Human Impact Project

Ben and five other people in Illinois, Oregon, and Minnesota were arrested while protesting at ICE facilities and had DNA swabs taken without clear consent. Ben was arrested during a protest at Chicago's Broadview ICE facility during Operation Midway Blitz; video reviewed by NPR shows a masked federal officer slamming him to the ground while three immigration officers pinned him down and dragged him to their vehicle. He was held in custody for approximately three hours, then photographed, fingerprinted, and had a DNA swab collected from inside his cheek without clear explanation. The six cases, reported in recent months across three states, are now part of litigation challenging the Department of Homeland Security and FBI DNA database collection practices as violations of First and Fourth Amendment protections.

Rafael Rubio, a New York City Council data analyst, was ordered deported to Venezuela by a federal immigration judge after being detained by ICE for more than two months. The judge deemed Rubio's asylum application abandoned due to a missing signature on paperwork. Rubio had overstayed a 2017 tourist visa. According to DHS, he has a prior arrest for assault.

Wilfredo Castillo, a Venezuelan who fled political persecution and violence, was arrested at an immigration check-in appointment in Tukwila in March 2025 after being told by ICE he would be detained. ICE claimed he missed nine SmartLink app check-ins, but Castillo says the app malfunctioned and he never missed in-person appointments. He spent 11 months at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where he was stabbed multiple times by another detainee. A federal judge released him after finding the government lacked justification for his prolonged detention.

Jefferson Fernando Cando Llano, 29, a father of a 6-year-old boy seeking asylum from Ecuador, was detained by masked Border Patrol agents in unmarked vehicles at a laundromat parking lot in Browne's Addition, Spokane on March 8. Cando Llano came to Spokane three years ago with his wife to escape trauma and violence in Ecuador and has an open asylum case with no criminal record. Friends who witnessed the encounter could not identify the agents and filed a missing persons report with Spokane police, fearing a kidnapping. Cando Llano was held for 10 days at Kootenai County Jail before being released after his attorney filed an appeal against a removal order issued by an immigration judge. The incident raised concerns among local police about the use of unmarked vehicles and masks by federal agents in immigration enforcement operations.

A Vietnamese immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee in 1992 was detained by ICE on January 12, 2026, during what he believed was a routine check-in appointment at an Anchorage facility. ICE held him for 65 days in the Anchorage Correctional Complex, citing a denied green card application based on an old teenage criminal conviction from the 1990s. His attorney and immigration lawyers disputed the detention, arguing he was eligible for permanent residency under the Indochinese Parole Adjustment Act and that the criminal conviction on his DHS record was inaccurate. A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order, and ICE canceled his final administrative removal order on March 18, 2026, resulting in his release. He was released on conditions including an ankle monitor and weekly ICE reporting requirements.

The Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California's Mojave Desert has faced documented concerns about detention conditions and practices. An investigation revealed detainees experiencing inadequate medical care, insufficient food and water, mold, staph infections, and prolonged detention, with some held for nearly three years despite having permanent residency status or no criminal convictions. Immigrant rights groups have filed a lawsuit against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security seeking to end conditions described as unsanitary, with more than a dozen detainees hospitalized and two local fathers dying following detention at the facility.

Multiple Ohio organizations filed a lawsuit on March 18, 2026, against the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection, alleging federal agents illegally arrested people without proper arrest warrants or probable cause since April 22, 2025. The lawsuit represents all people in Ohio subject to such arrests and includes a specific case from December 2025 in which plainclothes agents in an unmarked vehicle arrested a man outside a home improvement store without displaying a warrant. The man had an active asylum case, a valid work permit, and a social security number.

Juan Antonio Maldinera Guzman was detained on March 17, 2026, after having been previously released on bond or conditional parole. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California found that the government violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights by re-detaining him without first providing a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter. The court determined that the Due Process Clause requires such a hearing to consider a noncitizen's eligibility for bond before re-detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) or § 1182(d)(5). Following prior precedent established in Selis Tinoco v. Noem, Labrador-Prato v. Noem, D.L.C. v. Wofford, and Altin v. Chestnut, the court granted Maldinera Guzman's petition for writ of habeas corpus and motion for temporary restraining order. He was ordered released immediately from the California City Detention Facility with the same conditions he was subject to prior to his March 17, 2026 detention. If the government seeks to re-detain him, it must provide seven days' notice and hold a constitutionally compliant pre-deprivation bond hearing.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted 39 live pythons hidden inside a tractor at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo on March 5, 2026. The driver had provided a negative declaration for prohibited goods before officers discovered the snakes concealed in the vehicle. CBP issued $34,824 in penalties for export violations, seized the tractor and trailer, and the case remains under investigation by the Fish and Wildlife Service and Homeland Security Investigations.

A California man was detained for days in December after a rookie ICE agent made critical errors in paperwork that became the federal government's justification for his detention. The new officer had completed an abbreviated basic training program that provided only one-third of the hours previously dedicated to teaching recruits how to fill out a key form, according to federal court records.

San Diego County's Immigrant Legal Defense Program, which provides free legal counsel to detained immigrants and unaccompanied minors, faces significant funding gaps as costs are expected to reach $13.4-$18 million annually while the budget remains at $5 million. The increased demand is driven by a nearly 200% increase in detention levels at the Otay Mesa Detention Center under the Trump administration. Without additional funding from philanthropic and state sources, the program may be unable to maintain current service levels.

