The White House said on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, that the United States had deported more than three million undocumented migrants during President Donald Trump’s second administration, while claiming the country had gone 15 consecutive months without releasing illegal migrants into the interior.

The claims were contained in a White House fact sheet outlining what the administration described as progress in its effort to overhaul the US immigration system.

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“President Trump has delivered on his promise to fix the immigration system, prioritise American citizens, and protect U.S. citizenship,” the White House said.

The administration said Trump moved quickly after returning to office, signing an executive order in his first week declaring a crisis at the southern border and directing measures aimed at reversing what it described as record illegal immigration under former President Joe Biden.

The latest figures represent a significant increase from figures published by the White House earlier this year.

In February, the administration said nearly three million undocumented migrants had left the US, including more than 675,000 deportations and about 2.2 million voluntary departures.

The new claim of more than three million deportations therefore appears to use a different measurement or a later reporting period.

The White House fact sheet presented the figure as deportations rather than combining removals with voluntary departures.

The administration said the enforcement drive had also resulted in thousands of people convicted of violent crimes being deported.

It further claimed that no illegal migrants had been released into the country for 15 consecutive months, describing the development as evidence that the administration had effectively ended the previous catch-and-release approach.

The White House has previously highlighted a sharp fall in releases into the US interior. In February, it reported that there had been no such releases for nine consecutive months.

Beyond deportations, the administration said it had expanded scrutiny of people who obtained US citizenship through alleged fraud.

The White House described the initiative as a “denaturalisation surge” and said claims had been filed against 88 people who allegedly received citizenship despite being ineligible.

Denaturalisation is a legal process through which US citizenship obtained through fraud or other specified unlawful conduct can be challenged.

The process does not automatically strip citizenship simply because an administration identifies a person for review.

The administration also said it had terminated taxpayer-funded benefits for more than 1.4 million undocumented migrants it considered improperly enrolled in public assistance programmes.

The figure is consistent with an earlier White House claim that at least 1.4 million undocumented migrants had lost federal benefits following eligibility reviews.

Visa policy has also become a central part of the immigration crackdown.

According to the White House, the administration has strengthened visa screening and paused immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries it considers high-risk.

The administration previously reported that it had revoked more than 100,000 visas linked to fraud, criminal activity or national security concerns.

The White House said it was also working with states to remove tens of thousands of undocumented migrants from voter rolls.

The administration maintains that voting in US federal elections is restricted to American citizens and has made election-related immigration enforcement part of its broader campaign to strengthen citizenship verification.

Another major element of the programme concerns citizenship itself.

The administration said it had revised the naturalisation test to place greater emphasis on applicants’ knowledge of American history, government and civic values, alongside existing eligibility requirements.

The White House also pointed to two executive orders signed by Trump on August 6 concerning birth tourism and the interpretation of birthright citizenship.

The orders followed the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara, according to the White House, which said the measures were intended to clarify categories of children affected by the administration’s interpretation of citizenship rules.

The immigration push has been accompanied by a broader expansion of enforcement capacity.

Earlier this year, the White House said the administration had doubled the Immigration and Customs Enforcement workforce, expanded detention capacity and opened what it described as the largest migrant detention facility in US history.

The administration has also linked its immigration policies to border security and crime prevention, arguing that tighter enforcement has reduced illegal crossings and prevented criminal networks from exploiting weaknesses in the immigration system.

The White House said illegal border crossings had fallen to their lowest level since the 1970s, while also pointing to a significant reduction in encounters at the US-Mexico border.

However, the figures and descriptions remain primarily the administration’s own assessment of its policies and results.

Claims about removals, releases and immigration trends can depend heavily on how deportations, voluntary departures, encounters and releases are defined and counted.

The scale of the reported enforcement campaign nevertheless underscores the Trump administration’s determination to make immigration one of the defining policies of its second term.

For millions of migrants and families living in the US, the changes have meant greater scrutiny of immigration status, benefits, visas and potential removal.

For the administration, the figures are being presented as evidence of a dramatic shift in border and immigration policy.

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The White House’s latest announcement suggests that the crackdown is far from over, with deportations, citizenship reviews, visa restrictions and eligibility checks continuing to form the backbone of Trump’s immigration agenda.