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Suresh Grover, civil rights activist: "Why did they contact me?'
The Home Office has denied claims it frequently accuses people who have right to be in the UK of being illegal immigrants by text message.
It says just 14 people were contacted in error by contractor Capita out of a total of 58,800 people suspected of not having the right to be in the UK.
Campaigners say the true number of people wrongly accused is far higher.
The Home Office said it was "right to enforce the rules" but Labour said it was "shambolic and incompetent".
Some people suspected of having outstayed their visas were sent a text reading: "Our records show you may not have leave to remain in the UK. Please contact us to discuss your case."
Two recipients of the texts - campaigner Suresh Grover and immigration lawyer Bobby Chan - reacted angrily to the message.
"I came here with my parents in 1966, I was born in East Africa and have a British passport," Mr Grover told the Independent newspaper - adding he was "shocked" and "horrified" to be contacted in this way.
Mr Chan said the texts "stereotype immigrants as a criminal community and create an atmosphere of fear."
But the Home Office defended its position: "We are taking proactive steps to contact individuals who records show have no valid right to be in the UK."
The individuals affected had been contacted in a variety of ways, including email and text, it added.
It also denied that Mr Grover had been contacted at all.
The department has received more than 140 complaints about the campaign, although Capita said: "Most complaints occurred in the early part of the contract where Capita was, as part of the contract, updating sometimes out-of-date Home Office records."
'Stupid and offensive'Labour's shadow immigration minister David Hanson said: "Theresa May's immigration system lurches from one gimmick to another with little effect.
"The reports that the government has allowed a private contractor to send British citizens text message telling them to leave the country demonstrates once more just how shambolic and incompetent the Home Office's border police is under Theresa May.
"These messages will rightly cause distress and offence to British citizens, many of whom have done much to contribute to our society. It is simply wrong for this sort of message to be sent by text, and to be so poorly targeted."
Meanwhile, immigration minister Mark Harper has said that vans telling illegal immigrants in London to "go home or face arrest" could be deployed across the UK.
He told BBC One's Question Time that the government was assessing the results of the scheme, which was piloted in the capital earlier this year.
During July, they were driven around the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Hounslow for a week.
Labour accused ministers of "borrowing the language" used by the National Front in the 1970s.
Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable said the campaign had been "stupid and offensive".
But Mr Harper told Question Time: "I don't have any problem with saying to people who are here illegally that they shouldn't be here anymore."
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