Human Impact Project

Milo Miles, a Canadian adult-film model, was detained by U.S. Customs at Toronto's Pearson Airport for eight hours across two separate interrogations before being banned from the U.S. for 10 years. Border agents questioned him extensively about his sexuality, clothing, and PrEP medication, and discovered his adult film work and escort activities through his devices. Miles was pressured into confessing to prostitution despite agents finding no proof of money-for-sex exchanges or lined-up clients.

Tomas Orellana, a Great Neck resident, was detained by ICE in early January while attending a mandatory probation hearing at a courthouse for a DWI conviction. His wife Claudia says he was detained inside the courthouse without being shown a warrant, in potential violation of New York's Protect Our Courts Act. Community groups, churches, and residents have rallied to support the family of eight children, raising approximately $28,000 on GoFundMe to help cover legal fees.

ICE removed Jose Serrano-Maldonado, a Maryland father with no criminal record, to El Salvador on January 20, 2026, despite two court orders prohibiting his removal and a clear "do not remove" banner in his file. Federal authorities admitted the mistake during an emergency hearing but did not provide explanation for why the deportation occurred. The judge ordered daily status updates and the government is working to return him to the United States.

Victor Acurio Suarez, a 52-year-old disabled Ecuadorian immigrant with autism and aphasia, was issued an order of voluntary departure by an immigration judge on January 20, 2026. Suarez was arrested by ICE in September 2024 while in a Lowe's parking lot. His asylum request was denied and he faces deportation to Ecuador. He has documented trauma.

A 48-year-old Mexican citizen who has lived in Pomona, California for over 17 years with his spouse and four U.S. citizen children was arrested during an interior immigration enforcement operation on January 19, 2026. He has been detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility since his arrest, with an Immigration Judge denying his bond request. The federal court granted a temporary restraining order requiring his immediate release, finding his bond hearing violated due process.

An ICE agent entered a Thai restaurant in St. Paul, Minnesota with his handgun drawn while searching for a person who had run past the restaurant. The agent accused the restaurant owners of hiding "a kid" and conducted a search of the establishment. Multiple customers and staff members were present during the incident, with some employees subsequently expressing reluctance about returning to work.

A lawsuit alleges that an ICE detainee was repeatedly denied his antipsychotic medication while in custody. The denial of medication allegedly resulted in cascading symptoms that caused the detainee to harm himself and lose vision in one eye.

Thierno Diallo faces removal despite multiple legal requests including humanitarian parole and a stay of removal that ICE has not responded to.

A six-year-old girl was found wandering the streets alone after her father, Adonay Mancia Rodríguez, was detained by ICE agents in Morristown, New Jersey. The father left their apartment to pick up food when he was arrested during an immigration enforcement operation that resulted in the detention of 11 individuals. According to family statements, Rodríguez arrived in the U.S. as a teenager and had been employed and living in the community for over ten years with no criminal record.

Detainees at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center have been denied essential medical treatment for weeks or months after ICE stopped paying external medical providers on October 3, 2025, due to administrative breakdown. The facility holds over 500 people with no on-site physician or dentist, and more than 20 detainees were waiting for care at the time of a DHS inspection. The payment halt occurred as ICE custody numbers surged to over 73,000 during the second Trump administration, violating the agency's obligation to provide necessary medical care.

Two Latino men were detained by Border Patrol agents on January 17, 2026, while painting the exterior of a Christian church in Compton, California. The men were working outside the church on Alondra Boulevard and Bradfield Avenue, covering graffiti and maintaining the building, when agents stopped them and halted the church service inside. Their wives told Telemundo52 they are uncertain what to do moving forward as mothers now left without their husbands and fathers of their children, expressing their distress over the arrests.

