Human Impact Project

A Guatemalan citizen who entered the United States in 2001 was detained by ICE officers on March 9, 2026, while on his way to work and is currently held at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, California. A federal court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding his detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process, and ordered the government to provide a bond hearing within 14 days or release him.

Rogelio, a 39-year-old Guatemalan immigrant married to a U.S. citizen with five U.S.-born children, was detained by ICE for seven months after being stopped by local police in La Belle, Florida. He spent over six months at the Broward Transitional Center in deportation proceedings. A judge approved his cancellation of removal application, allowing him to pursue citizenship and a green card. Approximately 4,000 cancellations of removal are granted nationally each year.

Mahady Sacko, a 50-year-old undocumented Mauritanian national, was arrested by ICE in Philadelphia for illegally voting in seven federal elections between 2008 and 2024. Despite being ordered removed from the country in 2000 and placed under immigration supervision, Sacko remained in the U.S. and registered and voted in multiple elections. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting, with violations carrying fines and up to five years in prison.

Adriana Laya, Miguel Alberto Caicedo, and their two children were detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas for two months following a routine ICE check-in in January 2026. The family, who entered the U.S. in 2024 under asylum parole, reported poor detention conditions including undrinkable water, constant lighting, and inadequate medical care for their son with kidney issues. Upon their release in mid-February, they discovered they had been evicted from their apartment in Las Cruces, New Mexico and lost their possessions, life savings, pet dog, and jobs. The family is now living in their car, their only remaining possession.

A federal judge in Oregon has restricted federal officers from using tear gas at protests at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland. The ruling limits law enforcement's use of force against demonstrators at the ICE facility.

An man who was in ICE custody escaped from an ICE agent's vehicle near Chambers Drive and Sigman Road in Rockdale County, Georgia on Monday afternoon. The man had been arrested by Conyers Police on Saturday for a traffic violation and was being transferred by ICE when he jumped from the vehicle and fled. Law enforcement from multiple agencies established a perimeter and captured the man shortly after 3 p.m.

Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, a Colombian asylum-seeker who had lived in the U.S. for approximately four years with no criminal record, attended a routine check-in appointment at ICE's San Francisco office on March 3, 2026, with her two sons, including a deaf child who attended the California School for the Deaf. All three were detained by federal agents. The deaf child was separated from his hearing aids and assistive equipment during detention, despite a family member being present outside willing to provide them. The family was deported to Colombia by March 6. A federal immigration court had placed an order of supervision on Rodriguez Gutierrez that should have prevented deportation. Her attorney stated ICE misled his team about the family's whereabouts throughout the week and obstructed access to counsel, preventing the family from invoking humanitarian protections. California officials and immigration attorneys subsequently called for the family's return.

The petitioner was arrested on March 5, 2026, and charged with carrying a concealed firearm, a felony under Florida law. Three days later, on March 8, 2026, immigration authorities apprehended him following that arrest. On April 16, 2026, the criminal charge was dismissed via nolle prosequi. He is currently held at the Central Valley Annex detention facility. He filed a habeas corpus petition and motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing that his re-detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing violated his due process rights. The court found that, unlike in a prior case where it ordered immediate release, the circumstances here—an immediate detention following a pending felony arrest—suggested a non-pretextual change in circumstances justifying revocation of his prior release. The court therefore granted the petition and TRO but ordered a post-deprivation bond hearing rather than immediate release, requiring the government to prove by clear and convincing evidence that he is a flight risk or danger to the community. The court ordered Respondents to provide the bond hearing within 14 days or release him immediately, with seven days' advance notice and a status report due within 17 days.

Ruben, 28, a Nicaraguan immigrant who had been living in San Francisco's Mission District with his brother Francisco since October 2022, was arrested on February 17 while arriving for his asylum appointment at the Sansome Street immigration court. Francisco and Ruben had worked together and lived as a unit for three years in the Mission, sharing meals and supporting each other as they built their lives in the United States. Ruben's prior immigration appointment had been changed without his notification, and he failed to file the necessary motion to explain his missed hearing, which proved fatal to his case. He was detained and transferred through multiple detention facilities—Mesa Verde in Bakersfield, a facility in Arizona, and Puerto Isabel in Texas—before being deported to Nicaragua on March 8.

An asylum seeker from Ghana working as a health aide in Central Ohio is facing deportation to Uganda following a recent immigration hearing. The individual is seeking assistance after the government determined she should be removed to a country unfamiliar to her.

A Yemeni national with Temporary Protected Status and father of four U.S. citizen children was detained by ICE on March 6, 2026, three days after his TPS status expired on March 3, 2026. He owns a car dealership in Birmingham, Alabama and his wife is a U.S. citizen pregnant with their fifth child. The court denied his motion for temporary restraining order seeking immediate release from detention.

Jose Ernesto Aparicio Almendarez, a 20-year-old Honduran citizen who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor seeking asylum, was detained by ICE after being stopped for driving without a license in Orlando, Florida. He had previously been released by ORR to a sponsor and has a pending asylum application. The court ordered his immediate release, finding his detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process. Jose Alberto Cuellar, a 51-year-old landscaper from El Salvador who has lived in South Florida for 30 years, was detained by ICE agents during a traffic stop near Davie and Griffin roads early Tuesday morning. According to his son Justin, who was driving the landscaping truck, ICE agents approached the vehicle after it was pulled over for an allegedly obstructed license plate, and agents asked his father in Spanish whether he had papers or was "legal," using a racial slur. Cuellar has no criminal record and has worked as a landscaper six days a week for decades while attempting to legalize his immigration status since the early 2000s; his family has been unable to locate him in any detainee system and are raising funds for legal representation.

