The Quiet Crisis:
How U.S. Citizens Are Being Wrongfully Deported
By: Vix Burgett-Prunty
In recent years, a disturbing pattern has emerged within U.S. immigration enforcement: American citizens, often from marginalized communities, have been detained and even deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While the agency’s stated mission is to remove undocumented immigrants, its flawed systems and aggressive tactics have repeatedly swept up people who are legally entitled to be here.
How U.S. Citizens End Up in ICE Detention
The deportation of American citizens isn’t supposed to happen. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect citizenship rights, and ICE’s authority is limited to non-citizens. Yet, cases keep surfacing where lifelong Americans, many of them Black or Latino, are locked up for months or even years before being wrongfully expelled from the country.
One of the most infamous cases is that of Mark Lyttle, a North Carolina man with mental disabilities who was deported to Mexico in 2008 despite being a U.S. citizen. ICE ignored his protests and stranded him in Central America for months before he managed to return. Similarly, Jakuem Salaam, a Houston native, spent three years in ICE detention before proving his citizenship. These aren’t isolated incidents, studies and lawsuits suggest that wrongful deportations happen far more often than ICE admits.
Why Does This Keep Happening?
Several systemic failures contribute to this crisis:
1. Faulty Databases. ICE relies on systems like Secure Communities, which frequently misidentify citizens as undocumented. A 2018 report by the Los Angeles Times.found that ICE’s own data was riddled with errors, leading to wrongful arrests.
2. Pressure to Sign "Voluntary" Deportation Forms. Many detainees, especially those without legal help, are pressured into signing forms agreeing to leave the country, even when they have valid citizenship claims. Once they sign, their legal options shrink dramatically.
3. Lack of Due Process. Unlike criminal courts, immigration courts don’t guarantee lawyers. Citizens who can’t afford legal representation often struggle to prove their status before being deported.
4. Racial Profiling. Latino, Black, and Indigenous Americans are disproportionately targeted. A 2021 investigation by The Intercept revealed that ICE often assumes people with Spanish surnames or certain appearances must be undocumented.
The Dangerous Consequences of Wrongful Deportation
Being deported as a citizen isn’t just a bureaucratic error, it’s a life-altering catastrophe. Many wrongfully deported Americans end up stranded in countries they’ve never known, without money, passports, or legal assistance. Some, like Peter Brown, a Navy veteran, nearly disappeared into the system before journalists and advocates intervened. Others aren’t as lucky.
Even when they eventually return, the damage is done: lost jobs, broken families, and psychological trauma. And because ICE rarely faces penalties for these mistakes, the cycle continues.
Political Implications and the Road Ahead
The risk of wrongful deportations could grow under policies favoring mass removals. During the Trump administration, expedited removals surged, and oversight mechanisms were weakened. Now, with proposals to further expand ICE’s budget and enforcement powers, advocates warn that more citizens could be caught in the crossfire.
Some lawmakers have called for reforms, such as requiring ICE to verify citizenship before detention, but so far, no major legislation has passed. Meanwhile, cases keep piling up, each one a reminder that without systemic change, the U.S. government will keep exiling its own people, one mistake at a time.
What Can Be Done?
Demand accountability from ICE and Congress for wrongful deportations.
Support legal aid organizations.that help detainees prove their citizenship.
Push for laws that require ICE to double-check citizenship status before deportation proceedings.
The deportation of U.S. citizens isn’t just a legal failure, it’s a betrayal of constitutional rights. And until real safeguards are put in place, more Americans could find themselves exiled from their own country.
(Sources: Los Angeles Times, The Intercept, ACLU reports, and court case filings.)