Skip to the story
All StoriesPoliticsConflict & SecurityBusiness & EconomyScience & TechHealthClimateMedia
All stories
Politics30 outlets ran this2 min read

Trump Administration Deportations Rise 26% From Biden Years

A Migration Policy Institute report indicates a significant increase in deportations, though figures fall short of stated targets.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
U.S. Army personnel keep watch over the U.S.-Mexico border in Roma, Texas

What this story says

  • The Trump administration is projected to deport around 660,000 individuals over the past year, according to a Migration Policy Institute report.
  • This figure represents a 26% increase from the average yearly deportations during the 2021-2024 period under the Biden administration.
  • Voluntary departures have reached an all-time high, with 170,000 people choosing to leave since January 2025.
  • The report indicates that the majority of individuals deported have no prior criminal convictions.

Who covered it

Left 55%(16)Centre 38%(11)Right 7%(2)

Percentages are shares of the 29 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 30 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

60/100

Craft

70/100

Hype

40/100

30 sources · methodology

Thin on the right so far

Only 2 of the 29 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

The Trump administration is on track to deport approximately 660,000 people over the past year, a figure that marks a 26% increase from the yearly average between 2021 and 2024 under the Biden administration. This data comes from a report by the Migration Policy Institute. Voluntary departures, where individuals agree to leave the country without a formal removal order, have reached an all-time high, with 170,000 people choosing this option since January 2025. The report also states that most individuals deported have never been convicted of a crime.

Disagreement on Deportation Figures

The Economic Times reported that the Trump administration is on track to deport about 660,000 people over the past year, citing the Migration Policy Institute. This report also noted that the Department of Homeland Security carried out 980,000 deportations during the first 18 months of the second Trump administration. However, the Trump administration itself released figures on Tuesday claiming 1.2 million migrants have been deported or removed during Trump's second term, a discrepancy that could not be immediately reconciled by The Economic Times.

What the coverage left out

No left- or right-rated outlet reported on this story. The centre-rated report from The Economic Times did not mention the specific dollar amount of billions of dollars meant to supercharge the Trump administration's immigration agenda, as stated in the source material.

Tags:#Immigration#Deportation#TrumpAdministration#MigrationPolicyInstitute#USPolitics

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 22 Oct 2026, 14:45, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

16 rated outlets

  • The Daily Record, Beloit Daily News, Durango Herald, NiagaraFallsReview.ca and St Catharines Standard each led on a projection of roughly 660,000 deportations and noted a 26 % rise over the previous year. All twelve left‑rated digests mentioned that deportations had risen sharply compared with the Biden period.
  • El Pais reported a figure of 980,000 deported migrants and said only 31 % had criminal records. Michigan Advance, Pennsylvania Capital‑Star and Louisiana Illuminator described deportations near one million, stressing that the total includes voluntary returns and people turned away at the border. WashingtonSun.com highlighted a White House claim of three million immigrants leaving and noted the administration had not explained the calculation.
  • None of the left‑rated digests gave the White House target number for deportations, provided a cost estimate, or detailed the methodology of the Migration Policy Institute report. They also omitted any breakdown of how the billions of dollars mentioned for enforcement were allocated.

Centre

11 rated outlets

  • The Economic Times led with the headline that deportations are climbing under Trump but falling short of White House targets. The report highlighted that the administration is on track to deport about 660,000 people over the past year, a 26% increase from the Biden administration's average. It noted that voluntary departures are at an all-time high with 170,000 people choosing to leave since January 2025. The outlet also pointed out that the majority of those deported have no criminal convictions, despite administration claims of targeting 'the worst of the worst'. The Economic Times mentioned that the Trump administration stopped publicly releasing deportation figures compiled by the Department of Homeland Security in January 2025, making tracking difficult.

Right

2 rated outlets

  • Both the Times of India and the Boston Herald digests led on a sharp rise in removals during the Trump administration. Each notes a 26 percent increase over the average level under President Biden and cites a figure of roughly 660 000 deportations for the year, based on a Migration Policy Institute report.
  • The Times of India digest adds that voluntary departures have reached an all‑time high and that the Department of Homeland Security reported 39 percent of deportations now occur from within the United States. No other outlet in this sample provided those additional statistics.
  • Neither digest mentions any cost estimate for the increased removals, does not reference the White House target cited in the headline, and includes no quotations from officials or advocacy groups. The coverage therefore omits financial and policy‑context details that appear in other reporting on the same data.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Trump Administration Deportations Rise 26% From Biden Years?
Of the 29 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 55% are rated left, 38% are rated centre, 7% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 30. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Trump Administration Deportations Rise 26% From Biden Years left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 29 rated outlets on this story, 55% are rated left, 38% are rated centre, 7% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Trump Administration Deportations Rise 26% From Biden Years biased?
Trump Administration Deportations Rise 26% From Biden Years is one event reported by 30 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Trump Administration Deportations Rise 26% From Biden Years?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Trump Administration Deportations Rise 26% From Biden Years?
30 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
How many people is the Trump administration on track to deport?
The Trump administration is on track to deport approximately 660,000 people over the past year, according to a Migration Policy Institute report. This represents a 26% increase compared to the yearly average during the Biden administration.
Are most deported individuals criminals?
No, the Migration Policy Institute report indicates that most people deported have never been convicted of a crime. This finding contrasts with claims by the Trump administration of targeting 'the worst of the worst'.
What is the status of voluntary departures?
Voluntary departures have reached an all-time high, with 170,000 people choosing to leave the country since January 2025. This means individuals are opting to leave the U.S. without a formal removal order from immigration courts.

Read it at the source

30 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

16
Show 8 more

Centre

11
Show 3 more

Right

2

Not rated

1

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

More in Politics

All Politics →
Trump admin revoked more than 300,000 visas since 2025, including 4,000 linked to birth tourism: Report3 min readTrump Administration Revokes Over 300,000 VisasRead story<i>Bill Pugliano/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Voters go to the polls to cast their ballots in the Michigan Primary election on August 4 in Lansing Michigan.3 min readJudge Blocks DHS Field Operations in Nine StatesRead storyDemocrats Sue Trump Administration Over Election Interference Claims2 min readDemocrats Sue Trump Administration Over Election Interference ClaimsRead story
Trump Deportations Rise 26% | MediaBias News