How many American citizens have been arrested by ICE?

1. Official data are incomplete and not designed to isolate citizens

ICE publishes arrest and detention dashboards that break down arrests by country of citizenship and criminal history but historically have not produced a clean, public total of U.S. citizens arrested by the agency across time, creating a major transparency gap for anyone seeking a definitive number ^[1]. Independent analysts and watchdogs note that the agency’s administrative focus on “aliens” means its systems and public reporting are structured around noncitizen enforcement, complicating efforts to identify accidental or improper arrests of citizens from within those datasets ^{[2] [3]}.

2. Independent reviews and reporting supply fragmentary estimates

A Government Accountability Office review found that up to 70 U.S. citizens were deported by ICE between 2015 and 2020 and reported hundreds of "potential U.S. citizens" arrested or detained in that period—figures such as 674 potential citizens arrested and 121 detained appear in secondary summaries of those investigations—while warning records are poor and likely undercount incidents ^[2]. Nonprofit and investigative organizations have produced complementary tallies: ProPublica documented at least 130 American citizens arrested in a set of episodes and TRAC and other trackers provide detailed arrest volumes without reliably flagging citizenship status for all cases ^{[2] [4] [3]}.

3. Recent high‑profile cases illuminate the problem but are not the whole picture

Coverage of episodes in 2025–2026—such as arrests and short detentions of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis and Minnesota protests, and other documented encounters—shows ICE agents have in practice detained and in some cases physically restrained people later identified as citizens, underscoring gaps between policy, practice and accountability ^{[5] [6]}. Journalistic and oversight reporting emphasizes that these are representative examples of a broader issue: aggressive interior enforcement, expanded surveillance powers and local cooperation have produced many arrests—over 1,000 per day in some analyses of recent ICE activity—without a commensurate public accounting of citizen contacts ^{[7] [8]}.

4. Legal context and competing narratives matter for counting

Legal scholars and fact‑checkers note ICE’s enforcement authority is aimed at noncitizens and that agents lack administrative warrant power over U.S. citizens, yet routine practices such as questioning, warrantless stops and mistaken identity can and do lead to citizens being interrogated or temporarily detained; fact‑checking coverage has documented such episodes and discussed statutory limits and constitutional protections ^{[9] [10]}. ICE and some advocates argue the agency is targeting removable noncitizens and is constrained by law, while critics and oversight reports argue systemic record problems, racial profiling and expansive operational guidance have produced improper citizen arrests that remain undercounted ^{[1] [2] [8]}.

5. Bottom line: documented dozens-to-hundreds, but no definitive national total

Based on government reviews, investigative journalism and nonprofit trackers, the evidence supports that dozens and plausibly several hundred American citizens have been arrested, detained or even deported in recent years, with specific figures cited by sources including “up to 70 deportations” and hundreds of “potential U.S. citizens” arrested in GAO/secondary reporting and at least 130 cases documented by investigative outlets—but a single, verifiable nationwide total does not exist in public records because of poor agency tracking and inconsistent reporting ^{[2] [4] [3]}. Any precise national number would require ICE to publish a citizenship‑disaggregated audit of all arrests and detentions; absent that, accounting relies on partial audits, spot investigations and journalistic documentation ^{[1] [11]}.