Deportation flights carrying illegal immigrants out of the United States surged in May to the highest levels seen since President Donald Trump took office.
Nearly 300 Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights departed the country last month, more than double the 126 flights during Trump’s first full month in office, according to Human Rights First, a Washington-based advocacy organization.
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A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the government has deported nearly 900,000 illegal immigrants since Jan. 20, 2025. Approximately 3,000 government-chartered removal flights have taken off under Trump.
The Trump administration’s mass deportation operation comprises three components: arrest, detention, and removal. Over the past year and a half, the DHS and ICE have built up infrastructure and resources to arrest more people nationwide and additional detention spaces to hold those people while they are waiting to go before immigration judges, who must approve or deny each removal.
DHS officials claim to have arrested more than 400,000 illegal immigrants between mid-April and May 17, for a total of more than 900,000 arrests since early 2025.
A DHS spokesperson also said 2.2 million people have self-deported, or voluntarily left the country, in addition to the 900,000 who were deported on government planes.
Where planes were headed
The final step, deportation, began to ramp up last spring, then slowed amid the surge of ICE personnel to Minnesota, but has picked up again.
ICE is not only deporting people on hundreds of flights per month, but it is also sending those planes to nearly every part of the world.
Central America was the top destination for deportation flights in every month since Trump took office, making up 40%-60% of all flights, according to Human Rights First’s ICE Flight Monitor, a data-driven initiative that tracks federal immigration enforcement flights.
Flights to the interior of Mexico and South America were the second- and third-most popular destinations. Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean received several dozen flights per month, combined. Europe and the Middle East also received planes of deportees nearly every month, followed by infrequent flights to Oceania.
Domestic ICE flights
More of ICE’s chartered planes traveled inside the U.S. than outside the country. In May, roughly 1,300 flights shuffled detainees across destinations nationwide, such as moving detainees arrested in a remote area to a detention center that has capacity in another region.
Human Rights Watch noted that the Trump administration’s expansion of deportations has not been limited to increasing arrests or detention space.
“Since January 2025, the Trump administration has drastically expanded ICE Air operations to local airports across the United States and countries around the world to facilitate its mass detention and deportation campaign operating with little transparency or accountability,” Human Rights Watch’s website reads.
During the final year of the Biden administration, roughly 100 to 200 foreign deportation flights were tracked every month. That figure has grown to 200 to 300 flights per month over the past 18 months.
The greatest growth in flights came from domestic flights, which surged from roughly 250 flights per month in 2024 to more than 1,000 per month in 2026.
Arrests and deportations overall
A DHS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that more than 900,000 illegal immigrants had been arrested under Trump through May 17.
However, that figure was nearly double the 457,000 arrests DHS officials said they had recorded as of mid-April. When asked whether the DHS or ICE changed the parameters of who is counted as an ICE arrest or how the numbers surged over one month, the DHS did not respond.
In addition to the 900,000 people deported by the government, the DHS touted 2.2 million others who had “self-deported.” The DHS has pushed illegal immigrants to use the CBP Home app to register with the government and earn a free one-way plane ticket home.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a prominent Washington think tank advocating lower immigration levels, said the 2.2 million figure was likely far higher than reality and likely only included a few thousand people who used the government phone app to voluntarily depart.
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“I think they’re basing that on our data, which included all people, all people leaving the country, all foreign-born people,” Krikorian said in a phone call Thursday, before questioning how successful the CBP Home app had been in luring people to leave the country.
“I think they’re overselling what they’re doing,” Krikorian said.
May overview: IFM warns that these trends represent an unprecedented escalation of immigration enforcement with serious human rights implications. Federal courts have already found many of these practices unlawful. They endanger vulnerable people & erode democratic accountability
— ICE Flight Monitor (@iceflightmonitor.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 6:22 PM
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May overview: IFM warns that these trends represent an unprecedented escalation of immigration enforcement with serious human rights implications. Federal courts have already found many of these practices unlawful. They endanger vulnerable people & erode democratic accountability
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