Juan, a Honduran national who came to the U.S. seven years ago seeking asylum, was arrested by ICE during a traffic stop on a Virginia highway while driving to work. He had an active asylum case, work permit, and marriage petition to a U.S. citizen at the time of his arrest. After spending one month detained at Farmville Detention Center, Juan was released on bond following a habeas petition but now faces an uncertain asylum process with declining approval rates under the current administration.

A Vietnamese immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in 1991 as a lawful permanent resident was arrested by immigration authorities outside his home on March 5, 2026. He had been living in the community on supervised release since 2006 after his removal to Vietnam proved impracticable following a 2004 conviction. The court ordered his immediate release, finding the government failed to demonstrate his removal was reasonably foreseeable and violated procedures for revoking his supervised release.

An Iranian citizen born in Germany in 1990 who has lived in the United States for over 20 years since entering at age 15. He is employed full-time as a Project Manager for J.T. Construction Group and works as an In-Home Supportive Service provider caring for his parents, who are now U.S. citizens. In 2012, he was ordered removed to Iran but granted withholding of removal, and was placed on an order of supervision (OSUP). On March 5, 2026, ICE officers arrested him at Burbank Airport without providing meaningful notice or opportunity to be heard, claiming his case was under review for removal to an unnamed third country. ICE detained him at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. A federal magistrate judge granted his habeas petition, finding no showing of changed circumstances for revocation, violation of due process procedures, and inadequate third-country removal safeguards. The court ordered his immediate release subject to his prior OSUP conditions and prohibited removal to a third country without written notice and a minimum 10-day opportunity to raise fear-based claims.

Mirna Yesenia Alvarado Benitez, a citizen of El Salvador who entered the U.S. in July 2024, was initially detained and then released with conditions. On March 5, 2026, she appeared for a routine ICE check-in appointment, at which point the government placed her in expedited removal proceedings and detained her. The court granted a temporary restraining order preventing her removal while her habeas corpus petition is pending. Mirna Benitez, a Salvadoran woman who had been living in the U.S. for nearly 13 years and working as a school custodian, was detained by ICE after attending a scheduled appointment at an ICE office in North Chesterfield on December 7, 2025. Despite having attended regular ICE check-ins for years, applied for asylum with legal representation, and obtained a temporary work permit, Benitez was taken into custody without warning. She was transferred through multiple detention facilities—Riverside Regional Jail in Richmond, an ICE facility in Texas, and another in Louisiana—over 10 days, during which she reported mistreatment by officers, inadequate medical care, unsanitary conditions, and denial of access to legal counsel. She ultimately chose to accept deportation to El Salvador rather than remain detained, departing before Christmas.

A native and citizen of El Salvador who has resided in the United States since 2005. In 2014, an Immigration Judge ordered him removed but granted his application for withholding of removal to El Salvador. Because his removal order was not effectuated, he was placed under an Order of Supervision (OSUP) on February 2, 2016, and remained released on supervision while attending regular check-ins with ICE for approximately 10 years. On March 5, 2026, at a scheduled check-in, ICE revoked his OSUP and arrested him, providing only vague boilerplate language about enforcing his removal order without specifying concrete reasons or the destination country. The informal interview required by regulations occurred the same day as his arrest, preventing him from meaningfully responding to the revocation notice. On April 8, 2026, a federal judge granted his motion for a temporary restraining order, finding that ICE likely violated its own regulations by: failing to provide adequate notice of the reasons for revocation, conducting the informal interview immediately upon arrest without allowing time to respond, and having the revocation decision made by a Supervisory Detention & Deportation Officer rather than the required Executive Associate Director or District Director. The court ordered ICE to immediately release him under the same supervision terms that applied before his detention and enjoined ICE from re-detaining him unless it complies with proper procedures.

Hai Nguyen, a Vietnamese national who has lived in the U.S. since 1993 and worked in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, was detained by ICE during a routine appointment. His detention stems from a decades-old marijuana charge from college that was expunged from his record. He now faces possible deportation despite previously being considered non-deportable because Vietnam would not accept deportees who arrived before 1995.

Two separate ICE detention cases involved individuals serving critical caregiving roles. Maher Tarabishi was detained while being the sole caregiver for his son with Pompe disease, who is completely immobile and dependent on his father for all daily care. Josué, a day laborer from El Salvador, was detained by ICE agents and reported that his heart condition went unaddressed during detention, with medication withheld and inadequate medical attention provided despite his history of heart attacks.

Axel Pecero, 25, a former Los Angeles County foster youth and advocate for youth in child welfare and juvenile justice systems, was detained by ICE in August 2025 after being stopped by Burbank police. After nearly eight months of detention at Adelanto ICE Processing Center, an immigration judge denied his bond request. Pecero agreed to voluntary departure to Mexico, leaving behind his 4-year-old son in the United States.