Human Impact Project

Jonathan Aguilar Garcia, a 17-year-old U.S. citizen and Target store employee in Richfield, Minnesota, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on January 8, 2026, along with coworker Christian Miranda Romano. Despite repeatedly asserting their U.S. citizenship and presenting identification including a passport, both teenagers were physically apprehended and removed from the store. Garcia was later released at a Walmart parking lot with injuries after his citizenship was verified.

On January 8, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents led by Chief Greg Bovino detained two U.S. citizen teenagers, Jonathan Aguilar Garcia and Christian Miranda Romano, while they were working at a Target store in Richfield, Minnesota. Both were apprehended based on their appearance during an immigration enforcement operation. Garcia presented a U.S. passport asserting his citizenship but was initially detained anyway; after verification, agents released him at a Walmart parking lot without charges or transportation assistance. Both individuals were injured during the detention. Miranda Romano, a minor with no criminal history, remained in detention at Fort Snelling despite his family's contact with ICE. State Representative Michael Howard criticized the incident, describing it as "pure madness."

Mauricio Javier Escobar Guerreo, a 26-year-old El Salvadoran who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2016, was arrested by ICE without a warrant on January 7, 2026, immediately after being released from local custody on a misdemeanor methamphetamine possession charge. He had been living in the community for nine years after being released by ORR, had approved Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and a pending adjustment of status application. The court ordered his release within three days, finding his detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights.

Delsy Noemi Flores Mena, a Honduran citizen who was previously released on $12,000 bond in 2015, was arrested without a warrant and re-detained by DHS on January 7, 2026. She had been living in St. Paul, Minnesota for 11 years as the primary caregiver to two US citizen children, ages 5 and 9. The court granted her habeas corpus petition and ordered her immediate release, finding that her re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause.

Hongbo Zhao, a Chinese citizen with a pending asylum application, was detained by ICE on January 7, 2026, during a routine check-in at an ICE field office. He had been released on his own recognizance since April 2024 and had complied with all reporting requirements. The federal court ordered his immediate release, finding that ICE violated his due process rights by detaining him without notice or a pre-deprivation hearing.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced plans to deploy floating buoys along more than 500 miles of the Rio Grande River as part of expanded border security efforts. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that 130 miles of buoys were already under contract and installation began on the day of the announcement. The floating barriers are part of a broader Trump administration initiative to build a "Smart Wall" combining steel barriers, waterborne barriers, patrol roads, lights, cameras, and detection technology.

Rafael Vela, a 64-year-old from El Salvador who had lived in the U.S. for over 40 years, was detained by federal agents outside his Silver Lake home on January 7, 2026. Video footage shows masked agents struggling to detain Vela as he reached his doorstep before removing him in an unmarked vehicle. Vela believed he had permanent resident status, but a letter later confirmed discrepancies regarding his actual residency status. Neighbors described him as a friendly community member and expressed concern about the force used during the detention. DHS confirmed the arrest as part of an immigration enforcement operation.

ICE agents were reportedly present outside Roosevelt High School, leading to conflicting accounts from union and DHS officials about the nature and purpose of the operation. Law enforcement and workers' representatives provided different accounts of what occurred.

An investigation identified Border Patrol agents Michael Sveum (EZ-2) and Edgar Vazquez (EZ-17) from an El Paso BORTAC unit as key participants in violent federal enforcement operations across the Midwest. The agents were documented using chemical munitions, pepper spray, and tear gas against crowds in Chicago and Minneapolis, including at the scene where ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed Renée Good on January 7, 2026. The investigation analyzed body camera footage, CBP reports, and incident videos to identify the agents and their role in multiple violent escalations.

According to an Instagram post, two individuals (described as a father and son) were detained by ICE agents who arrived in unmarked cars without a warrant. The post alleges the agents blocked in the vehicle, broke a window, and used force during the detention, including choking one individual with a jacket.

ICE agents detained Jose Martinez, a U.S. citizen and Coast Guard veteran, while he was sleeping in his cruise ship cabin during a Carnival cruise in the Caribbean. Agents tackled his wife Tamara Verhas and confiscated her phone to prevent recording. The couple was eventually released but forced to delete all photos and video documentation of the incident.

