Human Impact Project

Edgar Vásquez Silva, a DACA recipient born in Mexico who moved to Mississippi with his family at age 3, lost his job as a deputy assistant with the Stone County Sheriff's Office after five years there. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety's Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training (BLEOST) removed his certification because the board requires U.S. citizenship, even though his work focused on transport and jail supervision without carrying a weapon or making arrests. Vásquez Silva said the sheriff told him he tried everything he could to keep him employed, and Vásquez Silva, who said he supports President Trump, expressed hope of asking him for a path to legal residency.

The brother of Zolia Virgen Verduzco, who had lived in the United States for 45 years, was detained and deported to Mexico despite having legal counsel and ongoing documentation processes underway, according to Verduzco. She said her family had paid thousands of dollars in legal fees to try to keep him in the country. Verduzco shared her brother's story while attending a community rally in Tallahassee supporting other detained immigrants.

Enrique Hernández Díaz, a lawful permanent resident and owner of a roofing company, was detained by ICE agents at a gas station in Ypsilanti, Michigan, after agents intercepted a group of his workers while searching for someone with a criminal record allegedly connected to the vehicle they were traveling in. One of his employees was detained and taken away by agents. Hernández Díaz was handcuffed and held because he did not have his green card with him, and he said agents threw him to the ground, injuring his elbow, knee, and forehead, requiring a hospital visit. His wife, Roxanna Álvarez Cruz, arrived minutes later with his residency card; agents told her he would not be released until his immigration status was confirmed. After his status was verified, Hernández Díaz was released.

ICE agents arrested Welington Leonel Almara-Diaz at Meriden Superior Court in Connecticut after Judicial Marshal Services received a Warrant of Removal/Deportation stemming from a final removal order issued in October 2023, following his apprehension by Border Patrol near Hidalgo, Texas, in September 2022. Witnesses said about ten agents, some masked, entered the courthouse around 1 p.m., and video showed marshals blocking advocates as a woman fell to the ground during the confrontation. Advocates, including Middlesex Immigrant Rights Alliance member Miguel Castro, gathered outside after learning ICE was near the courthouse, and at least one person was injured during the chaotic scene. ICE said marshals impeded the arrest and protesters blocked officers' exit, prompting agents to use their training to 'gain control of the situation.' Connecticut officials and the ACLU are investigating whether the arrest violated state law restricting civil immigration arrests on courthouse grounds without a judicial warrant and rules on mask use by officers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted 'Operation Safe Community-Indiana,' a five-day multi-agency operation from August 30 to September 3, 2026, arresting 426 people, mostly in the Indianapolis metro area. ICE said detainees included people with criminal histories involving assault, drug trafficking, fraud and identity theft, as well as alleged members of transnational gangs like MS-13, 18th Street and Tren de Aragua, but provided no case-by-case breakdown; an NPR analysis of ICE's own data found roughly 70% of those detained nationally have no criminal convictions. The operation involved 39 Indiana law enforcement agencies under the 287(g) program, following the state's FAIRNESS Act and an executive order from Gov. Mike Braun directing state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and Gov. Braun both said they received no advance notice. The operation disrupted daily life: a resident described witnessing a neighbor detained by unmarked SUVs, a west-side Indianapolis school's attendance dropped from 95% to as low as 40%, a Haitian market and Honduran restaurant near a Lawrence raid site reported an 80% sales decline and layoffs, and organizers canceled the Tippecanoe Latino Festival and another local Latino festival citing safety concerns.

Angel and Alex Tixe, Ecuadorian brothers-in-law working on a roofing crew repairing Mary Richards' 160-year-old farmhouse in Cornwall, Vermont, were detained on Aug. 8, 2026, after ICE agents in three unmarked SUVs surrounded the property. Reporting indicates the stop began when a passing ICE agent spotted the crew on the roof. Agents did not present a warrant or identify themselves despite Richards' repeated demands, handcuffing one worker in the yard while others fled, some hiding in a tree, before the men were taken out of state to a detention facility in Massachusetts. Angel, whose wife Maria Tixe has a pending asylum case, was released on bail after 15 days in custody and returned to Vermont. Alex, Maria's 30-year-old brother and father of an 18-month-old son, remained detained, with his sister-in-law saying she was still fighting for his release. "We aren't criminals," Tixe said. "We came to work and to help our children get ahead." State Sen. Ruth Hardy, who visited Richards and spoke with the crew manager, said the arrests appeared to reflect racial and ethnic profiling and called the incident traumatic. Migrant Justice and Addison County advocates organized support, and a GoFundMe for the men's families and legal defense raised over $7,600.

