Human Impact Project

A citizen of Mali who has lived in the United States since January 2001 was granted withholding of removal to Mali by an immigration judge in March 2013. He was detained by immigration officials on August 3, 2026 during a routine check-in, at which point he was given a Notice of Imminent Removal indicating he would instead be removed to Cameroon. He alleges he expressed a fear of persecution in Cameroon and requested a third-country screening interview with his immigration counsel present. He is currently detained at the Alexandria Staging Facility, where officials told him removal was scheduled for August 19, 2026. He filed a habeas petition alleging due process violations for being denied an opportunity to challenge his removal to Cameroon, along with an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt his removal. The court denied the motion, finding it lacked jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g) to stay the removal and that he failed to provide evidence, such as travel documents, substantiating that removal was truly imminent.

A citizen of Kosovo was granted deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) on November 9, 2022. He was detained by immigration authorities at the Newark Field Office and filed a habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 on August 3, 2026, challenging the legality of his detention. He argued he is being wrongfully held under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b) and sought release or a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). The court noted there is no indication he is currently in removal proceedings, and clarified that a CAT grant does not preclude detention or removal to a third country. The court denied his motion for a temporary restraining order without prejudice, finding insufficient facts to determine whether his detention is lawful under 8 U.S.C. § 1231. The court declined to dismiss the petition and ordered an expedited briefing schedule, requiring the government to file a full answer within 7 days addressing the statutory basis for detention. A prior stay of transfer from the District of New Jersey, entered by the Chief Judge, remains in effect during the proceedings.

Pablo Santiago Gonzalez was detained by ICE officers on August 3, 2026, after they smashed the window of his car and dragged him out while he was buying work supplies on his way to work. He was taken alongside his uncle. Gonzalez is the primary breadwinner for his family of nine, including his wife and seven children—one adult and six minors under age 18, with three under age 10. He was deported to Mexico on August 11, 2026. His family, unable to afford legal representation, organized a fundraiser to cover legal fees, bail, fines, and household expenses while facing financial hardship.

Jorge Luis Eliecer Ruiz, a 36-year-old Venezuelan national, was detained by ICE on August 3, 2026, after being stopped near the intersection of Wiles Road and State Road 7 in Coconut Creek. He is married to Courtney Walter, a U.S. citizen who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The couple married in 2025 and filed an I-130 family-based petition in September 2025 to establish Ruiz's lawful permanent residency. Walter said the stress of her husband's detention has worsened her health, causing her to lose weight and struggle to eat. Ruiz is being held at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach. His attorney, David Estrella, is pursuing a habeas corpus petition and argues that Ruiz has withholding of removal protection that prevents his return to Venezuela.

An Egyptian asylum seeker is an Egyptian citizen who entered the United States without inspection on July 21, 2023, and sought asylum. He was subsequently released on his own recognizance and has lived in the United States continuously since his entry. On August 3, 2026, he was apprehended by immigration officers while attending an ICE check-in meeting that he was required to attend pursuant to his pending appeal of a removal order to the Board of Immigration Appeals. He remains in custody at the West Tennessee Detention Facility and has not received a bond hearing. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention without prior notice, a warrant, or a bond hearing, alleging violations of his statutory and due process rights. The court issued an order staying his transfer and requiring the respondent to respond, noting that under Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft (6th Cir. 2026), noncitizens who have spent significant time in the U.S. interior and have not committed disqualifying offenses cannot be detained without an individualized bond hearing.

Linda Wolff, a 72-year-old fashion stylist and longtime immigrant rights supporter from Manhattan, was pepper-sprayed in the face by a masked ICE agent while filming federal officers near Inwood Hill Park. Wolff said she had gone to the area after learning of ICE's presence on social media and was recording from a distance, never touching or acting aggressively toward officers, when an agent approached and sprayed her without provocation. She said her eyes and skin burned afterward but continued documenting ICE activity in the neighborhood and said she would not be deterred from doing so again. DHS said agents used pepper spray to control an 'unruly, combative' crowd while recovering a vandalized government van, describing their response as appropriate and within training. Gov. Kathy Hochul condemned the incident, and Wolff's attorney filed a claim against ICE under New York's newly enacted Bivens Act, calling it one of the first tests of the statute and describing the pepper-spraying as 'purely punitive.'

