutiny for his high deportation rate, however, one of the key differences between the Obama and Trump Administrations’ takes on immigration lies in the records of the people they are deporting. The Obama Administration focused on illegal immigrants with criminal records or recent arrivals. On the other hand, deportation under the Trump Administration has expanded to mainly immigrants with active visas and no present criminal record. Many have taken to the streets to protest in light of the recent surges of deportations and arrests.
In an attempt to prevent ICE from targeting specific groups of immigrants, a lawsuit was filed against ICE, claiming that illegal racial profiling was occurring in deportations and arrests. In response, Judge Maame E. Frimpong “temporarily halted the administration from making indiscriminate arrests based on race and denying detainees access to lawyers” (nytimes.com). The Trump Administration has since “appealed the order.”
Overall, Trump was not exaggerating when promising that deportations would take priority under his presidency. Judges, courts, lawsuits, and protests have continued to occur in light of his orders.