The claim highlights a real disparity in arrest and deportation numbers between racial and national groups, but it exaggerates the issue. The Bluesky post questions why there have not been large-scale deportations of Russian nationals by ICE, despite the presence of undocumented Russian immigrants in the U.S., suggesting that ICE enforcement is racially motivated. While there have been recent reports of Russian immigrants facing deportation, it's true that such cases do not appear to be widespread.
Data supports that most undocumented immigrants who are expelled are from Central and South American countries. According to ICE statistics, as of Jan 2025, only 978 removals to Russia were recorded, compared to countries like Mexico or Ecuador (approximately 242,000 and 24,000, respectively).
However, this disparity is not evidence of ethnic cleansing. The significant difference in deportation numbers largely reflects the underlying population sizes of undocumented immigrants from those countries. The Center for Migration Studies reported that in 2023, there were an estimated 4.7 million undocumented Mexicans in the U.S., compared to just ~52,000 undocumented Russians.
Further, ICE booking data from October 1 through May 31—reported by NBC—shows that of the 185,042 individuals arrested and booked into ICE facilities during that period, 65,041 had been convicted of crimes. The most common offenses were related to immigration and traffic violations, suggesting that ICE’s actions are generally driven by legal infractions rather than explicitly racial targeting.
While it’s plausible that ICE may more heavily target groups known to be larger undocumented populations, and that mistakes may occur under pressure from enforcement quotas (e.g., then–White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller raised ICE’s target to 3,000 arrests per day, according to the Associated Press), the available evidence does not support the claim of systematic targeting or ethnic cleansing.
