How many U. S. citizens have been deported during the current trump administration?
Executive summary
There is no authoritative, publicly released tally of U.S. citizens deported during the current Trump administration; journalists and researchers have documented individual wrongful removals and a larger set of citizen detentions, but the federal government does not systematically track or publish a consolidated count [1] [2]. Investigations have found scores of Americans detained by immigration agents and a smaller number of documented mistaken deportations, but available reporting makes clear that any single-number claim would overstate the certainty of what is known [1] [3].
1. Why the question is hard: no central government count exists
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE do not maintain—or at least have not publicly provided—a reliable, centralized dataset enumerating instances when people identified as U.S. citizens were removed from the country, and outside reporters note longstanding gaps in government tracking of citizen arrests or removals by immigration agents [1] [2]. Independent investigations therefore rely on court records, lawsuits, local reporting and social media to assemble partial tallies rather than a complete federal accounting [1].
2. What investigative reporting has actually documented
A ProPublica investigation compiling cases through October of a reporting year found “more than 170 U.S. citizens” held by immigration agents — a figure the outlet describes as inherently messy and almost certainly incomplete because of the lack of official tracking [1]. Other outlets and compilations, including entries in public databases and Wikipedia summaries, document multiple incidents in which U.S. citizens were detained and in several instances mistakenly removed or deported, though these are presented as specific cases rather than a comprehensive total [1] [3].
3. Documented mistaken removals vs. broader detentions
Reporting distinguishes between citizens who were detained or held by ICE and those actually deported. While dozens or perhaps hundreds of citizen arrests and detentions have been reported and chronicled by outlets like ProPublica and local press, documented instances of an actual, completed deportation of a U.S. citizen appear rarer and usually emerge through litigation or admissions by government officials in individual cases [1] [3]. For example, media summaries note “several American citizens were mistakenly and unfairly detained and deported,” but these references are to specific cases rather than an aggregate government statistic [3].
4. Government claims about deportation volumes do not answer the citizen question
DHS press releases and administration statements touting hundreds of thousands of deportations and millions “leaving” the country refer explicitly to noncitizen removals and voluntary self-deportations, not to deportations of U.S. citizens; those large headline numbers therefore do not provide a count of citizen deportations [4] [5] [6]. Independent fact-checks and analysts note that while the administration reports high totals of removals of noncitizens, it has declined to release disaggregated public data that would permit easy verification of citizen-related incidents [2].
5. Competing narratives and transparency concerns
Advocacy groups and migration scholars emphasize the chilling effect of aggressive enforcement and document numerous citizen detentions and legal challenges, while DHS and administration messaging focus on noncitizen removals and border metrics; both perspectives are supported by reporting but neither produces a definitive count of U.S. citizens deported [7] [8]. The lack of routine government reporting, ongoing litigation, and the piecemeal nature of press tallies mean that any firm number presented today would be provisional and likely undercount the true scope of wrongful detentions or removals [1] [9].
6. Bottom line: what can be stated with confidence
Based on available investigative reporting and public records, dozens to a few hundred U.S. citizens have been detained by immigration agents during the current Trump administration and journalists have documented specific instances of mistaken deportation, but there is no verified, comprehensive federal count of U.S. citizens actually deported that can be cited as definitive [1] [3]. Absent new, transparent disclosure from DHS/ICE or a sustained, exhaustive independent audit, the exact number of U.S. citizens deported remains unknown in the public record [1] [2].