Trump Admin Has Deported Over 130,000 Migrants in Its First 100 Days; How It Compares With Past Presidents

President Donald Trump's first 100 days in the White House came with sweeping immigration legislation as efforts to carry out the "largest deportation operation in American history" took shape. The changes resulted in around over a 130,000 people without proper legal status to be removed from the U.S.

Since his first hours back in office, Trump signed a plethora of executive actions with the goal of curbing down unauthorized— and in many cases also legal— migration. Though numerous actions were met with legal challenges, such as his plans to end birthright citizenship and his operation to send migrants to an El Salvador prison, the plans have nevertheless upended the country's immigration system.

So much so that the administration recently revealed it has deported 139,000 people who were in the country unlawfully. That number has also produced a sharp drop in crossings at the Southwest border, with Border Patrol tracking 7,181 encounters in March, down from 137,473 the same month of the past year.

"It's just the beginning," the administration said after revealing the number of deportees. President Trump has also claimed he aims to surpass the mark left by Joe Biden, who expelled more immigrants than him during his first term (1.5 million).

But the number of deportees is not the only figure that has skyrocketed. In fact, the administration has also detained 158,000 undocumented migrants in its first 100 days. Authorities say these arrests include some 2,288 members of gangs such as the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (600 detainees) and MS-13 and Barrio 18, linked to the Mara Salvatrucha gang, among others.

ICE has played a pivotal role in these deportations, having arrested and processed nearly 66,000 people for deportation. According to the agency, three out of four detainees had criminal records. About 1,300 had committed sex crimes, and nearly 500 had been charged with or convicted of homicide, the agency said.

Yet the administration has also raised eyebrows throughout these first pivotal days, as these deportations and sweeping legislation have seen an erosion of due process, and in some instances, a blatant disregard for court orders.

Most notably, the Supreme Court directed the Trump administration in April to "facilitate" the return to the U.S. of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador citizen who was mistakenly deported to a prison in his home country. Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland and had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution. So far, both Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have refused to bring him back to the U.S.

Adding to that, Trump said last week that he won the presidential election on the promise of deportations and that the courts are interfering with his efforts.

"We're getting them out, and a judge can say, 'No, you have to have a trial'," Trump said. "The trial's going to take two years, and now we're going to have a very dangerous country if we're not allowed to do what we're entitled to do."

Moving into the rest of his administration, the Trump administration has promised to ramp up immigration crackdown and deportations. Border czar Tom Homan said Monday that "in the very near future" migrants and foreigners detained by federal agencies will be taken to the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. Likewise, in mid-April, the White House instructed the Pentagon to begin land-use conversions for thousands of acres in a swath that encompasses parts of California, Arizona and New Mexico. By turning the land over to the military, unauthorized crossings into the area would be a federal crime.

The president has promised to deport between 15 and 20 million people during his first term, though the Pew Research Center estimates there are 11 million people residing the U.S. unauthorized. Based on those numbers, the administration is lagging behind, being behind both Obama and Biden's deportation numbers.

The Trump administration deported 3.13 million people during his first term. In comparison, Obama deported 3.16 million, while Biden deported 4.44 million individuals in 2021 and 2022. However, the administration insists the comparison is not "apples to apples" because fewer people are crossing the border now.