Caitlin Dickerson

It's lower than the highest number under the Biden administration, which was over 700,000.

But there's a big shift within those data points, right?

Because during the Biden administration, you had large numbers of people crossing the border.

And most people who were removed during that period were people who'd never actually entered the United States.

During this current administration, we've had more than 300,000 people from within the interior of the country picked up and put into deportation proceedings, ultimately removed.

Those people, it's very different to deport them.

So we're talking about pulling people from their communities who have relatives, who have employers, friends, and a really significant ripple effect when those removals are carried out.

Yeah.

Another difference between the Biden administration and the Trump administration is people who are in immigration detention.

So when Biden left office, you had about 35,000 people in detention.

Now you have more than double that number.

And a big part of that is because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act granted $45 billion for the expansion of immigration detention.

Those expansions are happening very quickly.

The courts are still slowing deportations down in that once someone is detained,

if they're lucky enough to have access to a lawyer, most people don't, but some do, you can fight your case and you can see if there's any possibility of recourse to either stay in the United States permanently or at least remain detained for a long period of time because deportation cases can take years to resolve.

And so I think that's why you see this doubling in the number of people who are detained and less of an impact when you're looking at the removals number.

The administration has caught on to this and is trying to look for more ways to remove people without allowing them the opportunity to go before a judge.

So they're trying to expand the use of things like expedited removal, which is basically just a legal way of deporting someone without giving them their day in court.

You know, the expanded use of expedited removal has been challenged and I'm sure will continue to be.

And, you know, we're back in a situation just like during the first Trump administration when there's really this