Human Impact Project

A driver was arrested by ICE agents in North Brunswick, New Jersey after fleeing a traffic stop, running a red light, and crashing into another vehicle on Route 130. The second vehicle, reportedly carrying the wife of East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, sustained heavy front-end damage, and both of its occupants were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. ICE agents pursued and detained the driver following a foot chase, according to police, who said local officers only responded after the crash occurred and were not involved in the federal operation.

Luis Ivan Campos was detained by ICE while driving to work and subsequently deported on September 3rd, according to his son Christian Campos. He was not pulled over for a traffic violation or detained by local law enforcement before being taken into ICE custody. Campos was the primary caregiver for two of his children with disabilities: a 17-year-old with severe Hemophilia Type A who uses a wheelchair and was recently hospitalized, and a 4-year-old with Down syndrome who also has severe Hemophilia Type A. His family, including his wife Karina, started a fundraiser to help cover expenses and support the children following his deportation.

Eduardo, known as Walter, was detained by immigration agents while resting during his lunch break at work and sent to a detention facility in Georgia. He has since been repeatedly transferred between ICE facilities, limiting contact with his family to two-minute daily phone calls. Walter, described by his family as faithful and headstrong, had a pending case for legal residency and a work permit. His wife and daughters are raising money for legal fees and a possible bond ahead of an upcoming court hearing.

Set Salvador Esquivel Alvarado, who came to the United States at age 12 and has no criminal record, was detained by immigration agents outside his home while preparing to leave for work. His community describes him as quiet, respectful, and hardworking. Set is the primary financial provider for his parents, including his disabled father who cannot work. He has since been transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, and his family is raising funds to cover an estimated $20,000 bond and legal fees.

Vic Bud, who has lived in the United States since 1987, is being held in ICE custody at the Northlake Detention Center under a final deportation order to Romania. He is married to a U.S. citizen and has five U.S. citizen children, ages 2 to 14, who depend on him as the family's sole breadwinner. His wife launched a fundraiser to cover rent, daily expenses, and relocation costs as the family prepares to move to Romania to stay together.

The petitioner, an immigration detainee, filed a habeas corpus petition arguing he is not subject to mandatory detention under immigration law and is entitled to an individualized bond hearing. He is currently held at the Florida Baker Correctional Institute. Along with the petition, he filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent his transfer outside the court's jurisdiction while the case is pending. The court found he showed a substantial likelihood of success on his claim that his mandatory detention is unlawful. The court granted the TRO, barring immigration officials from removing him from the Middle District of Florida through September 21, 2026, and construed part of his request as a motion for preliminary injunction. The court ordered the government to respond by September 11, 2026, and consolidated the injunction request with merits review of the habeas petition.

The petitioner, born in a Philippine refugee camp to parents who fled Laos, entered the United States as a refugee at one month old and later became a lawful permanent resident. He has lived in the U.S. for over 40 years, is the primary breadwinner for his family as a certified glazier, and cares for his U.S. citizen partner, her three children, their shared five-year-old autistic son, and his elderly disabled U.S. citizen mother. After a 2002 robbery conviction, he was ordered removed to Laos in 2017 but released on an order of supervision because Laos would not accept him as it does not recognize stateless former refugees as citizens; he complied with ICE reporting requirements without further arrests for nearly nine years. In March 2026 a state court vacated his underlying conviction as unconstitutional, and he filed a pending motion to reopen his immigration case. On September 3, 2026, he was abruptly re-detained at a routine ICE check-in after Laos reportedly issued a travel document that ICE refused to show him or his attorney, and he was denied a proper informal interview before being served a removal warrant. He filed a habeas petition and TRO motion the same day seeking immediate release and protection from removal, and the court granted the TRO, ordering his immediate release, barring re-detention without notice and a hearing, and prohibiting his removal pending further proceedings, with a preliminary injunction hearing set for September 21, 2026.

Anthony Tyrone Higgs, a Bahamas national who was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident in October 1976, was arrested by ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents on September 3 in Decatur, Georgia. DHS said Higgs has a lengthy criminal history including weapons offenses, grand larceny, armed robbery, domestic violence and assault on a police officer, and has been placed in removal proceedings seeking to revoke his residency status. DHS also said an investigation confirmed Higgs illegally voted in the 2020 election, though the agency did not specify a criminal charge tied to that allegation. He remains in ICE custody while removal proceedings continue.

More than 60 federal agents raided the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, New York in September 2025, herding roughly 160 workers into a breakroom and arresting 57 of about 100 people questioned, including pregnant women and mothers of young children. Body camera footage later released in a lawsuit showed agents breaking down a locked bathroom stall door to remove a female employee and separating workers by citizenship status, with some told they would be arrested if they asked for an attorney. Argentina Juarez-Lopez, 50, invoked her right to counsel, but an agent falsely claimed she confessed without one; a federal judge called the conduct 'grossly negligent' and suppressed the evidence, yet she was deported after her case was dismissed. Juana Castillo Avelar, a mother of three U.S. citizen children who had lived in the U.S. over 20 years, was granted $9,000 bond but was deported before ICE would release her, based on a false claim she had appealed. Only five of the 57 arrested faced criminal charges, mostly for illegal reentry, and no charges have been filed against the company. The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Worker Justice Center of New York filed a lawsuit alleging officers lacked arrest warrants, exceeded search warrant authority, and violated workers' Fourth Amendment rights; one deported plaintiff has since been allowed to reenter the country while attorneys for another seek his return.

