Human Impact Project

A 23-year-old woman was chased by masked federal agents through her neighborhood outside New Orleans as she walked home from a corner store, even after shouting at them she was a U.S. citizen.

In Denham Springs, Louisiana, more than a dozen schoolchildren were lined up waiting for the school bus at Plantation Oaks Trailer Park when masked Border Patrol agents in multiple cars sped along the highway in front of their neighborhood with sirens blaring. Agents were pursuing an air-conditioning work truck. Terrified and crying, children ran when they saw a man pulled from his truck and slammed face-first into the ground. A witness reported that around eight of the schoolchildren actually made it onto the school bus.

Elmer M., a 28-year-old Guatemalan man, developed a rash on his penis that became infected because the facility failed to provide soap or supplies to wash or treat it. Starting in December, he asked guards and signed up to see a medic daily. As of March — four months later — he had still not been seen by a medic.

Orlando L., a 40-year-old Honduran man with high blood pressure requiring Losartan twice daily and regular cardiologist visits, experienced repeated medication delays and denials at Camp East Montana. Despite staff knowing his conditions, medications were not given during initial processing. He experienced high blood pressure episodes, bodily tremors, and weakness. Staff attributed symptoms to stress and sent him to a psychologist instead of treating his physical condition. He signed up for medical care eight consecutive days without receiving it. When he requested testing by a cardiologist, staff told him all they could do was 'maintain him in a stable condition until his deportation.'

Germán L., a 32-year-old Colombian man, was beaten by guards at Camp East Montana after simply standing up from a table to see what was happening during an argument. A lieutenant yelled at him in English, then sent a guard who grabbed him by the collar, yanked him from his chair, and slammed him on his back, hitting his head. The guard kicked his right side, then folded his body in half and dragged him to solitary confinement. Germán was given papers falsely claiming he had attacked an officer. He was held in isolation for at least 17 days at the time of his interview, with a 30-day punishment imposed. His appeals to ICE went unanswered. He repeatedly asked guards to review the camera footage.

Asif Ali, 26, was charged with second-degree assault after shoving a wooden pallet into an officer's foot during a protest against an ICE operation on Canal Street in lower Manhattan. Ali was among 18 people arrested when activists blocked ICE agents from leaving a garage. He pleaded not guilty and was released without bail.

Dulce, a Guatemalan mother without legal status in Virginia, had her 8-year-old son placed in federal shelter after he was detained during a traffic stop while visiting family in another state in summer 2024. Although she had previously passed sponsorship requirements and reunited with him within weeks of his initial border crossing, resettlement officials required her to repeat the entire application process. After eight months, she recovered her son in February 2025 following a lawsuit filed by his attorneys. Dulce feared attending an ICE office for an identification interview and avoided her home for days due to fear of deportation.

Humberto Martinez was deported by ICE to Mexico while his daughter Jessica Martinez, a U.S. Navy sailor, was deployed to the Middle East. Jessica learned of her father's deportation while already overseas. The family was separated by the two simultaneous government actions, leaving Jessica's sister to manage the household while their father remained in Mexico awaiting return to the United States.

A Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. through CBP One and received humanitarian parole in November 2024 was arrested by ICE in December 2025. DHS terminated his parole via email in April 2025 while he was living in Denver, working lawfully, and complying with parole conditions. The court granted a temporary restraining order preventing his removal, finding he is likely a member of a class whose parole terminations were ruled unlawful in a Massachusetts federal court case.

A second-grade student in Vermont was detained by ICE during the Thanksgiving holiday period. The incident involved the detention of a minor by immigration enforcement authorities.

Elias Perez-Zuazo, a Panamanian national, was detained by ICE in December 2025 during a scheduled check-in appointment at a Chantilly, Virginia office that he had previously attended without incident. Perez-Zuazo entered the U.S. in November 2021, was processed at the southern border, and married his U.S. citizen husband Jonathan Blanco Gallegos in February 2024. They had begun applying for a green card when Perez-Zuazo was taken into custody without warning. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia has issued an order barring ICE from removing him from the judicial district while the court reviews the legality of his detention, which his attorney is challenging via habeas corpus petition.

Natalia Arai, 37, was charged with second-degree assault and resisting arrest after kicking a garbage can that struck an officer in the leg during a protest against an ICE operation on Canal Street in lower Manhattan. Arai was among 18 people arrested when activists formed a human chain and used debris to block ICE agents from leaving a garage. She pleaded not guilty and was released without bail.

Guan Heng, a 38-year-old Chinese asylum seeker, secretly filmed internment facilities in Xinjiang in 2020 before fleeing China and arriving in the U.S. in 2021, where he applied for asylum, obtained a work permit, and worked as an Uber driver and delivery worker in Queens. In August 2025, ICE agents arrested him at his home near Albany, New York, during an operation targeting his housemates, and he has since been held at Broome County Correctional Facility. DHS initially sought to deport him to Uganda, but dropped that plan in December after his case drew attention from Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and public advocacy groups. Guan is now appealing to remain in the United States, saying he fears prosecution, imprisonment, or torture if returned to China.

