Fact check: How often does ICE arrest U.S. citizens by mistake and what are the statistics?

1. Summary of the results

Based on the available analyses, there are no comprehensive statistics available regarding ICE's mistaken arrests of U.S. citizens. While ICE maintains detailed enforcement statistics ^[1], and has established methodology for collecting immigration enforcement data ^[2], none of these sources track or report incidents of U.S. citizen arrests. However, there is documented evidence of such incidents occurring, as demonstrated by the case of Brian Bukle, a Black U.S. citizen who was wrongfully detained for over a month despite having been a citizen for more than 50 years ^[3].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several important contextual elements need to be considered:

• Racial Disparities: There appears to be a disproportionate impact on Black immigrants, who represent only 7% of non-citizens but account for 20% of those facing deportation on criminal grounds ^[3].
• Current Enforcement Climate: Under the Trump 2.0 administration, there has been an increase in enforcement operations, raising concerns about potential overreach and the detention of low-priority individuals ^[4].
• Procedural Issues: The case of Brian Bukle highlights that ICE may ignore citizenship claims, and intervention by immigration attorneys may be necessary for release ^[3].
• Data Collection Focus: While ICE maintains detailed statistics on removals and criminal arrests of non-citizens ^[1], there appears to be no systematic tracking of mistaken citizen arrests, making it impossible to quantify the scale of the problem.

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The question itself assumes the existence of statistics tracking these incidents, which appears to be incorrect based on the available sources. This reveals several potential issues:

• Data Gap: Despite ICE's sophisticated data collection methodology ^[2], there appears to be no formal tracking of mistaken arrests of U.S. citizens, which could indicate a systemic blind spot in accountability.
• Institutional Bias: The lack of tracking such incidents could benefit ICE and DHS by minimizing public awareness of these errors. Immigration advocacy groups, on the other hand, would benefit from having such statistics to support their legal challenges and reform efforts ^[3].
• Political Context: The increased enforcement under the current administration ^[4] may be creating additional pressure that leads to more mistakes, but without proper tracking, this cannot be quantified.