Did ICE make any mistakes (mistakenly detaining citizens, etc.) under Democrat administrations?
Why, yes, yes, they did.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made mistakes, including the wrongful detention of U.S. citizens, during Democrat administrations.
These errors have occurred across multiple presidencies, stemming from issues like flawed identification processes.
While the scale and frequency can vary based on enforcement priorities, documented cases and government reports show that such incidents are not unique to any single administration.
During the Obama administration (2009–2017), ICE's aggressive deportation efforts during what was often dubbed the "deporter-in-chief" era led to over 2.5 million removals, and this high volume contributed to collateral errors.
For instance, a 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlighted systemic failures in verifying citizenship claims, resulting in citizens being held for days or weeks despite providing evidence like birth certificates.
One prominent case involved Ernesto Galarza, a U.S.-born citizen of Puerto Rican descent, who was detained for three days in Pennsylvania in 2010. The ACLU sued on his behalf, arguing Fourth Amendment violations.
Another example is Ada Morales, a naturalized citizen detained twice in Rhode Island, once in 2004 and again in 2009, due to mistaken identity.
Overall, ICE encountered about 5,940 citizens in fiscal year 2016 alone, per Freedom of Information Act data analyzed by the American Immigration Council, though the exact number of detentions remains underreported due to poor tracking.
Under the Biden administration (2021–2025), enforcement wash reduced, which led to fewer overall interior arrests compared to prior years, averaging fewer than 33,000 at-large arrests annually versus higher numbers under Obama. However, mistakes still happened. A 2022 ACLU report documented ongoing wrongful detentions, including citizens held without due process. For example, in late 2021, Border Patrol agents in Kern County, California, detained Ernesto Campos, a U.S. citizen and business owner, during an interior raid far from the border, ignoring his immediate presentation of identification.
Critics, including Human Rights Watch, noted that despite Biden's directives limiting detention of vulnerable groups (like pregnant individuals), ICE expanded facilities and funding to $3.4 billion by 2024, inadvertently amplifying risks of errors in overcrowded centers. A ProPublica investigation in 2025 revealed that the Biden Administration had ignored congressional recommendations to track citizen detentions systematically, leading to incomplete data but confirming incidents like a Marine veteran's three-day hold in Michigan in 2018 (carried over into Biden-era reviews). Expert analyses from former ICE officials echoed that mistakes always happen.
What's my point?
Simple - if you didn't protest when Democrats did it, explain why. Otherwise, you look like a hypocrite.