The current administration has leaned heavily on executive action rather than seeking legislative change in Congress. As of January 7, Trump had signed 38 executive orders related to immigration, accounting for nearly 17 percent of the 225 total orders signed so far during his first year.
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that the Trump administration in the first year of its second term took more than 500 actions on immigration, surpassing the 472 actions over all four years of Trump’s first term.
Focus on Deportations Above All Else
A supportive, Republican-led Congress provided $170 billion to the Department of Homeland Security.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court also authorised the revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from about 600,000 Venezuelans. Although it blocked the administration from deporting noncitizens without due process and did not allow deployment of the National Guard for immigration enforcement.
Unauthorized entries along the US-Mexico border have decreased significantly – lowest level since the 1970s – the administration could have been focused on unauthorised immigrants within the country, which are anticipated to number 13.7 million by mid-2023.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has increased enforcement significantly, with arrests more than quadrupling since Trump took office, and 622,000 noncitizens deported—less than the promised one million and lower than the Biden administration’s repatriation figures.
Worth to mention that deportation numbers include noncitizens turned away at borders, and there is a lack of openness about who is included in these figures.
While the administration claims 1.9 million people have “self-deported” during that same period, it has not provided any data, including on use of the CBP Home app, through which immigrants are offered a free flight and $1,000 payment if they return to their origin country.
What is a ‘Third Country’?
Usually, under a removal order, migrants are deported to a country of which they are a citizen.
But some countries do not always cooperate with the U.S. on deportations. They include Cuba, Laos and Myanmar; some of the eight migrants sent to South Sudan were from those three nations.
In cases where countries do not agree to take in their own citizens, “other countries have agreed that they would take them in … and take care of them until their home country would receive them,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said earlier in 2025.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X that the five men sent to Eswatini had been convicted of serious crimes, including murder, and that “their home countries refused to take them back.”
A human rights lawyer in Eswatini has taken officials to court, claiming the men are being refused legal representation while being confined in a maximum-security jail and disputing the constitutionality of holding them permanently after serving their criminal sentences in the United States.
“Eswatini is not a Prison for US Rejects.”
Civil society and opposition groups in Eswatini have expressed outrage after the US deported five men to the country, with the largest opposition party calling it “human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal”.
Eswatini, formerly… pic.twitter.com/7YCqWuFM09
— FactRefuge (@FactRefuge) July 25, 2025
The Trump administration has also sent more than 130 Venezuelan migrants to the legal black hole of prisons in El Salvador. Trump used the wartime Alien Enemies Act to remove them, accusing them of terrorism because they had alleged markers of gang membership.
Mexico Leads the ICE Deportation List
As of early 2026, the U.S. has “third country” agreements with nearly a dozen countries, including Mexico, El Salvador, Ghana, Rwanda, South Sudan, Panama, Uganda, Eswatini, and Equatorial Guinea. Some agreements involve financial compensation (e.g., $6 million to El Salvador, $7.5 million to Equatorial Guinea) or diplomatic pressure, such as threats to revoke aid or impose travel bans.
The data revealed by Factually that Mexico is still the leading country for ICE deportation, with 69,364 arrests, followed by Guatemala (36,104), Honduras (27,978), Ecuador (22,936), and Colombia (20,123). These figures reflect the administration’s tailored enforcement efforts, with a focus on certain geographical demographics.
