Human Impact Project

ICE deported a man who was apprehended in Utah. A judge has since ruled that the Trump administration must bring him back, indicating potential legal issues with the deportation proceedings.

About a dozen protesters attempted to block federal ICE agents from leaving with a detainee outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Durango on Friday. Protesters linked arms and sat in front of the ICE office driveway to prevent vehicles from departing. Federal agents responded by removing protesters and using pepper spray against them.

Deportations of Brazilian citizens from the United States reached a historic high in 2025, with more than 3 million citizens forced to return to Brazil, nearly double the 2024 total. The Ministry of Human Rights confirmed a 99.8% increase in deportations compared to the previous year. The sharp increase reflects the zero-tolerance immigration policy adopted by President Donald Trump, which has intensified enforcement actions against undocumented immigrants.

Adayomi Ademuyiwa, a Dallas prison guard who had invoked his right to a speedy trial, was deported to Nigeria by ICE in January 2026 despite a federal judge having released him on conditions months earlier. His attorney, Paul Lund, asked the court to dismiss the federal indictment since the government's own action prevented him from appearing, but Chief District Judge David Godbey declined to do so at the March 2 trial date. The judge also denied the prosecution's request for a bench warrant should Ademuyiwa return to the U.S.

During Operation Metro Surge from December 2025 through February 2026, ICE arrested over 4,000 people in Minneapolis under a reinterpretation of a 1996 law requiring detention without bond. Federal judges, including U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, found that ICE violated court orders in at least 113 cases involving 77 people by January 28, 2026, and the violations continued thereafter. Of 66 cases examined by The Washington Post, 52 involved immigrants with pending applications for asylum or other legal status, none with final deportation orders; most were not criminals and over one-third had lived in the United States for more than a decade. The operation targeted immigrants with valid work permits, pending asylum applications, and temporary protected status despite government claims of prioritizing serious criminals.

Gabriel Espinoza Diaz, a 22-year-old undocumented community college student who had lived in the U.S. since age 4, was detained by ICE after a confrontation with security at the Strat Hotel in Las Vegas in January 2026 following a disputed threatening text message. Although charges were dropped and a judge granted voluntary departure, ICE kept him in custody and deported him to Mexico. He was transferred to an Arizona facility in a pre-dawn transfer without family notification and left at the border in Nogales, Sonora. Now living in Tijuana, Espinoza has abandoned his dream of becoming a teacher in the United States.

A Syrian citizen who entered the U.S. without inspection in January 2022 and filed for asylum is detained at the ICE Detention Center in Adelanto, California. An immigration judge denied his bond on March 27, 2026, finding him a flight risk. The court denied his ex parte application for a temporary restraining order to challenge his continued detention.

Gustavo, a restaurant cook from Mexico who had lived in Santa Barbara for seven years, was arrested by ICE agents in the lobby of Santa Barbara County jail in January 2026 as he was being released. A judge had ordered him to wear an ankle monitor and return home to await trial on a domestic dispute charge, but ICE agents—masked and armed with handcuffs—intercepted him before he could leave the facility. Gustavo had only a minor driving offense on his record, which under California's SB 54 sanctuary law should have barred local authorities from coordinating with ICE to place him in immigration custody. The arrest occurred outside official procedures in the jail lobby rather than through the authorized "sally port" transfer process, potentially violating state law.

ICE agents arrested Cesar Ramos-Alcala, 48, and Marcelino Tapia-Lucas, 25, outside courtrooms at the Ridgedale Service Center in Minnetonka on Monday. ICE alleged that Ramos-Alcala is in Minnesota illegally and that Tapia-Lucas entered the U.S. illegally at age 16 and has prior arrests. The arrests occurred in a secure, controlled courthouse environment.

Pedro Gutierrez, 43, a Durango resident for 22 years, was arrested by ICE agents on New Year's Eve while driving home from the gym. He was pulled over blocks from his home near Needham Elementary School by agents who called him by name and forcibly removed him from his vehicle in front of his 16-year-old daughter Jazmin. He was taken into custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora. Gutierrez has no criminal record and has worked in Durango as a dishwasher, baker, and painter; he is married with two adult children and serves as music director at a local church.

A Houston man who is a third-generation U.S. citizen says he was stopped by ICE agents on January 1 while driving to work near Veterans Memorial Drive and Beltway 8. The man, David Flores, believes he was racially profiled based on his work truck and was surrounded by eight ICE agents in multiple vehicles. After showing his passport and refusing to provide his Social Security number, the agents left abruptly when Flores began recording the encounter.

