Human Impact Project

César was detained by ICE and subsequently deported to Mexico, leaving behind his wife Gloria and their 9-month-old son Abel. Gloria now struggles financially without César's income, faced eviction, and is seeking funds to cover living expenses and travel costs to depart the U.S. and reunify the family in Mexico.

Orolua Eluonyechie, a Nigerian national, has been held in immigration detention for over two years, initially detained in Atlanta in April 2024 and later transferred to Allen Parish in southwest Louisiana. While detained, he has been injured by guards and placed in solitary confinement. He filed a federal habeas petition seeking release or deportation but remains waiting for judicial action as federal courts in Louisiana become overwhelmed with habeas petitions from detainees held in prolonged detention.

Dame Ka, an Upstate Medical University worker from Senegal who arrived in the U.S. in 2023, was detained by ICE at Syracuse Airport while traveling to Atlanta to watch World Cup games. Ka said plainclothes immigration officers approached him after he picked up his boarding pass, placed him in handcuffs (concealing them with a cloth), and took him to an office. He was released the same day with an ankle monitor. This is the fourth Upstate Medical University worker detained by ICE in the last year, according to union officials.

A 64-year-old certified nursing assistant from Kenya was detained by ICE on June 18, 2026, during a routine check-in in Houston after complying with mandatory immigration appointments for more than 14 years. She first entered the U.S. legally in 1995 and again in 2005 on a dependent visa tied to her husband's status; after their divorce, a final removal order was issued in 2011 and upheld on appeal in 2012, leading to her placement under an order of supervision. A court granted a stay of deportation on July 23 while a humanitarian petition remains pending, but she remains in detention and now faces a $1.8 million fine linked to her visa overstay. Her longtime employer and friend, Houston engineer Maureen Mendrek-Laske, for whom she helped raise four children, says she has shown signs of physical decline in custody, and family continue to visit her regularly.

A Mexican citizen who entered the United States in 2008 and held a valid work permit was arrested by immigration authorities on June 18, 2026, while getting into his car to go to work. He was detained at Philadelphia Federal Detention Center under the mandatory detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1225 and denied a bond hearing. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release, finding that the government's detention was unlawful because he was not "seeking admission" under the statute, as he had been in the country for 18 years.

Elias Bautista, a 35-year-old Mexican national, was arrested after allegedly striking an ICE agent during a traffic stop near Americana Boulevard and Pointe Vista Circle in Orange County on June 16, 2026. According to Florida Highway Patrol, Bautista was in a vehicle stopped by FHP's Criminal Apprehension Team and ICE agents working together; when law enforcement approached, several people fled the vehicle, and during the pursuit Bautista allegedly struck an ICE agent, causing a significant head injury, before fleeing the scene. Investigators from FHP, ICE and Homeland Security Investigations used surveillance footage and witness interviews to track him, and he was located and arrested on June 18 in Levy County with assistance from the Levy County Sheriff's Office, allegedly resisting officers again during the arrest. He was charged with felony aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.

A long-term law-abiding resident of the United States, a noncitizen, was detained at the Western Tennessee Detention Facility pending removal proceedings without receiving a bond hearing. He filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus challenging his detention as violating due process rights. The court noted that he, described as a long-term law-abiding resident of the United States, had been held in mandatory detention. Following the Sixth Circuit's decision in Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft, which established that noncitizens are entitled to a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), the respondent agreed that a custody redetermination hearing was required. The district court granted the habeas petition to the limited extent of ordering that he receive a bond hearing within ten days or be released from custody, finding that Section 1226 guarantees only a hearing opportunity, not automatic release.

A Mexican national who fled Mexico in 2024 due to extortion threats and entered the U.S. without inspection was detained by ICE on June 18, 2026, pursuant to a warrant issued June 8, 2026. He had arranged for his young son to join him in the U.S., and the son was detained by immigration authorities upon entry in January 2026 before being released to his father's care as ORR sponsor. During the June 18 detention, approximately five vehicles surrounded the father and his son as they left their home; agents pointed guns and arrested him while his son remained in the vehicle. The court granted his emergency motion for temporary restraining order, ordering his immediate release and prohibiting re-detention without notice and a pre-deprivation hearing before a neutral decisionmaker.

All detainees at the South Florida Detention Center, a facility in Florida's Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz" that opened in July 2025, were transferred to other facilities in mid-June 2026. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security cited hurricane season safety concerns as the reason for the transfers. However, immigration advocates and lawyers dispute this explanation, noting the facility operated throughout the previous hurricane season without prior closures. Approximately 800 detainees have been transferred, with families and legal representatives reporting difficulty locating them and unclear information about their current status. The facility had faced persistent criticism and lawsuits over poor conditions, including worms in food, non-functioning toilets, flooding, denial of medical care, solitary confinement, and inadequate legal access.

