Human Impact Project

Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant and honor student who had just begun studying at Wright State University after being recruited to play soccer, died after being struck by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 70 near Springfield, Ohio, in what his family describes as suicide. Bel hoped to study neuroscience and had a pending asylum claim with a hearing scheduled for October. His father said his son felt 'treated like an animal' after ICE fitted him with a GPS ankle monitor, and in a July Instagram post Bel wrote that wearing the device brought him 'shame and humiliation' he never imagined experiencing. His death followed intensified ICE enforcement against Haitians in Springfield after many lost Temporary Protected Status, including the detention of two Haitian pastors, Adrien and Dumano, who had lived in the U.S. for over a decade and supported the community. The migrant-rights group Amica filed a lawsuit in June over the administration's expanded use of GPS monitors, which were being worn by about 50,000 people at the time. Haitian families in Springfield reportedly remain afraid to leave their homes as deportation flights to Haiti continue.

Iara do Carmo Santana, a 29-year-old Brazilian woman working as a house cleaner, was arrested by Malden police after her fiancé, Gabriel Lemos, called 911 out of concern for her mental health following a recent miscarriage and related infection. She was booked, released from police custody, then detained by ICE, which accessed her information through a shared FBI database, and held for roughly four days at ICE's Burlington, Massachusetts field office. She said she received no medical evaluation upon arrival and was often denied her prescribed antibiotics, causing her infection symptoms to worsen. Federal judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her release on September 8, criticizing ICE for its failure to provide necessary medical care. She was reunited with Lemos, a legal permanent resident she plans to marry next year, and her 6-year-old son. Do Carmo Santana has a pending asylum case and holds employment authorization. "I was afraid that I was going to go crazy in there," she said. "I was really scared."

Angel Ivan Chavez Salas, a father of two who works as an HVAC technician in Decatur, Georgia, was arrested by ICE agents outside his home on August 16. He arrived in the U.S. lawfully on a visa in 2016 and applied for asylum after fleeing political persecution in Peru, regularly attending immigration interviews but never having had a hearing before a judge. His attorney, Peter Isbister, said Chavez Salas has no criminal history. He was held at the D. Ray James Processing Center in southeast Georgia awaiting a court date. Students at Decatur High School, including a friend of his son, organized an online fundraiser that raised nearly $20,000 from more than 300 donors to support his family. A judge later granted him a $10,000 bond, allowing his release while he continues fighting his asylum case.

David Eduardo Mejía Martínez, a Salvadoran man who has lived in Los Angeles for years, was detained by ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle while driving to work in Sherman Oaks, with no arrest warrant. ICE accused him of being an MS-13 gang member, but a federal judge found no evidence to support the claim, noting he has no tattoos, no criminal record, steady employment, and has paid taxes since arriving in 2014. He is married with two U.S. citizen children, ages seven and four, and is the family's main financial provider. After more than 10 months in detention at the Adelanto facility, Judge Serena R. Murillo ordered his release on September 8, finding an earlier immigration judge had abused his discretion in labeling him dangerous, and ICE complied the next day while publicly objecting.

Jihoon Yang, a golf instructor from Lewisville, Texas, was detained by ICE agents while attending a marriage-based green card interview at a USCIS office in Irving. His wife, Jennifer Oh, said two agents entered mid-interview without presenting a warrant and verbally told him he was being arrested for failing to comply with a deportation order. ICE said Yang had received an in absentia removal order after missing a court hearing, but his family disputes ever being notified of that hearing. Yang is currently held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, and his family has retained a new attorney while the South Korean consulate looks into the case.

The petitioner is being held in immigration detention at the Midwest Regional Reception Center in Kansas under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), which allows for discretionary release on bond. In an earlier habeas case, the court ruled on June 3, 2026 that his detention was governed by this discretionary bond statute and ordered the government to provide him a bond hearing before an immigration judge. That immigration judge subsequently denied his request for release on bond. He has now filed a new habeas petition arguing that changed circumstances entitle him to a second bond hearing under federal regulations, and he states he is simultaneously requesting such a hearing from the immigration court. He is separately appealing his removal order to the Board of Immigration Appeals but is not challenging that order or the immigration judge's initial bond denial in this petition. The court found he had not yet shown any violation of federal law, since the government has not denied his pending request for a second hearing. The judge ordered him to show cause by September 25, 2026 why the petition should not be denied, noting the case could become moot if the second hearing is granted or could proceed if the request is denied or ignored.

