Trump administration uses multiple techniques to encourage and force deportation

May 21, 2025, 5:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — Carrying out mass deportations was a key rallying cry during Donald Trump's campaign for the presidency. Since the day he was sworn into office, his administration has focused on how to make that rallying cry reality.

They've touted their policy of going after “the worst of the worst” — meaning people who've committed crimes in America — while leaning on some nations to take migrants who the U.S. has difficulty deporting to their own countries.

They've removed protections from hundreds of thousands of people the Biden administration admitted on a temporary basis into the country with the aim of eventually making them deportable.

Here's a look at the strategies that the Trump administration is using, how they're targeting people for deportation and some of the challenges they're running into:

They've targeted the 'worst of the worst' ... and whoever they're with

Immigration enforcement officials have repeatedly portrayed their initial efforts as going after people they describe as “the worst of the worst.” Those are people who pose public safety or national security threats, people who've been arrested or convicted of committing crimes in America or who ICE determines are gang members.

On their social media feeds, they posted a constant stream of photos of people arrested by ICE and crimes they’re alleged to have committed.

Previous administrations have also prioritized people who are considered public safety threats so that strategy isn't necessarily new.

What is different under the Trump administration is that ICE agents now have authority to arrest other people they find with immigration violations when they're going after “the worst of the worst.” These are called “collateral arrests” and they weren't allowed under the Biden administration. As one ICE agent described it: “Nobody gets a free pass anymore.”

They've used third countries

Immigration enforcement officials have long complained about countries that do not take their citizens back when the U.S. has determined they can be deported.

Some countries don’t take back any of their citizens. Others are selective, especially when it comes to people with criminal convictions or who’ve committed particularly egregious crimes. And according to a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, ICE cannot hold someone for more than six months if there is no reasonable chance to expect they can be sent back to their home country.

Historically that has meant that immigration enforcement officials have had to release people into the U.S. that it wants to deport but can't.

To get around this problem, the Trump administration has leaned on other countries to accept people who are not their own citizens. The most high profile of these deals was announced in February by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a trip to El Salvador. That country has taken Venezuelans that the U.S. alleges are gang members and is holding them at a notorious prison.

Costa Rica and Panama have also taken citizens who are not their own although they were not imprisoned. Many of them have gone home or moved to third countries.

Outside of those three Central American nations, the Trump administration has said it’s exploring other third countries for deportations. More recently there's been indications the U.S. may be trying to send people to Libya or South Sudan.

They're making people more ‘removable’

The Trump administration is trying to strip protections from hundreds of thousands of people admitted into the U.S. on a temporary basis during the Biden administration. This could eventually make those people subject to deportation.

The Democratic president's administration admitted nearly 1.5 million people through two key programs that use a legal tool known as humanitarian parole to admit people into the country.

Separately the Biden administration also dramatically expanded the number of people who were protected from deportation by Temporary Protected Status. That is a designation that allows people already living in the United States to stay and work legally for up to 18 months if their homelands are unsafe because of civil unrest or natural disasters.

The Trump administration is moving aggressively to remove or terminate all of those protections. If successful — and much of these efforts are being litigated — it could potentially open up hundreds of thousands of people to be removed.

They're encouraging people to leave on their own

There are millions of people in the country illegally including about 1.1 million with final orders of removal but only about 6,000 deportation officers. Those are the officers tasked with finding, arresting and removing people who don't have the right to be in the country.

So in addition to actively trying to find and remove people, the Trump administration wants people to leave voluntarily.

Through aggressive social media and television campaigns, they're encouraging people in the country illegally to go home, saying that otherwise they could face fines and never be allowed back into America.

They're also offering $1,000 and air fare to people who self-deport.

Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security touted the first flight of people who took up that offer to return to Honduras.