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What american citizens have been deported by ICE?
Executive summary
Reporting and government documents show that U.S. immigration agents have detained dozens — and that some U.S. citizens have been deported or wrongfully removed — but the exact tally is unclear because federal agencies do not consistently track citizenship in enforcement actions [1] [2]. Investigations and court cases cite specific deportations (for example, a man sent to Laos and other litigated removals), and a 2015–2020 GAO finding cited up to 70 citizen deportations in that earlier period [3] [4].
1. What the public record actually documents: detained citizens, some deported
Multiple investigative reports and lawsuits document U.S. citizens being detained by immigration agents; ProPublica’s compilation referenced by other outlets found more than 170 U.S. citizens held by immigration agents in 2025 [2] [5]. Separate reporting and court filings show individual instances where citizens were deported or removed despite claims of citizenship or court orders — for example, a father deported to Laos even after a federal judge said he should be held while pursuing a citizenship claim [3]. The Government Accountability Office previously found “up to 70” U.S. citizens deported between 2015 and 2020, showing this is not purely a new phenomenon [4].
2. Why there’s no single authoritative count
The U.S. government does not consistently track whether people encountered by ICE or CBP are U.S. citizens, and agencies have resisted producing a comprehensive accounting; ICE’s public statistics categorize arrests and detentions by country of citizenship but agency record‑keeping and public reporting have gaps, especially after early‑2025 shifts in data publication [1] [6]. Members of Congress and civil‑liberties groups have demanded investigations and records because “the full scope of the problem remains unclear” [7]. That lack of centralized tracking explains why news outlets, advocacy groups, and lawmakers rely on case files, lawsuits and investigative tallies rather than a single official number [2] [7].
3. Patterns reporters and advocates flag
Journalists and advocacy groups cite recurring patterns: agents dismissing IDs (a man with a REAL ID was told it was fake), citizens questioned or removed during workplace raids or routine check‑ins, and children separated or sent abroad in family enforcement actions [2] [3] [8]. Lawmakers and advocates contend these are driven in part by policy and operational pressures to increase removals quickly and with fewer safeguards under the second Trump administration — a claim repeated in congressional letters and advocacy reporting [7] [9]. Officials and agency spokespeople sometimes deny systemic deportation of citizens; fact‑checks note such denials conflict with documented lawsuits and reporting [5].
4. Legal and administrative remedies on the table
Members of Congress have introduced legislation and demanded oversight to prohibit or curb ICE detentions and deportations of U.S. citizens and to require better tracking and training; for example, Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced a bill to bar ICE from detaining or deporting citizens, and multiple lawmakers pressed DHS oversight offices for documents and briefings [8] [7]. Courts have also intervened: in some cases judges ordered the return of wrongly removed individuals or blocked deportations while citizenship claims were litigated [3] [4].
5. Competing perspectives and what they emphasize
Civil‑liberties groups, congressional Democrats, and investigative reporters stress that the documented cases and GAO findings reveal systemic risk to citizens and call for mandatory tracking and accountability [4] [2] [7]. Administration officials and some DHS statements have pushed back against broad characterizations, disputing claims that DHS “deports U.S. citizens” as a policy, while simultaneously defending an aggressive removals agenda and citing large overall removal numbers for non‑citizens [5] [10]. Both sides point to incomplete public data as a central barrier to resolving disagreements [1] [6].
6. Bottom line for someone asking "which Americans have been deported?"
Available sources document specific individuals and families — including litigated cases such as a man sent to Laos and earlier GAO findings of up to 70 citizen deportations from 2015–2020 — but there is no public, definitive list or comprehensive count because ICE and DHS do not reliably publish consolidated data on citizen encounters and removals [3] [4] [1]. For names, dates and legal outcomes, current reporting and court records cited above are the best available sources; comprehensive congressional or inspector‑general reports have been sought but, as of these reports, not produced [7] [2].
Note on limits: this analysis relies only on the supplied reporting and government documents; available sources do not mention a comprehensive, agency‑released list of all U.S. citizens deported by ICE [1].