Human Impact Project

Four Cuban migrants, a Brazilian and a Cameroonian were deported from the US on August 20 on a flight that landed in Monrovia, Liberia, but the six refused to disembark. Lawyers say some were assaulted by ICE agents who forced them back onto the plane, and rather than being returned to the US as promised, they were flown onward to Equatorial Guinea, a country with which the US reportedly has a separate $7.5 million third-country deportation agreement. They are now held under armed guard in a former luxury hotel turned detention center in Malabo, without hygiene items, medical care, or the ability to contact their families. Several had previously been granted withholding of removal by US immigration judges due to risk of persecution or torture in their home countries. Lawyer Meredyth Yoon described it as the first known case of deportees refusing a third-country deportation and then being sent to a fourth country on the same flight, adding that their families are terrified for their safety. About 60 other people, mostly from African countries, have also been deported to Equatorial Guinea since November, part of a broader US program that has sent more than 23,000 people to 26 countries other than their own since last year.

Adams County Health Department confirmed a laboratory-confirmed case of active tuberculosis involving a detainee at the GEO Group-operated Aurora ICE Processing Center. Officials said GEO failed to provide medical records, patient access, and housing or movement information required to investigate possible exposure among detainees, staff, contractors, or visitors, prompting a Public Health Order on June 25, 2026 requiring compliance with Colorado tuberculosis investigation laws. ICE denied any active TB cases at the facility and denied violating any laws or guidelines. As a lawsuit between the state and GEO Group continued, Colorado health officials asked a judge in August 2026 to force the company to allow investigators to complete the tuberculosis probe.

Adriana Ruiz, 43, was detained by ICE agents in Santa Fe as she was getting into a car with her daughter-in-law, Yajaira Gutierrez, to take Gutierrez's 2-month-old baby, who was on an oxygen machine, to a medical appointment. Gutierrez said agents surrounded the vehicle, refused to show paperwork, and gave false information about the vehicle they were seeking, telling the family they would break the car's windows and take Ruiz regardless. Ruiz reportedly agreed to be arrested to protect her family. Gutierrez said Ruiz has health problems and that relatives have not been told where she was taken or whether she is receiving medical care, saying, "everyone has rights, but apparently in this country they don't."

Maria Alejandra Gomez-Quiroz, a 21-year-old pregnant woman from Colombia, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol in June while fleeing guerrilla violence with her partner and planning to seek asylum. Convicted of illegal entry on July 6, she has been held for more than 40 days at the Dilley family detention facility in Texas and is now five months pregnant. Her sister, Kelly Ocampo, said the family paid more than $3,000 to someone posing as an immigration lawyer who sent a fraudulent letter on ICE letterhead falsely claiming Gomez-Quiroz's bond had been approved. Ocampo said her sister has become 'very depressed' and reported lower abdominal pain, while their mother is described as 'desperate.' DHS said Gomez-Quiroz remains in custody pending removal proceedings and disputed claims of inadequate medical care. She is one of at least 500 people detained at Dilley and one of four pregnant women held there, according to lawmakers, and a federal judge in California has ordered a special master and independent monitor to examine custody conditions and medical care at the facility.

Masuma Khan, a 64-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in 1997 and has long worked at a local restaurant in Altadena, was detained by ICE on October 6, 2025 during a routine check-in appointment. Khan, who has no criminal history, had years earlier been the victim of a scam by a Bengali man who created a false identity for her, filed a fraudulent asylum application, and produced a fake passport, resulting in a 1999 removal order despite her working with multiple attorneys to resolve the issue. During a month in custody at the California City Detention Facility, Khan intermittently or never received medications for high blood pressure, hypothyroidism, prediabetes, and glaucoma, getting asthma medication only two days before release and never receiving eye drops; staff told her to buy medications from the commissary, which did not stock them. Since her release, Khan has suffered PTSD and ongoing health issues and has become fearful of leaving her home. Advocates allege ICE uses intimidation tactics on detainees nearing release, including driving them to airport tarmacs to pressure self-deportation. Supporters are urging California lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, and Governor Gavin Newsom, to pass SB995, the Masuma Khan Justice Act.

