Kristi Noem has claimed that 1.6 million migrants have left the country since President Donald Trump took office. But the group that gave her this number admits it might be overstated.
The Homeland Security secretary, who is known for wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement gear in publicity stunts, appeared on Fox News Thursday and said, “We have 1.6 million illegal immigrants that have left this country voluntarily.”
She added, “I think these numbers just show exactly the genius of Donald J. Trump. He said, ‘Kristi, if you’re gonna be my Homeland Security secretary, we’re gonna follow the law, you’re gonna do commercials, you’re gonna tell the world that no longer will we tolerate people being in our country illegally and that they need to go home.’”
Homeland Security posted on X Thursday, sharing what it called “unprecedented” data showing, “1.6 MILLION illegals are OUT of our country in the last 200 days.”
The data comes from a release by the Center for Immigration Studies, a non-profit research organization that calls itself “low-immigration, pro-immigrant.”
The non-profit studied data from the government’s Current Population Survey. They estimated that the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. was 15.8 million in January and dropped to 14.2 million by July.
However, the group also warned that the number might not be completely accurate. Immigrants may now be more hesitant to respond to government surveys because of “the recent stepped-up enforcement efforts.”
They said, “If this is the case, then our estimate of illegal immigrants based on the survey may be overstating the decline in their actual numbers.”
The group also noted that the July data is preliminary since “some of the administrative data necessary to estimate illegal immigrants is not yet available.”
The Independent has reached out to DHS for comment.
DHS says the 1.6 million figure counts people who left the U.S. voluntarily.
The agency encourages illegal immigrants to self-deport to avoid arrest and to possibly return legally in the future. They have even offered to pay for travel costs and give an extra $1,000 to those who self-deport.
DHS has also conducted ICE raids across the country to crack down on illegal immigration.
According to a Thursday DHS press release, more than 352,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested and more than 324,000 have been removed from the U.S.
But data shows that daily immigration arrests fell almost 20% in July. Between July 1 and 27, ICE averaged 990 daily arrests, down from 1,224 in June, according to government data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research project at Syracuse University.
