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Have ICE raids led to detention of US citizens or legal residents?
Executive summary
Reporting by ProPublica and multiple outlets finds that ICE and other federal immigration agents have, during 2025 enforcement operations, detained more than 170 people who were U.S. citizens — including children — and that citizens and lawful residents have been swept up in raids and prosecutions of immigration-related sites [1] [2]. Local and national coverage of recent raids in North Carolina, Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere documents both community fear that citizens and legal residents are at risk and legal and political pushback [3] [4] [5].
1. What the tallies and investigations actually say: documented citizen detentions
Investigative reporting by ProPublica compiled more than 170 cases in 2025 where people identifying as U.S. citizens were held by immigration agents during raids or protests; that tally includes nearly 20 children and documents instances where citizens were handcuffed, detained for days, or physically manhandled [1] [2]. ProPublica’s count is not an official government number — the government does not systematically track citizen detentions during immigration enforcement, and ProPublica notes its tally is likely incomplete [1].
2. Where local reporting and advocacy groups say it’s happening now
On-the-ground coverage of recent North Carolina operations and other city campaigns describes ICE/CBP sightings, detainments at apartments and businesses, and community organizers reporting citizens among those detained; Siembra NC and local media documented multiple detainments and said enforcement there has already taken more than 130 people in Charlotte [3] [4]. Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups say the summer 2025 tactics used in Los Angeles set a template for raids elsewhere and warn agents relied on perceived race/ethnicity in deciding whom to detain [6].
3. Legal and policy context: ICE authority vs. rights of citizens and lawful residents
Officially, ICE civil immigration authority cannot lawfully remove a U.S. citizen or deport a citizen; internal guidance acknowledges that civil immigration authorities should not assert arrest/detention power over citizens, yet reporting and lawmakers argue practices on the ground depart from that principle [7]. Members of Congress have introduced legislation in response to reported citizen detentions, citing documented examples such as a U.S. citizen veteran held for days amid California raids [7].
4. Courts, data gaps, and accountability problems
Journalistic and watchdog outlets stress a lack of comprehensive, up-to-date detention data from ICE; The Marshall Project notes gaps in ICE’s public reporting and that independent records requests are often needed to trace individuals through custody [8]. Accordingly, legal challenges and court orders — for example a federal judge ordering release of many people arrested in Illinois — reflect judicial scrutiny over mass enforcement tactics and the difficulty in separating noncitizens from citizens in large operations [9].
5. Conflicting framings and the range of sources
Mainstream investigative outlets (ProPublica, OPB) emphasize the tally of >170 citizen detentions and describe abuses and family separations [1] [2]. Human Rights Watch frames the raids as a nationwide campaign emphasizing disproportionate impact on Latino communities [6]. Conservative-leaning or civil-libertarian outlets (Reason, Bloomberg opinion) focus on surveillance, constitutional questions, or the legal latitude of ICE — but available sources provided here do not include a full conservative defense of specific tactics; instead, legal scholars quoted in opinion pieces question why enforcement is not being restrained [10] [11].
6. What reporting does not show or say (limits of available sources)
Available sources in this set do not provide a complete, verified official ICE database showing the citizenship status of everyone detained during these raids; they also do not quantify how many lawful permanent residents (green card holders) were mistakenly detained versus citizens, beyond case examples and local tallies [1] [8]. Where sources attribute exact counts (e.g., “more than 170”), they are based on independent compilations and field reporting rather than an ICE public accounting [1] [2].
7. Practical takeaways for readers and communities
Independent investigations and advocacy reporting demonstrate that citizens and lawful residents have been detained in the course of large-scale immigration operations, prompting legal challenges and new legislation [1] [7]. Communities and defense networks have set up rapid-response systems to monitor raids and help track detainees because official transparency remains limited [6] [8].
If you want, I can pull together the specific ProPublica case examples cited in the investigations (names, dates, circumstances) or summarize the congressional bill language introduced to address citizen detentions [1] [7].