Opinion: It’s Not Just ‘Criminal’ Undocumented Immigrants Who Have to Fear Deportation

Key points:

• Trump administration’s immigration crackdown targets more than just criminals, despite official narrative.
• Only 28.26% of ICE detainees in California are classified as “criminals,” according to ICE data.
• ICE detainees are often denied due process protections guaranteed by the Constitution.
• “If U.S. citizens, who under the U.S. Constitution have full due process protections, are being detained and deported, that tells us an awful lot about the treatment of other people.” – Jacqueline Stevens, Northwestern University professor
• “These numbers confirm what we’ve been seeing for years, that the overwhelming majority of people in ICE detention do not pose any threat to public safety.” – Javier Hernandez, Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice

The public has been told—repeatedly and with great emphasis—that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is about going after “the worst of the worst.” The language has been consistent: violent criminals, gang members, terrorists. That’s the official narrative. But the facts on the ground—and the lives being disrupted—tell a very different story.

According to the latest data released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), only about 28.26% of the 3,284 people detained in California ICE facilities as of July 7 are classified as “criminals.”

Nationwide, that number is nearly identical: just 28.9%. This means that more than 70% of those in detention are not even accused of having committed a crime. These numbers come directly from ICE’s own reporting—not from advocates or the media.

“These numbers confirm what we’ve been seeing for years, that the overwhelming majority of people in ICE detention do not pose any threat to public safety,” said Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. “In fact, only a small fraction are classified as ‘Threat Level 1,’ and even that designation is often vague and not always based on actual convictions.”

And among those swept up in these detentions are U.S. citizens—individuals who, under the Constitution, should be entirely outside the reach of immigration enforcement.

Consider the case of Miguel Silvestre, a 47-year-old construction worker born in Stockton, California.

In June of this year, Silvestre received an emailed notice from the Department of Homeland Security that listed him as a Mexican national and ordered him removed from the country. “Now I have to be looking over my shoulder,” Silvestre told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s hurtful.”

This was not the first time Silvestre had been targeted. In 1999, at the age of 21, he was wrongfully deported to Mexico—twice—despite being born in the U.S.

A judge eventually vacated the removal order in 2004. And yet, somehow, ICE created new expedited removal paperwork for him in 2025, again misidentifying him as a non-citizen. “What they did to me was kidnapping,” he said. “The biggest thing is they humiliated me.”

Jacqueline Stevens, the Northwestern University professor who founded the Deportation Research Clinic and uncovered the new removal order via a Freedom of Information Act request, put it plainly: “If U.S. citizens, who under the U.S. Constitution have full due process protections, are being detained and deported, that tells us an awful lot about the treatment of other people.”

Silvestre’s case is unfortunately not an anomaly but instead part of a well-documented pattern.

A 2011 peer-reviewed study by Stevens estimated that at least 1% of ICE detainees were U.S. citizens. At the time, that translated to thousands of people wrongfully detained each year.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) echoed similar concerns in 2021, stating that ICE safeguards against wrongfully deporting citizens are “inconsistent,” and that the agency does not even know how many such wrongful detentions have occurred.

There is no transparency, limited accountability, and—most troubling of all—no reliable guardrails.

ICE’s own practices make it difficult to know the full scope of the problem. The agency does not publish detailed data about the identities of those it detains, the specifics of their alleged offenses, or even the outcomes of their cases. The only reason cases like Silvestre’s come to light is because someone intervenes: a reporter, a legal advocate, or a family member willing to go public.

One might think these are isolated errors—tragic, yes, but rare. That’s not the case.

In Chicago, Julio Noriega, a 54-year-old American citizen born in the city, was picked up by ICE in January while walking out of a pizza shop. He was held for over 10 hours, handcuffed, and denied food, water, and access to a bathroom. Only after agents checked his wallet—where he had his Social Security card and driver’s license—did they realize their mistake and released him. His attorneys say ICE later denied any record of the arrest.

In Texas, a U.S.-born 10-year-old girl with a life-threatening brain condition was detained with her undocumented parents and siblings while they were en route to the hospital. “Rather than do anything to make sure that this U.S. citizen child got treatment she needed, they detained the whole family and took away the girl’s medication,” said Danny Woodward, policy attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project. The family was deported to Mexico the next day. As of July, the child has still not received the medical care she needs.

In Virginia, Jensy Machado, a 38-year-old citizen, was stopped by ICE agents near his home in March. He showed them his ID and told them he was American. One of the agents smirked and turned to his partner: “Do you believe him?” Despite his proof of citizenship, Machado was handcuffed and detained.

In Alabama, ICE agents tackled and detained Leonardo García Venegas, a Florida-born construction worker, during a raid targeting his undocumented coworkers. He shouted, “I’m a citizen!” and presented a valid Real ID, but agents dismissed it as fake. He was released hours later, only after providing his Social Security number.

Each of these cases has something in common: a U.S. citizen who was targeted, detained, and in some cases nearly deported—solely because they “looked like” someone else. Their documentation was ignored. Their assertions of citizenship were dismissed. And, in the eyes of ICE, their existence was an inconvenience.

This is not just about error, but about power wielded with impunity. It is about a system that rewards speed over accuracy, numbers over rights.

As César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, said: “My biggest concern isn’t that mistakes happen… My biggest concern is when we start to attack the oversight mechanisms that are intended to limit the number of mistakes and to remedy the mistakes that do occur.”

Indeed, the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security recently shut down its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties—the internal watchdog that might have helped prevent or respond to such abuses. DHS said the office had “obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles.”

ICE has become, in the words of Professor Stevens, “an information black hole.” It does not reliably track the wrongful arrests and deportations of citizens. It does not follow clear procedures when someone asserts citizenship. Its agents are not always required to consult supervisors before making an arrest. And unlike in the criminal legal system, there is no requirement that immigration agents demonstrate probable cause to a judge before detaining someone.

None of this is accidental.

When the administration mandates a daily quota of 3,000 immigration arrests, when oversight bodies are dismantled, when due process is seen as an obstacle instead of a safeguard—this is what happens. Americans get swept up in the dragnet. They are arrested for the crime of looking foreign. They are locked in detention centers. They are deported to countries they have never known.

ICE claims, “We know who[m] we are targeting.” The evidence proves otherwise.

And for those who argue that this is just the price of enforcement, that a few errors are worth it to keep the country safe—consider this: even if someone is guilty of a crime, if they are a citizen, they cannot legally be deported.

“The truth is, it doesn’t matter if this guy was a mass murderer,” said Kevin Johnson, the retired Dean of UC Davis Law School. “He could go to prison and be punished but you couldn’t deport him, as long as he’s a citizen.”

This is not about being soft on crime. It’s about preserving the rule of law. It’s about preventing a system from devolving into one where skin color, language, and zip code become grounds for exile. The Constitution either applies to everyone, or it means nothing.

What we are witnessing is not merely bureaucratic failure—it is a civil rights crisis. And the victims are not just undocumented immigrants. They are citizens. Neighbors. Coworkers. Children. Veterans. Mothers. Fathers.

No one should have to carry their birth certificate to prove they belong. But that’s exactly what Miguel Silvestre does now. “We’ve corrected it, you’re an American and we apologize”—that’s what he wants the government to tell him. But they haven’t.

Until they do, and until the system is reformed with real transparency and real guardrails, the question isn’t whether this will happen again. It’s how many more Americans will be detained, humiliated, and disappeared before the country takes notice.

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