Human Impact Project

Recent violent incidents involving ICE agents in Minneapolis and other cities have prompted scrutiny of federal immigration officer training and use-of-force protocols. An ICE officer fatally shot U.S. citizen Renee Macklin Good, and another Department of Homeland Security officer shot a man in the leg during an arrest. Experts and advocates are questioning how officers are trained to conduct arrests and engage with citizens and protesters.

A federal judge ordered the release of Garrison Gibson, a 37-year-old Liberian man, four days after heavily armed immigration agents broke into his Minneapolis home using a battering ram and arrested him. The judge ruled that the agents violated Gibson's Fourth Amendment rights by entering his home without his consent and without a judicial warrant. Gibson had been living legally in the U.S. under an order of supervision and had checked in with immigration authorities days before his arrest.

A 20-year-old West Virginia man named Cody Lee Smith was arrested in January 2026 after allegedly threatening to murder ICE agents in the Clarksburg area. Smith made incriminating social media posts and called the ICE Tip Line on January 16th, threatening to kill any ICE agents he saw. He is facing charges of making terroristic threats and is currently held on a $75,000 bond.

A family of three from Venezuela—parents Yohendry De Jesus Crespo and Darianny Liseth Gonzalez De Crespo, and their 7-year-old daughter Diana—were detained by immigration officers in a parking lot at Portland Adventist Health on January 16, 2026, while attempting to seek medical care for the child's nosebleed. The family, who entered the U.S. through a port of entry in California and have a pending asylum application, is now being held at ICE's South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.

Alicbiades "Alex" Lazaro Ramirez Gonzalez, husband of Yannier Vazquez Hidalgo, was ordered deported to Ecuador by an immigration judge one week before his husband received the same order. Ramirez Gonzalez fled Cuba with his husband and they married in the U.S., both requesting asylum based on persecution fears as gay men. He was detained by federal agents in October during a routine ICE appointment in Mattydale. Like his husband, he faces deportation to a country where he has no ties and argues he will be persecuted for being gay and Cuban.

Jose Rafael Alambarrio, a Venezuelan national who fled political persecution and arrived in the U.S. in 2023, was detained on January 15, 2026, during a routine annual check-in at the Dallas ICE office. Alambarrio was in the process of applying for a green card and had been granted parole while pursuing asylum. Despite having no criminal record and faithfully attending all previous check-ins, he was arrested and initially held at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. He was subsequently transferred without notice to an ICE facility in Mississippi. His wife, a McKinney teacher, has made a public plea for his release and is struggling to fight for his release from a distance.

Juan Daniel Mendoza, a 17-year-old Morristown High School senior, was arrested by ICE on Sunday while doing laundry at a Speedwell Avenue laundromat. U.S. District Judge Evelyn Padin ordered his release on January 15, 2026, ruling that he was unlawfully detained in violation of his due process rights. Federal authorities are prohibited from re-arresting him without first demonstrating he poses a risk of flight or danger to the public.

Photographer John Abernathy was detained by federal ICE agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on January 15 while documenting protests. During the confrontation, Abernathy threw his camera to a fellow photojournalist. He sustained injuries including chemical burns, pepper bullet wounds, and abrasions, and received a citation but no court date.

The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration on behalf of three Minnesotans in connection with stops and arrests by ICE and CBP. A 20-year-old U.S. citizen named Mubashir Khalif Hussen was arrested by masked ICE agents on December 10, 2025, while walking to lunch in Cedar-Riverside. Hussen repeatedly stated he was a citizen. The lawsuit challenges practices involving stops and arrests by ICE and CBP.

ICE agents detained Sebastian, a 16-year-old Ecuadorian asylum-seeker, in Minneapolis in January 2026 during an interior arrest while he was driving alone, seizing his phone after he called his father. Despite his father living in the U.S., Sebastian was labeled an "unaccompanied minor" and transferred to the Bridgeway shelter in Michigan, making it difficult for his family and attorneys to locate him. The case illustrates how the "unaccompanied minor" designation can impede family unity protections and legal access even when a parent resides in the country. While in custody, Sebastian reported receiving vaccines without consent.

