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Is trump really deporting citizens?
Executive summary
Reporting shows the Biden-era claim that U.S. citizens cannot lawfully be removed remains the baseline: deporting someone who retains U.S. citizenship is "plainly forbidden" under existing law, and legal experts say attempts to do so would likely be struck down [1]. At the same time, multiple outlets and watchdogs document cases and administrative errors in 2025 where people identified as U.S. citizens or otherwise protected were detained or even sent abroad in violation of court orders — and the government does not appear to be systematically tracking such incidents [2] [3].
1. Law vs. rhetoric: the constitutional and statutory baseline
Constitutional and statutory law make clear that the government cannot deport someone who lawfully retains U.S. citizenship; legal scholars told TIME that deporting a born or retained citizen would almost certainly be unconstitutional and "plainly forbidden" under current law [1]. Reuters records that legal experts described proposals from the White House to explore deporting naturalized or U.S.-born citizens as alarming and likely illegal, and quoted scholars saying there is "no provision under U.S. law" to force citizens out [4]. These authoritative positions set the legal red line.
2. Administration proposals and public statements that raised alarms
President Trump and his White House publicly discussed exploring whether certain U.S. citizens—especially "homegrown criminals" or naturalized citizens—could be sent to foreign prisons or otherwise removed, with aides saying they were "looking into" the legality [5] [4]. Time and Reuters reported that such comments, and a DOJ memo prioritizing denaturalization proceedings, triggered immediate alarm among civil-rights and constitutional experts who warned these are likely to fail in court [1] [3].
3. Documented mistakes, wrongful detentions and deportations
Reporting and compiled records show concrete incidents where U.S. citizens or people under orders of protection were nevertheless detained or removed. Wikipedia summaries and ProPublica-cited reporting indicate that, during the second Trump administration, federal immigration enforcement policies "resulted in the documented arrest, detention, and removal of American citizens," including high-profile wrongful deportations discovered after lawyers intervened [2] [3]. One example cited is a Mexican transgender woman removed in violation of a court order; ICE later said it would allow reentry and faced litigation [2].
4. Scale, data gaps and accountability issues
Observers, advocates, and watchdogs repeatedly stress a lack of comprehensive government tracking: as of October 2025 the U.S. government reportedly did not track the number of detained or missing citizens in immigration custody, leaving the true scale of citizen-targeting and wrongful removals unclear [2] [3]. DHS publicly announced large removal totals for noncitizens — claiming over 527,000 removals and 1.6 million “self-deported” — but those figures do not address or explain mistakes involving citizens [6] [7].
5. How enforcement priorities and pressure shape outcomes
Multiple analyses link harsher targets and pressure on ICE and DHS leadership to speed removals with more administrative errors and rushed decisions. Wikipedia and Newsweek reporting suggest internal pressure to accelerate arrests and removals, which legal experts argue increased the risk of rights violations and mistakes [3] [8]. Advocacy groups such as the ACLU warn that aggressive enforcement plans can lead to U.S. citizens being wrongly swept up or families being separated [3] [9].
6. Competing narratives and political framing
The administration frames the actions as restoring immigration control and cites high removal numbers as success [6] [10]. Civil-rights groups, investigative outlets and legal scholars frame the same policies as dangerous overreach that creates constitutional risks and real wrongful deportations [9] [3]. Both perspectives appear in the record: official tallies emphasize removals of noncitizens, while watchdogs document individual citizen harms and systemic safeguards gaps [6] [3].
7. What the sources do and do not say — key limitations
Available reporting documents specific wrongful removals and credible legal warnings, but it also highlights a major data gap: authorities are not publicly tracking the full number of U.S. citizens detained or deported by immigration agents, so comprehensive scale estimates are not available in current reporting [2] [3]. Sources do not provide a definitive count of citizens deported under the administration; they report incidents, legal memos, policy proposals and national removal totals for noncitizens [2] [6].
Bottom line: the legal rule is clear — citizens cannot lawfully be deported — and experts say any deliberate program to remove citizens would face constitutional defeat [1]. Yet multiple reputable reports document administrative errors, detentions and at least some wrongful removals of people identified as citizens, and watchdogs warn those incidents are likely to increase when enforcement is accelerated without stronger safeguards and better data [2] [3].