Claudia Rodríguez, a 29-year-old Venezuelan immigrant who earned her master's degree in business administration from St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, was detained by ICE at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in July while attempting to board a flight to North Carolina. Rodríguez arrived in the U.S. legally in 2017 on a tourist visa, applied for asylum within six months, and was granted Temporary Protected Status in 2023 while her asylum case remains pending. She was transferred between two South Florida detention facilities, spending eight days at the ICE office in Miramar in severely overcrowded conditions—sleeping on floors in a cell with 75 people, unable to shower or change clothes, and losing 15 pounds. Her cousin Gabriel Domínguez described her as an exemplary athlete with no criminal record. U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited the Miramar facility to advocate for her release, calling the detention "unacceptable." Rodríguez was released on Monday evening.

A Guardian investigation found that the Trump administration's ICE officials attempted to subject at least 10 hunger strikers in immigrant detention to involuntary medical procedures including force-feeding between 2025 and 2026. At least three detainees were definitely subjected to force-feeding, and two more were probably forced to undergo the procedures, while five others ended their hunger strikes before the procedures began. DHS obtained court orders authorizing detention center guards to physically restrain hunger strikers while medical staff inserted feeding tubes and performed other involuntary procedures considered torture by human rights groups.

Carlitos Ricardo Parias, detained at the Adelanto ICE facility near Los Angeles, revealed video footage showing a bottle of drinking water apparently contaminated with worm-like creatures or larvae. The footage emerged weeks after a federal judge ordered ICE to ensure 24-hour access to clean drinking water at the facility in response to a class-action lawsuit alleging dangerous conditions including inadequate food, contaminated water, and poor medical care. Parias preserved the contaminated water as evidence after staff distributed it to detained residents.

Brayan Omar Sánchez, a Honduran man who arrived in the United States as a refugee after losing family members to criminal gangs in Honduras, says he was detained by ICE on May 13 and subsequently deported to Senegal despite claiming he had asylum protection and a K visa that prohibited deportation. Sánchez states he never signed deportation paperwork and was placed on a plane to Africa without his consent. He describes dire conditions in Senegal, including lack of water, food, electricity, and money, and says he arrived with only $20 which was confiscated by customs authorities. He is requesting intervention from the Honduran government to secure his return to the United States.

Ana Granados Sanchez, a 49-year-old Salvadoran national held in ICE's Eloy Detention Center, was deported while still having a nephrostomy tube (urine-collection tube) attached to her body, three months after it was surgically placed. Her urologist at Banner Desert Medical Center had advised against deportation until the tube could be removed, and Granados Sanchez requested to see her specialist in person to have it taken out before leaving the country, citing concerns about medical care availability where she was being deported. While in ICE custody, she did not receive recommended follow-up care. During her detention, she was held in a processing facility with about two dozen other people and forced to use a shared toilet with no privacy, and was not given water at the initial processing center—conditions her urologist said may have contributed to her kidney problems. Advocates' efforts to appeal to ICE to delay her deportation were unsuccessful. The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project opposed the deportation, citing medical neglect and danger to her health.

Paul, an Indian national with an order withholding his removal based on Convention Against Torture protections, was detained by ICE officers at Dulles Airport after returning from a family trip to Hawaii. As he was being processed at an ICE field office in Virginia, Paul suffered a heart attack, was hospitalized and treated, then released back to ICE custody. He was subsequently released under a preexisting ICE supervision arrangement with his next check-in scheduled for September. His attorney, Jay S. Marks, noted that Paul has protection from removal to India but could be deported to a third country.