Mario Mata Cruz, a Salvadoran national with a pending Special Immigrant Juvenile Status application and no criminal record, was arrested by ICE on Long Island in October 2025 while driving to work with his brother. He had crossed the border at age 17 and obtained SIJ status in 2019, putting him on a path toward a green card. ICE transported him to Texas and deported him to El Salvador without a final removal order from an immigration judge or signed voluntary departure paperwork, which his attorney Ed Cuccia says was illegal. His lawyers sued the Trump administration, and the government agreed to return him from El Salvador over the summer, but instead of being released to New York where his brother lives, he has been held in detention facilities in Louisiana, New Jersey, and Virginia with no ties to those states. An immigration judge in New Jersey denied him bond, and a hearing on his green card application was scheduled. His case is part of a broader pattern NY1 documented of at least 132 cases where people were deported without final removal orders.

Michael "Sandy" Sims, 42, a Philadelphia lighting technician born in Ireland and raised in London, was detained by ICE agents at the San Jose airport on September 2 as he returned from a business trip. Sims, married to U.S. citizen Jennifer Sims since 2017 and the subject of an approved I-130 family petition toward a green card, had worked in entertainment lighting since 2002, including tours for Metallica, Usher, and Florence + the Machine. He was held at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield. DHS claimed Sims faced a domestic battery charge in Nevada, but his wife, his immigration lawyer, and a search of Nevada court records found no record of any such case. Sims was deported to the United Kingdom days before an October 8 bond hearing he and his wife had hoped would lead to his release. Friends and family started a GoFundMe campaign that had raised nearly $21,000 toward legal expenses.

Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant and father of four who suffered from asthma, bipolar disorder and anxiety, died on January 3, 2026, at Camp East Montana, an ICE detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, following a physical altercation with guards. Fellow detainee Antonio Frometa Ascón, who knew Campos from Guantánamo, said he watched guards beat and handcuff Campos as he begged for his inhaler; other witnesses heard him scream 'I can't breathe!' before he was taken away and never returned. A separate detainee, Gonzalo, who had survived a 12-day journey through the Darién Gap marked by violence and robbery, described witnessing guards put a foot on a cellmate's neck during a protest over detention conditions, an account consistent with Campos's death. The El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide from asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. DHS maintains guards were trying to save Campos's life, while a GAO report found the facility's contractor failed to provide required reports and that evidence was missing or destroyed. No one has been charged; his death was among 37 detainee deaths in ICE custody reported since last fall, the deadliest year on record for the agency.

Renée Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, queer mother of three, poet, and legal observer, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7, 2026, during Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in south Minneapolis. Good had positioned her Honda Pilot to warn neighbors of ICE's presence when Ross fired shots through her windshield as she drove away, striking her multiple times. Her wife, Becca, said they were simply trying to warn neighbors. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump called her actions 'domestic terrorism,' but bystander video, a New York Times analysis, Human Rights Watch, and an independent autopsy found she posed no imminent threat. Fellow protester Alex Pretti was killed during the same operation, and the following day protesters at the ICE Field Office in St. Paul were met with pepper balls, mace, and tear gas. The administration blocked a federal criminal investigation; Good's family filed federal lawsuits under Bivens and the Federal Tort Claims Act, and her case was presented at an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing. Noem was later fired and Border Patrol Commander-at-large Gregory Bovino was removed and demoted.