A Charlotte man was detained by ICE during his lunch break at a construction job during raids in the city last December. He was held in detention centers across two states before being deported to El Salvador. His wife, who was five months pregnant at the time, and their young daughters have not seen him in about ten months, and he has never met the couple's new baby. Neighbors describe him as a talented woodworker who helped build decks and complete projects for others in the community, and the family has decided to relocate to El Salvador to reunite.

Carlos Téllez-Sanchez, a Venezuelan man who fled his home country in 2019 and had been living in Dallas working at a car dealership while awaiting the birth of his son, was arrested by ICE in December during a routine visit to renew his work permit despite holding a judge's order protecting him from deportation. He said an ICE agent told him to "shut up" when he tried to explain the court order, and he was subsequently held for eight months and moved between detention facilities more than six times before being deported to Liberia. Téllez-Sanchez said he witnessed constant verbal abuse by ICE officials in detention and now hopes to return to the U.S. to see the newborn son he has not yet held. A lawyer working with him said ICE frequently moves detainees between facilities to prevent them from mounting legal challenges.

Pauline Nadege Binam, 36, a Cameroonian woman who came to the U.S. at age 2, has been held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia since December 2025. Advocates and Georgia lawmakers are calling for her release and reunification with her 17-year-old U.S. citizen daughter, saying Binam remains fearful of seeking medical care in detention. During an earlier detention at the Irwin County Detention Center, Binam said she underwent a gynecological procedure without her consent, during which a doctor removed one of her fallopian tubes, an allegation that was part of a broader scandal at that facility. Her attorney says she is pursuing a U visa tied to her cooperation with authorities after surviving domestic violence and may seek to reopen her removal case based on fears of persecution if returned to Cameroon.

Florencio, from Guatemala who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 13 years, was arrested by ICE agents on his block in Corona, Queens as he returned home from a day of painting an apartment in Manhattan. His wife, Fidelina, and their three children—ages 13, 9, and younger—witnessed the arrest from their doorway. ICE agents claimed Florencio matched the appearance of a different target they were seeking, but arrested him anyway based on his appearance. When Florencio tried to explain he was Guatemalan, not Ecuadorian, the agents told him it did not matter because he lacked papers. Agents forcibly took him to the ground, twisted his ankle, and handcuffed him before placing him in an unmarked vehicle. He was detained for four months before being separated from his family.

Elton Purvis, a 55-year-old legal permanent resident from Trinidad and Tobago and father of nine U.S. citizen children, was detained by ICE on May 13, 2025, at Boston Logan International Airport while returning home for his sons' graduation ceremony. A Rastafarian priest with Type 1 diabetes who was suffering from malaria upon arrival, Purvis was held for seven months across multiple facilities, spending most of that time at the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall. According to an ACLU claim filed in July 2026, ICE agents ignored his malaria symptoms for 12 days, confiscated his prescription diabetes and malaria medications, and repeatedly ignored his requests for medical help during multiple diabetic emergencies—he was found unresponsive in his cell at least three times and hospitalized at least three times for dangerously low and high blood sugar levels. The claim alleges that staff ignored his strict vegetarian and lactose-free religious and dietary needs required for his diabetes management, forcing him to rely on leftover cornbread from other detainees and to filter dirty drinking water himself. He was deported in December 2025; the reason for his deportation remains unclear. The ACLU Foundation of Texas filed a $10 million tort claim on his behalf as part of a nationwide effort alleging medical and food neglect across immigration detention centers.

Elías Pérez-Zuazo, a Panamanian national, was detained by ICE on December 10, 2024, during a scheduled appointment at an ICE office in Chantilly, Virginia, where he had checked in without incident in prior years. Pérez-Zuazo entered the U.S. in November 2021 and married his U.S. citizen spouse, Jonathan Blanco Gallegos, in February 2024; the couple had an approved I-130 family petition pending for his green card. ICE claimed a prior deportation order existed from November 2021, but his attorney contested this, stating case records do not reflect such an order and questioning the legality of the detention. Pérez-Zuazo was held at Farmville Detention Center in Virginia. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia issued an order barring ICE from removing him from the judicial district and ordered ICE to respond to a habeas corpus petition while the court reviews whether his detention is lawful.

A 32-year-old Turkish man was detained and transferred to ICE custody while working as a driver, before he could receive follow-up medical care despite blood tests indicating he needed prompt treatment. He has rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disease causing intense pain in his neck and ankles. His family attempted to deliver medication to Otay Mesa but was turned away. His sister, brother-in-law, cousin, uncle and a family friend submitted court declarations supporting his release and attesting to his community standing. A judge granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered a bond hearing within seven days, considering his documented medical conditions.