Claudia Rodriguez Caglianone, a 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant and former collegiate soccer captain, was detained by ICE at Fort Lauderdale Airport on July 31, 2026, while attempting to board a domestic flight. Rodriguez arrived in the U.S. in 2017 with a tourist visa, applied for asylum less than six months later, and was granted Temporary Protected Status in 2023—protection that ended last October. She graduated from St. Thomas University in Miami with bachelor's and master's degrees and served as captain of the university's soccer team. According to her family, Rodriguez was held in the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Field Office in Miramar for eight days without changing clothes, showering, or proper sleeping accommodations, losing 15 pounds during detention. She was later transferred to the Broward Transitional Center. Her former coach praised her leadership and character. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited the facility and called for her release, stating that ICE agents were "invading airports to catch law-abiding residents like Claudia."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested multiple undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes including murder, sexual assault of children, kidnapping, and robbery across the United States. The arrests included individuals from El Salvador, Honduras, Burma, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Laos, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Belize, Guyana, Peru, and Costa Rica. The DHS spokesperson stated that these enforcement actions removed dangerous criminals from communities.

Ana Castro, a long-time Wyoming resident and immigrant advocate who arrived as a child, is leaving the state amid fears for her safety as red state leaders increasingly cooperate with ICE and pursue hard-line immigration policies. Castro, who worked for a nonprofit and founded the Wyoming chapter of Juntos, an immigrant advocacy group, had spent decades contributing to her rural community despite lacking legal status. Immigrants comprise nearly 30% of rural Wyoming's recent population growth and fill critical gaps in service and construction jobs, but mounting deportation concerns are causing an exodus that threatens rural economies. State leaders acknowledge immigrants' economic importance while supporting stricter enforcement policies.

A long-time member of the Grace St. Paul Episcopal Church community in Tucson was recently detained by ICE and is being held in immigration detention facing deportation. He has lived in Tucson for many decades, works full time, has no criminal record, and is the family's primary breadwinner supporting his wife and children. His sudden detention has left his family unable to cover rent, utilities, groceries, school expenses, and other essential bills, forcing his wife to take on extra work to keep the family afloat.

Pritesh Walia, a rising Indian jazz guitarist born in New Delhi, was arrested at Los Angeles Airport on August 2 for overstaying his O1B visa, which was set to expire in August 2025. Walia arrived in the U.S. in January 2019 and has studied at Musician's Institute, Berklee College of Music, and New England Conservatory, earning degrees in music. He is now being held at Adelanto ICE processing center in Southern California. According to his friend and former classmate saxophonist Joey Rosin, Walia suffers from persistent postural perceptual dizziness, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, and chronic vestibular migraines requiring aggressive physical therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and carefully balanced medication regimens. Rosin expressed concern that the detention facility's fluorescent lighting and conditions may prevent Walia from sleeping and worsen his chronic health conditions. Walia's newest album, "Journey to Nowhere," featuring a 27-piece ensemble, is being released this month.

On August 2, a man was reportedly detained inside the emergency room at NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital by masked federal agents. A DHS vehicle pulled into the emergency bay while protesters gathered outside, and the detained man was removed through another exit. The incident prompted community concern about immigration enforcement in medical settings.

Dozens of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, who held Temporary Protected Status were summoned to ICE check-in appointments on July 31 and August 2, 2026, and pressured to either self-deport with $2,600 in assistance or accept electronic ankle monitors. All rejected the payment offer and were fitted with ankle monitors despite having no criminal background and previously holding legal status. The practice appears to be occurring only in Springfield and represents a departure from standard practice, which typically reserves ankle monitors for immigrants with criminal records or deportation orders. The ankle monitors have a 75-mile radius, creating complications for court appearances in Cleveland, 188 miles away. This enforcement action follows the Supreme Court's June 2026 decision clearing the way for the Trump administration to end TPS protections for up to 350,000 Haitians, and comes amid a broader push to conduct mass deportations.

The ACLU filed 54 legal claims against ICE across 17 states, alleging federal agents engaged in wrongful conduct including unlawful arrests, racial profiling, and excessive force. One claim involves a woman who alleges ICE agents threw her into the air and slammed her head onto the ground outside Delaney Hall in New Jersey, seeking $500,000 in damages. The claims accuse ICE of negligence and civil rights violations during immigration enforcement actions.

Josue Aldair Alfaro Herrera, a Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) petitioner, filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his prolonged civil immigration detention at Aurora Contract Detention Facility after ICE renewed his removal proceedings despite his SIJS status. The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado granted the petition, finding that his prolonged detention violated his constitutional rights and the Administrative Procedure Act. The Court ordered ICE to immediately release Petitioner from immigration detention.

