Deportation flights hit a record high

Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here.

quote:

---

Deportation flights carrying illegal immigrants out of the United States surged in May to the highest levels seen since President Donald Trump took office.

Nearly 300 Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights departed the country last month, more than double the 126 flights during Trump’s first full month in office, according to Human Rights First, a Washington-based advocacy organization.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the government has deported nearly 900,000 illegal immigrants since Jan. 20, 2025. Approximately 3,000 government-chartered removal flights have taken off under Trump.

Domestic ICE flights
More of ICE’s chartered planes traveled inside the U.S. than outside the country. In May, roughly 1,300 flights shuffled detainees across destinations nationwide, such as moving detainees arrested in a remote area to a detention center that has capacity in another region.

Human Rights Watch noted that the Trump administration’s expansion of deportations has not been limited to increasing arrests or detention space.

“Since January 2025, the Trump administration has drastically expanded ICE Air operations to local airports across the United States and countries around the world to facilitate its mass detention and deportation campaign operating with little transparency or accountability,” Human Rights Watch’s website reads.

During the final year of the Biden administration, roughly 100 to 200 foreign deportation flights were tracked every month. That figure has grown to 200 to 300 flights per month over the past 18 months.

The greatest growth in flights came from domestic flights, which surged from roughly 250 flights per month in 2024 to more than 1,000 per month in 2026.

Arrests and deportations overall
A DHS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that more than 900,000 illegal immigrants had been arrested under Trump through May 17.

However, that figure was nearly double the 457,000 arrests DHS officials said they had recorded as of mid-April. When asked whether the DHS or ICE changed the parameters of who is counted as an ICE arrest or how the numbers surged over one month, the DHS did not respond.

In addition to the 900,000 people deported by the government, the DHS touted 2.2 million others who had “self-deported.” The DHS has pushed illegal immigrants to use the CBP Home app to register with the government and earn a free one-way plane ticket home.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a prominent Washington think tank advocating lower immigration levels, said the 2.2 million figure was likely far higher than reality and likely only included a few thousand people who used the government phone app to voluntarily depart.

“I think they’re basing that on our data, which included all people, all people leaving the country, all foreign-born people,” Krikorian said in a phone call Thursday, before questioning how successful the CBP Home app had been in luring people to leave the country.

“I think they’re overselling what they’re doing,” Krikorian said.

---