How many United States citizens have been deported so far since Trump took office , how many separate people named in news stories
Executive summary
There is no publicly available, government-tracked tally of United States citizens deported since President Trump returned to office, and investigative reporting rather than federal datasets provides the only evidence of citizens being detained or removed; public-facing reporting has documented at least dozens and — in one survey cited by journalists — more than 170 U.S. citizens held by immigration authorities, but an official aggregate number is not published by DHS or ICE [1] [2]. Department of Homeland Security releases touting hundreds of thousands of removals refer explicitly to noncitizens and do not break out U.S. citizens, leaving any precise nationwide count impossible to confirm from the available sources [3] [4] [5].
1. What the records say — and what they do not: no government count exists
Federal agencies have not produced a definitive count of U.S. citizens arrested, detained, or deported since January 20, 2025; Wikipedia’s synthesis of multiple reports notes that as of late reporting the U.S. government was not tracking the number of detained or missing citizens, and investigative reporting relies on case-level documentation rather than an official paneled statistic [1]. DHS public statements have repeatedly reported total removals and self-deportations measured in the hundreds of thousands to millions, but those communications and press releases frame the figures around “illegal aliens” or “noncitizens” and do not provide a separate figure for U.S. citizens mistakenly or wrongfully removed [3] [4] [5].
2. What investigative reporters and watchdogs have found: dozens to low-hundreds of documented cases
Independent investigations and reporting assembled by outlets and research groups paint a picture of scattered but serious incidents: one widely cited project by ProPublica and related coverage found that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been held by immigration agents in recent years, and congressional testimony and media articles enumerate specific named cases of citizens detained, wrongfully removed, or separated from family members [2] [6]. Historical datasets provide context but not current totals: the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse previously reported ICE identified 2,840 U.S. citizens as eligible for deportation across 2002–2017, with 214 actually arrested in that earlier period, underscoring that citizen misidentification is a longstanding, if sporadic, problem [1].
3. Named individuals in news reports and congressional files: concrete cases, not comprehensive lists
News stories, court filings, and a House hearing document numerous individual examples — from U.S. citizen children flown on deportation flights to adults detained on misapplied “removability” claims — but those sources catalog discrete instances rather than claiming to enumerate every case nationwide [6] [7]. Wikipedia and congressional materials cite specific episodes of wrongful deportation or detention and the human consequences of agency errors, but both sources emphasize that these are illustrative and that litigation and inquiries are ongoing rather than exhaustive [7] [6].
4. Competing narratives and institutional motives: why the gap persists
DHS and political allies highlight record removal totals to signal enforcement success, while advocacy groups, independent journalists, and legal researchers emphasize detainee abuse, wrongful deportations, and lack of transparency — a mismatch that ensures no single authoritative number of citizen deportations will emerge from official channels alone [3] [8] [5]. Reporters and watchdogs therefore compile case lists and estimates — for example, the “more than 170” figure referenced in media assessments — but those efforts are limited by agency non-disclosure, redactions, and the absence of a mandated public reporting regime that would isolate U.S. citizen incidents from the far larger flow of noncitizen removals [2] [1].
Bottom line
Available sources do not provide an official, verifiable tally of how many U.S. citizens have been deported since Trump took office; investigative reporting documents dozens and cites studies finding more than 170 citizens held by immigration agents in recent reporting, while historical TRAC data shows thousands of citizens were at various times flagged for deportation in past years but not removed — all of which means only a case-by-case accounting exists in the public record, not a definitive national total [2] [1]. DHS press releases that tout hundreds of thousands of removals refer to noncitizens and do not contradict that gap in citizen-specific data [3] [4] [5].