Melisa, a Maryland resident with a valid work permit and pending asylum case, was detained on December 15, 2025 during a routine immigration check-in. She had no criminal record and was employed full-time while preparing to start classes at Carroll Community College and planning her wedding. Her community is raising funds to help her hire an immigration attorney.

Four enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe were detained by ICE agents in Minneapolis in January 2026 during a large-scale federal enforcement operation. The men were sleeping under a bridge near the Little Earth housing complex in south Minneapolis and lacked identification documents at the time of arrest, though at least one presented tribal identification. Three were transferred to an ICE detention facility at Fort Snelling. A 20-year-old Red Lake Nation descendant reported being struck by agents after identifying himself as a U.S. citizen. Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out called the detentions a violation of treaty rights and constitutional protections, arguing that enrolled tribal members are U.S. citizens by birthright under the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. The Navajo Nation reported that dozens of Native Americans had been questioned or detained during similar ICE operations, reflecting a broader pattern of agents failing to recognize or dismissing tribal identification.

Ngwu Onyekachi Kingsley, a Nigerian national who had been released on recognizance and participating in an Alternative to Detention program for over two years, was arrested by ICE agents during a routine ATD appointment on January 7, 2026. He had no criminal history and had attended all required check-ins, with a pending asylum application. The court granted a preliminary injunction ordering his immediate release, finding his re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process.

Federal agents conducted an enforcement operation at Roosevelt High School in south Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, around 3:30 p.m. as classes were ending. According to witnesses, agents tackled individuals and deployed chemical irritants on school grounds using unmarked vehicles. DHS stated the operation targeted a U.S. citizen who rammed a government vehicle and led agents on a chase, and that a teacher assaulted a Border Patrol agent as a crowd formed. Minneapolis Public Schools cancelled classes for the remainder of the week following the incident.

ICE agents arrested Mubashir Hussen, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Somali descent, in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood during Operation Metro Surge in December 2025. Video footage documented agents slamming him against a door, placing him in a chokehold, and handcuffing him despite his repeated statements and multiple displays of his U.S. passport and identification. He was released after approximately two hours once agents confirmed his citizenship status. Hussen subsequently became the lead plaintiff in a class-action ACLU lawsuit, Hussen v. Noem, which documents a broader pattern of ICE and CBP detaining U.S. citizens, legal residents, and individuals with pending legal status across Minnesota. The lawsuit, supported by 29 sworn declarations, found that 100% of documented cases involved individuals with legal status, with Somali and Latino communities apparently systematically targeted based on appearance during Operation Metro Surge.

Two U.S. citizens were stopped by ICE agents in North Carolina. When the men began recording the encounter, agents attempted to stop the filming and escalated the stop to violence. Civil rights advocates stated the stop violated the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

ICE officers shot a woman in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, during a federal enforcement operation. According to video evidence documented in the article, officers approached a Honda Pilot SUV blocking a road. When the driver reversed and began turning away from the officers, a third officer fired three shots into the vehicle, including two shots after the car had passed the officer. DHS provided a different account of the incident.

ICE officers shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. DHS and President Trump claimed Good attempted to run over officers with her vehicle. Multiple videos reviewed by CNN show the incident occurred after officers approached her stationary SUV and told her to exit the vehicle. Video evidence shows the car made contact with an officer before he fired his weapon.

A 17-year-old girl was detained by ICE agents along with her mother after agents entered their apartment complex. The family was transported to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, where the girl remained detained as of the article's publication.

A fifth-grade girl from Valley View Elementary was detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, along with her mother and stepfather. The school district lost contact with the family on January 9, 2026, and did not know where they were. Her detention was discovered when two schoolmates, who had been detained and then released, recognized her in the detention facility cafeteria. As of the article's publication, the girl remained detained at Dilley.

Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, a 68-year-old Honduran national who had lived in the U.S. for decades, died on January 6, 2026, at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio while in ICE custody. He was arrested during an ICE enforcement operation in Newark, New Jersey, on November 16, 2025, and transferred to the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico. While detained, he complained of vomiting, stomach pain, chest pain, and shortness of breath for over a week, but medical staff only provided pain pills without diagnosing the underlying cause. He was transferred to El Centro Regional Medical Center on January 4 after developing chest pain, then airlifted to JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio, where he was pronounced dead two days later. Medical personnel determined the cause was heart-related complications. His family was not notified until after his death and later questioned the quality and timeliness of his medical care.

Alain Aguirre Galvez, a Cuban citizen who entered the U.S. through the CBP-1 Application in January 2025, was arrested for a moving traffic violation in Miami-Dade County, Florida on January 6, 2026, and subsequently transferred to ICE custody. He was later detained at California City Detention Facility in California. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered the government to provide him with an individualized bond hearing within 14 days.

Ken Ofori-Atta was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on April 8, 2026, following a judicial order. His detention originated from administrative compliance flags linked to investigations by Ghana's Office of the Special Prosecutor into allegations of corruption during his tenure as Finance Minister. Ofori-Atta had entered the United States legally and his legal team argued the detention resulted from a procedural misunderstanding rather than criminal violations. He has reunited with his family in the United States.

Rebecca Pinyerd, a 70-year-old Filipina lawful permanent resident who has lived in the United States for over 40 years, was scheduled for deportation to the Philippines but the flight was cancelled after airline officials determined she was medically unfit to fly due to advanced kidney disease, thyroid complications, and uncontrolled hypertension. She remains in immigration detention at Clay County Jail in Indiana with no new deportation date announced. Her family has expressed concerns about her access to medical care while in custody and has called for an independent medical evaluation.

Joey Martinez, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and U.S. citizen, was mistakenly detained by CBP officers aboard a Carnival Cruise Lines ship in Miami after being identified by name match with someone else who had outstanding warrants. Despite only his name matching and his other identifying information not aligning with the warrant, Martinez was forcefully removed from his stateroom, handcuffed, and held in an immigration cell until he could verify his identity with official documents. He was eventually released without charges, compensation, or an apology, and Carnival Cruise Lines did not inform him of the name issue before the ship's arrival despite allegedly being aware of it.

ICE took a 5-year-old girl and her mother into custody after Austin police responded to a disturbance call in the Oak Hill community on January 5th. Officers identified the mother had an ICE administrative warrant and notified federal authorities who took both into custody. The family says the child is a U.S. citizen and reports no effort was made to contact family or involve Child Protective Services before the ICE custody transfer.

Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, a 42-year-old Honduran man with no criminal history, died on January 5, 2026 at HCA Houston Healthcare in Conroe, Texas after complications from congestive heart failure. He was detained by ICE on November 17, 2025 while on his way to work and initially held at Montgomery Processing Center before being transferred to Joe Corley ICE Processing Center on November 25. Despite repeated requests, he was unable to access medication needed to manage his congenital heart condition while in ICE custody. He was hospitalized on December 23, 2025 for worsening heart complications, admitted to intensive care on December 31 after multiple severe medical episodes, and died on January 5. His family faced a $4,000 cost to transport his body to Honduras for burial.

Roberto Hernandez, a 62-year-old undocumented immigrant with no criminal record, was detained by ICE during a traffic stop in Minnesota on January 5, 2026, while driving to work as a cook. He has been held in a New Mexico detention facility for nearly four months and now faces deportation despite having lived in the United States for nearly 30 years and being in the process of applying for permanent residency sponsored by his son, a Minneapolis police detective. Hernandez was arrested during Operation Metro Surge without a warrant or removal order. His case reflects a broader pattern in which the majority of ICE detainees have not been convicted of crimes.

The Trump administration's Operation Midway Blitz, which began in early September 2025, conducted mass immigration enforcement raids across the Chicago region, detaining over 4,300 people according to the Department of Homeland Security. Data shows that most detainees do not have significant criminal records. Hundreds of immigrants, protesters and bystanders were detained or arrested, and thousands protested across Chicago and suburbs.

