Can ICE detain US-born citizens with mental or physical disabilities?
Executive summary
ICE’s statutory mandate and published policies make clear that the agency’s routine authority is to arrest and detain non-citizens for immigration proceedings or removal, not to deport lawful U.S. citizens, but administrative errors occur and U.S. citizens — including people with disabilities — have been detained by ICE in documented cases; ICE also has explicit disability-access policies and detention standards aimed at accommodating detainees with disabilities, while courts and advocates continue to litigate whether ICE’s practices adequately protect medically and mentally vulnerable people [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. What the law says and what ICE says it does
Federal immigration law and ICE guidance describe a system that detains “aliens” to secure appearance in immigration proceedings or for removal, and ICE’s Detention Management materials and FAQs frame detention authority in terms of non-citizens and mandatory detention categories, not routine detention of U.S. citizens [1] [2]. ICE’s public-facing detention policies also include a National Detainee Handbook and contractual detention standards that are intended to govern conditions of confinement and services available to detainees — including medical and accessibility services — regardless of facility operator [6] [1].
2. Can ICE legally deport U.S. citizens — and does that matter to detention?
The government cannot lawfully remove U.S. citizens from the United States; deportation of citizens is illegal and not an authorized use of immigration removal powers, but this legal bar does not fully eliminate the risk that ICE will detain someone it wrongly believes to be a non‑citizen, because identification and documentation gaps have produced documented wrongful detentions and arrests of U.S. citizens [3] [7] [8].
3. Does disability change ICE’s authority to detain?
Statutory detention authority is tied to immigration status and custody determinations, not to the presence or absence of a disability; thus having a mental or physical disability does not, on its face, remove ICE’s power to detain a person ICE believes is an alien, nor does disability automatically convert detention into an impermissible act — though disability should trigger procedural protections, individualized medical assessments, and reasonable accommodations under Section 504 when federal programs are involved [1] [4].
4. How ICE and courts treat people with disabilities in practice
Advocates and researchers have long documented a substantial population of non‑citizens in detention who have mental disabilities and have urged systemic reform; ICE has held stakeholder forums and maintains disability-access materials, but litigation shows judges have sometimes rejected claims seeking mandatory individualized custody reviews for medically vulnerable detainees, leaving protections uneven and heavily contested in the courts [9] [4] [5]. The Harvard Law Review traces a pattern where courts have both constrained and required individualized review in different circuits, underscoring that policy, litigation, and local practices determine outcomes for disabled detainees [5].
5. When U.S. citizens with disabilities have been detained — what the record shows
Reporting and case compilations document instances in which U.S. citizens — including people described as disabled — were detained or arrested by ICE, sometimes amid allegations of aggressive tactics or misidentification; these episodes demonstrate that citizenship does not immunize a person from being held temporarily by immigration agents, and that people with disabilities can be among those affected when errors occur [3] [8]. Specific remedies in such cases tend to be legal advocacy, immediate evidence of citizenship, and court challenges, but public sources do not provide a uniform, reliable catalogue of outcomes for every such incident [7] [3].
6. Conclusion — the plain answer
ICE does not have lawful authority to remove U.S. citizens from the country, yet ICE can and has detained individuals who were later shown to be citizens; having a mental or physical disability does not change the underlying legal rule — disability does not by itself prevent ICE from detaining someone it reasonably believes is an alien — but it should trigger statutory and policy protections for accommodation and individualized medical review, protections that in practice are uneven and subject to litigation and enforcement gaps [2] [3] [4] [5]. Limitations: available public sources document patterns, policies, and litigation but do not provide exhaustive data on the frequency of citizen detentions by disability status or uniform outcomes across jurisdictions [3] [5].