Federal immigration enforcement agents conducted raids in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood and Cicero on Wednesday, resulting in at least seven detentions including U.S. citizens and staff members of a city alderman. A crash occurred near Cermak Fresh Market involving a civilian vehicle and agents, followed by a tense standoff between federal agents and community members. DHS reported three undocumented immigrants were detained and six U.S. citizens were arrested for impeding and threatening federal agents.

Country music singer Frank Ray publicly disclosed that his brother-in-law, Juan Nevarez, a Mexican national with a valid work visa, was arrested by ICE at El Paso airport on Thanksgiving Day. Nevarez was detained at an ICE facility in Otero County, New Mexico, pending a hearing to determine his immigration status. DHS cited a criminal record from a 2023 dispute, though most charges were dropped and only a misdemeanor trespassing conviction remained. Nevarez's wife and four U.S. citizen children await resolution of the case.

ICE agents in unmarked vehicles chased a red car in Chicago's Dunning neighborhood, with one SUV striking the vehicle from behind. The car subsequently crashed into a tree. ICE agents detained an older man at the scene after the collision.

A September 30 ICE raid in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood detained dozens of Venezuelan migrants, with officials claiming they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang designated as a terrorist organization. A ProPublica investigation found that many of those arrested had no criminal records and the government provided no evidence tying them to terrorism or gang membership. No criminal charges have been filed against any of the 37 individuals detained in the raid.

An off-duty ICE or Border Patrol agent named Gerardo Rodriguez was arrested on November 11 after pulling a firearm on a 17-year-old during a traffic stop in Riverside County. The teenager was detained for nearly 20 minutes on the side of the road after being stopped while driving through the neighborhood. This incident is part of a growing pattern of ICE agents confronting people and demanding identification.

The ACLU of Ohio filed a federal lawsuit alleging that ICE agents repeatedly violated federal law by making warrantless arrests without determining flight risk, detained individuals for weeks or months, and mistreated detainees. The lawsuit details cases involving people with valid visas, work permits, and U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico, suggesting possible racial profiling. The plaintiffs seek class action status and want courts to stop warrantless arrests and require compensation for those improperly detained.

A man deported to Mexico after being detained at Camp Pendleton is suing ICE and DHS for violating federal law and his rights. He and his wife were detained despite having pending U visa applications and work permits that should have provided protection from enforcement. His son, a former Marine Sergeant, claims the family faced discrimination and false accusations of criminal activity.

Eduardo Aguirre Esparza, a 53-year-old Mexican national and small business owner who has lived in the United States for over 20 years, was arrested by ICE on July 23, 2026, while working on a home remodeling project in West Seattle. Approximately 20 ICE agents in unmarked vehicles surrounded him, allegedly physically pushing him and threatening him when he refused to sign a voluntary departure form; he requested his lawyer instead. Without appearing before a judge or having contact with his attorney, Aguirre Esparza was transferred between multiple ICE facilities over three days and flown to El Paso, Texas, where he is detained at ERO El Paso Camp East Montana. His wife, Stacey Fitzpatrick, a U.S. citizen attorney, disputes ICE's claim that he has a 2005 DUI arrest from Kansas, noting he has never lived in Kansas and background checks show only a resolved 2015 traffic citation. Aguirre Esparza has a pending green card application and is married to a U.S. citizen with deep community ties. Community members organized rallies and fundraisers in West Seattle to raise awareness and support for his family, and Senator Patty Murray called the arrest "fundamentally wrong and un-American."

Cary Brown, a Jamaican national, was sentenced to three to nine years in state prison and was expected to remain incarcerated until at least 2029. ICE took him into custody in August to deport him before his sentence was complete. His case was cited as another example of ICE removing individuals from state prisons ahead of their scheduled release dates.

Paola Dos Santos, a 21-year-old Brazilian national, was detained for 15 months across two U.S. immigration facilities before being deported to Liberia. She said detainees, including pregnant women, were routinely denied medical care, and described witnessing a woman who pleaded for information about her separated son having her hands and ankles bound, saying "they tied her like she was cattle." Dos Santos said she and other detainees suffered psychological torture while in ICE custody, including being held for days without beds in a frigid room detainees called "the freezer."

