Germany has no equivalent of the US' specialized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, though that would change if the Bavarian branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had its way.

Apparently directly inspired by the actions of ICE under President Donald Trump's administration, an internal paper from the anti-immigration party seen by the German newspaper taz this week proposed that a new authority be created within the Bavarian state police named the "Asyl-, Fahndungs- und Abschiebegruppe (AFA)," or the "Asylum, Tracing and Deportation group."

But how effective this would be is another matter. In the last 10 years, the German government has introduced a series of reforms designed to make it easier to deport immigrants with what the bureaucratic system calls "poor prospects of staying." That effort has been stepped up more recently, as both Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, have tried to remove the legal obstacles to deportation.

The effect has been noticeable in the statistics: According to the Interior Ministry, 21,311 deportations were carried out between January and November 2025, a 16% increase on the same period the year before. (From 2023 to 2024, there was also 22% increase in the number of deportations).

On top of that, over 30,000 people "self-deported" in 2025 by leaving the country voluntarily after being served with a "Grenzübertrittsbescheinigung," a notice informing them they are obliged to leave the country by a certain date.

Who can be deported?

As a rule, any immigrant without residency status, or any asylum seeker whose application has been turned down, is obliged to leave Germany by a certain deadline (a month for asylum seekers). If they don't, they can be deported.

But there are exceptions: Some people are granted "tolerated" status ("Duldung") if there is an obstacle to deportation, such as: 

• Uncertainty about their identity
• A dependent familial bond with someone else with a tolerated status
• Humanitarian or medical reasons 
• If they have already found a job in Germany

Around 180,000 people have a tolerated status in Germany.

The decision to carry out a deportation is taken by the local immigration authority, which checks whether any legal obstacles to deportations exist. If they don't find any, a deportation date is set (which the deportee is not told). If the person in question has attempted to avoid deportation before, or if authorities believe they may try to flee, the state can order them to be incarcerated until their deportation date.

"Deportations by their nature are a very bureaucratic and very laborious process," said Svenja Schurade, researcher at the University of Göttingen, and part of a Europe-wide project examining the consequences of returns and readmissions policy.

"That's partly because deportations are partly negotiated at a level of international diplomacy: Under what conditions will countries take their citizens back? That requires certain proofs, certain diplomatic relations. And then there's a relatively laborious organizational process," Schurade told DW.

How are deportations carried out?

While the decision to carry out a deportation is taken by the state immigration authorities, the actual deportation is carried out by federal police officers. In some cases, entire planes to specific countries are chartered for a "collective deportation," and the police will try to organize the detainments to ensure the flight is filled. In 2024, around 7,300 of the 20,100 deportations were enforced using chartered flights.

This can be costly for the state: Chartering a flight can cost tens of thousands of euros on its own, and several federal officers must also be put on the flight to escort the deportees.

In many cases, potential deportees are first summoned to report to immigration authorities, where a federal police officer will be waiting to inform them that they are to be deported. They will then be escorted home to collect their clothes and belongings before being taken directly to the airport.

However, in some cases, the police will appear at the deportees' homes in the early hours of the morning and arrest people. Unlike ICE in the US, they are not masked and are in uniforms. They must carry their IDs with them and provide their names if asked.

There are plenty of stories highlighting how stressful this can be: One former manager of a residential home for immigrants in Germany told DW on condition of anonymity of a case where police appeared at 5:00 a.m. and took a disabled man straight to the airport, leaving his wife, who is also disabled, without a primary carer.

Officially, deportees are allowed to make phone calls before being deported, and in some cases, lawyers have been able to intervene in the last minute to prevent deportations, but there are also reports of people having their phones taken away from them.

How have deportations been accelerated?

The German government has taken several measures to accelerate deportations in the last 10 years. The measures taken include:

2015: The law was changed to include more justifications to take someone into custody before deportation.

2016: The medical exemption for deportation was narrowed so that only people with chronic or life-threatening conditions could be exempted.

2019: The law was changed so that those considered liable to flee could be preemptively incarcerated, with the list of conditions for a flight risk expanded. Also, it was made a criminal offense to pass on information about planned deportations.

2022: The law was changed to allow asylum-seekers categorized as dangerous to be preemptively incarcerated for up to six months.

2024: The police were given the power to search other rooms in a residence for deportees.

But Schurade said that such measures weren't necessarily speeding up deportations. "Our research shows that these measures haven't necessarily made deportations more efficient," she said. "What they have done is cause more social exclusion and put people in more precarious situations."

Edited by Rina Goldenberg

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