How many deportations of U.S. military veterans occurred between 2017 and 2020?
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Executive summary
There is no authoritative, publicly available count of how many U.S. military veterans were formally deported between 2017 and 2020; federal agencies did not reliably identify or track veteran status in removal proceedings, and reporting and advocacy groups emphasize uncertainty rather than a precise total [1] [2]. Multiple independent reports and advocacy organizations document individual cases, systemic gaps, and efforts to repatriate deported veterans, but none of the provided sources supply a definitive 2017–2020 deportation tally [3] [4].
1. The core question — what the records do and do not show
A straightforward numeric answer is impossible to produce from the available reporting because immigration enforcement systems historically lacked consistent mechanisms to identify veterans in removal proceedings; a 2019 Government Accountability Office finding and subsequent reporting indicate ICE did not have reliable protocols to flag or track service history, which undermines any precise count for 2017–2020 [1] [2]. Reporting repeatedly states the government has not kept a clean, centralized dataset of deported noncitizen veterans, and news outlets and legal advocates describe the number of deported veterans as “unknown” or “not tracked” rather than offering a single verified figure [2] [1].
2. What advocates and watchdogs have documented instead of a single count
Advocacy groups such as ImmDef and university clinics have documented individual deportations, produced case files, and pushed for legislative fixes and repatriation initiatives, but their work is case-focused rather than a national census of deportations between 2017 and 2020 [3] [5]. Congressional and non-profit correspondence and reporting outline systemic patterns — veterans losing naturalization opportunities, being vulnerable to mandatory removals for certain convictions, and being excluded from reliable internal tracking — which explains why researchers and reporters cannot produce a conclusive deportation total for that period [5] [6].
3. Small indicators of scope: repatriation counts and long-term estimates
Some data points offer partial context but not a comprehensive count for 2017–2020: reporting on the Biden-era Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative notes a limited number of repatriations (The War Horse reported 102 veterans returned under the initiative and DHS said “over 30” of those had become citizens, though that figure relates to repatriation under an initiative and not to the full universe of deportations across earlier years) [1]. Separate claims, such as that tens of thousands of veterans have been deported since 1996, appear in opinion pieces and advocacy materials but do not provide a verified breakdown specific to 2017–2020 and rely on differing methodologies and definitions of “veteran” and “deportation” [7].
4. Why different sources diverge and what that means for a precise 2017–2020 number
Differences across reporting stem from definitional and data-collection problems: agencies may treat removals, voluntary departures, or returns under humanitarian parole differently; advocates include long-ago removals in cumulative totals; and ICE historically did not mandate consistent consideration or documentation of military service in enforcement records, creating gaps and inconsistent application of protective guidance [1] [2] [5]. The practical effect is that any single number offered without transparent methodology and primary DHS/ICE dataset citation cannot be validated against the public record available in these sources [1] [2].
5. Bottom line and recommended next steps for a verifiable answer
Based on the reporting and advocacy material provided, a precise, sourced count of deportations of U.S. military veterans for 2017–2020 cannot be produced because federal enforcement records did not reliably capture veteran status and researchers have not published a validated aggregate for that exact interval [1] [2]. To obtain a verifiable number would require either a DHS/ICE accounting that explicitly queries removal records for documented military service during that period or an independent, methodologically transparent audit of case files; neither the documents supplied here nor the advocacy reporting contain that audit [1] [4].