DHS Announces ICE Carried Out 483,200 Deportations and More Than 491,000 Arrests in 2026 and Calls It a Record; Figures Are DHS's, Breakdown Not Released

Al Jazeera reports that the Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out 483,200 deportations and more than 491,000 immigration arrests in 2026, and that the total number of deportations “breaks all records in ICE’s 23-year history, including the previous record of 442,640 deportations made in 2025.” The record claim is DHS’s: Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement that “Fiscal Year 2026 saw the highest number of ICE deportations and arrests for any year in ICE’s history.” These are announced figures, not independently verified counts, and every claim here binds to Al Jazeera’s report; DHS’s own release was not read. The report says ICE made more than 48,000 arrests in September, ending a two-month run of record highs that reached 50,925 in August.

Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, who says the administration has increased enforcement, told Al Jazeera the big issue he had not been able to determine was “what percentage of these individuals are interior enforcement and what percentage are removals from the interior of the United States and what percentage are those turned around at the border or at airport.” Bennie Thompson, the incoming House Homeland Security chair, said “We will investigate the administration weaponising DHS against Americans.” Earlier pace entries: 2026-04-26–ice-fy2026-removals-on-pace-460000-deportations-record, 2026-07-23–ice-nears-600k-deportations-july-arrest-record.