Trump's Approach to Immigration: What has happened so far?

Piece by Wen Xiao

Photo: ABC News

President Donald Trump has ascended into office with the promise of mass deportation. Much has transpired regarding immigration enforcement over these past few weeks, highlighting a significant change in the Trump Administration's attitude towards illegal immigration. However, it remains to be seen whether actual deportation numbers will meet Trump's promise of mass deportations. This article will analyze in detail recent immigration raids, as well as data on daily arrest numbers in comparison to previous presidencies. 

The Immigration Raid "PR"

Regardless of actual numbers, one aspect in which the Trump administration has done is to publicize immigration raid operations. While significant numbers of immigrants have been deported from the U.S. every single year, what the Trump Administration has done especially is to create media campaigns around those arrests. During the first few days of the Trump presidency, the White House media team often accompanied I.C.E. agents on immigration arrests and posted these arrests on social media. As a result, even though immigration raids are simply a standard part of the I.C.E.'s operations, recent raids under Trump have garnered much more news coverage. 

The Logistics of Deportation Raids

Even though immigration raids have been common in previous administrations, the Trump administration has expanded the power of immigration enforcement agencies. For instance, Trump soon after inauguration authorized immigration agencies such as the I.C.E. to conduct raids at sensitive locations such as schools and churches, revoking a decade-long initiative which restricted immigration raids to these locations. Trump has also utilized the military to stop potential border crossings. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, around 3600 service personnel have been sent to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico. Trump also vowed to massively increase funding for I.C.E. to expand operations and hold more detainees. 

Despite this, a mass deportation operation is almost certain to be costly and fraught with logistical and legal challenges. An estimated 13 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. According to the American Immigration Council, deporting roughly 1 million undocumented migrants every year will cost roughly $1 trillion over the course of a decade. Furthermore, the additional costs associated with hiring tens of thousands of agents and with ensuring detention and deportation capacity will likely increase the cost further.

There are also significant logistical challenges when it comes to mass deportation. For instance, there is the issue of where the immigrants will be deported to. Already, Mexico and Columbia have rejected several deportation flights, and only allowed these flights under the threat of U.S. tariffs. A mass deportation operation will inevitably require tens of thousands of deportation flights, and it is far from clear whether the host countries will accept these deportees. Moreover, a significant portion of immigrants come to the U.S. as refugees from crisis-stricken regions such as Venezuela and Haiti. In the case of Venezuela, 700,000 Venezuelans have been granted parole status under the Biden Administration, yet the Trump administration has rescinded Biden's January 10th  2025 extension of these paroles, meaning that over 700,000 Venezuelans could face deportation later this year when their parole expires. Deporting these migrants could violate international refugee protection laws, and Amnesty International has already called for a ban on deportation flights to Venezuela. 

The Numbers

With everything above in mind, it is also important to assess the actual arrest and deportation numbers, and compare it to the previous administrations. Between January 22 and January 29, I.C.E. published its daily undocumented immigrant arrest numbers on X. Between those dates, 8276 people were arrested and 6577 detainees were lodged, averaging 828 arrests and 658 detainers lodged per day. This is higher than during fiscal year 2024, when I.C.E. arrested around 113,000 individuals, or about 300 per day. However, I.C.E. has stopped posting daily numbers after the first week of the Trump presidency, with some suggesting that it might be because the numbers are lower than what is expected. 

Conclusion

Donald Trump was elected into office in large part because of his promise to deport large amounts of illegal immigrants. However, a mass deportation operation will face significant financial, logistical and legal challenges. Trump also made promises of mass deportation in his first term in office, yet the daily arrest and removal numbers under his first tenure is lower than that of Obama's. It still remains to be seen whether the blitz of executive orders targeting immigration, the turmoil surrounding enforcement operations, and the media publicity of immigration raids are the start of a long and well-planned mass deportation operation, or if all of this is just for show.