Fact check: How many US citizens have been mistakenly deported in the past decade?

1. Summary of the results

Based on the available analyses, at least 70 US citizens were mistakenly deported between 2015 and 2020, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report cited by multiple sources ^{[1] [2]}. This represents the most concrete data available for answering the question about mistaken deportations in the past decade.

The analyses reveal that these deportations occurred due to systemic flaws in ICE's training and data systems ^[1]. The sources emphasize that these deportations constitute constitutional violations and highlight the lack of a systematic response to address these errors ^[2]. Additionally, racial profiling in ICE's enforcement practices contributes to these mistaken deportations ^[2].

Beyond adult citizens, the problem extends to children: at least seven U.S. citizen children were deported along with their foreign-born parents during immigration enforcement actions ^[3], and two U.S. citizen children were specifically deported to Honduras after ICE detained their mother ^[4].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question focuses solely on mistaken deportations but omits the broader context of citizenship-related enforcement actions. The Trump administration actively pursued denaturalization cases to strip some Americans of their U.S. citizenship ^[5], representing a different but related threat to citizenship rights.

The analyses also reveal that ICE's enforcement practices affect not just mistaken deportations but wrongful detentions. For example, about two dozen people, including a U.S. citizen, were wrongfully detained in immigration sweeps ^[6]. This suggests the scope of citizenship-related enforcement errors extends beyond deportations alone.

Immigration advocacy organizations and civil rights groups would benefit from highlighting these statistics to demonstrate systemic problems with immigration enforcement, while ICE and immigration enforcement agencies might benefit from downplaying these numbers or characterizing them as isolated incidents rather than systemic failures.

The question also doesn't address policy changes that may have increased or decreased these incidents over time, such as the Trump administration's expanded enforcement priorities that may have contributed to more aggressive deportation practices.

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question itself doesn't contain misinformation, but it may inadvertently minimize the scope of the problem by focusing only on "mistaken" deportations. The analyses suggest that some deportations of U.S. citizens may result from deliberate policy choices rather than mere mistakes, such as the deportation of citizen children alongside their parents ^[3].

The framing as "mistaken" deportations could also obscure the role of racial profiling in these cases ^[2], suggesting these are random errors rather than potentially discriminatory enforcement practices that disproportionately affect certain communities.

Additionally, the question's focus on a "decade" timeframe may not capture the most relevant data, as the most concrete statistics available cover only the 2015-2020 period ^{[1] [2]}, leaving significant gaps in the requested timeframe that could lead to incomplete understanding of the issue's scope.