New ICE Data Shows Steady Rise in Immigrants Self-Deporting

New data from the Trump administration suggest a steady rise in immigrants self-deporting, after officials strongly encouraged those without legal status to voluntarily leave.

Newsweek has analyzed numbers released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which provided recent records of immigrants to depart the U.S. through July 31, 2025.

Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, ICE had deported 145,419 illegal immigrants from its detention centers, peaking in June with a total of 27,970.

A Small But Rising Number of Self-Deportees

The chart above details the different categories ICE gives for remoivals, including deportation on the grounds of inadmissibility and voluntary departure.

In February, the first full month of Trump’s second term, confirmed voluntary departures were at 592, the data showed. By July, that number had climbed to 4,241.

The beginning of the increase roughly aligns with the repurposing of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) app. Under former President Joe Biden, CBP One was a tool for immigrants to book appointments with officials at the southwest border. The Trump administration transformed it into the CBP Home app, a tool for those without legal status to report self-deportation.

It was not immediately clear how many of those whom ICE marked as voluntary departures had used the CBP Home app to depart the country, and CBP has not published figures on the app’s usage as of September 2025.

“One caveat on making judgements about use of this disposition is that it may or may not entirely reflect ICE policy, because [voluntary departure] is commonly offered by immigration judges too,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies told Newsweek.

Vaughan said it was important to note that 38 percent of voluntary departure cases under Trump came from the border, compared to 20 percent under Biden.

Has Trump Increased Deportations?

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has repeatedly touted high deportation numbers, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE have not published consistent data on removals.

Under Biden, DHS shared monthly updates on immigration enforcement, with ICE data for July 2024 showing around 25,000 removals by ICE. That number was 23,250 this July, according to the data released under FOIA.

“More generally, there has been a significant increase in interior enforcement and in corresponding removals under Trump compared to the exact same period under Biden,” Vaughan said.

“Most notably, under Trump, ICE has removed nearly double the number of aliens with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, which will result in safer communities across the country. Part of the reason for this has been the much greater engagement with state and local law enforcement agencies under Trump.”

This data gives some insight into how ICE has moved to deport its detainees since inauguration day, totaling more than 145,000 removals in six months. The number marks an increase in ICE deportations from within the U.S. compared to the same period last year under Biden, but then more immigrants were being turned around and sent back across the U.S.-Mexico border instead.

“I’d say that total removals are not much higher than they were last year—which could mean that there is a hard capacity limit on total removals,” David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, told Newsweek.

“Nonetheless, that the number of removals of recent border crossers have fallen because fewer people are entering, while the number of removals of people here for more than six months has increased threefold.”

What Do We Know About Deportees?

The ICE data provides a breakdown of each individual immigrant to have officially left the U.S. under its jurisdiction, meaning there are also details on their nationality and whether they committed any crimes while in the U.S.

The majority of those deported since late January were from Mexico, with monthly totals far outpacing other nationalities. In May, 12,211 Mexicans were deported or left voluntarily, with Guatemalans, Venezuelans and Hondurans following in the low-thousands.

Not all immigrants are sent back to the country they came from, often because the U.S. does not have agreements with those nations, or countries do not accept repatriation flights.

In June, 240 Chinese nationals were deported, though China itself took 235 of them. Venezuela, a country with which the U.S. has a strained relationship, also saw fewer repatriations.

The Trump administration has also touted its efforts to arrested and deport the “worst of the worst” – that is, illegal immigrants who have either been convicted of serious crimes, or face criminal charges.

The data released by ICE also gave an insight into the criminality of the immigrants deported between the end of January and end of July. While more than 60,000 had no criminal convictions or pending charges, the vast majority of those deported by ICE were suspected or known criminals.

Though data publishing remains inconsistent under the Trump administration, these figures suggest a marked increase in removals of known criminals compared to previous years. However, recent detention data has suggested most of those being held in ICE facilities do not have any criminal convictions or pending charges.

“After successfully ending the invasion of our country and securing our southern border, President Trump established the visionary Project Homecoming in May to create a smooth, efficient process for illegal aliens to return home,” a senior DHS official told Newsweek.

“By using the CBP Home App, illegal aliens will receive a complimentary one-way plane ticket home, a $1,000 exit bonus, and forgiveness of any fines previously assessed for failure to depart. Tens of thousands of illegal aliens have utilized the CBP Home app, and 1.6 million illegal immigrants have left the United States population since January 20.”

The challenge for ICE now, coming up on nine months into Trump’s second term, is to dramatically increase its enforcement numbers, from arrests through to deportations, as the president and his top advisor, Stephen Miller, are said to be demanding.

Under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the agency has seen its budget supercharged, but more officers and expanded detention space will both take time to get online.