On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump took to the podium at his inauguration and promised to end unauthorized border crossings and “begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens to the places from which they came.”
ProPublica and The Texas Tribune spent the first 12 months of Trump’s second term examining in real time how this campaign to deport immigrants has played out across the country.
We collected data that the government was unwilling to provide or did not track, including the number of American citizens were detained by immigration agents. We investigated crowd control methods used by federal agents in Los Angeles and Chicago and spoke with immigrant families that the government sent to Guantanamo. After the Trump administration sent more than 230 troops to a maximum security prison in El Salvadorwe partnered with Venezuelan journalists to collect proprietary US government recordings and data. The administration insisted these men were “the worst of the worst.” Our reports showed that the vast majority have no criminal convictions in the United States
The mass deportation campaign is at the top of the Trump administration’s priorities. list of “victories” from the first year. Border crossings have plummeted and the number of people detained each day is at historic highs. As federal agents tour America’s cities and towns, administration officials insist the multibillion-dollar effort makes the country safer.
Journalist Perla Trevizo looks back on the dizzying first year of Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Has his administration kept its promises – and if so, at what cost?
