Human Impact Project

Estela Ramos Baten, 45, was deported by ICE on July 4 along with her daughter Nory Sontay Ramos. According to her daughter, Ramos Baten's blood pressure medication was not returned during the deportation process. Ramos Baten collapsed and died in Guatemala after the deportation.

Amadou Dia, a Senegalese national who entered the US in 2006 and applied for asylum in 2007, was detained without bond on September 17, 2025 for removal after an immigration judge denied his asylum claim in 2012. ICE initially planned to remove him to Gabon, but when that country refused travel documents, they arranged for his removal to Ghana without allowing him to assert fear-based claims about that country. The court granted a temporary restraining order preventing his removal until he receives a fair hearing.

ICE detention centers are holding thousands more immigrants in solitary confinement than previously reported, with the practice expanding under both the Biden and Trump administrations. Data from Physicians for Human Rights and Harvard University researchers shows vulnerable populations, including those with mental health conditions, are spending an average of over 40 days in solitary confinement. This exceeds the 15-day threshold established by human rights experts. The Trump administration has dramatically increased overall ICE detention capacity while maintaining the expanded use of segregation tactics.

Under Trump administration policies, ICE has increased arrests and hundreds of migrant children are being sent to federal shelters. Some parents face a choice between deporting with their children or facing separation. Sulma Martinez, a 35-year-old from Honduras with a work permit and pending asylum claim, was detained on September 16, 2025.

Three women known as the Baldwin Park 3 were acquitted of charges brought by federal prosecutors, including assault and doxxing charges related to ICE agents. The post claims that evidence presented during the trial, including video footage, contradicted the government's case against the defendants.

Attorneys have documented unsafe conditions for immigrant children at a Texas detention facility.

Joe Botello, a U.S. citizen born in Texas, was handcuffed and detained by federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in Elgin on September 16, 2025. Agents forcibly entered his home, breaking down doors, and placed him in a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol vehicle before releasing him after scanning his driver's license. The operation, part of a larger immigration enforcement blitz in the Chicago area, also resulted in the detention of his roommates.

ICE's new detention facility at Fort Bliss in Texas violated 60 federal standards within 50 days of operation. Immigrants arrived at the tent encampment while active construction was still underway, with excavators operating and dust covering the site. The facility was constructed hastily, with development beginning just two weeks before occupancy, and continued for months after people arrived.

A 73-year old East Bay grandmother, Harjit Kaur, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials during a routine check-in this week. Today, her family and an expected 200 community members will stage a protest demanding her release.The protest will be held at 5 p.m. today (Friday, Sept. 12) at the intersection of Appian Way and San Pablo Dam Road in El Sobrante (below the El Sobrante Gurdwara).Kaur has lived in the East Bay for more than 30 years. She currently lives in Hercules but worked for two decades at a small business, Sari Palace, in Berkeley and regularly attended the El Sobrante Sikh Gurdwara. She was detained on Monday after ICE asked her to come to the San Francisco office to turn in additional paperwork. On Tuesday she was taken to a detention center in Bakersfield.“It’s just been a total nightmare. I don’t feel like this is real,” Manji Kaur, Harjit Kaur’s daughter-in-law, told Richmondside. Kaur has two -grandsons and three granddaughters.

Roberto Lacoss, a former lawful permanent resident from the Philippines, was arrested by ICE in Pearl, Mississippi on September 16, 2025, following a criminal conviction for statutory rape. After being ordered removed by an immigration judge, Lacoss complied with the deportation order and departed the United States for the Philippines, with ICE deportation officers present to confirm his departure.

The Trump administration is moving to deport immigrants who are crime victims, rescinding previous protections for this population. A man who nearly died in an Iowa shooting is among those targeted in ICE immigration enforcement actions.

ICE agents encountered a 5-year-old autistic girl outside her family's home in Leominster, Massachusetts while attempting to arrest her father, Edward Hip Mejia, a Guatemalan national. After Mejia fled into his house, agents held the child outside. Local police responded and recovered the girl, returning her to her family. Mejia was detained two days later and is currently held at an ICE detention center in Plymouth.

A single father of six U.S. citizen children applied for a special visa but was deported by ICE. The case involved family ties and legal efforts to prevent deportation.

The government of Ghana announced that 14 West Africans (13 Nigerians and 1 Gambian) who were deported from the US have been sent to their home countries. US lawyers filed a lawsuit arguing the deportations violated immigration protections and that the Trump administration used Ghana as a third country to circumvent US immigration laws.

ICE agents detained at least two Venezuelan men in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on Monday, including one pulled from his car at 24th and Albany despite claims of legal status. Witnesses say agents hit the car before the man exited, then left his wife and two small children crying in the intersection without providing a warrant or information about his location. The Little Village Community Council, which had distributed whistles during Sunday's Mexican Independence Day parade to alert neighbors of ICE presence, is now working to secure legal representation as detentions increase and fear spreads through the community.

Immigration agents moved a car off the road after breaking its windows and detaining someone on the southwest side. The car was returned to family. Agents abandoned several other vehicles during arrests around Chicago.

