Fact check: How many US citizens have been wrongly deported since 2017?

1. Startling baseline numbers — What the audits and investigations actually count

Federal reviews and investigative reporting establish a troubling baseline: at least 70 U.S. citizens were deported by mistake between 2015 and 2020, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed ICE removed U.S. citizens due to systemic failures while acknowledging the agency cannot quantify all erroneous actions. ProPublica and other outlets add that more than 170 Americans were held by immigration agents in a concentrated recent period, demonstrating that wrongful detention is more widespread than isolated deportation incidents ^{[1] [2] [3]}. These figures provide concrete minimums but do not equate to a comprehensive national tally for the post‑2017 period.

2. Why the post‑2017 tally remains elusive — Gaps in counting and accountability

Multiple sources point to data and procedural gaps that prevent a definitive count since 2017: ICE’s recordkeeping and identification procedures are shown as inconsistent, and internal controls have failed to flag and correct errors, leaving the agency itself unable to report how many U.S. citizens have been wrongly targeted. The GAO’s findings underscore that the agency’s own systems do not reliably discriminate between noncitizens and citizens in some operational contexts, creating a structural blind spot that makes any post‑2017 figure provisional at best ^[2].

3. Human stories that put numbers in perspective — High‑profile wrongful deportations

Individual cases illuminate the stakes behind the statistics. The deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, reported as a wrongful removal to El Salvador despite court orders and contested legal status, highlights both administrative error and political contention, with lawyers alleging retribution and government statements framing security concerns. These cases show how errors translate into severe hardships, potential criminal prosecutions, and complex litigation, demonstrating that even a small number of wrongful actions can have outsized legal and human consequences ^{[4] [5] [6]}.

4. Differing emphases — Investigative outlets vs. oversight reports

Investigative outlets such as ProPublica emphasize individual harm, patterns of detention, and allegations of abuse or profiling, documenting more than 170 Americans held by immigration agents in specific recent windows and detailing personal accounts of mistreatment ^[3]. Oversight bodies like the GAO frame the issue around systemic procedural failures and data incapacity, stressing institutional responsibility and the inability to produce reliable totals. Together, these perspectives paint a picture of both measurable incidents and broader operational fragility ^{[2] [3]}.

5. Possible agendas and interpretive frames to watch for in coverage

Coverage varies in tone and emphasis: advocacy and investigative outlets foreground civil‑rights harms and systemic profiling, potentially highlighting worst‑case patterns to press for reform, while official or security‑focused statements may frame errors as isolated or emphasize criminality of some subjects, which can justify strict enforcement. The Abrego Garcia matter, where legal teams and some officials offer competing narratives about motive and danger, illustrates how cases can be used to advance distinct policy or political arguments ^{[4] [5] [7]}.

6. What the evidence supports about “since 2017” specifically

Given the sources provided, the evidence supports that dozens of wrongful deportations and hundreds of wrongful detentions occurred around and before the mid‑2010s baseline, and that systemic flaws persisted into later years, but the precise number of U.S. citizens wrongly deported since 2017 cannot be established from these materials alone. The GAO’s admission that ICE does not know how many citizens it has wrongly targeted is central: without corrected, centralized records or an independent audit covering 2017–present, any post‑2017 count remains an estimate resting on partial data ^{[1] [2]}.

7. Bottom line — Minimums, uncertainties, and what would resolve them

The defensible minimum from current reporting is at least 70 wrongful deportations in the 2015–2020 window and more than 170 wrongful detentions in a related recent period, but the true number since 2017 is undetermined due to agency data gaps and ongoing legal disputes. Resolving this uncertainty requires transparent, independent audits, standardized identity‑verification protocols, and publication of corrected case counts; absent those, reporting will continue to rely on partial datasets, individual cases, and oversight snapshots that illuminate the problem without producing a definitive cumulative total ^{[1] [2] [3]}.