The Biden administration has outdone the Trump government as the US in FY24 deported the highest number of illegal immigrants in a decade. Over 1,500 Indians were among the 270,000 immigrants deported by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this year.
Though Donald Trump says that he will deport illegal immigrants, the administration of President Joe Biden has outdone him in this regard. Over 270,000 immigrants from 192 countries, including India, were deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the highest since 2014, in FY2024. Among them, 1,529 Indians have been deported.
The decade-high deportation comes even as US President-elect Donald Trump plans to oversee the largest deportation in American history when he takes office on January 20, 2025. Trump criticized Biden’s handling of immigration policy. The deportations never saw a significant decline under President Biden.
ICE arrested 2,647 Indians for deportation in FY2024 and ranked fourth among countries for deportation after Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. With a list of 1.5 million individuals awaiting deportation, there are close to 18,000 undocumented Indian nationals.
According to ICE data, the Biden administration has deported many immigrants too, including those charged or convicted of criminal activity, known or suspected gang members, terrorists, and human rights violators, exceeding the deportation figures reported during Trump’s presidency.
In 2014, ICE removed 315,943 immigrants; the highest number during Donald Trump’s first term was 267,258 in 2019.
In fiscal year 2022, ICE deported 72,177 immigrants. This number nearly doubled to 142,580 in FY2023 and almost doubled again to 271,484 in FY2024 under the Biden administration.
As the Biden administration enters its final year in 2025, the next US President-elect will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025. He defeated Democratic challenger Kamala Harris, to whom the election was conducted on November 5, 2024.
According to CNN, Tom Homan, who Trump picked as the new “border czar,” stated that he would need Congress to provide funding to strengthen the agency’s resources and carry out the president-elect’s deportation plans.
He mentioned that at least 100,000 beds must be used for the detention of illegal immigrants, a number that exceeds double the 40,000 detention beds funded for ICE.