Federal immigration agents conducted a raid at a carwash in California. A social media post documented the incident, describing agents detaining workers at the location.

ICE agents raided the Bixby Knolls Car Wash in Long Beach on Saturday, detaining seven workers (four women and three men). The workers, from Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico, had various forms of legal status according to the manager, but agents allegedly confiscated or dismissed their immigration documents. The detained workers have been processed at facilities in Santa Ana, Adelanto, and Los Angeles.

An undocumented father, Silvero Villegas-Gonzalez, was involved in multiple federal immigration enforcement incidents in suburban Chicago. In one incident at a Sam's Club parking lot in Cicero, federal agents pepper-sprayed Villegas-Gonzalez and his 1-year-old daughter at close range, though the U.S. Department of Homeland Security disputed that pepper spray was deployed. Subsequently, Villegas-Gonzalez was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Franklin Park, Illinois during an arrest attempt. DHS stated the agent fired after Villegas-Gonzalez resisted arrest and attempted to drive his car into agents. Villegas-Gonzalez's attorney noted he had no criminal record, only minor traffic violations between 2010 and 2019.

Approximately 1,000 Central American children, including dozens in California, are at risk of deportation before completing immigration court proceedings. The government removed 76 Guatemalan children from shelters over Labor Day weekend and placed them on a plane to Guatemala, but a federal judge blocked the flight. Attorneys report the government is expanding removal efforts to include children from Honduras and El Salvador.

A man was detained by ICE at a Home Depot location in Orange County. He was admitted to Orange County Global Medical Center. He is a stroke patient who has had six prior strokes and takes multiple medications.

ICE agents shot and killed Silverio Villegas González, a 38-year-old Mexican citizen, during a traffic stop in Franklin Park near Chicago. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Villegas González drove his car at officers, but witness videos and security footage show he was driving away from agents when shot. He was pronounced dead at Loyola Hospital after his vehicle crashed into a semitruck.

Omar Salazar, a Dallas community leader and SMU graduate, was detained by ICE for seven months following a traffic stop in Lubbock in August 2025 where he presented a Mexican ID and lacked a valid U.S. driver's license. After losing his immigration case, he was ordered deported to Mexico with 60 days to voluntarily depart. Salazar was brought to the U.S. as a minor at age 11, did not qualify for asylum, and missed DACA eligibility by a few months.

Silverio Villegas Gonzalez was shot and killed by an ICE agent during a traffic stop in Franklin Park on September 12, 2025. The agent claimed Villegas Gonzalez attempted to run him over. Video evidence contradicts this account. Following his death, Idaho authorities took custody of his two young sons. His family is fighting to reunite with the children and demanding an investigation into the fatal shooting.

On September 12, 2025, an ICE officer fatally shot Silverio Villegas González, a Mexican immigrant, during a traffic stop. Body camera footage shows the injured officer telling police his injuries were "nothing major," including a knee injury and hand lacerations. Federal officials stated he was "seriously injured" and dragged by González's vehicle.

On September 12, ICE officers attempted to arrest Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a 38-year-old Mexican immigrant, during a traffic stop in Franklin Park, Illinois. After the officers approached his vehicle, Villegas-Gonzalez reversed and then drove forward; an officer fired two shots, striking him in the neck. The vehicle crashed approximately 170 feet away, and Villegas-Gonzalez was pronounced dead at a hospital. Video analysis found no evidence of contact between the vehicle and an officer. An officer sustained injuries including a knee injury and hand lacerations.

A Guardian investigation into the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana examined conditions at the facility, which serves as a hub of Trump's deportation operations and is operated by private company Geo Group. The facility routinely holds detainees longer than its intended 72-hour maximum, with 20% of over 28,000 detainees held there from January-July 2025 exceeding the limit. The investigation documented cases of medical neglect, denial of legal access, and inadequate living conditions, including a waiver of medical screening standards granted before a February 2025 inspection.

ICE agents detained Willian Gimenez in Little Village on September 12 while he entered a barbershop with his wife. ICE refused to disclose his location and denied his attorneys access to him. Gimenez is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Home Depot and off-duty Chicago police for targeting immigrant day laborers.

ICE agents arrested Denis Rivera Martinez, a parent from Honduras, near Talbot Community School in Portland on Thursday morning. The agents did not identify themselves to school staff, wearing only vests marked "police."

Following President Trump's declaration of a "crime emergency" in Washington, D.C., and increased ICE enforcement, immigrant child care workers—who comprise nearly 40 percent of the city's child care workforce—are going into hiding and missing work or avoiding leaving their homes. The Trump administration removed the "sensitive locations" directive that previously protected schools and day cares from ICE raids.

As ICE increases patrols in Washington, D.C., immigrant neighborhoods have organized "walking school buses" where groups of parents escort children to school. The initiative was established in response to Trump administration immigration enforcement targeting residents who entered the country illegally.

In December, a Salvadoran day laborer named Josué was detained by masked agents outside a Home Depot in Signal Hill. The incident was captured on video by a Long Beach Rapid Response patroller. Josué has since spent months in the Adelanto Detention Center, while his partner Maria and her daughter Sara seek answers and legal representation for his case.

