Immigration Enforcement Against Potential U.S. Citizens

Immigration authorities have no legal basis to detain and deport people with U.S. citizenship, but data compiled by the U.S. Government Accountability Office shows that ICE has repeatedly arrested, detained and deported people who may have a legitimate claim to U.S. citizenship. The available data doesn’t show how many potential U.S. citizens were later confirmed to have U.S. citizenship and it’s not clear how each of these cases was resolved.