House Republicans voted this week to strike down a Democratic-led amendment that would have explicitly prohibited the detention or deportation of U.S. citizens under federal immigration law—prompting a wave of concern among Democratic lawmakers and civil rights advocates.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), sought to block federal immigration agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using any appropriated funds to detain or deport American citizens.
“My amendment is simple,” Jayapal told colleagues during the Judiciary Committee markup session. “It simply states that none of the funds in this bill may be used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain or deport U.S. citizens.”
Despite that clarity, the Republican-led committee rejected the measure along party lines.
Democrats quickly sounded the alarm. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Republicans just voted to allow Trump to deport U.S. citizens to a foreign country.” He also criticized GOP lawmakers for what he described as efforts to erode protections for veterans and public servants.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) echoed that message, warning that the GOP vote “gives Trump the ability to legally deport U.S. citizens.”
The backlash comes as former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive GOP nominee for 2024, has repeatedly floated aggressive immigration proposals—some of which, critics argue, blur the line between lawful enforcement and constitutional overreach.
In remarks made aboard Air Force One during his previous term, Trump suggested he would consider deporting U.S.-born individuals with criminal records. “We have some horrible criminals, American grown, born… I think if we could get El Salvador or somebody to take them, I’d be very happy with it,” he said at the time. “But I have to see what the law says.”
Asked about those comments, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently confirmed that Trump was “floating the idea” again, though she acknowledged legal uncertainty remains.
That uncertainty was highlighted in a federal court case where a judge criticized what he called the likely wrongful deportation of a 2-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras alongside her non-citizen family members. “It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S. citizen,” the judge wrote.
In a separate opinion, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently warned that current government legal arguments “imply that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.”
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) was blunt: “The fact that Democrats even have to introduce an amendment to prevent ICE from deporting U.S. citizens is, frankly, alarming.”
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee did not issue a unified public statement explaining their vote, though some members have argued that existing laws already prohibit such actions and that the amendment was unnecessary.
The Department of Homeland Security maintains that no U.S. citizens have been unlawfully deported and that cases involving minor U.S. citizens traveling with deported parents were handled according to family decisions. But Democrats argue the system puts undue pressure on families and lacks sufficient safeguards.
With immigration poised to be a defining issue in the upcoming election, Democrats say the failure to pass this amendment leaves a dangerous “gray area” in immigration enforcement policy—one that could be exploited.
“Americans should not live in fear that their citizenship is conditional,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said. “We should be closing loopholes, not creating them.”