Yehonatan Ovadia, a 35-year-old Satmar Hasidic rabbi and father of five from Rockland County, New York, remains in ICE custody at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center after being detained on August 28, 2026, when he appeared for a scheduled immigration court hearing in Manhattan. Ovadia moved to the U.S. from Israel in 2022 on a religious-worker visa; USCIS later denied his extension request on discretionary grounds, citing his participation in a November 2023 anti-Zionist protest at Ramapo Town Hall during which an Israeli flag was torn down. He was not accused of removing the flag, hate-crime charges were dropped, and he pleaded guilty only to disorderly conduct. His attorneys, including Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennet, filed a federal lawsuit arguing he is being punished for protected religious and political speech tied to his activism with the anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta, and say the administration is conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. An immigration judge denied him bond, the government has designated Israel as his deportation destination, and dozens of chassidim gathered at the courthouse in support. DHS maintains he overstayed his legal status and will receive due process. Speaking from detention, Ovadia said, 'your struggle is our struggle and your liberation is our liberation.'

A green card holder was detained by ICE officers outside a Speedway gas station on West Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti Township on the morning of Sept. 30, 2026. Witness Lanae Bass said she saw the man handcuffed on the ground with three immigration officers on top of him, screaming, and that he asked her to call his wife. After the man's wife arrived and showed his identification and green card, officers slowly released him; Bass said he had a bruise on his knee and red marks on his wrists. A crowd of community members gathered, blocked ICE vehicles from leaving, and Washtenaw County Sheriff's deputies were called to the scene to de-escalate the situation after ICE reported it as unsafe.

Jodas Etienne, a 33-year-old Haitian national who lives in Springfield, has been held at the Butler County Jail for two months and is seeking a bond hearing and release from ICE detention.

U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett ordered ICE to release Elisthene Petit Kat, a 38-year-old Haitian man living in Springfield, Ohio, or give him a bond hearing, rejecting the agency's claim that he is subject to mandatory detention as an 'arriving noncitizen.' Barrett wrote he was "puzzled" by ICE's position given Petit Kat has lived in the U.S. for years after being paroled in 2023, working at an auto parts factory, attending church regularly, and supporting a son still in Haiti; he was arrested during a traffic stop in Clark County after local police working with ICE pulled over the vehicle he was riding in. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, along with most other federal appellate courts, has rejected ICE's interpretation of the law, and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the policy's legality. At least five other Haitian nationals — Darline Jean Baptiste, Peterson Nozil, Jean Alix Comper, Paulson Saintelien, and Jodas Etienne — have filed similar habeas petitions, and attorney Kathleen Kersh of ABLE said some federal judges are growing frustrated that immigration judges continue to disregard rulings finding such detainees are not subject to mandatory detention.

Elisthene Petit Kat, 38, a Haitian national living in Springfield, was arrested Aug. 15 as a passenger in a vehicle stopped by North Hampton police officers acting under an agreement with ICE, allegedly for missing a hearing he was never informed about. He lawfully entered the U.S. in June 2023 with humanitarian parole after fleeing violence with his partner and young daughter, applied for asylum, worked at an auto parts assembly factory, attended church regularly, and was the sole provider for his family in Springfield while also supporting a 7-year-old son who remains in Haiti. U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett ruled Sept. 30 that ICE must release him from the Butler County Jail or provide a bond hearing within a week, rejecting the agency's argument that he was subject to mandatory detention as an 'arriving alien' despite having lived in the U.S. for years, and writing that the court was 'puzzled' by ICE's position. Petit Kat's petition noted he was not assessed for flight risk or danger, was not promptly served with a warrant, and did not speak with an ICE officer for days after being jailed. The ruling comes as half a dozen other Haitian citizens have challenged the legality of their ICE detention at the same jail, with advocates expecting more detainees in southwest Ohio to file similar challenges.

Gedion Masunsu, 42, a Waltham resident who spent 16 years seeking political asylum after working for American military contractors in Iraq and completing the Waltham Police Department's Citizens Academy, was deported to Uganda on September 30, 2026, after 19 months in ICE detention, most of it at the Strafford County jail in Dover, NH. He had been arrested on assault charges involving his now-wife that were dismissed by a Massachusetts judge within three months, but his paralegal, Rosette Serwanga, said the charges were not promptly removed from his record and likely influenced his case; an immigration judge denied him bond twice even after he was granted withholding of removal. A federal judge denied his habeas corpus petition challenging his detention without prejudice in December 2025. After the government appealed his withholding of removal, the judge issued a removal order and the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his case on September 15, 2026, reportedly because his former attorney filed the appeal late. Masunsu said ICE removed him within hours of an inquiry from an aide to Sen. Edward Markey, despite telling officials at a Burlington, MA holding facility that he still had 15 days to appeal. He suffered an untreated rotator cuff injury during an ICE transport van ride, married his partner, Sylvia Mamutabi Mugisha, while detained, and her daughter Paris Kirunda wrote that he 'embraced my siblings and me with genuine love, kindness, and respect.' Fellow detainees described him as a devout Christian whose daily prayer meetings calmed tensions at the jail. He is now in a Kampala hotel with no family or friends remaining in Uganda, relying on financial assistance from the Ugandan community in Boston.

