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.
And the actual number could be much higher.
“ICE does not know the extent to which its officers are taking enforcement actions against individuals who could be U.S. citizens,” the GAO concluded.
When we say “abolish ICE”, this is one of the main reasons why. Besides the gestapo tactics we have seen since January, ICE is just plain bad at their job. Even if you grant that illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be solved (and that’s a huge if), ICE is a terrible solution to the problem. Abolish ICE and put the money into something actually useful, like beefing up the immigration court system. Make the legal pathway so enticing that only actual criminals will attempt to dodge the system.