GAO confirms ICE deported U.S. citizens due to systemic failures — and the agency still doesn’t know how many more it’s wrongly targeting

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.

    • ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      3 days ago

      One guy tried and was told that he wasn’t owed any money, because the statute of limitations had expired… while he was being imprisoned without access to counsel.

      https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/08/ice-detained-a-u-s-citizen-named-davino-watson-for-three-years.html

      Last year [in 2016], a district judge in New York awarded him $82,500 in damages, citing “regrettable failures of the government.” On Monday, an appeals court ruled that Watson, now 32, is not eligible for any of that money — because while his case is “disturbing,” the statute of limitations actually expired while he was still in ICE custody without a lawyer.

    • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      Potentially… if you ever get to a position when you can actually file a lawsuit. If you are a US citizen and not a citizen of the country you are being deported to then that means the country accepting you knows that you are not actually one of their citizens and may actually detain you. Even if you are released, you will likely have no identification and no resources. And even if you do happen to contact a lawyer, how would you prove that you are a citizen?

      ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lack the records to even know how many people they may have deported in error

      And if the government isn’t keeping records of who they have deported then it is going to be even more difficult to prove that you’ve been illegally deported.

      • Glitterbomb@lemmy.world
        0·
        4 days ago

        My college buddy was adopted at the age of 1 from India into a rich white american family. After high school he joined the marines without issue. A bit later, after college, around 2010, he gets picked up for a simple drug possession charge. Booking sent his finger prints to ICE/DHS who decided something was wrong with his adoption papers and he needs to go back to India. They took him from the local jail and stuffed him in a federal black hole for 6 months. His family took the federal government to court and won. He got out and was awarded something like 6 figures every year for a long ass time.

        He still left the country when he got out anyway. I don’t blame him.

      • MNByChoice@midwest.social
        0·
        4 days ago

        We almost need some sort of system to notice when people are missing. Not family members, as all can go missing at once. Widely distributed with enough resources to push for our rights.

      • reddig33@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 days ago

        Depends on if you have family, and if they can get help from someone like the ACLU. Making the arrestor or person who ordered the arrest personally responsible is the only way this is going to stop. If they fear being thrown in jail themselves, or bankrupted for a false arrest, things might change.