Mariela, a mother of three, was denied proper medical care while in immigration detention and is now facing a possible cancer diagnosis. She is seeking urgent medical care, housing, and legal support to address her health condition and provide stability for her children.

A Guardian investigation of leaked GlobalX Airlines flight data shows that the Trump administration conducted over 1,700 deportation flights carrying approximately 44,000 immigrants in the first 100 days of his presidency. Immigrants were transferred between detention facilities and shuttled on complex flight routes, often without notice. The investigation documents cases including 252 Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador's Cecot mega-prison who had valid asylum claims.

A Laotian refugee was detained by ICE during a routine check-in in Tukwila, Washington and faced deportation. Following intervention, US authorities ordered his release from the ICE detention center in Tacoma on September 6, 2025.

Immigration agents have conducted multiple raids at Home Depot locations across Southern California, particularly targeting the Van Nuys store which has been raided at least five times since June. Day laborers, many of whom are undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America, have organized warning systems to alert each other of raids. Home Depot has denied involvement in immigration enforcement operations, while immigrant advocates have criticized the raids and filed lawsuits.

Rosalio Pelayo Salgado, detained by ICE on September 10, called his daughters from the Broadview processing facility to report being held in a room with at least 150 other men. He described officers yelling slurs, food and water being withheld based on behavior, and his anxiety medication being refused. His daughters protested at the facility on September 19, learning he was scheduled to be deported the following day.

A San Diego law firm filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court seeking to stop ICE from arresting asylum seekers at immigration court hearings. The lawsuit argues that courthouse arrests violate constitutional rights and due process and impact the immigration court system. The suit was filed on behalf of two asylum seekers arrested at San Diego's immigration court, both of whom had no criminal records and regularly attended their hearings.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that filming and posting videos of ICE agents constitutes "violence" and threatened to charge people who take videos and photos of agents conducting raids. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said that "videotaping ICE law enforcement and posting photos and videos of them online is doxxing our agents."

Federal ICE agents apprehended two people in Maplewood using unmarked cars. According to local officials and advocacy groups, three masked ICE and Border Patrol agents loaded the two arrestees into unmarked, out-of-state vehicles on Prospect Street around 11 a.m. The local police department was not notified of the incident, and the township does not cooperate with ICE.

A woman who had been living legally in the United States for 47 years was detained by ICE over 22 bad checks.

An ICE agent in Portland, Oregon performed a salute on camera on 9/8/25. The agent covered his license plate with black tape or paper.

Estela Ramos Baten, 45, died in Guatemala on September 8, 2025, two months after being deported with her daughter Nory on July 4 following a routine immigration check-in in Los Angeles. She had fled Guatemala in 2015 after threats from the 18th Street Gang and was taking medications for high blood pressure in the U.S. According to her daughter, Estela's medications were confiscated during deportation and not returned. The death certificate listed liver cirrhosis as the cause.

ICE has violated its policy limiting detainee stays in temporary hold rooms to 12 hours, keeping immigrants in crowded, poorly equipped spaces for days or weeks. An internal audit found detainees lacked basic amenities like pillows and blankets, with some facilities averaging stays of three days or longer. Maksym Chernyak died in ICE custody after spending over three days in a Krome hold room. He did not receive adequate medical attention during his detention.

Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Punjabi grandmother who has lived in California's East Bay for over 33 years, was unexpectedly detained by ICE on September 8, 2025, during a routine check-in appointment in San Francisco. She was transferred to Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield despite having no criminal record and decades of compliance with ICE supervision following the denial of her asylum claim in 2012. A community rally with approximately 200 people was organized on September 12 to demand her release, with local elected officials and organizations expressing support for her case.

The Trump administration plans to reopen several former prisons and detention centers that were previously closed. These facilities will be used to hold immigrants as part of a deportation campaign. The former closures cited concerns about violence, medical neglect, and understaffing.

Leodegario Martínez Barradas, a flower vendor, was arrested by federal immigration agents in Chicago's Archer Heights neighborhood on September 7, 2025, during the launch of Trump's "Operation Midway Blitz" immigration enforcement operation. He was deported to Mexico within days. The Trump administration claims the operation targets criminal immigrants. Barradas had no known violent criminal record.

Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez, a Mexican migrant deported to South Sudan by the US in July 2025 as part of President Trump's immigration crackdown, has been repatriated to Mexico. Munoz-Gutierrez was one of eight men deported to South Sudan on July 5 after a legal battle, and Mexico accepted his return after receiving assurances he would not face torture or inhumane treatment.

Hilda Gloria Yanez-Zavala, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador three years ago and was granted asylum, was detained during an immigration raid at a factory in Cato where she worked legally. She was separated from her two sons and held in detention for a month before deciding to self-deport. Her two sons remained in America.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducted a raid at a construction site near CIA headquarters in Virginia. Construction workers fleeing the raid attempted to scale fences surrounding the CIA complex during the morning commute. ICE did not notify the CIA in advance of the operation. No workers breached security or posed a threat to the facility.