Fact check: How many US citizens have been wrongly detained by ICE?

1. Summary of the results

The analyses reveal multiple documented cases of US citizens being wrongly detained by ICE, but do not provide a comprehensive numerical answer to the question. The sources identify several specific individuals who were wrongfully detained:

• Elzon Lemus, Brian Gavidia, Javier Ramirez, and Adrian Martinez - all US citizens who experienced wrongful ICE detention, with concerns raised about racial profiling and constitutional rights violations ^[1]
• Job Garcia - a US citizen arrested and detained by ICE while recording an immigration raid, now seeking $1 million in damages for assault, battery, false arrest, and false imprisonment ^{[2] [3]}
• Peter Sean Brown - a US citizen illegally detained by ICE and Monroe County Sheriff's Office, with a federal court ruling that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated ^[4]

The analyses highlight systemic issues with ICE's detainer system and the risks of immigration enforcement by local authorities, but focus primarily on individual cases rather than providing aggregate statistics on wrongful detentions of US citizens.

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question seeks a specific number, but the analyses reveal this data is not readily available or systematically tracked. Several important contextual elements are missing:

• No comprehensive government database appears to exist tracking wrongful detentions of US citizens specifically
• The analyses provide data on overall ICE detention populations - approximately 22,538 out of 41,169 people in ICE detention have no criminal record (54.7%) according to TRAC data ^[5], and about 30,000 people are detained without criminal convictions according to the Deportation Data Project ^[6]
• DHS disputes claims about detention practices, stating that 70% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges during Trump's first 100 days, contradicting claims that less than 10% had serious criminal convictions ^[7]

Civil rights organizations like MALDEF and the ACLU would benefit from highlighting wrongful detention cases to support their advocacy work and legal challenges against ICE practices. ICE and DHS benefit from emphasizing their focus on individuals with criminal records to justify their enforcement actions.

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question assumes that comprehensive data exists on the number of US citizens wrongly detained by ICE, but the analyses suggest this information is not systematically compiled or publicly available. The question itself is not biased, but it may create an expectation for precision that the current data cannot satisfy.

The analyses reveal a significant gap in transparency - while individual cases are documented through legal challenges and media reports, there appears to be no systematic government tracking or public reporting of wrongful detentions of US citizens specifically. This lack of data could serve the interests of ICE and immigration enforcement agencies by making it difficult to quantify the scope of wrongful detentions, while civil rights advocates must rely on individual case documentation to demonstrate patterns of abuse.