How many Canadians have been detained by ice?

1. What the single headline numbers mean: “about 55” vs “150”

The Canadian government number widely cited in June 2025—“approximately 55 Canadians in ICE custody”—reflects a snapshot of people in custody at that moment, a metric Foreign Affairs used in media briefings ^{[1] [4]}. By contrast, the Globe and Mail and the NDP relied on anonymized ICE datasets and compiled year‑to‑date cases to report that “nearly 150 Canadians” had been held in ICE custody during 2025; that figure appears to count anyone detained at any point during the calendar year rather than people simultaneously detained on a single day ^{[2] [3]}.

2. Why different counts are not contradictory — they answer different questions

ICE and advocacy trackers publish multiple, non‑equivalent measures: single‑day population, bookings during a period, and cumulative people held over time; each produces a different total ^{[5] [6]}. A single‑day snapshot will be lower than a cumulative count of everyone who cycled through custody during months of intensified enforcement; the Canadian “55” is a snapshot, while the “150” figure is cumulative across a longer interval ^{[1] [2]}.

3. The data sources and their limits

Public ICE dashboards and TRAC compile granular detention statistics but often do not publish nationality‑specific tallies in an easily extractable form for all time windows, forcing reliance on FOIA releases, anonymized court datasets, or foreign ministries for nationality breakdowns ^{[5] [7]}. Media outlets such as The Globe and Mail used anonymized ICE data current to specific cutoffs to identify Canadian nationals and children, producing higher year‑to‑date counts and case details ^[2]. Independent trackers like TRAC give the broader detention context—record highs in detainee population and rapid growth in non‑criminal detainees—but do not by themselves resolve the exact Canadian total without additional filtering ^{[6] [8]}.

4. Children and high‑profile cases complicate interpretations

Reports that “children among Canadians detained” and at least two Canadian toddlers held in ICE custody during 2025 surfaced from anonymized datasets and government responses, underscoring not only numbers but case types—short stays, extended detentions, and legal complexity around minors—which affect public perception and line‑by‑line accounting ^{[9] [2]}. These human details explain why cumulative totals draw more media attention than point‑in‑time snapshots.

5. What can be stated with confidence and what cannot

It is verifiable that the Canadian government reported roughly 55 Canadians in ICE custody in mid‑2025 ^[1], and that independent reporting and opposition statements found many more Canadians had been held by ICE at some point during 2025—reporting that reached approximately 150 individuals ^{[2] [3]}. What cannot be established from the provided sources is a single definitive, up‑to‑the‑minute tally that reconciles snapshot versus cumulative measures across the evolving enforcement surge; ICE’s public dashboards and third‑party trackers show large, rapidly changing populations but require filtering to isolate Canadian nationals ^{[5] [6]}.

6. Bottom line for readers keeping score

If the question is “How many Canadians are currently detained by ICE?” the best source cited here is the mid‑2025 Canadian government snapshot: about 55 ^[1]. If the question is “How many Canadians have been detained by ICE during 2025?” multiple analyses and media reports indicate a substantially larger cumulative total—approaching 150—which captures short‑term and longer detentions over the year ^{[2] [3]}. Any precise, single number depends on the definition (current custody vs cumulative cases), the cutoff date, and the underlying dataset used to identify nationality, all of which vary across the sources examined ^{[5] [7]}.