Donald Trump · Republican · Policy / Major Decision

Mass Deportation Campaign & Interior Enforcement Surge

Jan 23, 2025
Donald TrumpImmigrationPolicy / Major DecisionSecond term (2025–)
📜 View the official record on federalregister.gov

What happened

Launched the largest interior immigration-enforcement push in modern history, expanding ICE arrests, detention and removals and ending humanitarian parole programs, backed by EOs 14159, 14165 and others.

How it happened

A suite of executive orders plus expanded ICE operations, detention capacity and state/local cooperation.

Documented impact

Mixed impactsubstantiated
Removals rose and border crossings fell sharply.
ICE removed ~442,000 in FY2025 (about 171,000 more than the prior year); Southwest border arrests fell to multi-decade lows. DHS claimed millions of 'self-deportations' (a contested figure).
Negative impactsubstantiated
Interior arrests of non-criminals and detention rose steeply.
Interior deportations rose to ~4.5x pre-inauguration levels; ICE detention grew ~75% (from ~40,000 to ~66,000) in 2025, with arrests of people without criminal convictions increasing.
Negative impactcontested
Due-process and civil-liberties concerns and economic effects on labor-dependent industries.
Advocacy groups documented harsher detention conditions; effects on agriculture, construction and services labor markets were debated.

Public opinion

📊 Public opinion
Handling of immigration
Approve38%
Approval fell from 46% (Apr 2025) to 38% (Feb 2026). About half say his deportation approach has 'gone too far,' and ~60% say he overreached sending federal officers into U.S. cities.
AP-NORC, Feb 2026 · AP-NORC via PBS

Sources

Every claim above links to its source. Primary record and cited reporting: