Is Trump the Biggest Deporter Among U.S. Presidents?
Donald Trump is deporting fewer people than Barack Obama. He is just louder and meaner.
July 20, 2025
As of mid 2025, Donald Trump has deported fewer people per month than Barack Obama did — and barely more than Joe Biden during a similar time span last year.
Since February 2025, the Trump administration has deported 14,700 people per month on average.
That is far below Obama’s peak in 2013, when he deported 36,000 per month. And it is not even close to the Trump administration’s reported goal of deporting one million people in a year.
Trump’s approval rating on immigration has dropped sharply, with 55% of Americans disapproving and only 40% approving.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans who view immigration as a good thing has risen from 64% in 2024 to 79% — a record high.
Independent voters in the United States, many of them suburban voters who had once been sympathetic to a tougher border stance, are now repulsed by the cruelty and overreach exhibited by the Trump administration.
Support for deporting all undocumented immigrants in the United States is below 40%. Support for a pathway to citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants has climbed to nearly 80%.
Most Americans — including many Republicans — back a path to citizenship for “dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
A consensus is emerging that there should be clear numerical caps and rules about where and how asylum can be claimed — preferably outside the United States — through a structured process. At the same time, those who have lived in the United States for years, paying taxes and raising families, should be given a path to legal status.
Simply put, deporting well-integrated and tax-paying immigrants makes no economic or moral sense.
The United States also needs to expand high-skilled immigration if it wants to remain at the cutting edge of technology and innovation.
All in all, the doubts are rising that Trump is actually interested in solving the United States’ immigration problem — rather than preferring to use it as a political wedge issue to keep his partisan supporters in line.
Sources: CNN, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, NBC News, Quinnipiac University, Gallup.
Takeaways
So far, despite all his big announcements, Donald Trump has had fewer people deported per month than Barack Obama did — and barely more than Joe Biden during a similar span last year.
Trump’s approval rating on immigration has dropped sharply, with 55% of Americans disapproving and only 40% approving.
The number of Americans who view immigration as a good thing has risen from 64% in 2024 to 79% — a record high.
Support for deporting all undocumented immigrants is below 40%. Support for a pathway to citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants has climbed to nearly 80%.
