Fact check: How many US citizens have been mistakenly deported by ICE since 2020?

1. Why the “70 deported” figure has become the touchstone for past mistakes

Multiple analyses and reports published in 2025 trace their figures back to investigations concluding that ICE deported at least 70 U.S. citizens between 2015 and 2020, with many more cases involving arrests or detention without confirmation of citizenship. The American Immigration Council’s 2021 review and subsequent 2025 summaries repeated the 70‑person minimum and emphasized inadequate safeguards, inconsistent training, and poor record‑keeping within ICE as drivers of these errors ^{[1] [2] [3]}. This 70‑person figure is the best-documented estimate for that five‑year span, but it does not speak to events after 2020.

2. Reporting since 2020: evidence of continued wrongful detentions, but no clear deportation totals

News coverage from mid‑ to late‑2025 documents individual cases of U.S. citizens detained by ICE and emphasizes systemic risks, yet the recent pieces do not provide an aggregated, verified count of citizens deported since 2020. CBS and PBS items in September 2025 highlight individual stories and treatment concerns but explicitly lack a numerical summary of mistaken deportations for the 2020–present period ^{[4] [6]}. The available contemporary coverage documents ongoing problems but stops short of offering an updated deportation total.

3. Broader human impact reporting reinforces the pattern but not the tally

Investigative pieces, such as CNN’s reporting on family separation, show substantial collateral harm from immigration enforcement actions: more than 100 U.S. citizen children left stranded after parental arrests, according to a 2025 investigation. These accounts underline the human consequences of enforcement errors and policies even when they do not confirm formal deportations of citizens ^[5]. Such reporting corroborates systemic issues flagged by earlier counts but cannot substitute for a rigorous post‑2020 deportation inventory.

4. Source diversity and possible agendas: interpreting the 70‑person headline

The 70‑person estimate appears across advocacy reporting (American Immigration Council) and international news summaries (Economic Times), both citing systemic failures ^{[1] [3]}. Advocacy groups have a mission to expose rights violations, which can emphasize worst‑case institutional patterns, while mainstream outlets may amplify those findings without independent case‑level verification. The repetition of the 70 figure across outlets increases its prominence but does not equal independent, fresh accounting of post‑2020 removals.

5. What the recent articles do and don’t claim about post‑2020 deportations

September 2025 articles chronicling individual wrongful detentions — including a pregnant detainee and other citizens’ accounts — document incidents but explicitly decline to provide a new aggregate count of mistakenly deported U.S. citizens since 2020 ^[4]. The reporting frames a continuity of concern from the earlier documented 2015–2020 period into 2025, but the evidentiary gap remains: no source in the provided set publishes a verified tally of citizen deportations that begins in 2020 and continues forward.

6. Where the factual uncertainty remains and why official clarity is limited

The supplied analyses note systemic record‑keeping and verification failures within ICE as reasons why precise counts are elusive ^{[1] [2] [3]}. When agency records are inconsistent and investigations rely on partial data, researchers and journalists can identify minimums (like 70) but cannot confidently assert full totals for later periods. The absence of a post‑2020 aggregate in these sources reflects both continuing investigative limits and potential data gaps inside enforcement records.

7. Bottom line for readers seeking a number since 2020

Based solely on the provided materials, the verifiable statement is that no authoritative, updated count of U.S. citizens mistakenly deported by ICE since 2020 is present in the cited sources; the best documented historical figure remains at least 70 deportations between 2015 and 2020, with hundreds more wrongful arrests and detentions reported ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}. To resolve the post‑2020 total would require fresh data disclosure from ICE or a new, systematic investigative audit beyond the sources supplied.