Can Immigration and Customs Enforcement detain a US citizen who cannot produce proof of citizenship in 2025?
Executive summary
Yes — while ICE lacks statutory authority to deport U.S. citizens and the Department of Homeland Security publicly insists the agency “does not arrest or detain U.S. [citizens]” for immigration removal (DHS statement), reporting and legal advisories show that ICE agents have in practice detained U.S. citizens—sometimes for hours or longer—when those individuals cannot immediately produce proof of citizenship or when databases and enforcement sweeps generate false positives [1] [2] [3].
1. The legal boundary: ICE cannot remove citizens, but can physically detain them in some circumstances
Federal immigration law does not grant ICE authority to remove U.S. citizens from the country, and DHS guidance emphasizes that ICE “does not arrest or detain U.S.” citizens for immigration removal [1]. That legal line, however, does not eliminate all encounters in which ICE exercises physical custody: agencies report that officers are trained to “determine status and removability,” and protocols often include holding people while status is being confirmed [1]. Civil-rights and immigration groups, lawyers, and congressional inquiries have documented instances where that gap between law and field practice produced wrongful detentions [2] [4].
2. Documentary proof — useful, but not a guaranteed escape hatch
Practitioners and legal guides uniformly advise that carrying proof of citizenship (passport, birth certificate, naturalization papers) short-circuits many encounters and can lead to prompt release, but they also warn that papers have not always been accepted on the spot and that agents in some operations have continued custody despite presented documentation [5] [3] [2]. Law firms and immigrant-rights advocates recount 2025 cases where citizens were detained during raids or stops and either produced documents later or required lawyer intervention to secure release [2] [6]. Official guidance from advocacy groups echoes: assert citizenship, demand reason for detention, and present ID — while acknowledging field limits [7].
3. Scale and pattern: reporting shows dozens to hundreds of citizen detentions in 2025
Investigations and legal trackers compiled during 2025 documented more than 170 reported incidents of U.S. citizens detained by immigration officers that year, with some held more than 24 hours and several cases involving children or confrontational arrests; Congress and news outlets have used those incidents to probe agency practices [2] [4] [6]. Independent press coverage and watchdog reports also place these episodes against a backdrop of sharply expanded detention capacity and aggressive enforcement policies in 2025, increasing the chance of collateral or mistaken detentions in mass operations [8] [9] [10].
4. Why it happens: database errors, targeted sweeps, and aggressive tactics
Published analysis points to multiple causes: algorithmic or database mismatches that misidentify U.S. citizens as removable, overly broad enforcement sweeps that detain people nearby, and aggressive operational tactics that do not immediately verify citizenship before taking custody [6] [4]. ICE and DHS maintain that operations are “highly targeted” and that officers are trained to confirm status, but critics and some case files compiled by Congress show gaps between policy and field execution [1] [4].
5. Remedies and legal recourse for those detained
The practical advice from lawyers and civil-rights organizations is consistent: assert citizenship immediately, request counsel, provide documentation when available, and seek rapid legal intervention to challenge unlawful detention and correct agency records [3] [5] [7]. Lawsuits, FOIA and Privacy Act corrections, and Congressional oversight have emerged as the primary accountability tools when citizens are wrongfully detained, and several 2025 cases have prompted judicial and legislative scrutiny [4] [6].
Bottom line
ICE does not have legal power to deport U.S. citizens [1], but in 2025 the agency has detained U.S. citizens in the field—sometimes because those individuals could not immediately produce proof of citizenship or because of operational or database errors—and release has often required documentation or legal advocacy [2] [3]. The mismatch between statutory prohibition on deporting citizens and on-the-ground detention practices has driven lawsuits, congressional probes, and advice to carry proof of citizenship and seek counsel promptly [4] [5].