How many citizens have been arrested by ice
Executive summary
There is no single, up‑to‑date number in the provided reporting that answers “How many citizens have been arrested by ICE”; available sources document many recent ICE arrest operations—e.g., ICE reported 1,505 arrests in a Houston 10‑day operation and other multi‑hundred or multi‑thousand tallies across offices—but none of the supplied documents state a national total of U.S. citizens arrested by ICE (available sources do not mention a national total of citizens ICE has arrested) [1] [2] [3].
1. What the records you provided actually show: operation totals, not a citizen subtotal
Most government and press releases in the search results list the numbers of people arrested in particular operations or regions, not how many of those arrestees were U.S. citizens. For example, ICE’s Houston field office reported 1,505 arrests during a 10‑day operation, and DHS “Making America Safe Again” releases list multi‑thousand arrest tallies in specific actions and weeks [1] [2] [4]. ICE newsroom summaries similarly catalogue dozens or hundreds of local actions [3]. Those counts describe “criminal aliens,” “illegal aliens,” or operation totals; they don’t break out how many arrestees were U.S. citizens within those tallies [1] [2] [3].
2. Reporting and advocacy pieces highlight different concerns—data gaps and civil‑liberties claims
Local and nonprofit reporting emphasize that comprehensive, disaggregated arrest data are scarce. The City’s reporting on street arrests in New York notes “data on the arrests remains scant,” and civil‑rights groups are tracking what they describe as random detentions and potential profiling [5]. Similarly, a Colorado federal judge order on warrantless arrests highlights legal disputes over ICE tactics and suggests many detentions result from “collateral” or warrantless stops rather than clear, documented arrest records [6]. Those pieces point to gaps between operational press releases and granular datasets that would allow tabulation by citizenship status [5] [6].
3. Available numbers you can cite now—local and program totals
If you want specific figures from the provided sources, they exist for detention and operation counts: TRAC reports that ICE was holding 65,135 people in detention as of Nov. 16, 2025 (a detention census, not an arrest‑by‑citizenship figure) [7]. ICE press releases cite large operation counts—e.g., Houston’s 1,505 arrests in October and DHS statements claiming “over 3,500 criminal illegal aliens in Houston” in another release—while ABC News and local outlets reported operations in Charlotte and Chicago resulting in 130 and hundreds of arrests respectively [1] [2] [8] [9]. None of these report how many of those arrested were U.S. citizens [7] [1] [2].
4. Why a national citizen‑arrest tally is missing from these sources
The documents provided focus on enforcement outcomes (number arrested in an operation, number detained, or categories like “criminal aliens”) and legal conflicts over tactics; they do not present a central dataset disaggregating arrestees by U.S. citizenship. That absence is visible across ICE/DHS press releases, local news coverage, and watchdog reports in the sample: ICE emphasizes arrests of “criminal illegal aliens” (language that presumes noncitizen status) while newsrooms and NGOs flag legal questions and incomplete public data [4] [10] [5] [6].
5. Competing perspectives you should weigh
DHS/ICE framing: DHS and ICE releases frame operations as targeting “the worst of the worst” and regularly publish operation totals and lists of criminal convictions among those arrested [4] [10] [1]. Civil‑liberties and local reporting: Outlets like The City and CPR report data scarcity and legal challenges, describing arrests as sometimes warrantless or “collateral” and warning of profiling and rule violations; they stress that observers cannot yet verify the full scope or legality of many arrests [5] [6]. These perspectives are in tension: DHS highlights enforcement counts and criminal records, while reporters and advocates emphasize gaps, possible unlawful tactics, and limited public data [4] [6] [5].
6. What to do next if you need a precise number
To produce a verifiable count of U.S. citizens arrested by ICE you would need either (a) an official ICE/DHS dataset disaggregating arrestees by citizenship status and operation/date, or (b) an independent compilation from court records and local agencies tallied by citizenship. Available reporting does not provide such a dataset; the search results supplied do not include a national tally of citizens arrested by ICE (available sources do not mention a national total of citizens ICE has arrested) [1] [7] [5].
Limitations: This analysis relies only on the documents you provided; other reporting or government datasets not included in the search results might contain the specific citizen‑arrest numbers you seek (not found in current reporting).