OAN Staff Blake Wolf
9:45 AM – Thursday, September 18, 2025
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second presidential term, roughly 2 million illegal immigrants have been deported, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The 2 million figure is a representation of the budget the DHS was operating with under the Biden administration, as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) recently received an influx of funding stemming from Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill, which was passed in July.
“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,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Just The News.
“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 U.S. 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,” she added.
McLaughlin’s announcement comes as ICE is ramping up operations in sanctuary cities across the United States, prompting pushback from Democrat mayors and governors.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed a lawsuit against Boston Mayor Michelle Wu over the city’s sanctuary policies, arguing that they are interfering with federal immigration enforcement.
“Sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attack and harbor criminals but protect them at the peril of law-abiding American citizens,” McLaughlin stated last week, adding that the imminent immigration sweeps in Boston would target “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”
Wu responded to the lawsuit, arguing that the Trump administration is “attacking cities to hide his administration’s failures.”
President Trump previously revealed that roughly 20 million illegal aliens are living in the United States, while McLaughlin expressed optimism that the DHS will be able to reach Trump’s deportation goal by the end of his term, with the increase in ICE funding as well as self-deportations.
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