by Ben Whedon
President Donald Trump is well on his way to removing the multitude of illegal aliens in the United States, with the total dropping by 2 million since he took office.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to Just the News that federal agencies had directly deported 400,000 illegal aliens since Trump returned to the White House. Additionally, 1.6 million illegal aliens self-deported in that same time frame.
“We’re looking about 2 million total in the past 240 days. That includes 1.6 million self deportations, which we are very much encouraging illegal aliens to take,” she said. “It’s a lot safer for the aliens themselves, for the public, for our law enforcement, and also it’s a lot better financially, a lot more tax savings for the US taxpayer. And then in addition to that, there’s been about 400,000 deportations themselves, so totally, about 2 million, but we’re going to get those numbers up.”
McLaughlin made the remarks in an interview with this reporter to be aired this week on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast. Her update appears to corroborate earlier reporting of 350,000 deportations by late August and analysis from the Center for Immigration Status, which found 1.6 million illegals had left voluntarily. McLaughlin confirmed that DHS figures independently corroborated the CIS estimate.
Trump has previously stated that there are between 20 and 22 million illegal aliens in the country, meaning his administration has completed roughly 10% of the job, thus far.
Notably, the 2 million figure largely stems from DHS operating under a budget from the Biden Administration and does not reflect the expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resources from the One Big, Beautiful Bill.
McLaughlin further expressed optimism that DHS would be able to meet the Trump administration’s target by the end of his term, through a combination of direct deportations and self-deportations. DHS expects the pace of self-deportations to vary widely, but is confident that direct deportations will dramatically expand.
Since Trump took office in January, the number of apprehensions at the northern and southern border has declined dramatically. From January to July, law enforcement apprehended 82,188 people. Compared to the first seven months of 2024, when Joe Biden was president, law enforcement had encountered 806,653 people. This represents a 90 percent decrease under Trump compared to Biden.
The average number of people law enforcement apprehended from January 2024 to July 24 was 115,236 people. For the first seven months in 2025, law enforcement apprehended on average 11,741 people.
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Ben Whedon is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Only 20 million left to go!
2 million deported. I bear no ill will to any who came here illegally but had no malicous intent. Nor do I bear any ill will to approximately 10 million illegal aliens who are yet to be located and deported. My regret is that more do not take advantage of the self deportation opportunity, which I hope still includes a $1,000 payment once they are relocated in their home country.
That’s what I call a good start.