ICE Has Deported at Least 70 U.S. Citizens [View all]

GAO confirms ICE deported U.S. citizens due to systemic failures — and the agency still doesn’t know how many more it’s wrongly targeting

Nicolae Viorel Butler
Jun 23, 2025

WASHINGTON — A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirms what immigrant advocates have long warned: ICE has deported American citizens.

Between 2015 and 2020, ICE deported at least 70 people who were U.S. citizens, according to the GAO. That’s not just a bureaucratic mistake — it’s a constitutional violation.

U.S. citizens cannot be deported under civil immigration law. Yet GAO found that ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lack the records to even know how many people they may have deported in error.

In total, the watchdog found that ICE arrested 674 potential U.S. citizens, detained 121, and deported 70 — all of whom may have been legally untouchable by immigration enforcement.
https://migrantinsider.com/p/ice-has-deported-at-least-70-us-citizens