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Which documented cases involve US citizens deported by ICE and when did they occur?
Executive summary
Government auditing and reporting show documented instances where ICE arrested, detained or even removed people later identified as U.S. citizens; a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis and multiple news outlets report that at least 70 U.S. citizens were deported between 2015 and 2020 and that hundreds more were arrested or detained during that period [1] [2] [3]. Recent high-profile individual cases and advocacy filings through 2025 and 2026 add new examples and political pressure for investigations [4] [5] [6].
1. GAO’s counting: the baseline that journalists and advocates cite
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) practices and concluded that ICE data show arrests, detentions and removals involving some people who later were identified as U.S. citizens; press reporting based on that work has repeatedly summarized the agency’s tally as 674 arrests, 121 detentions and 70 removals (deportations) in the 2015–2020 window [2] [1] [3]. Those numbers are the central documented figures being referenced across coverage and advocacy campaigns [7] [5].
2. What “deported” means in these reports — and the limits of the GAO dataset
The GAO’s phrasing and how outlets report it matter: GAO identified ICE records where individuals were documented as removed or where ICE data indicate enforcement actions involving people who were later represented as U.S. citizens, but GAO also found gaps in tracking and inconsistent updating of citizenship fields in ICE systems [2]. That means the 70 removals figure is the best-documented count in federal records for 2015–2020 but may understate or mischaracterize individual circumstances because ICE does not uniformly update case files after citizenship investigations [2] [1].
3. Named or high-profile individual cases reported in 2024–2025
Separate from the GAO aggregation, news outlets and civil-rights groups documented particular episodes that drew public attention in 2024–2025: examples include families and children deported from the New Orleans ICE field office in April 2025 that the ACLU says included three U.S. citizen children and involved sudden transfers while counsel and courts were unavailable [4]. Media accounts also highlighted arrests during local raids such as the June 2025 downtown Los Angeles incident that drew comparisons to a “kidnapping” by family members [5]. These reports illustrate individual harms that accompany the aggregate GAO findings [4] [5].
4. Recent political and legal fallout — calls for investigations
Members of Congress and advocacy organizations cited the GAO findings and high-profile reports to demand oversight. In August 2025, a group of lawmakers called for investigations into ICE detention and removal practices involving U.S. citizens, stressing that ICE policy states agents should not assert civil immigration authority over citizens and noting allegations that citizens were nevertheless detained or deported [6]. Civil-rights litigation and habeas petitions also followed individual incidents such as the New Orleans deportations [4].
5. Reporting variations and additional tallies
Multiple outlets have repeated the GAO-based numbers, but some investigative efforts and non-governmental tallies find more incidents. For example, ProPublica and local reporting compiled dozens to hundreds of documented cases of citizens held by immigration agents beyond the GAO period; one outlet noted that more than 170 citizen detentions were identified in a separate compilation [8] [9]. This divergence reflects differences in methodology, timeframes and what counts as “detention,” “arrest” or “deportation” [8] [9].
6. What the sources do not provide
Available sources do not mention a comprehensive, public list naming every individual U.S. citizen ICE deported with dates and case files; they also do not provide definitive confirmation for each of the 70 GAO-flagged removals about whether each case involved completed physical removal at a given date or administrative coding ambiguities [2] [1]. Nor do the cited pieces resolve whether the GAO’s numbers undercount or overcount relative to independent investigative tallies—reporting shows disagreement about completeness but not a contrary numeric refutation [2] [3].
7. Takeaway and what to watch next
The documented cases cited by GAO and reported widely establish that ICE enforcement actions have affected U.S. citizens, including arrests, detentions and at least 70 removals in 2015–2020 according to federal data; separate reporting and advocacy groups have added individual examples and higher incident counts in later years, prompting congressional letters and litigation [2] [1] [6] [4]. Watch for: [10] whether DHS or ICE publishes reconciled, case-level data; [11] outcomes of congressional oversight requests and court challenges; and [12] investigative compilations (e.g., ProPublica) that may extend or clarify the timeline and individual identities involved [6] [9] [3].