Diana Rodríguez Pardo and Jairo Alzate Elejalde, a Colombian couple with Spanish citizenship, were detained by ICE agents immediately after landing at Las Vegas International Airport, where they had traveled from California to celebrate a birthday. The couple had entered the U.S. legally about two years earlier under a visa waiver program and later filed for asylum before their 90-day authorization expired. They were separated and sent to different detention facilities—Jairo remained in Nevada while Diana was transferred first to Arizona and then to Denver, Colorado. Their two children, ages 8 and 16, are now being cared for by relatives, with the younger child reportedly asking when his parents will return.

Avishay Alon, a transgender former intelligence specialist with Israel's Unit 81 who later worked as a computer engineer at Amazon and Microsoft, was detained by ICE in Concord, New Hampshire. Alon had been serving a state sentence in New Hampshire after a 2024 kidnapping conviction and was granted parole, but corrections officials refused to release Alon except directly into ICE custody. A federal judge noted that immigration detainers are capped at 48 hours and ordered the state to show cause, the same day ICE announced Alon's arrest.

Curtis Wright, a 40-year-old Edmonton-born permanent resident who moved to Houston as a child and worked in the oil and gas industry, was detained by ICE at a Houston-area airport in November 2025 after returning from a work trip to Mexico. Authorities cited a drug possession conviction from when he was 17, involving Xanax tablets found in a car he was in, for which he had already completed community service. During nearly nine months in detention across several Texas facilities, including the South Texas ICE Processing Centre, Wright described freezing cells, contaminated water, poor food, and being denied medication for a chronic condition. His attorney pursued appeals and a habeas corpus request, but a judge ultimately ordered his deportation, and Wright gave up further legal fights. His fiancée Kayla Thomsen said their toddler daughter learned to walk during his absence, while his two older sons, ages 8 and 11, remained in Texas with their mother. Wright was deported to Canada and is now staying with his parents in Kelowna, B.C., planning an eventual move to Edmonton.

A Mexican national living in Maryland, whose testimony for the Justice Department against drug cartels led an immigration judge in 2024 to bar his deportation to Mexico under the Convention Against Torture, was re-detained in January during a routine ICE check-in. He was sent to a detention facility in Louisiana and deported without notice to Guatemala, which refused to accept him and handed him to Mexican consular officials, who also declined to take him because of his CAT protection. He was deported to Mexico twice more, including once after the Trump administration terminated the immigration judge's CAT order, and told U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher he has been in hiding since Aug. 1 fearing retaliation from the cartels he testified against. Gallagher issued a temporary restraining order requiring the administration to take steps to facilitate his return within 200 miles of Baltimore.

A Mexican man in his late 40s, identified in court filings only as "John Doe" and the father of two, had cooperated with U.S. prosecutors in cases against Mexican drug cartel members and was granted deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture in July 2024. While living in Maryland, he was detained by ICE in January 2026 at a routine check-in and held for six months at a facility in Louisiana. Authorities attempted to deport him multiple times, first to Guatemala on July 10, which refused him, and then twice to Mexico, most recently on August 1 to a region with active cartel activity, leaving him without money, belongings, or his phone and in hiding out of fear of retaliation. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Baltimore ruled that the termination of his CAT protections likely violated due process and placed him in imminent danger, ordering the government to facilitate his return within 14 days and to hold him near Baltimore with attorney access if detained again.

Border Patrol agents in the San Diego Sector rescued two individuals in separate incidents in the East County mountains amid extreme heat. On Aug. 1, agents located a person lost in the Jacumba Mountains suffering heat exhaustion, disorientation and blurred vision after running out of water in roughly 107-degree heat; the person was airlifted and taken to a hospital for treatment. In a separate incident on July 26, agents using surveillance equipment spotted a person near Cottonwood Canyon who was unable to walk out unassisted; emergency responders carried the person out and transported them to a hospital. Border Patrol said both individuals were determined to be in the country without authorization and will be processed for removal after receiving medical clearance.

