What documented cases exist of U.S. citizens wrongfully detained by ICE since 2020?
Executive summary
Since 2020, reporting, congressional and watchdog inquiries, and civil-rights litigation have documented multiple instances in which people later identified as U.S. citizens were detained by ICE or other DHS law‑enforcement components, with prominent examples surfacing during large enforcement sweeps in 2025; federal oversight records also establish a pattern of prior wrongful actions through 2020 [1] [2] [3]. The Department of Homeland Security has publicly disputed some media accounts, framing them as errors or exaggerations, while advocacy groups, lawmakers and legal filings contend the number and severity of wrongful detentions are significant and ongoing [4] [5] [6].
1. A concrete, widely reported case: ChongLy “Scott” Thao
In January 2026, Associated Press reporting relayed that federal agents forcibly entered a Minnesota home, detained ChongLy “Scott” Thao at gunpoint, removed him outside in his underwear in subfreezing weather, and only later realized he was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record before returning him to his house without apology, while DHS described the operation as targeted at convicted offenders [1].
2. Early‑2025 raids produced named lawsuits and court filings
Civil litigation filed by the National Immigrant Justice Center and partners alleges that in the first weeks of the Trump administration’s second term, dozens were unlawfully arrested and detained — including at least one U.S. citizen from Chicago identified as Julio Noriega, who was reportedly held for more than ten hours and then released without documentation; the plaintiffs sought court orders and reporting on all arrests since January 20, 2025 [6].
3. Senate subcommittee compilation: dozens of citizen detention stories
A December 2025 Senate Homeland Security subcommittee report collected citizen accounts and concluded field practices frequently resulted in arbitrary detentions of U.S. citizens, and criticized public statements denying such detentions; the report documents multiple individual stories (including named people such as Ceasar Saltos) and rebuts claims by DHS leadership that no U.S. citizens had been arrested or detained during recent operations [2].
4. The longer pattern: GAO and watchdog tallies through 2020
The Government Accountability Office previously found that ICE arrested 674 potential U.S. citizens, detained 121, and removed (deported) as many as 70 potential citizens from fiscal years 2015 through the second quarter of FY2020, establishing an institutional record of misclassification and wrongful enforcement actions that frames more recent allegations [3] [7].
5. Advocacy, legal clinics and law firms documenting additional cases
Nonprofits, law firms and legal commentators compiled case lists and client stories that supplement media reporting and the Senate inquiry, pointing to dozens — and in some datasets, hundreds historically — of mistaken detentions and removals; these accounts have driven congressional letters and demands for oversight [8] [9] [5].
6. DHS responses and competing narratives
DHS has issued public rebuttals to specific media stories, asserting enforcement operations are targeted, that agents perform due diligence, and denying systemic deportations of citizens in some disputed incidents while contesting particular factual claims in news accounts [4]. This official posture has political overtones: lawmakers from both parties and oversight staff have accused the agency of downplaying or erasing citizen‑detention incidents amid an aggressive enforcement agenda [2] [5].
7. What is documented — and what remains unclear
What can be stated with confidence from the available reporting and oversight records is that since 2020 there are multiple documented incidents and lawsuits alleging U.S. citizens were wrongfully detained by ICE or other DHS actors (notably the Thao case and the Noriega litigation), that a December 2025 Senate inquiry collected many such stories, and that GAO data through 2020 shows a prior pattern of arrests, detentions and even removals of people later identified as citizens [1] [6] [2] [3]. What cannot be fully enumerated from the provided sources is a definitive, up‑to‑date tally of all citizen wrongful‑detention cases after March 2020 — reporting, advocacy filings and DHS statements conflict in detail and scope, and public datasets remain incomplete [4] [3].