How many U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained or deported by ICE since 2012 according to GAO and ProPublica investigations?
Executive summary
GAO’s forensic review found that ICE deported as many as 70 people identified as U.S. citizens in the period it examined (2015–2020) and that ICE’s own data show hundreds of investigations, arrests and some detentions of people later determined to be citizens (ICE: ~674 arrests, 121 detentions in that window) [1] [2] [3]. ProPublica’s independent reporting found a much larger tally of Americans who have been seized or held by immigration agents—more than 170 people in its recent audit of detentions in 2025 alone—and emphasized that the government does not centrally track these incidents, making any comprehensive national total impossible from current official records [4] [5].
1. GAO’s headline number: up to 70 deportations (2015–2020)
The Government Accountability Office—Congress’s nonpartisan watchdog—concluded from its review that ICE removed as many as 70 individuals it identified as U.S. citizens during the period the agency analyzed, and that available ICE records indicated hundreds of citizenship investigations and arrests tied to people who might be citizens (ICE recorded roughly 674 arrests and 121 detentions in that window) [1] [2] [3]. GAO’s finding is framed defensively: it reports “up to 70” deportations because ICE’s recordkeeping is incomplete and its systems don’t require correction of citizenship fields after mistakes are discovered, so GAO could only bound the problem rather than produce a definitive, fully auditable count [2] [6].
2. ProPublica’s tally: 170+ Americans held by immigration agents (2025 reporting)
ProPublica, using investigative reporting and its own case-by-case compilation, documented that more than 170 U.S. citizens were held by immigration agents in the year it examined and assembled a broader catalog of abuses—people held for days, subjected to rough treatment, and in some cases children included among those detained (ProPublica describes its tally as almost certainly incomplete) [4] [5]. ProPublica’s central contention is that because DHS does not track citizen detentions, only outside reporters or Congress can begin to approximate the scale of wrongful seizures, and their reporting prompted congressional probes [4] [5].
3. Why the two sources appear to “disagree” but actually complement each other
The apparent discrepancy—GAO’s count of up to 70 wrongful deportations versus ProPublica’s 170+ detained Americans—stems from differences in scope and method: GAO analyzed ICE administrative data over specific years and looked at removals (deportations) plus arrests/detentions where citizenship investigations occurred, constrained by ICE’s flawed databases [2] [6]. ProPublica assembled an independent, contemporaneous catalog of detained Americans in media reporting and records for a later year and explicitly warns its tally is incomplete and cannot be reconciled against non-existent government tracking [4]. Thus GAO quantifies documented removals in a bounded window while ProPublica exposes more recent and broader patterns of wrongful detention that GAO’s dataset did not capture [1] [4].
4. What can be stated with confidence and what remains unknown
It is supported by GAO that ICE deported up to 70 people it identified as U.S. citizens in the 2015–2020 period and that ICE’s records show hundreds of related arrests and some detentions in that window [1] [3]. It is supported by ProPublica that journalists identified more than 170 Americans being held by immigration agents in 2025 and that the federal government lacks a reliable system to track such incidents [4] [5]. What cannot be credibly asserted from the sources provided is a single, definitive cumulative total “since 2012” because GAO’s published figures cover specific years and ProPublica’s tally is year-focused and independent; both reports stress incomplete government tracking and data quality problems that preclude an authoritative long-range sum [2] [4] [6].
5. Stakes, incentives and the road forward
Both investigations converge on a policy point: poor data systems, inconsistent guidance, and a lack of mandatory reporting create blind spots that allow wrongful detention and even deportation of citizens to persist; GAO urged stronger tracking and data fixes while ProPublica’s reporting spurred congressional inquiries [2] [5]. Reader scrutiny should also weigh institutional incentives—ICE’s operational emphasis on removals and the political controversies around enforcement that shape public narratives—as well as the advocacy angle from media and nonprofit outlets pressing for reform [3] [4].