EXCLUSIVE: With over 500,000 illegal aliens deported since President Donald Trump took office in January, the administration is on track to significantly exceed the record number of illegals deported out of the United States.

Since Trump’s return to the Oval Office on Jan. 20, the administration has deported over 515,000 illegal aliens, according to a high-ranking official at the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital the administration is “on pace to shatter historic records” by deporting 600,000 illegals by the end of Trump’s first year back in office. She said that in total, more than two million illegal aliens have left the U.S., including 1.6 million who voluntarily self-deported, as well as the over 515,000 deportations. Another 485,000 illegal aliens have been arrested by DHS since Trump took office.

McLaughlin said that “this is just the beginning” and that Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “have jumpstarted an agency that was vilified and barred from doing its job for the last four years.”

DEM JUDGE IN HOT SEAT AFTER DHS EXPOSES ‘WHOLE NEW LEVEL’ OF ACTIVISM, SHELTERING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

“Illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence. Migrants are now even turning back before they reach our borders,” said McLaughlin, pointing to what she said has been a 99.99 percent drop in migration through Panama’s Darien Gap, which is a key migration route to the U.S.

“In the face of a historic number of injunctions from activist judges, ICE, CBP, and the U.S. Coast Guard have made historic progress to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country.”

Just this weekend, DHS said that it continued its sweep of the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal aliens across the country amidst the ongoing government shutdown. Over the weekend, DHS said it arrested illegals convicted of rape of a child, assault, hit-and-run, kidnapping and other crimes.

One of those arrested was Erick Xavier Romero, a Dominican national, who the agency said was convicted of rape of a child in Boston. Another illegal, Guatemalan national, German Osvaldo Cortez-Chajon, was arrested this weekend after being convicted of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act in Dale County, Alabama. A third illegal, Mexican national Graciano Lopez-Flores, was arrested following a conviction of indecent liberties with a child in Orange County, North Carolina.

DHS FLIPS SCRIPT ON MEDIA NARRATIVE WITH NEW DETAILS ABOUT ILLEGAL TEEN ARRESTED BY ICE: ‘SAFETY THREAT’

Left to right, from top: Erick Xavier Romero, German Osvaldo Cortez-Chajon, Graciano Lopez-Flores, Shahed Hassan, Van Pham, Patricia Pimental-Cordero, Ramona Mercado-Vasquez and Karlett Zagal-Salazar. (ICE; DHS)

Also in North Carolina, ICE arrested Shahed Hassan, an illegal from Bangladesh, who was convicted of simple assault, possession of drug paraphernalia, illegally carrying a concealed gun, driving while impaired, probation violation, felony larceny and domestic violence protection order violation in Wake County.

Just to the north, ICE arrested Van Pham from Laos, who was convicted of five counts of abduction and burglary in Fairfax County, Virginia.

In Massachusetts, ICE arrested Patricia Pimental-Cordero, from the Dominican Republic, who was convicted of two counts of hit-and-run in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Another illegal, Ramona Mercado-Vasquez from the Caribbean island of Dominica, was arrested by ICE in Bergen County, New Jersey, following a conviction for kidnapping and robbery.

In Wisconsin, ICE arrested Mexican national Karlett Zagal-Salazar, who was convicted of drug trafficking.

ICE REVEALS ‘DISTURBING DETAILS’ AFTER AGENCY RESCUED 3-YEAR-OLD ABDUCTED TO MEXICO

Shackled migrants board a transport van after getting off a plane at the Valley International Airport, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Harlingen, Texas. (Michael Gonzalez/AP Photo)

Commenting on the arrests, McLaughlin told Fox News Digital that “nothing—not even a government shutdown—will slow us down from making America safe again.”

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She slammed the Democratic Party, saying, “While Democrats in Congress continue to keep the government shutdown, our ICE law enforcement officers aren’t slowing down in arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed command of Oregon National Guard troops to the president Monday, further raising the stakes in the ongoing multifront judicial battle over military deployments to cities across the U.S.

A three-judge appellate panel — including two members appointed by Trump during his first term — found that the law “does not limit the facts and circumstances that the President may consider” when deciding whether to dispatch soldiers domestically.

The judges found that when ordering a deployment, “The President has the authority to identify and weigh the relevant facts.”

The ruling was a stark contrast to a lower-court judge’s finding earlier this month.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut of Portland previously called the president’s justification for federalizing Oregon troops “simply untethered to the facts” in her Oct. 4 temporary restraining order.

The appellate judges said they were guided by a precedent set in the 9th Circuit this summer, when California tried and failed to wrest back control of federalized soldiers in and around Los Angeles.

Another proceeding in California’s case is scheduled before the appellate court this week and the court’s earlier decision could be reversed. At the same time, an almost identical deployment in Illinois is under review by the Supreme Court.

For now, exactly which troops can deploy in Portland remains bitterly contested in U.S. District court, where Immergut blocked the administration from flooding Portland with Guardsmen from California.

The issue is likely to be decided by Supreme Court later this fall.

The judges who heard the Oregon case outlined the dueling legal theories in their opinions. The two members of the bench who backed Trump’s authority over the troops argued the law is straightforward.

“The President’s decision in this area is absolute,” wrote Judge Ryan D. Nelson, a Trump appointee, in a concurrence arguing that the court had overstepped its bounds in taking the case at all.

“Reasonable minds will disagree about the propriety of the President’s National Guard deployment in Portland,” Nelson wrote. “But federal courts are not the panacea to cure that disagreement—the political process is (at least under current Supreme Court precedent).”

Susan P. Graber, a Clinton appointee, said the appellate court had veered into parody.

“Given Portland protesters’ well-known penchant for wearing chicken suits, inflatable frog costumes, or nothing at all when expressing their disagreement with the methods employed by ICE, observers may be tempted to view the majority’s ruling, which accepts the government’s characterization of Portland as a war zone, as merely absurd,” she wrote in her stinging dissent.

But the stakes of sending armed soldiers to American cities based on little more than “propaganda” are far higher, she wrote.

“I urge my colleagues on this court to act swiftly to vacate the majority’s order before the illegal deployment of troops under false pretenses can occur,” Graber wrote. “Above all, I ask those who are watching this case unfold to retain faith in our judicial system for just a little longer.”