ProPublica found more than 500 cases, almost certainly an undercount
California Rep. Lou Correa and 39 other lawmakers sent an October letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking the administration to explain why U.S. citizens have been detained by immigration agents. The letter sought the number of citizens held, details on how the government tracks those encounters and information on how agents are trained to verify citizenship and legal status.
In their letter to DHS, the representatives wrote, “We remain concerned that the Department’s actions are violating American citizens’ constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and request transparency regarding the Department’s actions.”
The congressional request followed a ProPublica investigation that counted more than 500 Americans detained by immigration agents. ProPublica said the total was almost certainly an undercount because the government does not transparently track the cases.
ProPublica found more than 100 Americans who were questioned about their citizenship and 63 who were detained while recording. The investigation also identified 36 Americans held for at least a day without being able to contact a lawyer or their family and roughly a dozen citizens deported, mostly children.
Experts told ProPublica that the documented cases collectively indicate failures by federal agents to respect U.S. citizens’ constitutional protections.
The Department of Homeland Security has long insisted that it is not arresting U.S. citizens. It has defended its immigration operations as “highly targeted.”
A spokesperson wrote to ProPublica, “These members of Congress have shown more concern for criminal illegal aliens who’ve broken our laws and destroyed any possibility of ever remaining in our country than they ever have for Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, and the true victims of illegal alien crimes in America.”
House Democrats have been pressing the second Trump administration for details about how immigration agents interact with U.S. citizens since early 2025. Last year, congressional Democrats announced a wide-ranging investigation into immigration agents’ detention of U.S. citizens. The action came in response to earlier ProPublica reporting that found more than 170 citizens detained by immigration agents.
Last month, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a New Mexico Democrat, introduced the Justice for Citizens Wrongfully Detained by ICE Act. The bill would make it easier for citizens to sue immigration agents for wrongful arrests.