Isabel, a 41-year-old single mother of two from Honduras with a pending asylum case and valid five-year work permit, was arrested at her monthly immigration check-in in Bloomington. She was detained for four days across three facilities before a federal judge ordered her release with her belongings. However, ICE returned only her wallet and checks; her work permit, state ID, daughter's U.S. passport, and over $700 in checks were withheld. Despite the judge's order, ICE has not returned the documents, leaving her unable to work or travel without fear of arrest.

Three siblings driving in Texas were detained after stopping to film an immigration arrest last summer. One sibling, a young teen, said agents "tackled me down" with an agent's knee behind his knee, causing sharp pain, and he was separated from his mother, a green card holder, fearing agents would take her away too. The siblings have filed claims for damages with the government.

Jeyli Salguero, a U.S. citizen, was asleep at her family's Minneapolis home in January 2026 when armed federal agents broke through the front door and rushed inside looking for her brother, who did not live there. After she said she was a citizen with the right to record, agents seized her phone; she and her mother were released about half an hour later, while her father and sister were detained, leaving the family in a wrecked home with winter air coming through the broken door. Salguero is now one of three Minnesota families suing the federal government, represented by attorneys from Protect Democracy, the ACLU of Minnesota and the law firm Dorsey & Whitney, over a Department of Homeland Security memo that allowed ICE agents to enter homes using agency-issued administrative warrants rather than judicial ones. The suit is part of broader legal challenges to the administration's Minneapolis enforcement surge.

Nexan Aroldo Asencio Corado, a Guatemalan carpenter and small business owner who had lived in Milford, Massachusetts for about a decade without legal status, was arrested by masked ICE agents outside his home on May 30, 2025, while his young twin sons, Jhon and Damian, watched. His wife, Christina Toledo, a U.S. citizen, said agents told her they were looking for his brother-in-law, Victor, and dismissed the couple's approved I-130 petition as possibly fake even after it was presented. Toledo said Asencio Corado, who has no criminal record, spent several nights in custody sleeping on a bathroom floor without a shower, enough food, or water, and the family was denied bond while relatives launched a GoFundMe to cover legal costs. The twin boys, who have partial hearing loss and speech delays, needed therapy after witnessing the arrest. He was deported to Guatemala months later, and his application to remain in the U.S. was set aside. In December 2025, Toledo and the boys traveled to his home village near the Salvadoran border to reunite with him for the holidays before returning to Milford in January 2026, as the family continues deciding whether to relocate permanently.

Sam Rivera, who held an asylum visa, was detained by ICE for nine months starting in January before being released. Before his detention, he had built a small home renovation business in South Florida, but during his time in custody his business collapsed, his car was repossessed, and he lost the tools he used for work. He was also transferred to a detention facility in California, far from his home and community, and now faces $10,000 in immigration legal fees as he tries to rebuild his business and life.

Jorge Paredes, a Guatemalan national who lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was arrested by ICE in January 2026 and subsequently deported. He reports that when he received his belongings before his repatriation flight, he discovered that more than $1,300 he had when arrested was missing and not returned to him.

A 24-year-old from Honduras was walking to catch the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in Hempstead when seven cars full of immigration enforcement agents surrounded him. Officers arrested him without asking any questions and then later produced a warrant. ICE officials admitted they arrested the wrong person. Federal Judge Gary Brown, a Trump-appointed judge overseeing the case, ruled that ICE agents "grossly abused their authority" and concluded that "the abhorrent and illegal practices identified in this opinion are not limited to this case but are seemingly being inflicted on a widespread basis."

Two dogs were left confined in an Oklahoma apartment without food or water for approximately a week after ICE agents detained their owners during an enforcement operation in January 2026. A neighbor alerted the property manager after noticing the distressed animals, and animal welfare officers found the dogs frightened, in a damaged apartment, and without sustenance. The responding officer stated that ICE did not notify local animal control of the pets' presence, despite what he said is standard protocol to inform animal control when animals are left behind during arrests.

Carlyn Williams and her spouse Polyxenia Pantos were threatened by a caller claiming to represent the Department of Homeland Security after Pantos filmed ICE agents during a January 2026 enforcement operation in South Portland, Maine. The caller warned that people who film such activity "might get added to a domestic terrorism watchlist." The couple joined a federal lawsuit, originally filed by two other Maine residents, alleging DHS illegally collected data and threatened observers in violation of their First Amendment rights; DHS has denied operating any such database, and a judge denied the plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order in March. In an amended complaint, the couple's attorneys say that on March 16, while returning from a trip to Quebec City, Williams and Pantos were detained for an hour at the border by a Customs and Border Protection agent who requested registration information for Williams' vehicle despite the couple traveling in Pantos' car, which they argue indicates they were placed on a government watchlist.