Human Impact Project

Legal observers in Minneapolis are following federal ICE agents and documenting their enforcement activities. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara confirmed that observing and recording federal agents is a protected legal right, though certain driving behaviors remain illegal. The observers say they will continue documenting ICE operations as federal agents increase their presence in the city.

ICE agents surrounded a family's home with weapons drawn and pointed guns at an unarmed mother and her children. Agents briefly detained a U.S. citizen teenager without a warrant before releasing him after realizing they lacked authority to arrest him. The incident involved armed agents at an unarmed family inside their own home.

A same-sex female couple in Pennsylvania had one woman detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a regularly scheduled immigration check-in. The detainee was transferred to a detention center in California.

Shovgi Huseynov, a UB medical researcher from Azerbaijan, was detained by ICE after making a wrong turn onto the Peace Bridge on January 7 and crossing into Canada. Upon his return to the United States, border agents arrested him. ICE claims he was in the country illegally on an expired visa, but his attorney states he applied for permanent legal status while his visa was active, which provides authorized stay, and he has valid work authorization through 2029. Multiple state and local officials, including Rep. Tim Kennedy, have condemned his detention and called for his immediate release.

According to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, three Oglala Lakota men are currently being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Fort Snelling. Federal officials conditioned the release of information about the detainees on the Tribe entering into an immigration enforcement agreement with ICE and DHS, which the Tribe has publicly rejected. Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out stated the Tribe will not compromise tribal sovereignty or authorize ICE operations on tribal land in exchange for information about their citizens.

Two additional people were charged in March after an ICE raid at a Hardin Valley construction site on January 13. Four men total were accused of conspiring to help conceal and harbor undocumented people for financial gain, and three were accused of conspiring to prevent federal officers from performing their duties, including using a pickup truck to block the site entrance and allegedly striking agents' vehicle.

21-year-old Kaden Rummler, an anti-ICE protester, was permanently blinded after an ICE agent shot him with a nonlethal weapon at close range during a demonstration in Santa Ana. His family has spoken out about the incident.

A U.S. citizen was arrested during an immigration enforcement crackdown. The family disputes the arrest and claims their relative should not have been taken into custody.

Hani Duglof, a 32-year-old with a rare genetic disorder (RDEB) that causes skin blistering, was detained by ICE after agents ran his license plate while he was driving. He was transferred to M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital after requesting medical attention, where he remains in ICE custody. His family and attorney are seeking his release, citing his severe medical condition and his pending asylum application that has been ongoing for over 10 years.

Two Minneapolis residents who monitor immigration officers' activities were detained by ICE for several hours without being charged. During their detention, they were held without access to phone calls and were pressured to provide information about protest organizers and undocumented immigrants.

J.I.B.C., a 19-year-old man from Ecuador applying for Special Immigrant Juvenile status and asylum, was detained by Border Patrol agents outside a T-Mobile store in Minneapolis on January 13, 2026. He was transported to Texas and held for seven days without access to legal counsel. After attorney Kira Kelley filed a habeas petition, a court ordered his return to Minnesota and release from custody on January 20, 2026.

Kong Vang, a St. Paul resident, recorded federal immigration agents knocking on his door in the Frogtown neighborhood. Vang refused to open the door after agents did not explain the purpose of their visit, and they left after about 90 seconds. The video was posted to Facebook and received over 400,000 views.

A high school graduate was detained during an ICE raid while working.

ICE agents rammed into Christian Molina's car in south Minneapolis on January 12, 2026, then questioned him about his immigration status. Molina, a U.S. citizen, refused to comply and was not detained. The incident occurred two blocks from where an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good on January 7.

A Navajo man named Peter Yazzie was detained by ICE agents at a gas station in Peoria on January 12th despite presenting multiple forms of identification including a Certificate of Indian Blood, driver's license, and birth certificate. Yazzie, a U.S. citizen under the Citizenship Act of 1924, was detained for four hours. Tribal leaders stated that federally recognized tribal IDs are needed and questioned whether ICE operated within its legal jurisdiction regarding Native Americans.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted enforcement operations across multiple Los Angeles neighborhoods over the weekend, resulting in the detention of at least a dozen people. Arrests occurred in Echo Park, Silver Lake, Downey, Eagle Rock, and Highland Park, with DHS confirming that 11 detainees were from Mexico and El Salvador. Community members witnessed and documented the incidents as federal immigration agents took people into custody. Some of those detained reportedly had valid documentation or long-term residence in the U.S., according to witnesses and local organizations including the Los Angeles Tenants Union.

