TRUMP DELIVERS: DHS Says More Than 900,000 Illegal Aliens Removed Under…

President Trump’s promise to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history is showing up in the numbers, with federal officials confirming that removals of illegal aliens have reached levels not seen in nearly two decades and are on pace to blow past every deportation total recorded during the entire Biden presidency.

Acting ICE Director David Venturella confirmed earlier this summer that since President Trump returned to office on January 20, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security has removed more than 900,000 illegal aliens from the country, a figure that dwarfs anything accomplished during the previous administration’s final year in office and puts the White House well within reach of the one million annual deportation goal that critics once dismissed as unrealistic.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, marking his first one hundred days on the job, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that 2026’s deportation numbers are set to surpass the entirety of 2025’s total within a matter of weeks. “We’re on a path this year, ’26, to well past what we did in ’25,” Mullin said. “Our numbers are, in fact, within probably, I’d say probably within the next six weeks, we’ll probably pass what we deported all of ’25.” Mullin said the pace could put the administration ahead of schedule by as little as six weeks or as much as two months.

That is a remarkable claim given how strong 2025 already was on its own terms. DHS reported in December that it carried out more than 603,000 removals and returns over the course of that year, which the department touted as the highest annual total in recent American history, a direct result of expanded interior enforcement operations combined with a sharp and well-documented decline in illegal crossings at the southern border.

Independent data tracking confirms that the pace of removals has climbed steadily and dramatically compared to the final years of the Biden administration. According to ICE’s own published removal statistics, the government carried out an average of more than 1,400 removals per day at the peak of enforcement activity in late January 2026, a level of sustained daily enforcement that was simply unheard of just two years earlier. Through the first six months of the current fiscal year alone, ICE has already carried out well over 230,000 removals, a jump of roughly 74 percent compared to the same period during each of the prior two fiscal years.

Secretary Mullin has been clear that the strategy driving these numbers is a deliberate focus on what he calls the “worst of the worst,” meaning illegal aliens who already have final orders of removal from an immigration judge, felony convictions, or pending felony charges. “We’re going after people that have already had final orders, meaning that they’ve already had final orders from a judge that says, ‘Hey you got to go,'” Mullin explained. He noted that agents frequently uncover additional illegal aliens being harbored alongside a primary target while serving warrants, further compounding the enforcement numbers.

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly emphasized that a large majority of those being removed carry a criminal background. Roughly seventy percent of individuals arrested by ICE, according to the department, are criminal illegal aliens who have already been charged with or convicted of a crime here in the United States, a statistic officials point to when pushing back against critics who claim the administration is indiscriminately rounding up otherwise law-abiding immigrants.

Beyond formal removals carried out directly by ICE, the administration has also touted a dramatic rise in what it calls self-deportations, immigrants who choose to leave the country voluntarily rather than face arrest and forced removal. DHS claimed in December that the combined total of removals and self-deportations since Trump took office had reached approximately 2.5 million people, though that broader figure has drawn scrutiny and pushback from some outside researchers who argue the self-deportation estimate relies on imprecise survey methodology rather than verified departure data. Regardless of the disagreement over the self-deportation figure specifically, the hard removal numbers reported directly by ICE and DHS have not been seriously disputed and represent a clear, sustained escalation over prior years.

Much of that escalation has been made possible by a dramatic expansion of the 287(g) program, which deputizes state and local law enforcement officers to assist directly with immigration enforcement. The number of active 287(g) agreements more than tripled in the opening months of the administration, growing from 135 agreements in December 2024 to well over 450 by the following spring, with more applications still pending. That partnership model has proven especially effective in cooperative states, allowing federal officials to identify and process a far greater share of removable aliens already sitting in state and local custody.

The administration has also leaned heavily on increased deportation flights to move removed aliens out of the country more quickly. Data compiled by Human Rights First and reported by the Washington Examiner found that the government carried out roughly 296 removal flights in May alone, more than double the 126 flights recorded during President Trump’s very first full month back in office, underscoring just how much enforcement infrastructure has been scaled up in a relatively short window of time.

DHS has not shied away from blunt public messaging aimed directly at those living in the country illegally. “Our message is clear: LEAVE NOW or we will find you, arrest you, and deport you,” the department stated in a recent social media post, a message consistent with the administration’s broader strategy of using the threat of enforcement itself, not just enforcement actions, to encourage voluntary departures.

Secretary Mullin’s tenure has also coincided with a notable operational shift at DHS, moving away from the highly publicized, large-scale urban raids that characterized the department’s approach earlier in the administration under former Secretary Kristi Noem. Those operations in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis drew intense media coverage and, at times, produced friction the White House ultimately wanted to avoid heading into the midterm election cycle. Mullin has instead emphasized what he describes as a steadier, more targeted approach focused on individuals who already have final removal orders or serious criminal histories, while still delivering strong overall numbers.

The president’s original goal remains one million removals in a single year, a benchmark that would represent the most aggressive sustained immigration enforcement campaign in modern American history. While the administration has not yet officially confirmed hitting that exact milestone, the trajectory described by both Secretary Mullin and ICE’s own published data suggests the government is closing in on that target faster than even many supporters initially expected.

Supporters of the administration’s approach argue the results speak for themselves. Border crossings have plummeted to historic lows compared to the chaos of the final years of the Biden administration, when hundreds of thousands of migrants were encountered at the southern border every single month. With fewer new illegal crossings straining resources, DHS has been able to redirect enforcement capacity toward removing those already living in the country unlawfully, a shift in priorities that officials say is finally delivering the kind of comprehensive immigration enforcement voters demanded when they elected President Trump to a second term.

Critics of the administration, including some immigration researchers, have raised concerns about due process protections and detention conditions as the pace of enforcement has accelerated, pointing to overcrowding at some facilities and the broader strain placed on the immigration court system. The administration has largely dismissed these criticisms as an attempt to obstruct lawful enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws, arguing that individuals with final removal orders have already had their day in court and simply lack a legal basis to remain in the country any longer.

DHS detention capacity has expanded dramatically to accommodate the increased pace of enforcement, with the agency now managing daily bed capacity well beyond levels seen in the prior administration. That expansion has been fueled in part by new federal funding included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocated substantial new resources toward both detention infrastructure and additional ICE personnel, including thousands of newly hired agents brought on specifically to help execute the administration’s enforcement priorities.

As the administration approaches what officials describe as a near-certain milestone of surpassing all of 2025’s deportation total within the coming weeks, the political stakes remain significant heading into the midterm elections. The White House has consistently pointed to falling border crossing numbers and rising deportation totals as proof that its hardline immigration approach is working exactly as promised, a message Republican candidates are likely to lean on heavily as they campaign on border security and interior enforcement as core achievements of the president’s second term.