Montgomery County Sheriff Maxwell Uy admitted that his office improperly transferred a person to ICE custody on June 18, 2026, in violation of the Maryland Community Trust Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from transferring individuals to ICE without a judicial warrant. After receiving backlash from Montgomery County Council President Natali Fani-González, Uy stated the transfer did not meet the act's exceptions and pledged to implement additional measures to prevent similar incidents.

Dionicio Miguel Francisco-Gutierrez was arrested by ICE on Friday, June 14, 2026, while waiting at a bus stop in North Bergen, New Jersey, in front of his two children who were in school uniforms. The arrest was recorded by a bystander. According to federal officials, Francisco-Gutierrez has a prior criminal conviction for violating Pennsylvania's Controlled Substance Act, with previous arrests on drug charges in 2022 and 2023. Following his arrest, his two children were placed in the custody of a legal guardian that he had designated. North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco and Commissioner Hugo Cabrera condemned the enforcement action, with Cabrera stating that "the trauma inflicted on young children witnessing a parent or caregiver being detained is profound and lasting."

Friedrich Castillo-Ormeno self-deported to Peru in March 2026 after receiving a final deportation order and was approved for CBP Home incentive payments ($2,600) in April verifying his departure. In June 2026, ICE mistakenly identified him as a suspect in a violent incident in Stafford Township, New Jersey, where an officer was struck by a vehicle during an enforcement operation on Route 72. Federal prosecutors later charged a different man, Eduardo Cruz Garcia, with the assault. Castillo-Ormeno expressed concern that the misidentification could harm his reputation and affect his ability to legally return to the United States, as well as his U.S.-born daughter's documentation.

Olga Perez, a 47-year-old indigenous Mam language interpreter and community leader in Palm Beach County, Florida, was arrested during a traffic stop on I-95 in November 2025 and placed in ICE custody in Arizona. After seven months in detention and nine delayed immigration hearings, an immigration judge ordered her deported to Guatemala by July 6, 2026. She was released on her own recognizance pending voluntary deportation and made a surprise visit to her family and the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach before being deported. Perez had spent 30 years in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant, volunteering as an interpreter and translator for indigenous communities in the region. Her deportation leaves behind four U.S. citizen children, ages 13 to 21.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 72 Haitian asylum seekers, including 21 children and a 2-month-old baby, to Port-au-Prince on Monday, three days after President Biden suspended deportation flights to Haiti. The deportations occurred despite Biden's 100-day moratorium on deportations, which was limited to convicted criminals and suspected terrorists. The action followed a January 26 federal court injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton that blocked Biden's moratorium, which ICE used to resume deportation operations.

Daniel, a man with an IQ of 47 and severe intellectual disabilities who had lived in the U.S. since the early 1990s under the conservatorship of his siblings, was detained by ICE agents while collecting recyclables in his East Los Angeles neighborhood. Despite being unable to meaningfully understand English-language removal documents or consent to his own deportation, and without notice to his conservator or any immigration judge review, he was removed to Mexico under a claimed 'voluntary departure.' His nephew Christopher, a U.S. citizen, searched for him for months using ICE's online detainee tracker and eventually worked with legal aid group ImmDef to locate him, discovering Daniel had ended up hospitalized in Tijuana unaware his family was searching for him. After more than nine months, lawyers secured his parole to return to the United States. A federal judge then issued a temporary restraining order blocking ICE from detaining him again, citing serious due process concerns since no removal proceedings had ever been properly initiated against him.

Mostly young Honduran men at the La72 migrant shelter in Tenosique said they are heading to Monterrey instead of the U.S., understanding they are not welcome. Some still attempt dangerous maritime crossings into the United States; others are captured, detained, and deported, only to try again weeks later. Some likely never arrive and their fates remain unknown.

Diego was arrested and is currently detained by ICE. His wife Rosali, who is four months pregnant with their second child and caring for their daughter full-time, is struggling to meet basic household expenses including rent, utilities, groceries, and transportation while her husband fights his case.

Polina (born 2002) and Alexandra (born 2005), sisters from Belarus, have been detained at the California border for over 9 months. Their initial lawyer failed to properly defend them in court and stopped cooperating with the family. The sisters were denied habeas corpus twice due to legal errors and now face deportation to Belarus while awaiting a new asylum application. They have documented health issues and are seeking legal and financial support to continue their case.

A man was detained by ICE during an interview at the immigration office in Philadelphia while applying for adjustment of status (green card). He had a final exclusion order issued 30 years prior but no criminal history in the intervening decades. Under current immigration policies, ICE is detaining anyone with a final exclusion order who applies for adjustment of status, and he has been denied access to habeas corpus relief. His family is seeking legal options to prevent his deportation.

An older Russian man who crossed at a port of entry and requested asylum in August 2024 was hospitalized days later for stroke-like symptoms while detained at Otay Mesa. He was cuffed to his hospital bed despite half his body being paralyzed, and upon return to detention received no mobility support until other detainees filed grievance reports on his behalf. He continued to lose consciousness regularly and was eventually released on parole in February 2025 after six months in detention.