President Trump and his propaganda machine are hard at work extolling extraordinary results in securing the border and launching the largest mass deportation in American history. In particular, he and his team brag daily about deporting “criminal illegals.”  They never miss a photo op to show migrants being arrested and flown off to distant countries.

Yes, Trump has been successful on some aspects of illegal immigration.  If we look at illegal entry, “encounters” have dropped to a trickle under Trump.  But by the end of Biden’s term, encounters were already vastly reduced, making relatively easy work for Trump to finish the job.

But what about Deportations, otherwise known as “removals”?  Trump is deporting vastly more migrants than Biden, right?  Trump says he’s getting criminal migrants out of the country in record numbers, and that the great mass deportation is underway.  But what do the facts say?  Let’s look at the records of both presidents.

During last year and a quarter of the Biden Administration, there were 342,889 removals (deportations), for an average of 22,860 removals per month.

The graph below depicts ICE-reported removals during federal Fiscal Year 2024 (Oct. 1, 2023 to Sept 30, 2024) and the first quarter of FY 2025 (Oct. 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024).  All of these removals thus occurred during the Biden Administration.  There were a total of 342,889 removals during this year and a quarter, an average of about 22,860 removals per month.  Removals with criminal convictions are depicted in blue, those with criminal charges are depicted in gray, and those with immigration violations are depicted in orange.

During the first 50 days of the Trump Administration there were 28,319 removals, for an average of 16,992 removals per month.

The ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) told Newsweek that it had removed 28,319 people from the U.S. interior between January 20 and March 11, 2025. These are the latest data available as of this writing (April 24, 2025).  

Reports are that President Trump and Border Czar Tom Homan are displeased with these numbers.  ICE used to put out updates every few weeks on how many people had been flown out of the country, and to where.  These updates stopped once Trump took office, along with monthly updates posted on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) statistics website. ICE’s own dashboard on arrests, detentions, and removals was last updated on December 31, 2024, and it says updates will be posted quarterly.

A significant reason the Trump Administration has not removed more undocumented immigrants is that some 3.7 million of these individuals are in active cases awaiting court proceedings.

As of March 20, 2025, the backlog in the immigration courts stood at 3,687,750 active cases–down slightly from levels of December 31, 2024, when the backlog was 3,747,675 cases. The deportation of these individuals will be decided by the immigration courts, not ICE officials. And, the average wait time for an immigration court proceeding is now at 636 days.

Expedited removal—removal without a court hearing—is possible with respect to those currently being apprehended and detained by ICE.  But expedited removal can’t be applied to those who are in the immigration court system and awaiting a determination regarding removal.

Instead of addressing the immigration court backlog, President Trump is reducing the number of judges, complaining that the courts are preventing him from carrying out deportations, and saying it’s impossible to eliminate the backlog.

President Trump is actually reducing rather than increasing immigration judges. These roughly 700 judges are the only ones who can revoke a migrant’s green card and issue a final order of removal for those who have been in the country for more than two years and are in the deportation process.  Trump has been leaving vacancies unfilled and firing probationary judges.  Currently there are an estimated 200 vacancies.  

Trump also regularly complains that immigration judges are preventing him from carrying out deportations.  He says the judges are being intimidated by the “radical left.” He also says it’s totally unrealistic to believe the court backlog can be eliminated. Here’s what he said recently on Truth Social:

“We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years.  We would need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of Illegals we are sending out of the Country. Such a thing is not possible to do.”

Trump on Truth Social (April 21, 2025) 

Trump’s timeframe of 200 years is, of course, an exaggeration.  In fiscal year 2024, the immigration courts completed 914,812 cases, a record.  At the current pace, one estimate is that it would take four years to clear the backlog.  With more judges the time could be reduced even more.

Vital funding to address the immigration court backlog, improve border security, and facilitate deportations could have been secured well over a year ago; but now funding won’t be provided by Congress until at least Memorial Day (May 26) or summer.

When Trump left office in January 2021, the backlog was at 1.6 million cases. Thus, he cannot complain this is all a problem of Biden’s making.  Further, help was offered by Congress early in 2024, but Trump killed the proposal. 

In February 2024, a bipartisan border security package was negotiated with $20.23 billion in funding.  The package included $7.6 billion to fund ICE needs, including more detention facilities and removal flights. In addition, $440 million was provided for more immigration judges to help reduce the immigration court backlog. Then candidate Trump urged his Congressional Republican colleagues to kill the bill.  And they did.

Republicans are currently seeking to fund the Trump Administration’s efforts to carry out mass deportations while also funding an expanded military presence at the southern border. The House Judiciary Committee will meet April 30 to debate its part of the reconciliation package.  This includes $110 billion in spending on immigration enforcement, including deportations.  Republicans are negotiating behind closed doors, so nothing has been made public regarding the contents of the immigration package.

However, all of these funding enhancements are folded into Trump’s “One Beautiful Bill” that will address his tax cuts, defense spending, immigration, and other matters. The legislation is being developed through the “reconciliation” process, where Republicans will be able to control the content. Their current game plan calls for the legislation to be sent to the President between Memorial Day (May 26), and July 4^th.

There is no question that an infusion of $440 million for more immigration judges could have made a sizable dent in the immigration court backlog. They could have been working to reduce the backlog for well over a year by now. Of course, the dispositions of cases that resulted in orders for removal would be credited to Biden if they occurred before January 20, 2025.  Trump, of course, can claim credit for court-ordered removals that occur during his term.

Conclusion: Trump’s messaging has been effective in getting Americans to believe he is doing a good job in cracking down on illegal immigration; but, in fact, he is falling short of Biden’s deportation record and deflecting blame to the immigration courts and Democrats.

Trump appears to be in denial that he can’t just deport undocumented immigrants without a trial. He does have this power  of “expedited removal”  for certain migrants; but for those already in court immigration proceedings, he cannot deny them the right to a trial.    

So far the public has not caught up with the fact that Trump’s record on deportations is not the success he touts.  As the public becomes aware, and it will, the President will likely blame the immigration courts, immigration judges, and the Democrats.   Beyond this, look for the President and Republicans to revise the law regarding the kind of trial undocumented immigrants are entitled to.  I expect them to attempt to do so in their reconciliation bill; and I expect them to apply these provisions to the 3.7 million cases currently before the immigration courts.  Doing so raises some serious due process and other Constitutional problems. But the President has not let this stop him in the past, and I foresee a ferocious fight.