How many U.S. citizens have been wrongfully deported since 2000 according to GAO and independent analyses?
Executive summary
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that ICE deported 70 individuals who were potential U.S. citizens between 2015 and 2020 and concluded the agency “does not know the extent” of such enforcement actions because of poor records and inconsistent procedures [1] [2]. Independent researchers and advocacy groups place the scale of misidentification and wrongful enforcement much higher—TRAC’s analysis and reporting by the American Immigration Council and Migrant Insider cite thousands of cases of U.S. citizens being wrongly identified or subjected to enforcement actions—even while acknowledging the data are incomplete and not directly comparable to GAO’s confirmed removals [3] [4].
1. GAO’s concrete takeaway: at least 70 deportations (2015–2020)
The GAO’s review of enforcement records reported that ICE arrested 674 people who were “potential U.S. citizens,” detained 121, and removed (deported) 70 in the 2015–2020 window, and the agency framed those 70 removals as a confirmed minimum based on available records [1] [2] [5]. The GAO, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, emphasized that these counts reflect recordkeeping and procedural failures that prevent a precise national tally, not an assertion that 70 is the full or final number [1] [2].
2. Independent analyses: much larger tallies of misidentification and wrongful actions
Independent trackers and advocacy groups present a broader, less conservative picture: data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) and cited by the American Immigration Council suggest ICE has wrongly identified thousands of U.S. citizens in its systems—figures in reporting reach into the multiple thousands (one cited figure is 2,840) though those counts are not equivalent to confirmed deportations and draw on different methodologies and datasets [3]. Reporting by Migrant Insider and others echoes the view that the “actual number could be much higher” than GAO’s conservative removal count [5] [4].
3. Why GAO’s 70 and independent higher numbers don’t align
The discrepancy stems from different definitions, data sources, and burdens of proof: GAO counted confirmed removals tied to its review period and methodology, while independent researchers examine broader indicators—system flags, misclassifications, arrest and detention records, and case reports—that can capture wrongful targeting or misidentification even when those cases did not culminate in an officially recorded removal [1] [3]. GAO explicitly flagged defective tracking, inconsistent guidance on citizenship investigations, and incomplete CBP/ICE records as reasons the agencies cannot reliably quantify the true scope [2] [1].
4. Institutional context and competing narratives
ICE and CBP’s own public statistics categorize arrests and detentions by country of citizenship and other categories but do not reliably illuminate cases where citizenship was wrongly recorded or investigated, which fuels both advocacy alarms and GAO’s critique of internal data systems [6]. Immigrant-rights groups and investigative trackers stress systemic harm and cite larger counts to press for reform, while government oversight (GAO) underscores that the only defensible, confirmed figure from its review is the minimum of 70 removals—an important distinction that reveals both a documented problem and persistent uncertainty [4] [1].
5. Bottom line — the direct answer
According to the GAO’s published findings, ICE deported 70 people who were identified as potential U.S. citizens in the 2015–2020 period, and the GAO stresses this is a minimum because of recordkeeping gaps [1] [2] [5]. Independent analyses and advocacy reporting argue the scope is substantially larger—citing thousands of misidentifications and systemic wrongful enforcement—that cannot be reconciled with GAO’s confirmed removals without better data and clearer definitions [3] [4]. Any definitive national total of U.S. citizens wrongfully deported since 2000 cannot be credibly asserted from the provided sources because GAO’s audit covers a narrower window and independent tallies use different measures; the available, verifiable GAO minimum is 70 for 2015–2020, and independent work indicates the problem may be far broader but remains unquantified [1] [3].