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How many cases of US citizens being deported have been reported in 2024?
Executive Summary
The available reporting and fact-checking shows no authoritative, single verified count of U.S. citizens deported in 2024, and official removal statistics from immigration agencies count primarily noncitizen removals rather than citizen deportations. Investigative journalism and legal reporting document dozens to low hundreds of incidents in which U.S. citizens were detained, wrongfully removed, or otherwise processed by immigration authorities in 2024, with ProPublica identifying more than 170 U.S. citizens held by immigration agents in the first nine months of the administration [1], while other outlets and fact checks highlight a smaller number of confirmed wrongful deportation cases and legal challenges [2] [3]. This produces a contested record: agency data emphasize removals of noncitizens at scale [4], while investigative pieces and court records identify specific citizen harm without a consolidated official tally [1] [2] [3].
1. Why the headline deportation numbers don’t answer the citizen question
Federal enforcement statistics report large totals for removals and deportations overall, but those figures pertain to noncitizen removals and do not enumerate U.S. citizens, by design and definition. ICE’s fiscal-year tallies show deportations numbering in the hundreds of thousands for FY2024—Axios reported 271,484 removals in FY2024, a sharp increase from the prior year—but the ICE framework and DHS definitions treat deportation and removal as actions against noncitizens, meaning those aggregate figures cannot be read as indicating how many U.S. citizens were deported [4] [5]. Investigative teams and courts instead rely on case-level reporting, legal filings, and journalism to identify instances where U.S. citizens were wrongfully processed or expelled, which is why independent counts differ from agencywide removal totals [1] [3].
2. What investigative reporting found: dozens to more than 170 citizens held or processed
ProPublica’s investigation compiled documented incidents from the first nine months of the administration and identified more than 170 U.S. citizens who were held by immigration agents, describing instances of detention, physical mistreatment, and multi-day holds [1]. That reporting is anchored in interviews, case files, and other records and is meant to uncover systemic problems rather than produce an official government statistic. Fact-checking outlets and other news organizations flag these findings as evidence of wrongful treatment but also underscore that such investigative tallies are not an official deportation count; they instead illuminate patterns of error and abuse within enforcement operations [1] [3].
3. Court cases and journalistic compilations point to specific wrongful deportations
Legal reporting and mainstream outlets have compiled named cases where courts or tribunals ordered returns or found administrative error in removing people who had U.S. citizenship or protected status. Time reported at least four courtroom-identified wrongful deportations or removals in 2024, citing named individuals and judicial interventions that forced corrective action [2]. PBS and other reporting note instances where U.S. citizen children were deported with parents in prior periods and continue to document similar claims, though PBS’s recent piece emphasizes cases surfaced in 2025 and does not provide a definitive 2024 total [6]. These case-based accounts give concrete examples of harms but stop short of establishing a comprehensive national tally for 2024 [2] [6].
4. Why federal denials and definitional constraints matter for counting
Federal statements and DHS policy frameworks matter because DHS and ICE define deportation/removal as actions against noncitizens, and official data systems are configured accordingly [5]. Fact-check analyses note that federal denials of systematic citizen deportations coexist with investigative reporting of specific incidents; the two are not mutually exclusive because an agency’s aggregated statistics will not capture erroneous citizen removals unless those are flagged, litigated, or admitted in case files [3]. This structural separation explains why public agency totals can be vast while independent reporters compile much smaller, case-oriented tallies focused on documented missteps [4] [3].
5. Takeaway: a contested, evidence-based picture without a single official count
The most accurate statement supported by the assembled reporting is that there is no single, authoritative count of U.S. citizens deported in 2024, but investigative journalism and court records document dozens to over 170 instances where U.S. citizens were detained, wrongfully removed, or otherwise harmed by immigration enforcement in that year. Agency removal totals remain high and pertain to noncitizens, while legal and journalistic sources supply the case-based evidence of wrongful citizen encounters that triggered litigation, media attention, and policy concern [4] [1] [2] [3]. Readers should treat agency deportation numbers and investigative citizen tallies as answering different questions: one measures aggregate noncitizen removals, the other documents specific enforcement failures against citizens.