AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Deportations under President Biden have hit their highest point in almost a decade. The number of removals conducted in 2024 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement - or ICE - has surpassed those conducted during the first Trump administration. NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán joins us now to break all of this down for us. Hi, Sergio.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: Hey. OK, so the latest numbers were released by ICE yesterday, right? What exactly do they tell us?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: It tells us that the Republican narrative that the Biden administration has not done anything to combat illegal immigration is just not true. According to ICE, 271,484 people were removed from the U.S. That's an increase of nearly 90% from last fiscal year...
CHANG: Wow.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: ...2023. And, you know, the migrants deported this year came from 192 countries, although most folks hailed from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras - in that order. Now, the big takeaway from Biden's deportation numbers, Ailsa, is that his strategy of quickly removing people who had crossed the southern border illegally seemed to have worked. He's done this by deploying additional agents, but also by negotiating with other countries to accept the deportees.
CHANG: OK. And how does Biden's record compare to the first Trump administration? I'm wondering because Trump has said that he is going to oversee the largest deportation operation in the history of this country starting next January.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Right. I mean, 2019 was the year when removals hit a peak during the Trump administration. Back then, ICE removed 267,258 migrants - a little less than Biden in 2024.
CHANG: OK.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: And the strategy of the Trump administration focused more on removing people from the interior of the country.
CHANG: OK. Well, as we talk about the border, we know that the number of unauthorized crossings has gone down a lot, especially since this summer, when Biden implemented new rules. How is the border today, would you say?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: It's pretty quiet - you know? - especially when you compare it to this time last year, when we saw a record high of unauthorized crossings. For example, in November, Border Patrol agents encountered nearly 47,000 unauthorized migrants along the southern border. That same month last year, there were nearly 191,000 encounters. And something unusual happened last month. More migrants showed up at official border crossings than those arrested by Border Patrol for crossing without authorization.
CHANG: Interesting. Why is that?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Well, the Biden administration has made it more difficult for migrants to claim asylum if they enter the country illegally, so many are waiting in Mexico to get an appointment with Customs and Border Protection to petition for asylum - hence the higher number of people presenting at ports of entry.
CHANG: Ah.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Another reason for the overall drop in unauthorized crossings is that Mexico has been helping the U.S. in stopping people trying to reach the U.S. border, and they've been sending the folks to southern Mexican states. And that, Ailsa, makes it really complicated for folks to try to go back north since they need money, and it's also pretty dangerous.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah.
CHANG: And real quick, as we get closer to the new year, what can we expect to happen at the southern border?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: So last week, I was in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, and migrants waiting there told me they were worried about not being allowed to claim asylum. Many were trying to figure out next steps. Some even told me they might try to come into the country illegally before the new administration takes over.
CHANG: Wow.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: So they're paying attention.
CHANG: Yeah. That is NPR immigration correspondent Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Thank you, Sergio.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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