What proportion of ICE arrests are U.S. citizens versus noncitizens historically?
Executive summary
ICE’s own public statistics break out Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrests by country of citizenship, signaling that ICE tracks citizenship in its arrest data, but available sources here do not provide a single historical percentage comparing U.S. citizens versus noncitizens across long time series (not found in current reporting) [1]. Recent reporting and investigations during 2024–25 document thousands of arrests and multiple cases of U.S. citizens detained — ProPublica and other outlets have identified more than 170 citizens held in 2025 and media estimates of hundreds of thousands of enforcement actions since late 2024 — but those reports focus on episodic sweeps and case examples rather than producing a consistent historic citizen / noncitizen proportion [2] [3].
1. What ICE’s official statistics actually measure — and what they don’t
ICE’s ERO statistics page states arrests are broken down by country of citizenship and criminal-history categories, indicating the agency collects citizenship data for arrests [1]. That makes it possible in principle to calculate the share of arrests that involve U.S. citizens versus noncitizens, but the public material cited in the current search results does not include a consolidated historical percentage (for example, an annual R/O breakdown for citizens vs. noncitizens) for multiple years — the explicit long-run share is not found in current reporting [1].
2. Recent investigative reporting: citizens detained in notable numbers during 2025
ProPublica and regional outlets have documented more than 170 cases of U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents in 2025, and local reporters and outlets have recounted high-profile incidents in which citizens were arrested or held [2] [4]. Opinion and investigative pieces put the scale of post‑2024 enforcement in context — one contributor cites roughly 204,000 arrests between October 2024 and June 2025 and reports that a large share of detainees had no criminal records — but those aggregated arrest totals in journalism pieces are separate from ICE’s published, disaggregated citizenship statistics and are not presented as an authoritative historical proportion of citizens vs. noncitizens [3].
3. How journalists and watchdogs frame the mismatch between rules and practice
Multiple outlets document episodes in which people with U.S. citizenship or legal status were arrested, detained, or even deported, prompting watchdogs and reporters to note the risk of wrongful arrest when large, rapid enforcement operations occur [2] [5]. Investigations highlight that ICE operations sometimes produce collateral arrests (e.g., worksite raids where citizens were also detained) and that detained populations increasingly include people without criminal convictions — a related but distinct statistic: as of September 2025, about 71% of ICE detainees reportedly had no criminal conviction, showing detention policy changes affect who is held even if citizenship data are the separate question [6] [7].
4. Episodic sweeps versus baseline enforcement: why proportions can fluctuate
Reporting on concentrated operations — e.g., statewide or city raids that produced hundreds or thousands of arrests — shows that short-term enforcement surges can temporarily increase the count of people detained, and that these operations sometimes include arrests of people who are U.S. citizens or lawful residents [8] [9] [10]. Because media and watchdog totals often emphasize the number arrested during particular time windows (e.g., “more than 250 arrests across the state” or “some 3,000 arrested in the Chicago area”) rather than a continuous national citizen/noncitizen ratio across years, proportional statements about “historical” shares are not directly supported by the provided reporting [8] [9].
5. Disagreement and limitations in the available materials
ICE’s public data architecture suggests the agency can produce citizen/noncitizen breakdowns [1], yet investigative reporting and advocacy pieces emphasize cases of citizens being detained and sometimes deported, and some journalistic aggregations cite very large arrest totals during specific periods — these two strands point to distinct concerns: administrative recordkeeping versus operational errors and civil‑liberties consequences [2] [3]. The provided sources do not include a single authoritative historical percentage of arrests that were U.S. citizens across multiple years; therefore any firm numeric claim about the long‑term proportion would go beyond what these sources say (not found in current reporting) [1] [2] [3].
6. What to look for next if you need a clear proportion
To generate a defensible historical proportion, request ICE’s ERO arrest datasets broken down by citizenship for the years of interest (the ICE statistics page indicates such breakdowns exist) and compare citizen counts to total arrests by year — that is the dataset the agency says it maintains [1]. Absent that, reputable watchdog compilations (e.g., ProPublica, TRAC) and court filings may provide case counts for specific periods but are not a substitute for a systematic historical share [2] [7] [3].
Sources referenced: ICE’s ERO statistics page [1]; ProPublica/regional reporting on citizens detained [2] [4]; local and national reporting on large enforcement operations and detention totals [8] [9] [5] [6] [7] [10] [3].