Human Impact Project

Paul Jack Cobby Essel, 51, a grants accounting manager at Missouri State University and a native of Ghana, was arrested by ICE off campus in Springfield around 1:20 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2026, and booked into the Greene County Jail, where he is being held without bond. Essel entered the U.S. legally on a student visa in 2003, earned two graduate degrees at MSU between 2008 and 2014, and has worked at the university since 2010, serving as grants accounting manager since 2019. His removal order stems from a 2015 immigration judge ruling that his first marriage to a U.S. citizen was fraudulent; he remarried a U.S. citizen weeks later, and though her 2018 petition on his behalf was approved, subsequent motions to reopen his case were denied, including by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in December 2023. Essel has no criminal record aside from two minor driving offenses, is married with three children, and is an active member of the Springfield Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having recently offered a prayer at the groundbreaking for its new Springfield temple. Neighbors describe his family as 'humble, gracious, generous,' and Missouri State called him a 'valued, long-standing member' of the university community, placing him on paid administrative leave. A community petition titled 'Bring Paul Home' asks ICE to pause his deportation and allow him to remain with his family while his attorneys continue pursuing his case.

A shackled immigration detainee was thrown to the ground and placed in a WRAP full-body restraint device before being carried onto an ICE Air deportation flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Observers said it was the first time they had seen the restraint device used during an ICE Air operation in Minnesota. The detainee was one of three people reportedly unloaded in Minnesota via El Paso, Texas or Omaha, Nebraska that day.

Leonardo Pinzon Fernandez, a native and citizen of Colombia, entered the United States with his wife and stepdaughter in December 2022 and was released on humanitarian parole. He had a pending asylum application, valid employment authorization, and had lived for over three years with a fixed residence and steady employment. On June 27, 2026, ICE detained him at his home in Los Angeles without notice, days after briefly detaining and releasing him at a construction site. A federal judge granted his habeas corpus petition, finding his detention unlawful and ordering his immediate release from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.

Yasmany Noel Moreno-De Armas, a Cuban immigrant who fled Cuba by raft and reunited with his family in the U.S. in 2022 after six years apart, was deported by the U.S. to the Central African Republic despite having no criminal charges on his record in Florida. He said he did not know his destination until the plane landed, and feared the Cuban government would punish him for being a balsero and for trying to use the 'wet foot, dry foot' policy. He now lives under International Organization for Migration protection in a guarded apartment complex in Bangui with his roommate Fernandez-Garcia, and has developed high blood pressure, shortness of breath, and panic attacks. His father, Hiovany Moreno Noa, who lives in South Florida, said he fears for his son's safety in a country he knows almost nothing about and that the family has once again been separated.

Arístides Fernández García, a 37-year-old Cuban trucking company owner who fled Cuba in 2021 after being kidnapped and robbed in Mexico, was living in South Florida under an I-220A release order when ICE arrested him during a targeted operation at a Miami immigration courthouse on January 6, 2026, despite having a pending asylum case and no deportation order. He spent about seven months moving through detention facilities including Krome, 'Alligator Alcatraz,' and centers in Louisiana and Texas, losing 60 pounds. On July 30, he was shackled and flown about 22 hours with roughly 80 other detainees to Bangui, Central African Republic — a country under the highest U.S. State Department travel advisory — without being told the destination until mid-flight. Stripped of his ID, money, and phone, he now lives confined in a guarded shared apartment with no legal status, passport, or embassy support, while his elderly great-aunt and great-uncle in New Jersey wait for his return. "I paid taxes, I never got a traffic ticket. I did everything right," he said, describing feeling "kidnapped" and saying "we are prisoners here... they have violated all the rights that exist in life, because we are human beings." He still hopes to pursue his asylum claim; immigration attorney Morella Aguado said there is no legal basis for sending migrants to a country not designated by an immigration judge.

Ahmed Soliman, an Egyptian-born lawful permanent resident in his early 30s who came to the U.S. at age four and grew up in Phoenix and Tucson, was deported to Equatorial Guinea despite a court ruling blocking his removal to Egypt over fears of persecution based on his sexuality. He was deported under a $7.5 million third-country removal deal before a scheduled hearing on his persecution claim, with officials revealing his destination only moments before boarding and denying his fear interview request. After video surfaced showing Equatorial Guinean police pointing firearms at Soliman and other detainees at a hotel in Malabo, and after he spoke to journalists about facility conditions, he was arrested, blindfolded, beaten, pushed down a staircase, and held incommunicado for more than a week at a police station also used to detain human rights activists. U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker ruled that DHS violated Soliman's due process rights, an account of abuse the Trump administration did not contest, and ordered officials to facilitate his return. His lawyers later announced he had been released from custody after weeks of detention without charge.