Martin Martinez-Ballinas, 38, a Mexican national, was transferred to ICE custody on July 22, 2026, after completing a federal prison sentence for illegal reentry at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He faces deportation proceedings for the third time. Martinez-Ballinas was previously deported in 2020 after a 2017 felony conviction in Maryland for a fatal hit-and-run crash involving a U.S. Marine, then unlawfully reentered and was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol in Texas in 2021, convicted of illegal reentry, and deported again in October 2022. He reentered the United States again without authorization and was apprehended in Maryland in December 2023, subsequently convicted of another unlawful reentry offense.

A man detained in ICE custody filed a habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the Eastern District of California on July 31, 2026, along with an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order. The same day, District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston found that he appeared likely to succeed on at least one of his claims and that some form of immediate relief may be appropriate, and ordered the government to show cause by August 7, 2026, why a TRO should not issue. Citing exigent circumstances, the court ordered that the government may not remove him from the United States or transfer him out of the district while the case is pending. The court also directed the government to produce documentation related to any asserted violations of release conditions, and set the matter for further briefing and a possible hearing.

Ariel, a skilled mason who worked on homes throughout the Petworth neighborhood, was taken into ICE custody and deported to El Salvador, a country where he no longer has family. His wife Diana remains in Petworth with their two young children, now the sole provider for the family. Described by neighbors as incredibly hardworking and an amazing father, Ariel's deportation has left Diana facing heavy financial responsibilities while neighbors provide logistical support.

Cesar has spent most of his life in the United States, where he built his family, friendships, and future. In May, he was unexpectedly taken into ICE detention. His two young daughters have been without their father's love, comfort, and security since his detention. His family is raising funds to cover attorney fees, court costs, and living expenses while fighting for his return.

ICE Miami, working with the Miami-Dade County Sheriff's Office, arrested Roberto Gonzalez-Fonseca, a 57-year-old lawful permanent resident from Cuba, on July 31. Gonzalez-Fonseca had been ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2010 following a prior conviction. He is currently in ICE custody pending removal from the United States.

Mohamed Barry, 52, a truck driver from Guinea who had lived in the U.S. for 25 years and held a withholding of removal order protecting him from deportation to his home country, was captured by Border Patrol outside his home in Brownsburg, Indiana on July 1 and later placed on a July 31 ICE charter flight to Africa carrying an estimated 71 detainees. Barry, who has five U.S. citizen children including a nine-year-old daughter, said ICE-contracted GEO Group guards drank alcohol, refused to let shackled passengers use the lavatory, and placed at least two people in restraint devices during the 26-hour flight to Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, and Ghana. After being held under armed guard in a Ghana hotel for three days, Barry agreed to return to Guinea despite his protection order, then fled across a border into a neighboring country where he is now in hiding without identification and with a dwindling supply of heart medication. "I can't tell you how heartbroken I am leaving my younger girls," Barry said. "I'm the one who takes them to the bus stop."

Zena Gebrgzabher, a 39-year-old Eritrean truck driver who lived in Maryland, was deported by the Trump administration to the Central African Republic after being arrested during a routine ICE check-in appointment. He had won protection under the Convention Against Torture in 2017 barring his deportation to Eritrea, after fleeing forced military conscription and imprisonment there, but that protection did not prevent officials from sending him to a third country. His wife and 5-year-old son, both U.S. citizens, live in Maryland; his wife, Yrgalem Gehrehiwet, called the deportation "unfair and inhumane" and said their son has been deeply affected by his father's absence. CBS News found no criminal record for Gebrgzabher beyond traffic and immigration violations, and he is now stranded in Bangui without documents.

A man who was granted voluntary departure by an immigration judge in 2017 but never left the country, causing that order to automatically convert into a final removal order under federal law. In June 2025, he was detained after law enforcement executed a search warrant at his place of employment, and he was held for nearly a year at the Montgomery Municipal Jail under a material witness warrant. On May 22, 2026, a magistrate judge dismissed the material witness warrant and ordered his release, but he was not released and remained in custody for reasons unknown to the court. He filed a federal habeas corpus petition on July 31, 2026, seeking release or a bond hearing before an immigration judge. Respondents indicated that ICE had only lodged a detainer at the time the petition was filed and did not take physical custody of him until August 4, 2026, after which he was transferred to a facility within the Northern District of Alabama. The court dismissed the petition without prejudice, finding both that Petitioner failed to comply with a show-cause order and that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because he was not in ICE custody at the time of filing, noting jurisdiction now lies only in the district of his current confinement.