On January 4, 2026, ICE agents in vehicles with out-of-state license plates surveilled St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Hopkins, Minnesota, during a Spanish-language Mass, positioning themselves outside the church building. Pastor Paul Haverstock reported that parishioners informed him of men wearing ski masks sitting in a car outside, prompting him to prepare his phone to record if agents entered during the service. Following this surveillance and the earlier deportation of church employee Francisco Paredes, attendance at the Spanish Mass dropped by half from over 400 people, and parishioners expressed fear of attending worship. Church leadership and Hopkins Mayor Patrick Hanlon stated that ICE's presence outside the church violated the constitutional right to free exercise of religion.

Dinah Marie Chollet, a South Carolina restaurant co-owner, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after joining a private group chat with Summerville High School students planning a walkout against ICE. Chollet stated she joined to express support for the students' activism, shared safety information, and then left the chat. She was arrested on February 12 and released on $1,000 bond, with an initial court appearance scheduled for April 14.

Juan Nicolas, a two-month-old baby, is the youngest person currently in ICE custody and is being held with his mother Mireya López Sánchez at a family detention center in Dulles, Texas. Due to poor conditions including rotten food and contaminated water, the mother stopped producing milk and the baby became sick. The child suffered a medical emergency but has not been seen by a doctor as there is none on site and immigration officials refuse to send him to a hospital.

ICE detained a person at a trailer park in Mancos on Friday morning, which prompted a protest at the ICE field office in Durango's Bodo Industrial Park. About a dozen protesters attempted to block federal officers from leaving the facility with the detainee. Federal agents pepper sprayed the protesters and deployed Tasers to clear the entrance. Durango Police Chief Brice Current said he contacted both protesters and ICE requesting the former not break the law and the latter to de-escalate, noting this was the first physical confrontation since October when agents used pepper spray and rubber bullets on over 200 protesters.

The Trump administration is seeking to deport two men who witnessed the January 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at a Texas detention camp. The eyewitness accounts of the two men differ from the Department of Homeland Security's official account of the incident.

Sabrina Carmona Sanchez, a 41-year-old transgender woman from Ecuador, was arrested by immigration agents on January 3, 2026, at a hotel on Long Island and transferred to ICE custody at Adams County detention facility in Mississippi. She had previously been released on recognizance by Border Patrol in 2023, granted work authorization, and allowed to remain free while her immigration case proceeded. She is now held in a men's dormitory without being offered a bond hearing, in violation of her Fifth Amendment due process rights, according to her legal team at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Her habeas corpus petition challenges the government's policy of categorically denying bond hearings to undocumented immigrants arrested under the Trump administration's July 2025 detention guidance.

ICE deported a man who was apprehended in Utah. A judge has since ruled that the Trump administration must bring him back, indicating potential legal issues with the deportation proceedings.

About a dozen protesters attempted to block federal ICE agents from leaving with a detainee outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Durango on Friday. Protesters linked arms and sat in front of the ICE office driveway to prevent vehicles from departing. Federal agents responded by removing protesters and using pepper spray against them.

Deportations of Brazilian citizens from the United States reached a historic high in 2025, with more than 3 million citizens forced to return to Brazil, nearly double the 2024 total. The Ministry of Human Rights confirmed a 99.8% increase in deportations compared to the previous year. The sharp increase reflects the zero-tolerance immigration policy adopted by President Donald Trump, which has intensified enforcement actions against undocumented immigrants.

DHS's Operation Metro Surge in the Minneapolis metropolitan area in early 2026 resulted in 94 documented crowd-control weapons misuse incidents — nearly a quarter of all cases nationwide. DHS agents were responsible for at least 76% of incidents. Federal officers, almost exclusively ICE and other DHS components, deployed the MK-9, a highly pressurized pepper spray system, at distances consistently below manufacturer-recommended safety thresholds of 6 feet. ICE accounted for 21 of 44 MK-9 incidents (48%) and DHS agencies overall accounted for 82%. On the day Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino arrived (January 7, 2026), 12 incidents were recorded, rising to 40 within the first week and 50 within two weeks, compared to just one incident in the preceding week.

Adayomi Ademuyiwa, a Dallas resident, was deported to Nigeria by ICE in January 2026 despite a federal judge having released him on conditions months earlier. His deportation prevented him from standing trial on federal fraud and identity theft charges and blocked potential restitution to alleged victims.