A witness recorded ICE agents beating a man inside a Home Depot store in Paramount, California. The man appeared unable to stand on his own as agents dragged him from the store. An agent stated they had a warrant for the man's arrest.

An Emanuel County Commissioners' Office employee was arrested after an internal audit discovered unauthorized use of a county credit card for personal purchases. Risa K. Fortner, 48, of Kite, Georgia, was charged with theft by taking after receipts showed items were delivered to her home address. She was booked into the Emanuel County Detention Center.

Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman who has lived in Paterson, New Jersey since 2016, was released from ICE detention after a year in custody. She was detained in March 2025 during a voluntary check-in at the Newark ICE office and transferred to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Her detention followed her participation in a 2024 pro-Palestinian protest outside Columbia University, prompted after Israel killed relatives of hers in Gaza; charges from that arrest were later dismissed and sealed. At the time of her detention, she had a pending green card application through her U.S. citizen mother and a pending asylum application. In February 2026, she suffered a seizure and was hospitalized for three days, during which she remained shackled to her bed and was prevented from contacting family or attorneys; she also reported dizziness, fainting, weight loss, and cited overcrowded conditions and inadequate food at the facility. An immigration judge ordered her released on bond, citing minimal flight risk and serious medical concerns, and the government did not appeal. Her attorneys contend she was targeted for her pro-Palestine advocacy.

The petitioner entered the United States on or about February 3, 2024, was briefly detained by immigration authorities, and was then released on his own recognizance and enrolled in ICE's Alternatives to Detention program. On or about April 4, 2025, he was arrested for grand theft under California Penal Code § 487, but there is no evidence he was ever formally charged. He failed to report for a mandatory ICE check-in on August 26, 2025, but voluntarily presented himself at an ICE office on February 26, 2026, and was again placed in the Alternatives to Detention program on his own recognizance. On March 16, 2026, he was re-detained by ICE during a subsequent mandatory check-in, purportedly for violating release conditions, and has been held at the California City Immigration Processing Center since then. He filed a federal habeas petition and a motion for a temporary restraining order challenging his re-detention as a due process violation, arguing the government identified no new criminal conduct or violation justifying re-detention. The court found the Laken Riley Act's mandatory detention provision inapplicable because he was never formally charged after his arrest, ruled his re-detention violated due process, and ordered his immediate release under his prior conditions while barring re-detention without a pre-detention hearing absent exigent circumstances.

An unidentified mother, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, spent more than two months detained at the Dilley family detention center with her 3-year-old son. She described a long line for medication when her son had a fever and recounted asking staff what would happen if a child began convulsing, saying she was told they would need to wait for an ambulance. She said she saw other very sick children at the facility during her detention.

Aury Cadena, a single mother who arrived in the U.S. from Venezuela in 2023 seeking asylum, was arrested by ICE in December during a scheduled check-in appointment she had never missed. She and her three children, ages 10, 8 and 7, were held for 50 days at the Dilley family detention center in South Texas, despite a court-set 20-day limit for children in detention. Cadena said her children asked her what they had done wrong, and described long waits outdoors at night to get medication when her kids had fevers. She and her children were released after a federal judge allowed ICE to track her with an ankle monitor while her deportation case continues, and the family has returned home to San Antonio, where the children are back in school and she cleans apartments to support them.

Vilma Bautista Torres and her 9-year-old son Kenek, who has Level 3 autism, were detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center for more than 80 days despite a federal settlement limiting child detention to 20 days. During detention, Kenek lost access to specialized therapy and schooling, experienced frequent meltdowns, self-harm episodes, and became increasingly disoriented and afraid. After a pro bono law clinic filed a parole request documenting his autism diagnosis and self-harm, ICE released the family with an ankle monitor.

Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, an Afghan national who worked alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Paktika province starting in 2005, died in ICE custody at Dallas' Parkland Memorial Hospital shortly after his arrest. ICE agents arrested him outside his Richardson, Texas home on March 13, 2026, while he was driving his children to school; his wife's attempt to hand him his inhaler was reportedly rejected by agents. Paktiawal, who evacuated to the U.S. in 2021 after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and held humanitarian parole valid through 2029 with a pending asylum application, called his brother Naseer that evening saying he couldn't breathe and was shaking and sweating. Hospital staff later found severe tongue swelling and administered epinephrine, but he was pronounced dead shortly after. The Dallas County Medical Examiner ruled the death accidental, caused by anaphylaxis from an adverse drug reaction to an unidentified substance that exacerbated his asthma. DHS said he had been arrested over alleged SNAP fraud and theft, though no charges were filed. His family and advocacy groups are demanding release of the full autopsy report, with his brother asking, "If they know he is going through pain and he is asking for someone to help, what were they waiting for? The last breath?"

ICE agents arrested an undocumented father while he was taking his 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, both U.S. citizens, to school in New Jersey. According to witnesses and the family, agents asked the boy to call a relative but drove away before anyone arrived, leaving the two minors unattended on the roadside. The incident violates ICE policy and DHS directives requiring agents to remain on scene until a third party assumes physical custody of minor children.