Approximately 1.6 million people without legal immigration status have left the United States since the start of the Trump administration, according to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
"In less than 200 days, 1.6 MILLION illegal immigrants have left the United States population. This is massive," Noem said in a social media post thanking President Donald Trump.
She added that the decrease would yield safer streets, reduced taxpayer spending, less burden on schools and hospitals and improved job prospects for Americans.
The figure comes from a report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a group that supports lower immigration levels but has acknowledged its estimate may overstate the decline.
The Department of Homeland Security said the claim is based on CIS's analysis of data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), administered by the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPS collects information on birthplace and citizenship, but does not ask respondents about immigration status.
CIS noted several caveats in its methodology. It said increased enforcement measures may have led to fewer immigrants responding to the survey, possibly exaggerating the apparent drop.
The center also said its data on legal immigration through July 2025 is incomplete, adding further uncertainty to the estimate.
Current estimates place the number of undocumented individuals in the U.S. at around 13 million.
Researchers say that due to changes in enforcement, some migrants may now avoid participation in government surveys.
Julia Gelatt of the Migration Policy Institute said that because information from records for Medicaid, food stamps, and other government programs may now be shared with immigration authorities, immigrants without secure legal status might be reluctant to respond, especially given the CPS's small sample size.
The CIS figure of 1.6 million has drawn skepticism. In April, the administration reported 135,000 deportations, a number that the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) said was exaggerated, estimating actual deportations at closer to 72,000.
TRAC also reported that immigration judges issued deportation orders for just over 360,000 individuals this year, though it is unclear when many of these removals will take place.
In addition to enforcement actions, the administration has introduced incentives for voluntary departures, offering $1,000 to those who register to leave via the CBP Home App, which replaced an earlier asylum request application.
The administration has also moved to terminate Temporary Protected Status programs and parole options created under the Biden administration, and ICE attorneys have sought dismissal of some immigration cases to enable expedited removal proceedings.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.