Immigration enforcement agencies conducted large-scale operations in Minneapolis that resulted in multiple detentions of individuals, including Native Americans, Latino residents, and a 17-year-old Target worker. A minor identified as Jonathan Aguilar Garcia was detained by CBP agents who later determined he was a U.S. citizen, then abandoned him at a Walmart parking lot. The sweeps employed aggressive tactics including vehicle ramming and battering rams. Legal challenges were filed via habeas petition. Community leaders reported profiling and increased fear among Minneapolis' Native American population of approximately 50,000 people, with service disruptions resulting from the operations.

A Vietnamese immigrant and father was detained by ICE during what he believed was a routine check-in on January 12, 2026, and held in the Anchorage Correctional Complex for 65 days. ICE cited a denied green card application based on an old teenage criminal case from the 1990s, though an immigration attorney argued he was eligible for permanent residency under the Indochinese Parole Adjustment Act and was wrongfully targeted. He was released on March 18, 2026, after a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order and ICE canceled a final administrative removal order; he is now on an ankle monitor and must report to ICE weekly.

A Vietnamese immigrant who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1992 was detained by ICE on January 12 during what he believed was a routine check-in appointment. He was held in the Anchorage Correctional Complex for 65 days after ICE claimed his green card application was denied due to an old teenage criminal case. His attorney and an immigration lawyer disputed the detention, noting he was eligible for permanent residency under the Indochinous Parole Adjustment Act and that the criminal conviction on his DHS record was inaccurate. He was released on March 18 after federal officials canceled his removal order.

Federal immigration agents conducted enforcement arrests in Minneapolis on Sunday, pepper-spraying protesters and ramming into a residential home to arrest a man. The operation occurred in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of woman Renee Good by an ICE officer on January 7. More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began in early December.

When ICE increased immigration enforcement operations in Lewiston starting January 12, 2026, immigrant residents, including naturalized citizens, expressed concern about detention and separation from their children. Community members organized a volunteer network called "neighbors helping neighbors" to provide transportation, groceries, medications, and support to immigrants who sheltered at home. The effort included coordinating rides to school and appointments and monitoring for ICE agents. Community members wore black at a student-led protest.

Brenda Beatriz Organiz-Perez De Lorenzo, a Guatemalan woman and her two minor children, petitioned for review after being denied asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. She fled Guatemala in February 2019 after receiving threatening phone calls demanding money. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied her petition, finding she failed to establish eligibility for relief on multiple grounds including lack of nexus between the threats and her claimed protected social group.

Four immigrants detained by ICE in West Virginia were ordered released by federal judges who ruled their detentions were unconstitutional. Danny Briceno-Solano, picked up on I-77 on January 11, was among those released after judges found the government violated due process rights by detaining them without explanation, hearing, or notice.

Randall Gamboa Esquivel, a Costa Rican man, was detained by ICE after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in December 2024. During nearly 10 months in detention at facilities in south Texas, his health deteriorated significantly, and he was deported to Costa Rica in September 2025 in a vegetative state. He died five weeks later without regaining consciousness, while his family and authorities remain unclear about what caused his severe health decline while in ICE custody.

According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Online Detainee Locator System, an individual named Yee has been detained as a public safety or flight risk. However, no court hearing dates are available for Yee on the portal, and no deportation information is listed on the U.S. Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Federal officers are conducting immigration enforcement operations described by Trump administration officials as large-scale. Minneapolis American Indian community leaders report their people are being stopped and questioned about immigration status based on their appearance. Red Lake Nation Secretary Sam Strong stated that members of their community are being detained. Photographs document federal agents spraying chemical irritant into a protester's face during an arrest.

Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz died in ICE custody. He was held at Delaney Hall before being transferred to California. Jean Wilson Brutus also died in ICE custody, having died after one day in custody at Delaney Hall.

ICE agents detained Jose Roberto Ramirez, a Native American citizen born in Minneapolis with family from the Red Lake Reservation, outside a Hy-Vee grocery store in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. The incident was documented on video and shared on social media. Ramirez was subsequently released from custody.

Garrison Gibson, a 38-year-old Minneapolis resident from Liberia, was arrested by ICE agents on January 11 after they broke down the door to his north Minneapolis home. Gibson alleges the agents took trophy photos and locked him in an overcrowded cell during his detention.

