Newsweek Fudges Numbers To Falsely Claim Biden Outpaced Trump On Deportations

If you read Newsweek yesterday, you may have been shocked to find that Donald Trump is deporting migrants at half the speed of his predecessor, Joe Biden. There’s just one problem: the analysis is obviously bogus, and Newsweek is knowingly running with it anyway, The Daily Wire has learned. 

Newsweek published a comparison this week of Trump’s migrant deportation numbers compared to Biden’s. It notably was featured on the Drudge Report with the headline: “Trump Deportations Half Pace Of Biden.” It likely won eyeballs because of how shocking this statistic would be to anyone following the news of Tom Homan’s deportation efforts, but Newsweek insisted it was true. 

The piece quotes an anonymous expert saying, “If the new administration continues at that clip…then it would be on track to deport half the number of migrants removed during former President Joe Biden’s last full fiscal year in 2024.”

But a closer look at the data reveals a glaring problem. The piece compares the Trump administration’s public disclosure that it has deported 5,693 illegal aliens since taking office. The Biden administration, meanwhile, had 48,970 total removals in November 2024 alone, the Newsweek article says. 

But this is far from an apples-to-apples comparison. The figure used by Newsweek journalist Dan Gooding for Biden refers to any “repatriation,” a broad segment that even includes border patrol agents turning people away at the border. In reality, according to publicly accessible data, the Biden administration removed just under 48,000 illegals in all of fiscal year 2024 — the most of Biden’s entire term. 

If you compare apples-to-apples — the number of illegal immigrants deported by ICE —  you’ll see that the Trump administration is already deporting three times as many illegal immigrants per week as the Biden administration ever did.

The Daily Wire contacted both Newsweek and the White House about the article’s claims. 

A senior Trump administration official told The Daily Wire that it informed the article’s author his reporting was inaccurate. The author,  Dan Gooding — a politics reporter whose “focus is reporting on immigration and border security” — acknowledged the error, according to the official. But Newsweek has taken no action to correct its story.

Newsweek’s refusal to correct a piece it acknowledges is flawed could open the publication to allegations that it is intentionally misrepresenting data to make a political point. Gooding notes that “Trump was elected off the back of an election campaign that heavily focused on border security,” implying that Trump and his border czar Homan have failed to deliver on a major campaign promise.

A recent CBS-YouGov survey found that 59% of Americans approve of the Trump administration’s mass deportation program. The poll also found that Trump had a 53 percent approval rating — higher than any point during his first term.

Gooding, who joined Newsweek after stints at his native England’s The Independent and the failed journalism startup The Messenger, did not respond to a request for comment.