ICE agents detained a Cambodian man Tuesday morning while he was working at Veranda Asian Market in Woodfords Corner, Portland, Maine. His name has not been publicly released, but Khmer Maine, a nonprofit in contact with him, described him as "quiet, kind and a hard worker." Marpheen Chann, executive director of Khmer Maine, said the arrest has sparked fear in local Asian immigrant communities and is "hurting Maine's local economy and making our communities feel less safe." Khmer Maine says it is working with his family and immigration advocates to ensure transparency. ICE has not released statistics on its recent operations in Maine, though national ICE detention numbers reached a record high of more than 65,000 last month.

Camila Toro de Paula, a 25-year-old transgender woman from Venezuela seeking asylum, has spent 11 months at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, a facility for men. She says she has been assaulted, threatened and deprived of medical care, and has been held in solitary confinement without ready access to water for up to 24 hours a day. Medical files show she complained to social workers about being punished for her gender expression, and immigration officials cited her criminal history, though records show the most serious charges against her, felony assault and weapons possession, had been dismissed. Her case comes as the federal government has halted specialized care for transgender detainees at at least 10 detention centers nationwide and removed longstanding protections for transgender people in custody.

Isaac Melendez-Carranza, 31, a Salvadoran national, was arrested by the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and taken to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center in Leesburg, Virginia. The same day, ICE Washington lodged an immigration detainer and warrant of removal with the detention center, which honors ICE detainers under a 287(g) agreement. Border Patrol had previously encountered Melendez near Hebbronville, Texas, in 2016 after he crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico.

Arín García Yepes, a Colombian migrant who had worked in construction in Dallas, Texas, arrived in Liberia on August 20 aboard an ICE-operated deportation flight from Louisiana, despite holding a stay of removal granted due to fears of persecution in Colombia. He had lived in the U.S. for 15 months, had no criminal record or traffic violations, and said he was never told by ICE where he was being sent. He is among roughly 20 Latin American migrants—from Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala and Brazil—now housed in a hotel near the Atlantic coast in Monrovia, where local authorities have advised them not to leave for safety reasons and they remain without identification documents or a clear timeline for release.

William Ortiz Hernández, a Honduran man previously granted protection from removal by a U.S. immigration judge under the Convention Against Torture, was deported on an ICE flight that left Alexandria, Louisiana on August 20 carrying about 20 people and landed in Liberia. He is now housed at the Creed Lodge hotel in Monrovia, where he has received treatment for his diabetes but has no passport or identification beyond a card that lets him withdraw money sent by family. "I feel like they dumped me in a trash heap," he said, describing fear and confusion in a country whose language he does not speak.

Elvis Rodriguez Venturas, a Honduran immigrant who worked in construction in Texas, was deported by ICE to Liberia on a flight that landed Aug. 20, 2026, along with 14 other non-Liberian migrants from Latin America and Africa. An immigration judge had previously barred his deportation to Honduras after finding he could be harmed there, and he had been using that protection to work legally in the U.S. He and other deportees said they were given no advance notice of the move and are now housed in a hotel in a remote coastal area of Liberia. His wife and four children, two of whom are U.S. citizens, remain in Texas, and he said he feels "far away, on the other side of the world."

Carlos Rodríguez López, a 35-year-old Cuban man who had been living in Miami Gardens with his wife, was deported after being held in ICE custody since April 2025. He was among six deportees — including three other Cuban men, a Brazilian man and a Cameroonian woman — who refused to leave an Aug. 20, 2026 flight that departed Louisiana, stopped in Dakar, Senegal, and landed in Liberia, the first deportation flight under a new U.S.-Liberia agreement allowing up to 1,200 such transfers over a year. Officers handcuffed and forcibly removed the group before the plane continued to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where advocates say the roughly 40 detainees held at a hotel there have had meals withheld and faced physical abuse by guards, and one of the Cuban men requires regular care for a colostomy bag with no medical staff on site. His wife, Igrayne Ribot, said she learned of his location only through a brief video call, breaking down when he told her he was in Africa.

The petitioner, who had previously been released on bond, conditional parole, or humanitarian parole, was re-detained by immigration authorities on August 20, 2026. She is currently held at the California City Detention Facility. She filed a habeas corpus petition and motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing that her re-detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter violated the Due Process Clause. The government did not identify any facts or legal arguments distinguishing her case from several prior rulings in the same district finding such re-detentions unconstitutional. The court agreed, finding that the proper remedy for the government's failure to provide a constitutionally compliant hearing was her immediate release. The court ordered her released under the same conditions that applied before her August 20 detention, barred additional restrictions like electronic monitoring absent a future hearing, and required at least seven days' notice and a bond hearing before any future re-detention.