Ann Salas laid out toys, clothes, furniture and appliances on her Skokie driveway Friday morning, selling everything in preparation for permanently leaving the United States.⁠ Some shoppers were happy to just give her cash, because her 49-year-old husband, who was brought here from Guatemala as a 5-year-old, was deported to that country last month. She plans to take their young son to Mexico to reunite with her husband, Antony “Tony” Salas, and live there as a family.⁠ A check of court records in Cook County and San Francisco County, California, where Antony Salas lived for a time, did not show any arrests for him.⁠ The family doesn’t plan on coming back, though Ann Salas and the couple’s 3-year-old son are U.S. citizens, and Antony Salas has lived in the U.S. for decades.⁠ Tap on the link in our bio to read more. ⁠

D.E., a 44-year-old Mexican national who has lived with a brain tumor for 12 years, was arrested by ICE without a warrant just blocks from his home in Long Branch, New Jersey, days before he was scheduled to begin chemotherapy. While detained at the California City Detention Center, a CoreCivic-run facility, he was repeatedly denied his twice-daily seizure medication, Keppra, and suffered several seizures, including one during which he wedged his arm against his bed frame to keep from falling into a nearby toilet during a convulsion. He filed medical grievances, including a request for a radiation and chemotherapy specialist, but received no written response. His case is cited in a broader investigation finding that the ICE detention grievance system has collapsed after the Trump administration cut oversight offices, including the Office of Detention Oversight, the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Magdalena's husband was detained by ICE agents on January 19, 2026, while working to support his family. He was subsequently deported. Magdalena, who is battling stage 4 cancer that has spread from her uterus to her lungs and has undergone multiple surgeries, was left alone to care for their three children. The family fled Honduras due to violence and is seeking asylum in the United States.

An immigrant who has lived in the United States for over thirty years was arrested and detained by ICE on January 19, 2026, pursuant to immigration proceedings. He is the father of three U.S. citizen children, the youngest of whom is entirely dependent upon him. He has no criminal history and maintains community ties. After requesting a custody redetermination hearing under 8 C.F.R. § 1236, an Immigration Judge denied jurisdiction over his bond request on May 19, 2026. He filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court contending he is entitled to a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) and that the statute and regulations require custody determinations and bond hearings, prohibiting indefinite detention without a hearing. The court granted his habeas petition in part, ordering that respondents must either hold a bond hearing before a neutral decisionmaker within seven days or cease detention. The court found the case mirrored numerous analogous cases previously decided by the Eastern District of California.

Federal ICE agents detained at least one person in Watsonville over the weekend according to local watchdog group YARR. Multiple unmarked vehicles were reported in the Rodriguez Street area near Watsonville High School, with agents knocking on doors at a property. A video of the arrest circulated on social media showing an agent with a man whose hands were behind his back.

A 62-year-old Somali elder was detained by ICE agents at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis on December 31 without a warrant. ICE officers remained at the patient's bedside for approximately 28 hours while she received medical care. During her detention, the patient was allegedly shackled to her hospital bed and denied family visits. She was subsequently transported to the ICU where she remains unresponsive.

On Sunday, January 18, ICE agents broke a driver's side truck window while detaining a man on Tucson's south side, first using a device to break the window and then using an elbow and fist to break the rest. According to a video witness, the man had work tools in the back of his truck and groceries in the front seat. ICE did not respond to inquiries about why the man was detained or why agents needed to break the window.

ChongLy "Scott" Thao, a U.S. citizen for decades, was detained at gunpoint by masked ICE agents who broke down his door without a warrant at his St. Paul, Minnesota home. Agents refused to look at his identification and led him outside in subfreezing temperatures wearing only underwear and sandals while his 4-year-old grandson watched and cried. Thao was driven to a remote location, questioned, and later returned home after agents confirmed he was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record; DHS claimed the operation targeted two sex offenders it said lived at the address, a claim Thao's family disputes. Thao's mother had fled Laos in the 1970s after supporting U.S. covert operations there as a nurse, and Thao says he plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS.

An 18-month-old girl named Amalia was held with her parents at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. In January, she became critically ill with pneumonia, Covid-19, and RSV and was hospitalized with respiratory failure. After discharge, she was returned to detention and denied prescribed medication by doctors, remaining confined for nine additional days before being released following an emergency habeas corpus petition.