Human Impact Project

ICE agents detained Brayan Morales Bermudez, 26, outside the Clark County Courthouse in Vancouver on Monday during a lunch break in his criminal trial. Morales Bermudez came to the U.S. seeking asylum in 2024 after receiving death threats in Guatemala and was being held at a Tacoma detention facility. His girlfriend stated the detention may have violated Washington state law, which typically prohibits civil arrests by ICE within a mile of courthouses without a judicial warrant.

A family of eight returning from a basketball game in Minneapolis on January 17, 2026, became trapped between ICE agents and protesters. After being surrounded by federal agents and unable to leave, tear gas canisters were deployed into their vehicle, forcing the mother to administer CPR to their 6-month-old infant who stopped breathing. The family was ultimately rescued by bystanders who helped evacuate the children from the tear gas-filled car.

Two protesters were blinded by less-lethal munitions fired by federal officers during an anti-ICE protest in Santa Ana, California. Kaden Rummler, 21, was shot at close range in the face, causing blindness in his left eye with glass shards and metal fragments lodged in his skull. Britain Rodriguez, 31, suffered a similar close-range shot to the face at the same protest.

ICE agents conducted an enforcement action in Minneapolis that resulted in the detention of a man and caused injuries to multiple children present at the scene. During the incident, ICE agents smashed a car window containing six children, including a 6-month-old who lost consciousness and was hospitalized after exposure to tear gas and a flash bang device. A 16-year-old U.S. citizen was allegedly placed in a chokehold during the encounter, and his phone was reportedly confiscated and sold to a used electronics vending machine. The family was returning home from a basketball game when they became trapped in the area where the enforcement action was occurring.

Sophie Watso, a 30-year-old Mdewakanton Dakota woman, was detained by ICE agents on January 14, 2026, after monitoring immigration enforcement activity in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. During her arrest, agents broke her truck windows and physically restrained her while she held her dog. She was charged under U.S. Code 18 Section 111 for allegedly obstructing a federal investigation, though no formal charges were filed. She was held for over 48 hours at Fort Snelling's Whipple Building and Sherbourne County Jail before being released on January 16, 2026, without charges being formally filed.

ICE agents detained a person outside a Costco store in Kyle, Texas on Thursday morning. According to Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra, the individual sustained injuries including facial bleeding. The person was transported to the hospital by emergency medical services accompanied by Homeland Security personnel.

Alberto Cabral, a 73-year-old landscaper, was detained by ICE agents on Gardner Avenue in West Hollywood while working his regular landscaping route. According to witnesses and community members, Cabral has lived in the U.S. since age 15 and is the primary income source for his 97-year-old mother and 70-year-old wife. He suffers from serious medical conditions including heart disease and diabetes, and recently sustained work-related injuries including fractures and an open wound.

Liborio Parral Ortiz and Bonfilia Sanchez Dominguez, a married couple from Mounds View, Minnesota, were stopped by ICE agents early Thursday morning while driving to Mercy Hospital's Unity Campus in Fridley because Sanchez Dominguez was experiencing back pain. ICE immediately detained Parral Ortiz and transported him to El Paso, Texas within 20 hours, separating him from his wife who remained hospitalized. According to their daughter Shelly Parral Ortiz, ICE agents were posted outside the mother's hospital room, and hospital staff told the family they would not be allowed to return to visit if they left. Security staff also threatened to arrest the family's lawyer when he attempted to speak with Sanchez Dominguez.

Federal agents conducted traffic stops near a Meta Platforms data center construction site in Louisiana as part of Operation Catahoula Crunch, targeting dump trucks and other vehicles headed to the build area. Over 90% of those detained had no criminal records. The enforcement activity disrupted construction logistics and caused community anxiety among immigrant households.

A 25-year-old Guatemalan woman of indigenous Mam ethnicity was detained on January 16, 2026, at an ICE check-in appointment in Eugene due to a pending felony criminal mistreatment case in Marion County. She claims persecution in Guatemala based on her indigenous heritage and reports her daughter is at risk of violence because her former partner is a gang member. Court records show she was released pending the outcome of her habeas petition after attorneys argued she posed neither a flight risk nor danger to the community.

Rosmery Morales-Mejia, a 27-year-old Mexican national, pleaded guilty on March 30, 2026 to fraud and misuse of visas after using counterfeit documents to gain employment at Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant in Nitro. She was sentenced to time served and has an ICE detainer pending her transfer for removal proceedings. Her husband and four other undocumented immigrants working at the restaurant were also indicted in connection with the case.

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.

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.