Jeury Concepcion, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from the Bronx, was tackled and handcuffed by masked ICE agents near East Gun Hill Road and Hull Avenue after being mistaken for a man with a removal order, minutes after another man was detained nearby. Cellphone video showed agents forcing him to the ground as a bystander shouted 'Why you kidnapping?!' and witnesses said he repeatedly identified himself as a U.S. citizen while being restrained and left bleeding from a head wound. "He just grabbed me and threw me on the floor," Concepcion recalled. Agents eventually checked his ID, apologized, and left him bloodied in an unfamiliar park, where his mother and grandmother, Ivelisse Garcia Santana, found him and took him for treatment; he was diagnosed with a concussion and received stitches. A DHS spokesperson claimed he was briefly detained for matching a description and refusing to identify himself, but Judge Gary R. Brown reviewed the video, called the incident 'extremely violent,' found ICE officers gave 'inconsistent, false and misleading testimony' and falsified records, and ruled the arrest illegal. The judge ordered the government to propose remedies and detail steps to ensure future arrests comply with the law; Concepcion has since been released. His case is among more than 500 U.S. citizens identified as having been detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration.

Jeyli Salguero, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was asleep at her family's Minneapolis-area home in January 2026 when armed federal agents broke through the front door searching for her brother, who did not live there. Salguero said she told agents she was a citizen with the right to record, after which they seized her phone; she and her mother were released about half an hour later. Her father, who held temporary protected status, and her undocumented sister were detained in the raid, leaving the family's door broken and exposed to winter weather. Her sister was later deported to El Salvador, while her father was eventually released from detention. Salguero is now one of several plaintiffs, represented by Protect Democracy, the ACLU of Minnesota and Dorsey & Whitney, suing the federal government over a DHS memo allowing ICE agents to enter homes using administrative rather than judicial warrants. The lawsuit is part of broader legal challenges to immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis.

Baldemar Gutierrez, a 15-year-old U.S. citizen with significant hearing loss, speech delays, and developmental disabilities, was pulled from a car and handcuffed at gunpoint by masked federal agents outside Arleta High School in Los Angeles on August 11, 2025, while his mother, Andreina Mejia, was nearby enrolling his sister in school. Agents showed a photo of a Salvadoran national suspected of gang ties, mistaking Baldemar for him, and released him only after he repeatedly stated his name and citizenship during the roughly seven-minute encounter. Mejia, a San Fernando Valley resident of more than 20 years, said she intervened to protect her son and that an agent told him the mistake would make an 'exciting story to tell' his friends; she said he has since felt harassed and unsafe. School officials said agents left bullets at the scene, prompting increased school police patrols. The family's attorneys filed a $1 million claim against DHS, CBP, Border Patrol and ICE alleging racial profiling, false arrest, false imprisonment, and assault and battery; DHS denied racial profiling, calling it a case of mistaken identity. The case has been cited as part of a broader pattern of more than 500 U.S. citizens detained by ICE, despite DHS statements that ICE does not restrain or zip-tie children.

Orville Etoria, a 62-year-old Jamaican man with legal U.S. permanent residence, was deported to Eswatini in July 2025 despite having completed his prison sentence and complied with ICE supervision requirements. After his 2021 release, he lived in New York, earned a master's degree in theology, worked at a men's shelter, and regularly reported to ICE. When ICE asked him to obtain a Jamaican passport, he complied but was instead sent to Eswatini rather than Jamaica, leaving his family without knowledge of his whereabouts for days and his attorneys unable to reach him. Jamaican officials said the country does not refuse repatriation of its nationals. In a later deposition, Etoria described being held in extreme isolation for two and a half weeks at Matsapha Correctional Complex, a maximum-security prison, barred from outside contact and confined to his cell except for meals, saying guards treated detainees 'as if we were violent, even though we had done nothing wrong.'

Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, a 22-year-old mother born in Laurel, Maryland, was detained by ICE near her Baltimore home on December 14, 2025. Her attorney described the stop as a 'Kavanaugh Stop,' linking it to a 2023 CBP encounter in Arizona where she was recorded claiming Mexican citizenship. Despite her family and attorneys presenting a Maryland birth certificate, hospital birth records, and fingerprints, DHS maintained she was not a citizen and pursued removal proceedings. A federal judge blocked her deportation days after her arrest, but she remained in custody for 25 days, transferred five times through facilities in Louisiana, Texas, and New Jersey, missing Christmas with her 5-year-old son. She was released on January 7, 2026 with an ankle monitor and reunited with her son. Her attorneys maintained the documentation clearly established her citizenship. On June 17, 2026, DHS dismissed her deportation case after confirming her birth in Maryland, and she obtained a U.S. passport. Her case was cited among more than 500 U.S. citizens reported detained by ICE nationally.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen born in Cairo, Georgia, who grew up speaking the Indigenous Maya language Tzotzil after moving to Mexico as an infant and returning to the U.S. four years ago, was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol on April 16, 2025 after being stopped for speeding while riding as a passenger with two men carrying Guatemalan IDs. He was charged under Florida's Senate Bill 4C, a state law criminalizing unauthorized entry that had been temporarily blocked by court order, despite presenting a Georgia ID. He was held at Leon County Jail on an ICE detainer without food, even after his mother, Sebastiana Gomez-Perez, and a community advocate presented his birth certificate and Social Security card. A Leon County judge confirmed his citizenship and found no probable cause for his detention but said she lacked jurisdiction to order his release because ICE had requested a 48-hour hold. After roughly 30 hours in custody, he was released and reunited with his mother amid a crowd of protesters outside the jail, following public advocacy from civil rights advocates, journalists, and elected officials. His case was later cited among more than 500 U.S. citizens reported detained by ICE.

Andres Pacheco, who has lived in the United States for about 23 years and is the father of three daughters ages 15, 10, and 8, was detained by ICE agents on October 8, 2026, as he arrived for work at the Fanucchi Ranch Lennar development site in west Fresno. He was one of dozens detained that day, and video captured the moment of his arrest on his way to work. His wife said the family said goodbye that morning not knowing it would be the last time she saw him free, adding, "My whole life situation changed, especially for my girls. They are so attached to their daddy." He is being held at the Golden State Annex detention facility in McFarland, California, and his wife fears he could be deported. A Fresno city councilmember whose district includes the site called the enforcement action "heartbreaking," and the family is now raising funds to pay for legal services for his case.

Jackie Cordova, a 51-year-old U.S. citizen and longtime Santa Ana community member, said federal agents surrounded her while she was conducting her routine early-morning ICE watch outside the federal building, then chased and tackled her, breaking a tooth and leaving her bloodied. Cordova said agents maced her, pinned her against a wall, fingerprinted her, and detained her from about 5 a.m. until 9:45 a.m. before releasing her without clear charges. DHS later called her a 'known agitator' and said she had struck ICE vehicles with a metal object and thrown rocks earlier in the week, an account Cordova disputed as 'an outright lie.' Community members described Cordova as a mentor to local youth and an organizer of community events, and about 20 people protested her arrest outside the federal building afterward.

Daniel's father was detained by ICE and is being deported, leaving Daniel suddenly responsible for household expenses including rent, electric bills, and car insurance for their trailer home. Daniel, who depended on his father financially, is now job hunting while grieving the sudden loss of his father from daily life and is considering leaving school to avoid losing their home. A GoFundMe campaign was launched by his sister to help him stay current on rent and bills during the crisis.

A father was detained by ICE agents around 5:30 a.m. after several ICE vehicles crashed into his car. According to his daughter, agents mistook him for someone else and forced him out of the vehicle despite his compliance. He is described as a hardworking man who supports his wife and children, who now depend on him for financial and emotional support.

Mario Sanchez and Liliana Leon were detained by ICE agents while working in North Miami, Florida, and taken to a holding facility. Both are authorized to work and live in the U.S. and have had a pending asylum case for over 10 years after fleeing government persecution in Venezuela. Their daughter started a fundraiser to cover legal costs, saying the couple is being held in ICE detention indefinitely with no release date.

Sammy Rodriguez, a 22-year resident of North County, California and father of four, was detained by ICE agents while on his way to work. According to the fundraiser organized by his employer's family, agents attempted to pressure him into signing deportation papers in exchange for money, and he went without food for 29 hours. Rodriguez is the sole provider for his family, who are now facing financial hardship while his attorney works to secure his release.

ICE agents detained four customers of La Princesa Real Bakery in Kerman during an early morning operation, which Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco described as an 'ambush' after the bakery owner's son said ICE followed the customers' van into the parking lot. One of the detained individuals was later released after it was determined he had lawful immigration status, though he was shaken by the encounter. Pacheco confronted the masked agents on camera, and the video was shared widely on social media; community groups monitoring ICE activity in the Fresno area say agents have relied on racial profiling and patrols near sites frequented by immigrant workers rather than targeting individuals with warrants.

Magdaleno Benitez, a grandfather in Fresno, California, was detained by ICE on October 8, 2026, while on his way back from work. He is currently being held at a facility in McFarland, California. His family, who had recently celebrated his wedding, is raising money online to help cover legal fees.