President Donald Trump's administration is on track to deport about 660,000 people over the past year, according to a new Migration Policy Institute report released on Thursday, October 22, as arrests ramp up across the country fuelled by billions of dollars meant to supercharge his immigration agenda, the Associated Press reported.

Source: Associated Press via Ottumwa Courier

The report shows deportations increased from about 620,000 during the first year of Trump's second administration. The numbers fall short of previous highs in the early 2000s and fail to meet the administration's promise, made when it received the billions from Congress, that the money would allow for 1 million deportations annually, AP reported.

MPI counted about 980,000 deportations from January 20, 2025 through July 31, 2026, including formal removals and returns, VisaVerge reported in its summary of the institute's analysis. Its count puts the annualised pace at about 660,000 in the most recent year.

Source: VisaVerge / Migration Policy Institute

980,000deportations counted by MPI, Jan 2025–Jul 2026
660,000latest annual pace, MPI estimate
1,000,000White House annual target — yaani 10 lakh a year

Why the count is contested

The Department of Homeland Security stopped releasing comparable detailed statistics in January 2025, according to AP reporting cited in coverage of the report, so MPI rebuilt the record from data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. The White House has separately claimed nearly 1.2 million people were 'deported or removed' over an undefined period of less than two years — a larger figure that uses different wording and cannot yet be checked against the same DHS data.

What is solid

  • MPI released its analysis on October 22, 2026, counting about 980,000 deportations in the first 18 months of the second Trump term.
  • MPI's latest annual pace is about 660,000, up from about 620,000 in the first year.

What is only claimed

  • The White House claim of nearly 1.2 million 'deported or removed' — it covers an undefined period and broader wording than MPI's removals-plus-returns count.

For Punjabi and other immigrant families in the United States, the practical point is twofold: enforcement arrests have risen and a growing share start with interior arrests rather than at the border, according to the MPI analysis, even as the headline deportation total remains below the administration's own 1 million-a-year promise ahead of the November 3 midterms.