ICE arrested 19-year-old Willmar High School student Suban Noor on January 12. She was reportedly held in custody for several days before being released.

Ramon Menera, a naturalized US citizen born in Mexico, was detained by a US Border Patrol agent outside his home in a Minneapolis suburb on January 14, 2026, while walking with his five-year-old daughter. The agent cited Menera's accent as the reason for questioning. His citizenship was verified through federal records and he was released. The incident, part of Operation Metro Surge, has prompted legal challenges alleging racial profiling and civil rights violations, with lawsuits filed by the Minnesota Attorney General and the ACLU.

Jessica Marlene Corrales-Duarte, a 32-year-old DACA recipient, was arrested by ICE on January 15, 2026, following a felony indictment for allegedly stealing approximately $5,500 in merchandise from an Ulta Beauty store in August 2025. Her DACA status was terminated in November 2025 following the indictment. She has been detained at Eloy Detention Center and is unable to appear at her scheduled Pima County criminal trial, raising constitutional concerns about her right to be present and confront her accuser.

A 26-year-old woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a court-granted protection order preventing deportation was removed to Cameroon in mid-January 2026 after spending a year in ICE detention. She had fled her country after being raped by police and mistaken for a Rwandan during armed conflict.

A man from Angola who had lived in the United States for 30 years and is stateless (not recognized by Angola) was deported to Cameroon in mid-January 2026. He held legal asylum protections but was removed without notice or due process.

A nurse from Zimbabwe who had lived in the United States for 15 years and held legal asylum protections was deported to Cameroon in mid-January 2026 without notice. She was held in detention in Yaoundé under poor conditions with inadequate food and no legal documentation.

A 20-year-old student from Ghana with legal asylum protections was deported to Cameroon in mid-January 2026 as part of a secret third-country removal program. She was transferred in handcuffs and shackles and held in detention in Yaoundé without documentation or due process.

Farah, a 21-year-old Moroccan woman granted protection from removal by an immigration judge in August 2025, was deported by U.S. authorities to Cameroon in January 2026 without due process. Three days before a scheduled hearing on her release, ICE agents detained her and placed her on a flight to Cameroon; after she refused to remain there, she was flown to Morocco despite facing persecution for her sexual orientation. She is among dozens of migrants deported to third countries despite holding legal protections from immigration judges, part of a broader policy to encourage voluntary departure.

Danna, who had legal immigration status, was detained by ICE in mid-January 2026 after being racially profiled. She and her 6-year-old child were transported to Texas while her 2-year-old remained with a guardian. It took one month to secure their release and reunite the family. Her husband was deported during this period, leaving Danna as sole provider.

An employee at Pancho's Taqueria & Mexican Café in Circle Pines was detained by ICE agents on January 15 while possessing a valid work visa. He was transported to the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis and then to El Paso, Texas. The restaurant owner set up a GoFundMe that quickly raised $25,000 from customers and supporters to cover legal fees, and plans to sponsor the worker to help secure his release.

A 21-year-old Moroccan woman with a U.S. immigration judge's ruling prohibiting her return to Morocco was deported to Cameroon in mid-January 2026 as part of a secret third-country removal program. Without due process or legal counsel, she was subsequently returned to Morocco, where she faced persecution for her sexual orientation. She is now in hiding.

An Ecuadoran citizen who has lived in the U.S. since 2007 was taken into custody by immigration authorities on January 15, 2026. The government classified her under mandatory detention provisions, but the federal court ruled she was wrongly classified and is entitled to a bond hearing under discretionary detention statutes. The court ordered immigration authorities to provide her with a bond hearing.

Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol commander, appeared in Minneapolis in mid-January 2026 wearing a distinctive oversized green trench coat during ICE enforcement operations. Social media users posted comparisons of his attire to other uniforms, with videos showing crowds chanting. Bovino's presence coincided with federal enforcement following the January 7 shooting death of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer during immigration crackdown protests.

