Human Impact Project

The Colibrí Center for Human Rights' DNA database, which helped identify remains of missing migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for a decade, has been inaccessible since fall 2024. The nonprofit's website has gone dark and communications ceased, leaving families like that of Irma Carrillo Nevares without hope of identifying their missing relatives. Arizona moved to dissolve the organization in December 2025 due to unfiled paperwork.

Protect Democracy, the ACLU, and partners filed suit against DHS, ICE, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center on April 2, 2026, challenging a secret internal memo that authorizes agents to forcibly enter homes using only an administrative form instead of a judicial warrant. The lawsuit names six individuals affected by the policy, including Teyana and Garrison Gibson Brown, whose home was raided January 11, 2026, and Noe Alfredo Salguero, whose home was entered January 14, 2026. The memo, titled "Utilizing Form I-205, Warrant of Removal," was issued in May 2025 and kept secret until whistleblowers leaked it in late January 2026. Plaintiffs seek to vacate the policy and declare it unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston ruled that Border Patrol agents violated a preliminary injunction by detaining day laborers at a Sacramento Home Depot in July 2025 without specific evidence of immigration violations, relying instead on broad assumptions about workers in the parking lot. The judge found agents "again detained people without reasonable suspicion" and demanded to see identification from individuals based solely on their appearance. Thurston's ruling, granting a United Farm Workers motion to enforce the injunction, requires agents to document specific facts and reasoning for detentions and prohibits warrantless arrests without assessing flight risk.

An inspection by ICE's Office of Detention Oversight at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas found 49 deficiencies in detention standards on April 2, 2026. Violations included issues related to use of force, medical care, security, and disease prevention, with documented safety lapses including inadequate suicide prevention measures, unsecured equipment, staffing shortages, and medical negligence such as failure to isolate a detainee with tuberculosis symptoms. The facility, the nation's largest immigration detention center housing nearly 3,000 detainees daily since opening in summer 2025, has experienced at least three deaths. Despite these violations, the facility received an acceptable rating.

Jesus Vazquez, a 25-year-old Fort Worth resident who came to the U.S. as a baby, was deported to Mexico in March 2026 after three months in ICE detention following an arrest during a routine ICE check-in in November 2025. His American citizen wife Cassidy and their four children, ages 6 months to 8 years, remain in Fort Worth while working with an attorney to find a way for him to return to the U.S., though he is currently barred from re-entry for 10 years due to a 2022 marijuana possession conviction.

ICE agents in San Diego arrested David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, who is wanted in El Salvador for murder and had previously been arrested in Monterey, California in 2023 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly swinging a machete at a man, then released under California's sanctuary law. El Salvador had sentenced Perez to 20 years in prison for a 2014 gang killing. He is being held pending removal to El Salvador.

A woman who arrived in the U.S. at age 9 was detained by ICE and is facing deportation for overstaying her visa. She is married to a military veteran and has built her life in the country. Her family is raising funds to cover legal expenses.

Abel Ramirez, a man with schizophrenia who had two strokes, was detained by ICE and deported to Mexico without his family being allowed contact. He moved to the U.S. as a child and is now alone in Mexico. His family is seeking help locating him after he was last seen boarding a bus to Mexico City.

Enrique, brought to the U.S. at age three and raised there for 24 years, was stopped by a state trooper for a license plate light issue and taken into custody based on his Mexican passport despite lacking a driver's license. He spent three months in ICE processing with multiple court appearances before being granted voluntary departure. He is now in Mexico documenting his experience and attempting to maintain his business remotely while seeking residency.

Two sisters in Big Bear Lake are caring for their mother in hospice with stage 4 brain cancer after their father, Armando Gonzalez Procopio, was detained by ICE on March 31. ICE stated he was arrested for public order crimes and illegal entry, though the sisters dispute the characterization of his record, noting only traffic violations. Their father is scheduled to appear before a judge on April 10 for removal proceedings. The family is seeking his release so they can spend their mother's final days together.

José Ignacio 'Nacho' De La Cruz, a 30-year-old Migrant Justice organizer and Mexican national without a visa, was detained by federal agents on March 26, 2026, and charged with nine federal felony counts including human smuggling and document fraud. According to the indictment, between November 2022 and June 2025, De La Cruz smuggled people across the U.S.-Canada border without authorization and fraudulently obtained Vermont driver's privilege cards for individuals, receiving $500 per fraudulent ID. He was held at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans. On April 2, 2026, Judge Kevin Doyle ordered his release on bond, rejecting prosecutors' argument that he posed a flight risk after noting De La Cruz remained in Vermont despite knowing of the investigation. Migrant Justice attributed the arrest timing to retaliation following an ICE raid in South Burlington on March 11. He pleaded not guilty and faces up to 15 years imprisonment with a mandatory minimum of 3 years if convicted.

