How often have ICE raids mistakenly detained US citizens or lawful permanent residents?
Executive summary
ProPublica documented “more than 170” cases in which U.S. citizens were held by immigration agents, compiling incidents of citizens being kicked, dragged and detained for days [1]. Multiple news outlets and advocacy groups report repeated examples—worksite raids since 2006 and a wave of large 2025 operations—where U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) were detained or swept up in enforcement actions, but no single official tally of mistakes is available in the provided sources [2] [3] [4] [1] [5].
1. A patchwork picture, not a definitive count
Researchers, news organizations and advocates have assembled lists and case files—in one high-profile review ProPublica documented over 170 incidents of citizens held by ICE agents, and advocacy maps like ICEwatch catalog over 1,600 raids with summaries [1] [6]. Congressional Democrats and civil‑rights groups are pressing DHS and ICE for accurate tracking because agency records are incomplete; oversight requests explicitly ask whether DHS tracks how many U.S. citizens have been stopped, arrested, detained or placed in removal proceedings and note poor record‑keeping [5]. Available sources do not provide a single authoritative, agency‑verified count covering all years and operations.
2. Recurrent examples show the problem is real
Reporting shows repeated episodes in which U.S. citizens or LPRs were detained during raids: the 2006 Swift & Company meatpacking raids detained numerous citizens and LPRs, more recent 2025 worksite and carwash raids produced accounts of citizens and lawful permanent residents being swept up, and individual high‑profile arrests (for example Mahmoud Khalil and others) reveal LPRs detained in ways that sparked legal challenges [2] [4] [7] [8]. Local reporting from Chicago and other cities documents instances where U.S. citizens were briefly detained during operations [3]. These examples demonstrate pattern and harm even where aggregate numbers are missing [2] [3] [4] [7].
3. Why counts are incomplete: record‑keeping and definitions
Multiple sources flag weak or inconsistent DHS/ICE record‑keeping and the lack of a standardized public count. Congressional letters and oversight dashboards show lawmakers demanding data and noting ICE has acknowledged past detentions of U.S. citizens but has not provided comprehensive, up‑to‑date statistics [5] [9]. Advocates’ databases and investigative reporters fill gaps—but these are inherently conservative: they rely on public reporting, legal filings and community referrals, so they likely undercount incidents that leave no public record [6] [1] [5].
4. Different types of “mistaken” detentions
Sources describe several mechanisms that produce citizen/LPR detentions: mass workplace/community raids where agents detain groups first and sort later [2] [4]; database or identity errors that wrongly flag an LPR or citizen [10] [8]; border/port‑of‑entry encounters where CBP questions returning LPRs and may detain them [11] [12]; and sweeping enforcement plans that induce profiling of visible minorities and communities of origin, sometimes catching citizens [13] [4]. Reporting and legal advocacy document all these pathways [2] [4] [11].
5. Stakes: civil‑rights harms and political pressure
Documented incidents have led to legal complaints, congressional demands for investigation, and community mobilization: members of Congress have asked DHS for briefings and data, and local advocacy groups and journalists have publicized detained citizens’ stories to force accountability [5] [1] [6]. The public reporting highlights concrete harms—detentions lasting days, use of force, family separations—and the political imperative for reliable data and safeguards [1] [5].
6. Competing perspectives in the record
ICE and DHS argue they have legal authority to detain noncitizens and say operations target unauthorized migrants; oversight letters and journalists counter that practices and sloppy record‑keeping permit wrongful detentions of citizens and LPRs [8] [5]. Advocacy groups stress systemic risk and undercounting [6] [4]. Available sources do not include a definitive ICE national tally showing how often mistakes occur, and they document both agency denials and external evidence of erroneous detentions [5] [1].
7. Bottom line and what’s missing
Reporting and investigative projects show at least hundreds of documented cases when citizens or lawful permanent residents were detained during enforcement actions (notably “more than 170” in one compilation) and many high‑profile examples since 2006, but no single authoritative, agency‑released total exists in the sources provided [1] [2] [5]. For a definitive count, Congress or DHS would need to release comprehensive, validated data—available sources do not mention such a public, agency‑verified figure [5].
Limitations: this analysis relies only on the provided news reports, databases and oversight statements; it does not incorporate sources outside that set and therefore cannot claim to represent the universe of incidents beyond what those sources report [6] [1] [5].