Alicia Labrador, a Venezuelan dermocosmiatrist and founder/CEO of the Aliestetic beauty and MedSpa brand, was detained by federal immigration authorities on September 30, 2026, while dropping off her 16-year-old daughter at a friend's home in Doral's Ibis Villas neighborhood. She also serves as vice president of the Hispanic Women's Chamber of Commerce of Doral. Her attorney, Ros Ana Guillén, says Labrador has a pending asylum application, valid work authorization, and a current driver's license, and family members say she entered the U.S. legally on a visa in 2016 with no criminal record. Her son, Héctor Sánchez, said he learned of the detention when his mother called him while she was with officers, telling Telemundo, 'I couldn't even speak.' Reports conflict on her location, with some saying she was transferred the same evening to a detention facility in Texas, while her attorney says she may be held at a CBP transit facility in Florida where she has not been permitted to visit her. She now faces deportation proceedings, and her family says they are focused on bringing her home.

Anyi Hernandez-Escobar came to the United States from Honduras in 2018, eight months pregnant and fleeing what she described as a desperate situation, and was detained for four days before being granted parole to remain temporarily. She later married U.S. citizen Patrick Keating, who became a father figure to her son Daniel, and the couple had a daughter together in May 2025. A Houston immigration judge rejected her request to temporarily close her removal proceedings while she pursued a green card through her marriage, a decision her attorney said followed a June agreement between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Department of Justice ending a Biden-era policy that allowed such closures. Without that option, her attorney says she may need to leave for Honduras to pursue an immigrant visa, and her seven-year-old son Daniel may be unable to go with her because his biological father has not surrendered custodial rights.

Kwadwo, a 57-year-old respiratory therapist who has lived in Daly City for eight years, was arrested by a plainclothes ICE agent at his gate at San Francisco International Airport while waiting to board a domestic flight to visit his cousin in Dallas, who was recovering from a stroke. After clearing security, he was surrounded by officers who chained his feet, waist, and hands in the arrivals area near baggage claim in front of other travelers, before he was taken to a federal immigration building downtown and then transported through Stockton to the Golden State Annex detention center outside Bakersfield, where he has been held for more than two months. Kwadwo fled religious persecution as a Christian in Ghana at age 28, was granted asylum in South Africa, later earned a master's degree in respiratory care in the U.S., and was earning more than $166,000 a year supporting his family, including his son's graduate studies. His detention stems from an expired student visa; his green card application was rejected in June 2024, his first appeal was denied, and a second appeal filed in May 2025 remains pending. He filed a habeas corpus petition on his own behalf, but a judge denied his bond citing flight risk, and he is appealing while continuing to challenge his detention in immigration court. His son said the arrest has been a major financial and emotional stressor for the family, noting, "It feels like they're just trying to find people to fill up prisons."

Augusto Lopes Vemba, a 40-year-old asylum-seeker from Angola, was stopped by masked ICE agents in camouflage gear at the intersection of Acushnet Avenue and Sawyer Street in New Bedford on September 22, 2026. Witnesses and video footage showed him provide his information and attempt to leave before four agents chased him down, tackled him to the ground, and tased him at the neck for about 15 seconds while restraining his hands. Alicia Lopez Gonzalez, co-director of advocacy group Mujeres Victoriosas, witnessed the arrest and said the tactics appeared intended to traumatize the community, while nearby business owners described the scene as aggressive, with one saying she locked her shop door out of fear. Vemba was among roughly 40 people detained during a week of ICE operations in the city. On September 30, federal Judge Angel Kelley ordered the government to grant him a bond hearing within 10 days, a decision the U.S. Attorney's Office did not contest.