During Operation Metro Surge from December 2025 through February 2026, ICE arrested over 4,000 people in Minneapolis under a reinterpretation of a 1996 law requiring detention without bond. Federal judges, including U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, found that ICE violated court orders in at least 113 cases involving 77 people by January 28, 2026, and the violations continued thereafter. Of 66 cases examined by The Washington Post, 52 involved immigrants with pending applications for asylum or other legal status, none with final deportation orders; most were not criminals and over one-third had lived in the United States for more than a decade. The operation targeted immigrants with valid work permits, pending asylum applications, and temporary protected status despite government claims of prioritizing serious criminals.

Gabriel Espinoza Diaz, a 22-year-old undocumented community college student who had lived in the U.S. since age 4, was detained by ICE after a confrontation with security at the Strat Hotel in Las Vegas in January 2026 following a disputed threatening text message. Although charges were dropped and a judge granted voluntary departure, ICE kept him in custody and deported him to Mexico. He was transferred to an Arizona facility in a pre-dawn transfer without family notification and left at the border in Nogales, Sonora. Now living in Tijuana, Espinoza has abandoned his dream of becoming a teacher in the United States.

Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant, died in January 2026 at Camp East Montana, an ICE detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, after being restrained by guards. An outside autopsy ruled his death a homicide due to asphyxia. Evidence associated with the incident was missing or destroyed, and the contractor failed to provide use-of-force and death reports to ICE as required. An investigation by ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility is on hold pending a criminal investigation by the FBI.

Nawras Maklad, a Syrian citizen who entered the U.S. without inspection in January 2022 and filed for asylum, is detained at the ICE Detention Center in Adelanto, California. An immigration judge denied his bond on March 27, 2026, finding him a flight risk. The court denied his ex parte application for a temporary restraining order to challenge his continued detention.

Gustavo, a restaurant cook from Mexico who had lived in Santa Barbara for seven years, was arrested by ICE agents in the lobby of Santa Barbara County jail in January 2026 as he was being released. A judge had ordered him to wear an ankle monitor and return home to await trial on a domestic dispute charge, but ICE agents—masked and armed with handcuffs—intercepted him before he could leave the facility. Gustavo had only a minor driving offense on his record, which under California's SB 54 sanctuary law should have barred local authorities from coordinating with ICE to place him in immigration custody. The arrest occurred outside official procedures in the jail lobby rather than through the authorized "sally port" transfer process, potentially violating state law.

ICE agents arrested Cesar Ramos-Alcala, 48, and Marcelino Tapia-Lucas, 25, outside courtrooms at the Ridgedale Service Center in Minnetonka on Monday. ICE alleged that Ramos-Alcala is in Minnesota illegally and that Tapia-Lucas entered the U.S. illegally at age 16 and has prior arrests. The arrests occurred in a secure, controlled courthouse environment.

Pedro Gutierrez, 43, a Durango resident for 22 years, was arrested by ICE agents on New Year's Eve while driving home from the gym. He was pulled over blocks from his home near Needham Elementary School by agents who called him by name and forcibly removed him from his vehicle in front of his 16-year-old daughter Jazmin. He was taken into custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora. Gutierrez has no criminal record and has worked in Durango as a dishwasher, baker, and painter; he is married with two adult children and serves as music director at a local church.

A Houston man who is a third-generation U.S. citizen says he was stopped by ICE agents on January 1 while driving to work near Veterans Memorial Drive and Beltway 8. The man, David Flores, believes he was racially profiled based on his work truck and was surrounded by eight ICE agents in multiple vehicles. After showing his passport and refusing to provide his Social Security number, the agents left abruptly when Flores began recording the encounter.

Isabel, a 41-year-old single mother of two from Honduras with a pending asylum case and valid five-year work permit, was arrested at her monthly immigration check-in in Bloomington. She was detained for four days across three facilities before a federal judge ordered her release with her belongings. However, ICE returned only her wallet and checks; her work permit, state ID, daughter's U.S. passport, and over $700 in checks were withheld. Despite the judge's order, ICE has not returned the documents, leaving her unable to work or travel without fear of arrest.