A noncitizen who had lived in the United States for an extended period without having been admitted was detained by U.S. immigration authorities during removal proceedings at the California City Detention Facility. A federal court found he was entitled to a pre-deprivation bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) and ordered his immediate release. The court ruled that if the government seeks to re-detain him, they must provide a proper bond hearing where he can contest flight risk and community safety concerns.

A 51-year-old Nicaraguan asylum seeker was re-detained by ICE on April 1, 2026, during a routine check-in appointment after living in the community for nearly three and a half years in full compliance with release conditions. She had no criminal history and was lawfully employed while her asylum application remained pending. The court ordered her immediate release, finding her detention without notice or hearing violated due process rights.

Douglas Dixon, a 61-year-old Canadian green card holder, was arrested by ICE on February 10, 2026, while checking in with his probation officer in Florida. Dixon had pleaded no contest to tax evasion in 2022 and owed approximately $12,000 in back taxes. He was detained for 65 days, initially at the Dade-Collier facility in the Florida Everglades and later transferred to Glades County Detention Center. An immigration judge ordered his deportation to Canada with a lifetime ban from returning to the United States, separating him from his wife, children, and grandchildren after more than two decades in the country.

Dr. Ezequiel Veliz, a Venezuelan physician working as a resident at UT Health Rio Grande Valley/Knapp Medical Center in Texas, was detained by Border Patrol at the Sarita checkpoint in April 2025 after his Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was revoked in October 2024. Veliz is married to a U.S. citizen, had a pending green card application, and was carrying required immigration documents at the time of detention. Following outcry from the medical community and intervention by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a judge granted him bond during his immigration hearing, allowing his release from custody. Another Venezuelan colleague was also detained within the same week.

Emmanuel Landila, a Cumberland County corrections recruit hired in February 2025 with work authorization valid until 2029, was arrested by federal agents during ICE's 'Operation Catch of the Day' after they stopped his car in Portland's Bayside neighborhood. Cellphone video showed agents pulling him from the vehicle as he shouted, 'I am a corrections officer! I work in Cumberland County!' Agents left his car unlocked on the roadside with the lights on and windows down, prompting Sheriff Kevin Joyce to call it 'bush league policing' and note Landila had been vetted through a rigorous hiring process. His family raised nearly $20,000 through a GoFundMe campaign for legal fees. After a month in a Massachusetts jail, an immigration judge released him on bond, and he returned to Maine to resume training at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

On August 27, 2025, Vasquez (49) and Ramirez (40), a married couple from Mexico, were arrested by ICE during a traffic stop in Tulsa despite having pending U visa applications and federal deportation protections as crime victims who assisted law enforcement in prosecuting a serial rapist. Ramirez was held for four months at Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Texas, where she was denied access to seizure medication for her epilepsy. Vasquez was detained for over seven months at a CoreCivic facility in Cushing, Oklahoma, and attended 13 immigration court hearings before winning a habeas corpus lawsuit granting him a bond hearing. The prolonged separation and detention resulted in job loss, eviction from their home in Broken Arrow, and approximately $12,000 in accumulated legal debt. Vasquez was released in April 2026 on deferral of removal grounds, followed by Ramirez's release. Both remain without legal status and are working to recover financially while awaiting U visa hearings.

Sinri Baltazar, a member of the Afro-indigenous Garifuna community from Honduras, was first separated from her then-5-year-old daughter in 2018 under the Trump administration's family separation policy. In 2024-2025, immigration officials presented her with a document they claimed would allow her family to stay together, but it actually facilitated their removal. She was deported with her three children, including one who is a U.S. citizen. Under a federal judge's order in April 2026, she was allowed to return to Louisiana with her three children. The family is currently living with an acquaintance from church while working to reestablish stable housing. Baltazar expressed gratitude that her children could seek a better life but emphasized the family's desire for a safe home of their own.

Valeria Mendoza Santiago, a 25-year-old pregnant woman from Oaxaca, Mexico, was arrested by ICE agents at a bus stop in Anchorage on March 20, 2026, and transferred to Hiland Mountain Correctional Center. She was scheduled for transfer to federal detention in Tacoma, Washington, but her lawyers obtained a temporary restraining order citing ICE's own guidelines against detaining pregnant women, resulting in her release. Santiago remains in federal immigration removal proceedings and lives at home with her son.

S.M.H., a 16-year-old Los Angeles high school student and aspiring tennis player whose parents are college psychology professors, was arrested by ICE in April 2026 along with his family after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards based on foreign policy concerns. S.M.H. and his mother have been held at the Dilley family detention center for 123 days—more than six times the federally-mandated 20-day limit—in conditions he described in a sworn affidavit as infested with cockroaches, spiders, and mosquitoes. He reports staff yell at children, deny food requests, serve unhealthy meals, and provide inadequate education compared to his California school. S.M.H., who considers himself an "average American kid" and has never been charged with a crime, has lost 10 pounds and says the experience is "terrifying." His father is detained separately at another Texas facility, and the family is allowed to speak for only 10 minutes every two weeks under supervision. The family's lawyers argue the prolonged detention violates the Flores settlement, a federal court agreement limiting child detention to 20 days.