Germany has no single agency equivalent to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but deportation has become a more prominent political issue. The far‑right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Bavaria proposed creating an “Asylum, Tracing and Deportation” unit inside the Bavarian police modeled on U.S. practice, while federal governments have adopted a string of legal changes intended to make it easier to remove people judged to have poor prospects of remaining in the country.
Deportation numbers have risen in recent years. The Interior Ministry reports 21,311 deportations between January and November 2025, a 16% increase versus the same period in 2024; there was a 22% rise between 2023 and 2024. In addition, more than 30,000 people left Germany voluntarily in 2025 after receiving a Grenzübertrittsbescheinigung, a formal notice requiring departure by a set date.
Who can be deported?
– In general, noncitizens without a valid residence permit and asylum applicants whose claims are rejected are required to leave Germany within a deadline (for rejected asylum seekers typically about one month). Failure to depart can result in enforced removal.
– Some people are granted a tolerated status (Duldung) when deportation is temporarily blocked for specific reasons. Common grounds for a Duldung include uncertainty about identity, family ties to someone with tolerated status, humanitarian or medical reasons, or having taken up employment in Germany.
– Roughly 180,000 people in Germany hold a Duldung.
Decision-making and legal checks
Local immigration authorities make deportation decisions. They first look for legal obstacles—medical conditions, unresolved identity, or diplomatic barriers—that would prevent removal. If no obstacle is found, authorities set a deportation date; that date is sometimes not disclosed in advance. Officials can order detention prior to deportation if they assess that an individual is likely to evade removal or has previously avoided deportation.
Administrative and diplomatic hurdles
Deportation is not solely a police operation; it is a bureaucratic and diplomatic process. Authorities often must verify nationality, obtain travel documents, and negotiate readmission with the destination country. These administrative and diplomatic tasks, plus logistical arrangements, make returns complex, time-consuming, and costly.
How deportations are carried out
– The federal police execute deportations ordered by state immigration authorities.
– Many removals are collective: chartered flights are organized for groups being returned to specific countries. In 2024 about 7,300 of roughly 20,100 deportations were by chartered flight; chartering aircraft and providing police escorts adds substantial expense.
– Typical practice is to summon a person to an immigration office where federal police inform them of the deportation, allow a brief return home to collect belongings, and then escort them to an airport. Alternatively, officers sometimes arrest people at their homes in early morning operations.
– Federal officers operate in uniform, must carry identification, and are required to give their names when asked—contrasting with the masked raids commonly associated with some U.S. ICE operations.
– Officially, people scheduled for removal may use phones to seek last‑minute legal remedies. Nevertheless, there are reports of phones being confiscated and of particularly harmful outcomes, for example when disabled people are removed in ways that leave dependents without primary carers.
Legal changes intended to speed removals
Several legal reforms over the past decade have expanded authorities’ powers with the stated aim of accelerating deportations:
– 2015: Enlarged grounds for pre‑deportation detention.
– 2016: Narrowed medical exemptions so that only chronic or life‑threatening conditions generally prevent removal.
– 2019: Broadened conditions for preemptive detention of those considered likely to flee and criminalized sharing information about planned deportations.
– 2022: Allowed preventive detention of asylum seekers deemed dangerous for up to six months.
– 2024: Permitted police to search additional rooms in a residence when removing someone.
Impact and debate
Political leaders including Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his predecessor Olaf Scholz have backed measures to reduce legal barriers to deportation. But academics and rights groups warn that tougher laws do not automatically make returns more efficient. Researchers such as Svenja Schurade of the University of Göttingen argue that the reforms have often increased social exclusion and precariousness rather than streamlining the logistics of return. Practical obstacles—including verifying identity, securing travel documents and diplomatic readmission agreements, and the cost and complexity of transport—continue to limit how quickly and cheaply deportations can be carried out.
The issue remains both administrative and political: governments seek to show they can enforce immigration rules, but enforcement requires sustained bureaucratic and international cooperation that law changes alone do not guarantee.
Edited by: Rina Goldenberg