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Last year, the Department of Homeland Security sought the removal of more than 300,000 people, according to data from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which combs data provided by DHS. That’s the highest number of deportation orders sought by DHS since at least 1992, when TRAC began.
Meanwhile, apprehensions of undocumented immigrants at the southern border have decreased more than 50 percent since that time and are at their lowest levels since 1971, according to Department of Homeland Security data.
The chain of events tying deportation arrests to eventually being deported is complex and can take a long time, especially given the massive backlog in immigration cases faced by U.S. courts. Actual deportations under the Trump administration are still lower than they were under the tenure of President Barack Obama, but they are rising quickly, especially from areas that aren't around the U.S.-Mexico border. Interior arrests under Trump have surpassed the numbers made during Obama's final two years in office.
About 45 percent of deportees last year originally came from Central American countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Benjamin's native Guatemala, where skyrocketing crime and pervasive poverty have pushed migrants out by the thousands. After Mexico, Guatemala is the country of origin for the highest number of deportees so far this year.
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