The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GOA) released a report that identified at least 70 American citizens who were removed from the country by the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), specifically ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), from 2017 through March of 2020.
The findings come from a review of DHS documents. They do not account for citizens who may have been deported from March 2020 through January 2021, and the findings may be underestimates due to ICE’s reporting policies.
While ICE policy requires officers to document citizenship investigations in ICE data systems, it does not require officers to update the citizenship field after identifying evidence that an individual may be a U.S. citizen. As a result, ICE does not know the extent to which its officers are taking enforcement actions against individuals who could be U.S. citizens.
U.S. Government Accountability Office
GOA’s review spans 2015 through March of 2020. While some U.S. citizens were arrested or detained by ICE and CBP during Obama’s second term, GOA found no evidence of the Obama administration deporting citizens.