Yasmani Noel Moreno de Armas, a 31-year-old Cuban whose parents live in Hialeah, was detained by ICE officers without explanation on May 11, 2025 while spending a day in West Palm Beach. He believed he would be sent to Cuba and only realized he was headed to Africa more than two hours into a 22-hour deportation flight that landed in Bangui, Central African Republic on August 1. He is now confined at a guarded apartment complex in Bangui, suffering stomach problems and allergies, without identification documents or legal status. 'They brought us here illegally,' he said; his parents 'went crazy, crying and yelling' when he called to tell them where he was.

Arístides Fernández García, 37, a Cuban trucking company owner who fled Cuba in 2021 after being kidnapped and robbed in Mexico, entered the U.S. through Arizona and was living under an I-220A release order. He was detained by ICE in January 2026 in what was described as a targeted operation after appearing at a Miami immigration court hearing. He spent months in detention, including at 'Alligator Alcatraz,' Krome, and facilities in Louisiana and Texas, before being shackled and deported on a 22-hour flight with roughly 80 other detainees, including Cubans, an Ecuadorian, and a Honduran, landing in Bangui, Central African Republic — a country under the highest U.S. 'Do Not Travel' advisory. He said he was not told the destination until mid-flight and was stripped of his identification, money, and phone upon arrival, given only a 90-day visa, and confined to a guarded hotel complex without embassy support, work authorization, or a legal pathway to leave. 'I paid taxes, I never got a traffic ticket. I did everything right,' he said, adding that he still wants to pursue his asylum claim and believes detainees' rights were violated.

A man was detained by ICE in Fairbanks, Alaska on July 31, 2026, despite being in the United States legally and actively working toward permanent resident status. His sister describes him as hardworking and honest, someone who pays taxes, works steadily, and helps support their mother and his grandchildren. Within 24 hours of his detention in Fairbanks, he was transferred to Anchorage; his family fears further transfers out of state will make it increasingly difficult for them to communicate with him, secure legal representation, and advocate for his rights. The family is raising funds to cover immigration attorney fees, legal filings, travel, and communication costs necessary to fight for his release.

A Honduran citizen who entered the United States through the southern border in 2021 and was briefly detained by ICE before being released. He subsequently settled in New Jersey. On July 31, 2026, ICE apprehended him in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and detained him at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. On August 6, 2026, ICE transferred him to Moshannon Valley Processing Center and detained him under Section 1225 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides for mandatory detention. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention. The federal court granted his petition, holding that Section 1226(a)—not Section 1225(b)(2)—governs the detention of noncitizens who have entered without admission but have long resided in the interior. The court ordered his immediate release and a temporary seven-day enjoinder against re-detention. If the government seeks to re-detain him after that period, it must first provide him with a bond hearing before an immigration judge.

Iemad Saifo, a 65-year-old Syrian-born chef who owns Zena's American Mediterranean Cuisine and Catering in Collingswood, New Jersey, was detained by ICE on July 31 at their Mt. Laurel office during what he believed was a routine check-in, despite having a pending immigration case with a December court date. Saifo came to the U.S. with his family on a B1/B2 visa from Syria in 2002, is the primary caregiver for his son with autism, and suffers from several chronic health conditions including a rare neurological condition and kidney disease. His wife and four children are U.S. citizens, and a residency petition filed by his U.S. citizen son had cleared its first approval stage. He was held at Delaney Hall, a privately run detention facility in Newark that has been the site of protests over detainee treatment, prompting his daughter Zena, for whom the restaurant is named, to voice concern over reports of detainee deaths there. His attorneys filed an emergency habeas petition, after which a federal judge barred ICE from transferring him out of state. A petition supporting him gathered more than 12,500 signatures, with support from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and over 150 notarized letters from community members. An immigration judge later granted bond and he was released, with his daughter saying, 'We are so relieved to have him safely back home as the immigration process continues.'