Heber Sánchez, a 34-year-old day laborer from Las Choapas, Veracruz, Mexico, died in ICE custody at the Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility in Clayton County, Georgia. He had been arrested in Atlanta on January 7, 2026 for driving without a license and transferred to the facility, where a guard found him a week later tied to his bunk with a rope around his neck; resuscitation attempts failed and he was pronounced dead. His family disputes that he took his own life and is demanding an investigation into why he did not receive adequate medical care. The Mexican Consulate has requested clarification on the circumstances and is coordinating to return his body to Mexico. He is survived by a wife and two children.

Kaden Rummler, 21, was permanently blinded in his left eye after a federal agent shot him in the face with a less-lethal crowd control weapon during an anti-ICE protest in downtown Santa Ana, California on January 9, 2026. Rummler was protesting ICE deportations and the death of Renee Good at the hands of an immigration agent in Minneapolis. The impact caused severe injuries: doctors removed plastic, glass, and metal fragments from his face and skull, found pieces of plastic and glass embedded in his skull, metal in his stomach lining, and a piece of plastic the size of a nickel in his injured eye. A piece of ammunition narrowly missed his carotid artery. Rummler underwent six-hour surgery to remove shrapnel from his injuries. Officers did not call paramedics immediately and at one point pushed his face into a pool of his own blood. Rummler was one of two protesters shot in the face that night. A protester lost an eye after being struck by a scattershot munition fired by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department during immigration enforcement protests in Los Angeles. The case, Castellanos v. City of Los Angeles, resulted in litigation against local authorities under state negligence laws. PHR and UC Berkeley identified scattershot munitions as inherently indiscriminate weapons that make it impossible to prevent significant unintended harm, recommending they never be used for crowd control.

ICE agents deployed tear gas at a family vehicle containing eight people, including six children aged 6 months to 11 years old, during Minneapolis protests after the family became trapped between ICE agents and protesters. All six children were hospitalized with breathing problems, and the mother performed CPR on her 6-month-old infant. The incident occurred during protests following an ICE shooting in the city.

Jose Oleaz, 34, was detained by ICE during a raid in Pomona on Wednesday while serving as the sole caregiver for his 13-year-old nephew Bryan. Oleaz immigrated from Mexico over 20 years ago and had been raising Bryan following the deaths of his wife Yesenia and sister Alejandra in a DUI crash two years prior. According to family members, Oleaz is a landscaper with no criminal record who also cares for his father with cancer.

ICE agents conducted multiple enforcement activities in St. Paul, Minnesota involving immigrant communities. In one incident, agents knocked on a resident's door in the North End neighborhood and asked her to identify Hmong and Asian households, without clearly displaying badges. In a separate incident at a downtown bus stop on 6th Street and Jackson, ICE agents were photographed surrounding a man with his head covered by a black bag. These incidents occurred as part of broader ICE enforcement operations.

Estefany, a Colombian woman with a clean record and a pending immigration court case, was arrested while walking her youngest child to the school bus stop and transferred to El Paso. She had a bacterial infection and required hospitalization before her transfer. A federal judge ordered her release on January 15, 2026, but officers did not free her until two days later. The case exemplified the Justice Department's failure to follow judicial orders during Operation Metro Surge.

Heber Sanchez Dominguez, a 34-year-old Mexican man, died on January 14, 2026 after 6 days in ICE custody at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas. His death was attributed to suicide by hanging.

A parent was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Wednesday morning while waiting at a bus stop with their child in Crystal, Minnesota. The incident occurred at Northport Elementary School's bus stop, and multiple students and the bus driver witnessed the detention. The school district stated that all students, including the child of the arrested parent, were able to safely board the bus and provided support services to affected students and staff.

The Jackson family, including six children and an infant, was caught between protesters and federal immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis. An officer rolled a tear gas canister under their family's SUV, flooding the vehicle with toxic fumes. The family, including the infant, required hospital treatment for tear gas exposure.