A migrant man died while attempting to cross the Rio Bravo into the United States and was found floating in the river in Piedras Negras, Coahuila. Rescue teams and Mexican and U.S. authorities coordinated to recover the body. Authorities are investigating whether the victim is José Antonio Sánchez Ríos, 35, from Guanajuato, who disappeared while crossing the river earlier in the week.

Immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis involved incidents concerning legal procedures and detainee treatment. Brandon Sigüenza was detained for eight hours while legally observing and recording ICE activities, and was pepper-sprayed and arrested despite later being released without charges. In a separate incident, Garrison Gibson, a 37-year-old Liberian national who had been regularly checking in with authorities, was arrested when ICE agents used a battering ram to enter his home with only an administrative warrant.

Adonay Mancia Rodríguez was detained by ICE agents near his home in Morristown, New Jersey on January 11, 2026, during an enforcement sweep while picking up a dinner delivery. His six-year-old daughter Annabella was found wandering the streets alone following his detention. According to DHS, ICE took 11 individuals into custody during the operation who were undocumented and facing deportation.

ICE agents conducted a raid on January 11, 2026 at a laundromat in Morristown, New Jersey, detaining several people. At least one father was taken into custody, leaving his 6-year-old daughter alone on the street. The laundromat is located in the Hispanic community.

Five-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos, a U.S. citizen, was deported to Honduras on January 11, 2026, alongside her mother Karen Guadalupe Gutiérrez Castellanos despite being born in the United States. ICE agents acted on an administrative deportation order against the mother issued in 2019, before the child was born. The two were detained for nearly a week in a hotel without access to legal representation or a judge hearing before being deported. The mother plans to send her daughter back to the U.S. with a relative, as the child is a U.S. citizen.

A 21-year-old protester named Kaden Rummler was struck in the face by a nonlethal round fired by a Department of Homeland Security agent during a protest outside a federal building in Santa Ana. The impact left shrapnel embedded in his eyes and face, resulting in permanent blindness in his left eye and a fractured skull. The incident occurred during demonstrations against the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent in Minnesota.

Border Patrol detained Guatemalan father Arnoldo Tiul Caal and his 10-year-old daughter Karla on January 10 in Spokane, alleging he missed multiple required immigration check-ins while seeking asylum. The pair were transported to a detention facility in Texas but were released Friday by a federal judge. The father had been living in Spokane since 2019 with his daughter, who was a fourth-grader at Logan Elementary School.

Multiple enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a homeless encampment near the Little Earth housing complex in Minneapolis. The detainees were transferred to an ICE facility at Fort Snelling, and their names were not initially recorded by authorities. The Oglala Sioux Tribe president demanded their immediate release, asserting that enrolled tribal members are U.S. citizens by statute and fall outside immigration jurisdiction. The tribe contacted Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan to locate the detainees, and reported that the Department of Homeland Security refused to provide information about the detained members unless the tribe agreed to an arrangement with ICE. The tribe has issued guidance to its members on asserting their citizenship rights.

Parady La, a 46-year-old Cambodian refugee and longtime Philadelphia-area resident, died in January 2026 after being detained by ICE. La was arrested by ICE on January 6 outside his home and held at the Federal Detention Center (FDC Philadelphia), where he was treated for severe drug withdrawal. On January 7, officers found him unresponsive in his cell, administered CPR and Narcan, and transported him to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was diagnosed with anoxic brain injury, shock, and multiple organ failures. He died on January 9. His family and organizations including the ACLU of Pennsylvania and CAIR-Philadelphia demanded accountability and transparency, with the ACLU filing a Freedom of Information Act request for records related to his detention, medical treatment, and death.

A 15-year-old boy named Kevin Martinez died of cancer two days after his mother, Arlit Maria Martinez, was arrested by ICE agents outside her workplace in Maryland. Martinez, who had no criminal record or prior deportation history, was detained and transferred to a holding facility in Baltimore. The family's repeated requests for her release to be with her son during his final days were denied by federal officers, preventing her from saying goodbye before he passed away.

