What reforms has the GAO recommended to prevent wrongful deportations of U.S. citizens?
Executive summary
The GAO found that ICE and CBP lack consistent guidance and adequate data systems to identify and track encounters where people claim U.S. citizenship, which has contributed to arrests, detentions, and possible deportations of U.S. citizens, and it recommended fixes to reduce those risks [1] [2]. Its recommendations center on strengthening documentation and tracking, clarifying and standardizing ICE guidance and training, and improving supervisory review and data accuracy so agencies can measure and prevent erroneous enforcement actions [1] [2].
1. What the GAO found: inconsistent guidance and incomplete tracking
GAO’s review concluded ICE and CBP maintain policies for investigating citizenship but that ICE’s guidance is inconsistent and its personnel do not reliably update data systems after evidence indicates a person may be a U.S. citizen, leaving the agencies unable to know the extent of enforcement actions against possible citizens [1] [2]. The report also highlighted broader recordkeeping weaknesses across enforcement data that block reliable counts of arrests, detentions, and removals involving potential U.S. citizens [3] [4].
2. The concrete reforms GAO recommended to prevent wrongful deportations
GAO urged ICE and DHS to require consistent documentation and systematic tracking of citizenship investigations in agency databases, including a requirement to update the citizenship field when evidence suggests someone may be a U.S. citizen, so cases can be monitored and analyzed [1] [2]. It recommended clarifying and standardizing ICE guidance and training—especially about who may make citizenship determinations and when supervisory review is required—to close gaps where training materials permit officers to act without required supervisory oversight [1] [2]. GAO also called for improved data controls and analysis so ICE and CBP can identify patterns, measure the frequency of citizenship-related errors, and assess whether corrective actions are reducing wrongful enforcement [2] [4].
3. How those reforms would change day-to-day enforcement
If implemented, requiring officers to record and update citizenship-investigation fields and tightening supervisory review would create audit trails that flag encounters involving possible citizens and prevent unilateral determinations that lead to detention or removal, addressing the specific procedural failures GAO documented [1] [2]. Better training and uniform guidance would reduce discretion-driven inconsistency identified by GAO—for example, anchoring decisions to supervisory confirmation rather than permitting field-level ambiguity that has been linked to wrongful detentions [1] [3].
4. Objections, limits, and competing perspectives
Advocates and some legal experts argue additional safeguards like guaranteed legal representation would further prevent miscarriages of justice—an idea GAO noted indirectly through its emphasis on procedural protections but did not itself mandate [5]. Operationally, ICE and CBP may resist reforms they say could slow enforcement or add reporting burdens; GAO’s reports acknowledge implementation challenges in tracking and data systems across large agencies [4] [6]. Independent groups warn ICE and CBP records are so incomplete that GAO could only estimate harms, underscoring that enhanced tracking is necessary simply to know the scope of the problem [3].
5. What GAO did not conclusively recommend or could not quantify
GAO did not offer a single statutory fix such as guaranteeing counsel for all respondents—its recommendations focused on agency management, data, guidance, and training rather than new legislation [1] [2]. Because ICE and CBP recordkeeping is incomplete, GAO emphasized the need for better data before the agencies or Congress can fully quantify how many U.S. citizens have been wrongly arrested or removed; the report therefore prioritized reforms that make that quantification possible [3] [4].