What is the percentage of ICE detainees are us citizens
Executive summary
ICE does not publish a clear, agency-wide percentage of detained people who are U.S. citizens in its public statistics, so the figure must be inferred from outside analyses and press reporting [1]. Using available public counts of the detained population (roughly 66,000–69,000) and independent estimates that more than 2,000 U.S. citizens were detained in recent enforcement sweeps, the best supported estimate is on the order of about 3 percent, with important caveats about data gaps and definitions [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. What the government publishes — and what it does not
ICE’s public statistics break down detainees by country of citizenship, criminal history categories, and detention location, but the agency’s standard public dashboards and press materials do not provide a simple, explicit percentage labelled “U.S. citizens detained by ICE” that can be cited for the entire detained population [1]. ICE’s numbers are used in coverage to show total population levels and criminal-history splits, but the agency’s own pages and routine releases focus on non‑citizen categories and enforcement metrics rather than a tidy citizen/non‑citizen percentage [1].
2. The scale of detention used for any percentage math
Multiple reputable trackers and watchdogs agree the detained population surged to historic highs in late 2025: counts cited include roughly 66,000 by early December and reporting that ICE held more than 68,000 people in mid‑December and again in early January [2] [3] [4]. Those high totals are the denominator for any calculation of the share who are U.S. citizens; the denominator fluctuates rapidly and reporting often excludes short‑term border holding sites and some field detentions, which complicates precise percentage estimates [4].
3. Independent estimates and the 2,000+ citizen figure
Legal researchers and advocacy reporting have attempted to estimate the number of U.S. citizens detained by reviewing court records and individual cases; the Brennan Center cited prior work that, extrapolated, would imply “over 2,000 American citizens locked up by ICE” in a recent fiscal year [5]. That estimate is not an ICE self‑report but an outside calculation applied against ICE’s large detained population; it is the most explicit numerical citizen count visible in the provided reporting [5].
4. Translating counts into percentage — the math and the caveats
If the independent estimate of “over 2,000” citizens detained is compared to the mid‑December detained population of roughly 68,000, the result is about 2.9 percent (2,000 ÷ 68,000 ≈ 0.029), which can be rounded to roughly 3 percent; using a 66,000 denominator gives a similar result around 3 percent [3] [2] [5]. That arithmetic is straightforward, but it rests on two unstated assumptions: that the “over 2,000” figure is both comprehensive and contemporaneous with the cited detained‑population totals, and that the outside analysis captured all citizen detentions [5]. Reporting explicitly warns that many citizen cases are chaotic, resolved early, or not tabulated consistently, so the true count could be higher or lower [5] [6].
5. Why even a small percentage matters — examples and competing narratives
Even at a few percentage points, thousands of misdetentions have legal and political weight: AP and other outlets documented multiple cases of U.S. citizens briefly detained, held without phone calls, or pressured during enforcement actions [6]. DHS and ICE frame operations as focused on dangerous criminals and cite arrests of serious offenders, while advocates and watchdogs point to systemic errors and detentions of people with U.S. documentation—two narratives that coexist in the record [7] [8]. Independent trackers and watchdogs emphasize the lack of transparency and the risk of misclassification when ICE relies on rapid interior enforcement and local booking data [9] [5].
6. Bottom line and reporting limits
There is no single, authoritative ICE statistic in the public sources provided that states “X percent of detainees are U.S. citizens” [1]. The best-supported inference from available reporting—pairing outside estimates that more than 2,000 citizens were detained with contemporaneous detained‑population counts of roughly 66,000–69,000—yields an approximate figure near 3 percent, but this is an estimate built from imperfect data and explicit caveats in the sources [5] [2] [3]. Any definitive percentage would require ICE to publish a direct citizenship breakdown that includes short‑term and field detentions or for independent researchers to publish comprehensive, contemporaneous case counts; neither exists in the supplied reporting [1] [4].