Everyone had their case dismissed that afternoon which meant ICE could now take them at anytime. With only one way out of the building and ICE sitting in cars throughout the parking lot I knew what was going to happen. The mother’s friend-who had been sitting in the car next to mine-stepped out and met them by the front entrance, just a few feet from where I stood with the Priests. For a second, I couldn’t tell if the mother realized what was about to happen. But it only took that second. Suddenly, the ICE agents-every one of them a masked man-began walking toward us. Toward her. And that’s when it started. The little girl saw them first. “Mommy! Mommy!” she screamed, and burst into tears. Then her brother realized what was happening and started crying too. ICE doesn’t like to take children when the Priests are present and watching. ICE -asked whoever is with the kids to follow them to a different location, so they can take the children too. Because the kids are also in removal proceedings. Please donate so The Sidewalk School can continue to document and record these “disappearances” To donate: SidewalkSchool.org ***Video recorded by The Sidewalk School

ICE agents in Maryland used the state's driver's license database to conduct license plate checks in January without a traffic violation or warrant, leading to the detention of Santos Alvarenga-Rodriguez, 47, a Salvadoran citizen. Alvarenga-Rodriguez was stopped based on license restrictions that indicate potential immigration issues. During the encounter, he resisted and physically altercated with agents, resulting in federal charges for assaulting and resisting officers.

Maria Loya Medina, a 44-year-old mother of two, was detained by federal agents on January 10 in a parking lot in Albany, Oregon, as part of Operation Black Rose. She has been held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Washington for over two months. Lawyers with Innovation Law Lab filed a habeas corpus petition on March 6 seeking her release.

Jorge Elieser González Ochoa was released after being held in federal immigration detention for several months following his arrest at a local grocery store in September 2025. His detention sparked months of protests and organizing efforts by community groups including the Iowa City Catholic Worker and Escucha Mi Voz Iowa, who credited public pressure and community mobilization for his release.

Maria Loya Medina, a 44-year-old mother of two U.S. citizens, was detained by ICE agents on January 10, 2026, in an Albany, Oregon parking lot during Operation Black Rose. She has been held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Washington for over two months after being denied bond at a February 4 hearing. On March 6, 2026, her attorneys filed a second habeas corpus petition arguing violations of her Fifth Amendment due process rights and the Immigration and Nationality Act. The petition emphasizes her strong community ties, employment history, family responsibilities including caring for her stroke-afflicted husband, and lack of flight risk or danger to the community. Medina has resided in the United States since 2005.

Tah Lah, a Burmese refugee mother of four who was lawfully admitted to the U.S. in November 2024, was arrested by ICE agents at her St. Paul apartment on January 10, 2026, one day after USCIS announced Operation PARRIS to re-examine refugee cases. She was immediately transferred to Texas despite having a pending adjustment of status application. A federal magistrate judge recommended granting her habeas petition and ordering her release, finding her detention was not authorized under federal law. Ta Eh Doh Lah, a Burmese refugee mother who was legally admitted to the U.S. in November 2024, was arrested by ICE agents at her apartment while breastfeeding her five-month-old baby. She had properly filed for status adjustment and has no criminal history, but was detained as part of Operation PARRIS. The court ordered her immediate transfer back to Minnesota and release, noting she has congenital heart disease requiring expert medical care.

Dozens gathered in Springdale on Friday night for a vigil honoring Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, and more than 30 others who have died in ICE custody. The event was organized by Alliance for Immigrant Respect and Education. Over 450 people were arrested at the Benton County Jail in 2025 under 287(g) agreements.

Jose Manuel De Paz Cruz, a 31-year-old father with no criminal record, was arrested by ICE agents in Sunset Park on January 10, 2026, while walking home from work to attend his step-son's birthday party. After being detained in Brooklyn, Cruz was transferred to multiple locations including Manhattan, New Jersey, Arizona, and California.

ICE enforcement operations in Minnesota from late 2025 through early 2026 resulted in documented abuses and legal violations. A U.S. citizen Ojibwe man, Jose Roberto Ramirez, was forcibly detained for over six hours despite presenting identification, allegedly beaten by agents, and released without charges or explanation. During broader Minneapolis enforcement operations, ICE agents killed a 37-year-old woman, assaulted a pregnant woman, and violated federal court orders in at least 97 cases involving 66 detainees, unlawfully holding individuals with valid legal status, pending asylum applications, and recognized refugees.

Jose Pablo Trejo Guzman, a 42-year-old Salvadoran national, was arrested by ICE agents on January 9, 2026, when he and his wife appeared at the Santa Ana Field Office for a scheduled interview regarding their pending I-130 petition. Guzman had been living in the U.S. since 2004 and was previously released on his own recognizance in 2011 after removal proceedings were initiated. He is the primary financial provider for four U.S. citizen children. The court granted his application for a temporary restraining order and ordered his immediate release from custody.

Bryam Escobar Martinez was detained by ICE while on his way to work in Minnesota on the same day federal officials announced ramped up enforcement operations in the Twin Cities. His wife Estefany Escobar and their family are affected by his detention.