A Honduran national was arrested for larceny on January 14, 2026, in West Palm Beach, Florida. ICE issued a detention order the same day. After criminal charges were dismissed on March 12, 2026, he was taken into ICE custody despite being scheduled for release. He has been detained at Golden State Annex in California since March 20, 2026, with a pending asylum case. The court granted his habeas petition, finding he was wrongfully denied a bond hearing and ordered ICE to provide one within 14 days or release him immediately.

Heber Sánchez Domínguez, 34, a day laborer from Las Choapas, Veracruz, Mexico, who had been living in the United States for two years, was arrested on January 7, 2026, in Richmond County, Georgia, for driving without a license following a traffic accident. He was transferred to the Robert A. Deyton Detention Center in Madison County on January 11. On January 14 at 2 a.m., after six days in custody, guards found him unconscious and hanging by his neck in his cell. Medical personnel attempted resuscitation and transferred him to a hospital, where he was declared dead one hour later. His cellmate reported he had complained of feeling sick before his death. His family stated he was not allowed to contact them after his arrest and expressed distress at this lack of communication. His brother Feliciano stated, "We want justice because they should have given him medical attention." His 102-year-old mother, Catalina Sánchez Domínguez, expressed her pain at learning her son died in U.S. police custody. His family disputes official accounts and has called for a thorough investigation into why he did not receive medical care. Mexico's consulate in Atlanta and the Mexican Foreign Ministry requested a prompt and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his death.

Isela Hernandez Lugo, a Mexican national, was arrested by ICE agents in the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot on January 14. According to ICE, Hernandez Lugo entered the United States without inspection and remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. A bystander recorded video of the arrest, describing it as ICE "snatching" the woman off the street.

ICE agent Christian Castro was arrested in Texas on May 29 and charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime for shooting Venezuelan national Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg on January 14 during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. Castro fired through a front door, with the bullet striking Sosa-Celis and traveling into a child's room. Federal assault charges against Sosa-Celis and another man were previously dropped after prosecutors determined the initial accusations against them were false.

Alfredo A. Aljorna was detained by ICE agents at a Minneapolis home on January 14, 2026, and initially charged after agents claimed he and his cousin attacked an officer with a shovel and broom. Video evidence contradicted ICE's account, leading the Justice Department to drop charges in February. U.S. authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether two ICE officers lied under oath about the shooting; the officers have been placed on administrative leave and may face termination and criminal prosecution.

ICE officer Christian Castro was charged with four counts of assault in the second degree and one count of falsely reporting a crime after shooting Venezuelan immigrant Julio Sosa-Celis in the leg through the front door of a residence during an attempted immigration arrest on January 14, 2026. Prosecutors determined that both Sosa-Celis and another man in the home were in Minnesota lawfully, making the shooting a case of mistaken identity. Video evidence contradicted the agency's initial claim that the men had attacked officers with a shovel and broom. The Hennepin County attorney's office issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Castro.

A father of four and grandfather of three was detained by ICE on January 14, 2026, while walking from a mini market back to work during his break. He had no arrest warrant. His family is seeking financial assistance to support the family during his detention.

Laura, a 24-year-old asylum applicant from Honduras, gave birth in January 2026 but remained isolated in her apartment with her newborn daughter due to fear of ICE enforcement. Her stress about immigration authorities was so severe that it affected her physical health during labor, reducing oxytocin production critical for delivery and breastfeeding. Her boyfriend rarely visited after the hospital stay, fearing detention if he left his mother's home. Fear of immigration enforcement continues to isolate Laura from the family and community support typically available to new mothers.

Tear gas was deployed into a home during an ICE arrest operation Friday night in the Berclair area of Memphis involving a family, ICE agents, and the Memphis Safe Task Force. Children were exposed to tear gas during the operation, though they were sheltered in a closet.

