(VOVWORLD) - US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported some 271,000 undocumented immigrants in fiscal year 2024, which ended on September 30, according to the agency's annual enforcement report.
 Migrants at a shelter in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, December 11, 2024. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) |
The decade-high tally was higher than any year of President-elect Donald Trump's 2017-2021 administration, according to US government statistics.
The bulk of those forced to leave the United States came from struggling economies in the western hemisphere following the COVID 19 pandemic, and had crossed the southern border illegally, ICE said in its last report under incumbent US President Joe Biden, before President-elect Donald Trump assumes office on January 20, 2025.
ICE removed 267,000 immigrants in fiscal year 2019, the highest of Trump’s first term.
Under Trump's administration, deportations often involved those living illegally in the US, rather than those recently crossing the border.