Since the Trump administration has taken office, has there been any citizens of the US that have been abducted by ICE or deported wrongfully?
Executive summary
Reporting and watchdog reviews show multiple documented instances since President Trump’s return in which people later identified as U.S. citizens were detained by ICE or other immigration agents, and government oversight reports and advocacy tallies suggest wrongful detentions and some wrongful removals have occurred; for example, a Government Accountability Office–based estimate found up to 70 possible citizen deportations in 2015–2020 and investigative tallies report 170+ citizen detentions in 2025 alone [1] [2]. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE dispute many of these narratives and have denied that ICE “deports U.S. citizens,” calling some high-profile claims false and defending agency practices [3] [4].
1. What the counts show — fragmented data, big variance
Available data on U.S. citizens detained or deported by ICE is incomplete and contested: a GAO-linked finding cited by the American Immigration Council reported as many as 70 potential U.S. citizen deportations between 2015–2020, while investigative tallies and reporting count hundreds of citizen detentions in 2025 alone [1] [2]. ICE’s own public statistics do not provide a clear, transparent running total of citizen stops, arrests, or removals, and Congressmembers have pressed DHS for better tracking [5] [6].
2. Examples public reporting has highlighted
News outlets and compilations list individual cases that advocates and lawyers describe as wrongful: documented incidents cited in public reporting and compiled timelines include people later confirmed as U.S. citizens who were detained during raids, at checkpoints, or after misidentification in agency databases [7] [8]. Some named cases in 2025 and 2026–2027 coverage involve people held hours to days and, in a subset of cases, families or children moved across borders amid disputed circumstances [7] [9].
3. Government pushback and denials
DHS and ICE have repeatedly asserted the agency does not arrest or deport U.S. citizens and have labeled some reports as inaccurate; DHS issued public rebuttals calling certain high-profile claims “false,” and the department says many cases described in advocacy reports were misunderstandings or involve voluntary travel with family members [3] [10] [4]. Those denials coexist with internal requests from ICE to update citizenship data and with congressional requests for investigations, underscoring a clash between agency statements and external findings [6] [4].
4. Why mistakes happen — systems, policy, and operations
Analyses and watchdog discussion point to systemic causes: inconsistent training, poor database documentation, fast-paced enforcement sweeps that can produce “collateral” detentions, and difficulty verifying identity when agents suspect noncitizen status [1] [2]. Advocacy groups and legal services organizations say these failures can leave citizens temporarily detained without easy access to counsel or family, amplifying harms [2] [11].
5. Legal and political responses underway
Members of Congress and civil-rights groups have demanded investigations, proposed legislation to bar ICE from detaining citizens, and pursued lawsuits over individual incidents; a group of federal lawmakers requested briefings and records and others introduced bills to make agency limits explicit and add accountability [6] [12]. At the same time, DHS litigation and public statements have sometimes succeeded in rebutting specific claims, and some lawsuits have been dropped or contested [10] [13].
6. Competing narratives — safety, enforcement, and civil-rights framing
ICE and DHS frame the issue as either rare operational error or media-driven falsehoods, insisting agents do not deport citizens and emphasizing detention standards [3] [4]. Civil-rights groups, investigative outlets, and many lawmakers present a different frame: systemic risks where citizens are “caught up” in aggressive enforcement and databases and procedures fail to protect them, citing specific detentions, legal complaints, and watchdog findings [2] [6] [11].
7. Limitations of the record and what’s not found
Available sources show documented incidents and watchdog tallies but do not produce a single definitive government-maintained total of wrongful citizen detentions or confirmed deportations since the Trump administration took office; DHS/ICE public denials and partial rebuttals appear alongside independent tallies, and some contested cases remain litigated or under inquiry [5] [3] [2]. If you’re asking whether the executive branch admits routine citizen deportations, DHS’s official stance is that ICE does not deport U.S. citizens [3].
Bottom line: credible investigative tallies, civil-rights litigation and congressional concern document many instances where U.S. citizens were detained and some cases of wrongful removal or family separations have been alleged; DHS and ICE deny systemic deportation of citizens and say some reports are false, leaving a contested record that Congress, courts, and watchdogs continue to probe [2] [3] [6].