US Deportations by Year: Why DHS Totals Can Mislead

DHS repatriation totals combine removals, returns and Title 42 expulsions. The category mix explains why FY2021–FY2022 headline totals do not mean the same thing as FY2024 removals.

“Deportation” is used loosely in public debate, but the U.S. government counts it in three separate buckets. Under Department of Homeland Security (DHS) definitions, repatriations — the broadest measure — are the sum of removals, returns, and (between March 2020 and May 2023) Title 42 expulsions. Only removals carry administrative penalties; returns do not. That is why two years can show a similar headline number and still mean very different things.

Updated source check: Oct. 6, 2026. ImmigroNews rechecked the OHSS repatriations publisher page, the KHSM spreadsheet, and the OHSS annual flow report before redistributing this explainer.

What DHS actually counts

The Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS) defines a repatriation as DHS sending an alien back to their country of citizenship or a third country. It reports that total in three parts:

Removals — formal orders of removal, which carry administrative penalties.
Returns — people sent back without an administrative penalty.
Expulsions — removals carried out under the Title 42 public health order, in effect from March 2020 to May 2023.

DHS repatriations by fiscal year

Total repatriations reported by OHSS, fiscal years 2010 to 2025 (data rounded to the nearest 10):

FY2010: 931,170
FY2011: 712,850
FY2012: 647,530
FY2013: 612,030
FY2014: 568,250
FY2015: 453,240
FY2016: 437,990
FY2017: 387,340
FY2018: 487,160
FY2019: 518,340
FY2020: 608,380
FY2021: 1,334,210
FY2022: 1,467,940
FY2023: 1,199,910
FY2024: 777,580
FY2025: 111,010 (partial — months released so far, not a full year)

Why the raw totals mislead

The two highest totals in the series are FY2021 (1,334,210) and FY2022 (1,467,940) — but those years are not comparable to earlier ones at face value. In FY2021, 1,071,070 of that total were Title 42 expulsions and only 85,100 were removals — the lowest removals figure in the entire series. FY2022 was similar: 1,103,970 expulsions against 102,760 removals.

Meanwhile FY2024 shows the opposite pattern: no Title 42 expulsions at all, 777,580 total repatriations, and 329,990 removals — the highest removals count since FY2014 (404,700). A person comparing only the headline totals would reach the wrong conclusion about both periods.

What the numbers do not tell you

They count enforcement events reported by DHS, not unique individuals.
They do not describe how any individual case was decided, or who is currently in removal proceedings.
They do not measure border encounters, detention levels, or asylum outcomes — those are separate DHS datasets.
Enforcement policy, court rulings and case backlogs all affect what any given year looks like.

Check the figures yourself

The definitions and the underlying data come from the OHSS DHS Repatriations Key Homeland Security Metric publisher page and its Repatriations dataset (xlsx). The wider series is documented in the OHSS Immigration Enforcement Actions Annual Flow Report.

Related coverage

Official source

*This article is general immigration information, not legal advice. All figures are taken from the OHSS datasets linked above and rounded as OHSS reports them. Anyone with a question about their own immigration status or a pending case should speak with a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative.*

This is general immigration news, not legal advice. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed immigration attorney.