A Minneapolis resident and photographer was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant by an ICE agent while photographing federal officers conducting an arrest on Lake Street. He was standing approximately 10 feet away from officers when one agent screamed profanities and immediately sprayed him, causing blindness and extreme pain. This declaration is part of a class action lawsuit against DHS, ICE, and other federal agencies challenging their enforcement activities.

A Liberian man was arrested after armed immigration agents used a battering ram to enter his Minneapolis home. According to his attorney, the man had been checking in with federal authorities for years prior to the raid.

Thousands of Minneapolis residents have organized into rapid response groups called ICE Watch to monitor and document Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in their neighborhoods. The groups, coordinated through organizations like Defend the 612, witness arrests, record incidents on video, and document community member interactions with ICE. Federal agents have conducted vehicle box-ins, window breaking, and surveillance of observers' homes during these operations.

On January 14, 2026, an ICE agent shot and wounded Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, during an enforcement operation in north Minneapolis following a traffic stop pursuit. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed Sosa-Celis attacked an agent with a shovel and broomstick for three minutes, but video footage contradicted this account, showing only a 12-second confrontation with no sustained attack. Prosecutors had access to the video within hours but did not review it until nearly three weeks after charging Sosa-Celis and his housemate; both charges were subsequently dropped. Two federal ICE agents were placed on administrative leave after DHS determined their testimony was untrue, and they faced possible termination or criminal charges for apparent perjury.

On January 13, 2026, ICE agents detained multiple enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, including at least three to four Oglala Lakota men, during a sweep of a homeless encampment near the Little Earth housing complex in Minneapolis. Three detainees were transferred to an ICE facility at Fort Snelling. The Oglala Sioux Tribe asserted that enrolled members are U.S. citizens by statute and fall outside immigration jurisdiction. Federal officials refused to provide information about the detainees unless the tribe agreed to an immigration enforcement agreement with ICE and DHS. Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out and the tribe publicly rejected this condition, stating they would not compromise tribal sovereignty or authorize ICE operations on tribal land. The tribe contacted Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan to locate the detainees and issued guidance to members on asserting their citizenship rights.

Tenth grader Arnoldo Bazan, a 16-year-old U.S. citizen, and his father were stopped by immigration agents while getting McDonald's before school. During the encounter, agents slammed the father to the ground and put Arnoldo in a chokehold, causing him to struggle for breath. ProPublica found over 40 cases of immigration agents using banned chokeholds and other moves that restrict breathing.

ICE agents visited El Tapatio, a Mexican restaurant in Willmar, Minnesota for lunch on January 14, 2026, then returned and detained the restaurant's owners and a dishwasher. According to DHS, agents were conducting surveillance of an undocumented immigrants from Mexico and apprehended three individuals total, including one with a final order of removal from an immigration judge. The restaurant closed early following the incident.

Volunteer searchers with Battalion Search and Rescue have documented dozens of sites containing migrant skeletal remains in the New Mexico desert west of El Paso, with some sites remaining unrecovered for over 18 months after being reported to authorities. The group reported finding human remains or personal effects at 15 locations that were marked on government maps as cleaned-up sites, and disputes official figures showing a sharp drop in migrant remains recovered, claiming several sites they reported in late 2024 were actually recovered but not counted in official statistics.

A Peruvian man who had been paroled into the United States under the Migrant Protection Protocols program was detained during a scheduled ICE check-in appointment on January 13, 2026. He had been living in Memphis, Tennessee, had obtained a driver's license and work authorization, and had been regularly reporting to ICE as required. The court denied his habeas corpus petition challenging his detention without an individualized bond hearing. Another Peruvian citizen, who entered the U.S. in November 2022, was detained on December 1, 2025 after voluntarily appearing at the Memphis Immigration office for allegedly failing to comply with ATD program conditions. He had previously been released on parole due to time in custody constraints and placed in the Alternatives to Detention program. The court denied his habeas petition seeking release or a bond hearing, ruling that as an applicant for admission he is subject to mandatory detention under federal law.