Kenia is currently in ICE custody, separated from her 2-year-old son Nico and her husband, according to a fundraiser started by her mother-in-law, Anne Limon. Kenia came to the U.S. legally as an infant on a visa that expired in 2015 while she was still a child, and she has no criminal history. A judge found her eligible for bond during a recent immigration hearing and allowed her release while she continues fighting her case, but her family needs to raise funds for the $1,800 bond and a fee for a Cancellation of Deportation application due by August 26.

Sylwester was detained by ICE in Pennsylvania on August 20, 2026, and is being held in a detention center away from his family in Brooklyn. His wife, Mariya, is raising funds for a licensed immigration attorney and an ICE bond ahead of his first court hearing scheduled for September 2, 2026. The family says they could not find pro bono legal help in Pennsylvania on short notice and describes Sylwester as the backbone of the family.

One of the Cuban men diverted from a Liberia-bound deportation flight to Equatorial Guinea arrived in Malabo still restrained, according to Meredyth Yoon, litigation director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, who represents several of the group. The man, identified by his family as Leonardo Sánchez, a lawful permanent U.S. resident, has a large abdominal hernia that left his insides visibly protruding, and he fell face-first onto the tarmac during the transfer. He had been scheduled for a tenth surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital before his deportation, and his mother and sister in Lehigh Acres, Florida, say they are now unsure whether that procedure will happen. He and roughly 40 other deportees are being held at the Bamy Hotel in Malabo, owned by the family of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, where conditions have reportedly worsened, including guards accused of withholding meals and, in some instances, choking or beating detainees.

Chief Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak ordered a habeas petitioner released after finding that ICE agents had violated an injunction issued by Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson requiring agents to meet probable cause requirements before making warrantless arrests. Varholak wrote that the case was 'one in a series' in which the Department of Homeland Security 'appears to have simply ignored the law and detained an individual in violation of the law,' noting the government could not defend the decision. He set a hearing for September 10 for the government to address its 'apparent repeated violation of the law.'

Leonardo Sánchez Fernández, a 49-year-old Cuban lawful permanent U.S. resident from San Miguel del Padrón who had lived in Lehigh Acres, Florida, was deported by ICE to Equatorial Guinea under a third-country agreement despite holding valid residency until 2030. He had been detained by ICE at a gas station after a drug possession arrest and completing community service, then held at the Alligator Alcatraz facility before being flown for more than 36 hours from Alexandria, Louisiana without being told his destination. During a stopover in Liberia, witnesses said guards shoved him and he fell face-first onto the tarmac, aggravating a preexisting abdominal hernia and intestinal damage from an old stabbing injury and prior surgery. He is now hospitalized in Malabo receiving IV fluids without a passport, documents, consular assistance, toothbrush, or clothes, and may miss a scheduled surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital. His mother Caridad and sister Dorty, in Lehigh Acres, learned of his location after seeing a video posted from Equatorial Guinea and have been trying to secure his release.

According to a viral social media post, ICE agents in the Pine Manor neighborhood of Fort Myers, Florida, grabbed several women, forced them onto pavement and against parked cars, and continued restraining them while a child stood nearby. The post claims agents threatened to shoot the women during the confrontation. The claims have not been independently verified by news sources.

Carlos Rodríguez López, a 35-year-old Cuban man who lived in Miami Gardens after 16 months in ICE detention, was placed on an August 20 deportation flight to Liberia under a U.S.-Liberia removal agreement. He and other detainees refused to disembark, arguing Liberia was not their country and would endanger them; Liberian authorities also refused to accept them. Instead of returning to the U.S. as expected, the plane was diverted to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where Rodríguez López and roughly 40 other deportees were met by masked police, searched, and taken to a hotel without passports or legal assistance. His wife, Igrayne Ribot Hernández, a U.S. citizen who runs a family business in Miami Gardens and has a nine-year-old daughter with him, said he had rebuilt his life after serving an 11-month sentence for a prior conviction and called the deportation to a country with no ties to him unlawful and inhumane. A habeas corpus petition filed in November 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana remains unresolved, and Rodríguez López told Univision by video call that he considers the diversion an illegal deportation.