Nayleth Gabriela Martínez Jiménez, a Venezuelan woman, discovered she was pregnant after being detained by U.S. immigration authorities. She says she is experiencing pain and fears for her pregnancy, and is asking to be released from the immigration detention center or returned to Venezuela.

Luis Miguel Chávez, a Venezuelan man, was held for nearly seven months at an ICE detention center before being released. He said he lost his house, car, and job during his detention and is now trying to rebuild his life in San Antonio.

Lorenza Temaj Jiguan, 34, traveled to her native Guatemala in May to complete an interview for a U.S. immigration visa, expecting only a brief trip before returning to her family. Instead, she has remained stranded there since, unable to reunite with her 10-year-old daughter Ariana and her husband, U.S. citizen Samuel Wilbanks. Temaj had lived in the U.S. since entering in 2009 and was seeking to resolve her immigration status through the visa process. Her husband has decided to sue the government over her prolonged separation from the family.

Sean Lopes, a Guyana native, was serving a 14- to 16-year state prison sentence and was not eligible for parole until next February. ICE allowed him to skip the final six months of his sentence so he could be deported. His case was highlighted by ICE's Buffalo office as part of a broader trend of the agency removing people from state custody before their sentences conclude.

Alexandr Dyatchin, a Serbian national, was arrested in 2024 and sentenced last August to five years at the state's Lakeview prison in Chautauqua County, with an earliest release date of July 2029. ICE took him into custody last week, ahead of his scheduled release, to deport him to Russia. His case was cited as an example of ICE removing people already serving state prison sentences before their terms were complete.

Hasan Besharat, an 81-year-old Iranian immigrant who came to the U.S. legally on a student visa in 1974 and earned an engineering degree in Nashville, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in in late February despite decades of compliance with an order of supervision. He was held at the CoreCivic-run West Tennessee Detention Center in Mason, where his attorney said his health declined; he is 81, weighs barely 100 pounds, and has high blood pressure. His legal team filed multiple petitions, including two writs of habeas corpus, and Tennessee State Sen. Raumesh Akbari and community members advocated for his release. Besharat, who has a U.S. citizen brother and two U.S. citizen sons, is scheduled to be released and reunited with his family.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation targeted two restaurants in Elgin, Oklahoma on Wednesday, resulting in multiple people being taken into custody. The operation affected both local businesses, though the article does not provide individual details about those detained.

Aidar Nafikov, a Russian asylum seeker, has been held at the Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi for over a year and a half while hoping to be reunited with his family. He filed a habeas petition in April challenging his detention, and though his case was argued before Judge David C. Bramlette III in June, it remained unresolved months later. His wife, Liudmila Nafikov, said his health has deteriorated in detention, including repeated bouts of strep throat and new kidney problems, and that he has struggled to get timely medical care. A DHS spokesperson denied claims of medical neglect at ICE facilities, saying comprehensive medical care is provided to all detainees.

Joseph Andrey Londono Rodriguez, a six-year-old Deaf student at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, was detained by ICE along with his mother, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, and younger sibling during what the family believed was a routine check-in appointment in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rodriguez Gutierrez, an asylum seeker who fled domestic violence in Colombia, had lived in Hayward for four years working as a cleaner and child care worker with no criminal record. Instead of a routine visit, agents fingerprinted the family, pressured her to sign an unexplained document, and rushed them onto a deportation flight within minutes. Her attorney said she repeatedly pleaded with agents to let a relative bring Joseph's hearing aids and cochlear implants, but the devices were never provided and the family was deported without legal representation. California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and members of Congress have called for an investigation and humanitarian parole to allow the family to return so Joseph can resume school and services in American Sign Language. Joseph's case is one of more than 650 children detained by ICE in California during Trump's second term, 61% of whom were ultimately deported.

Sebastian Jimenez Peroza, a 17-year-old Venezuelan senior at Gainesville High School who plays football, soccer and baseball, was detained by ICE agents along with his mother Antmary Peroza Barrios, stepfather, and sister Fabiana Morillo Peroza at their Gainesville apartment complex days before the school year began. The family had fled Venezuela due to his mother's activism against the government and had been pursuing asylum after their visa expired. Football coach Ashour Peera rallied community support, describing Jimenez as 'a remarkable young man' who 'lights up a room' and a teammate who checked in on others; students displayed a Venezuelan flag with his jersey number, and a GoFundMe raised more than $20,000. After two weeks at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, Sebastian and his mother were released on $5,000 bonds each and flew back to Jacksonville, where they were greeted by his coach and classmates; his stepfather was released separately on a $6,500 bond, his location undisclosed. His sister's case remained open, with a bond hearing scheduled for Sept. 9, and ICE has not explained why the family was detained.

ICE Boston arrested Leonel Santos-Diaz, a twice-deported migrant from El Salvador, during targeted immigration enforcement operations in Chelsea, Massachusetts. ICE alleged he is wanted in El Salvador on charges including aggravated homicide, human trafficking, and resisting arrest, and is a suspect in an ongoing investigation there. An ICE official criticized Massachusetts' 'Protect Act' sanctuary law for allegedly shielding him from arrest and deportation.