The petitioner was detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) when ICE officers informed him on September 8, 2026, that he was going to be removed from the United States. He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus along with an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to block his removal until the court could rule on his habeas petition. The court entered its standard scheduling order requiring the government to provide at least 48 hours' notice (72 hours if over a weekend or holiday) before transferring or removing him. The court denied the TRO motion as moot, finding that the scheduling order's notice requirement adequately protected him from imminent removal, and noted that ICE represented it was aware of and would comply with the notice requirement. The court also struck the petitioner's unauthorized reply brief filed in violation of local rules.

Renatho Kemsley Casseus, a Haitian national believed to be a San Diego City College student, was arrested by ICE agents near campus after unmarked vehicles stopped his car at 16th Street and C Street. A second student riding in the vehicle fled on foot onto campus grounds, and agents ended their pursuit after realizing they had entered college property. DHS said Casseus entered the U.S. through El Paso, Texas in May 2023 and was released into the country under the Biden administration, and that his case will be heard by an immigration judge. San Diego City College said it was providing counseling and legal services to students and employees following the arrest.

Natalie Holmes, 51, a Jamaican national and ordained pastor, says she was deported to Equatorial Guinea in June while her habeas corpus petition challenging her removal was still pending. Holmes says she and other deportees were dragged from their rooms at gunpoint, handcuffed, assaulted and threatened by armed guards at the decommissioned Hotel Bamy in Malabo, where she remains detained and fears for her life. Witnesses and video footage from the broader deportation program show police in Equatorial Guinea pointing firearms at migrants deported there from the United States. Deportees held at the Malabo hotel, including Holmes, have complained of inadequate medical care, denial of legal assistance, and severe psychological distress.

Federal agents returned to the area of the Geisinger Medical Center construction project on September 8, beginning arrests around 6 a.m., according to immigrant-rights advocates. The Centre County Rapid Response Network said eight people were detained in this second operation, following the earlier September 2 arrests connected to the same construction project. Some detainees were held at Clinton County Jail, and advocates linked the arrests to a broader workplace enforcement surge.

Peta-Gaye Chambers, 35, who came to the United States from Jamaica as a child, had been granted 'withholding of removal' by a U.S. immigration judge in 2013 after he found she would face persecution in Jamaica. Despite that protection, ICE deported her to Equatorial Guinea in June without notice. Chambers says she and other deportees were dragged from their rooms at gunpoint, handcuffed, assaulted and threatened by armed guards at the decommissioned Hotel Bamy in Malabo, where she remains held.

ICE agents conducted an operation in the parking lot of a Home Depot on 43rd Avenue in west Phoenix, detaining about 10 people early Saturday morning, including day laborers waiting for work and some customers exiting the store. Witnesses said agents disguised themselves as day laborers and unhoused people before making arrests, and cell phone video showed men handcuffed and seated beside the road as agents surrounded them. Erika Andiola of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Clarissa Vela of People First Project said many of those detained did not match the administration's stated focus on people with criminal records, with some detainees having only come to shop. Activists noted ICE Mobile Criminal Apprehension Teams have routinely conducted undercover license-plate-scanning operations at the same location. ICE has not publicly released details about the operation, and protesters and day laborers returned to the store two days later.

Galina Bobreneva, a 40-year-old Russian national who entered the U.S. legally on a tourist visa in 2021, extended her stay after the war in Ukraine began, and applied for asylum in 2022, was detained by a plainclothes ICE agent at Burbank airport on July 13 while traveling with her husband, Brent Jindra, a technology salesman who says he voted for Trump three times. The couple married in December 2025, and Jindra had filed a marriage-based green card petition for her in April, with fingerprinting already completed; her lawyer maintains she was never out of lawful status, while DHS says she overstayed her visa and calls her 'an illegal alien.' She spent 16 days in detention, including a night on the floor of a basement holding cell in downtown Los Angeles and about two weeks at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility, where she said she was treated 'like a piece of meat, not like a human,' citing sleep deprivation, only four working showers for about 120 women, scarce drinking water, and denied healthcare. She was released on July 29 on a $35,000 bond and fitted with an electronic monitor, with an ICE check-in scheduled for September 7 and a court appearance set for October 22. 'A US citizen just watched his wife get dragged away and had no idea where she's going,' Jindra said. 'We are living in fear in my own country.'

Alberto Ramirez-Diaz, a 39-year-old man from Guatemala, was arrested by ICE on September 1 immediately after his release from the Tennessee Department of Corrections, where he had served a sentence for second-degree child rape. He was removed from the United States on September 7, 2026 and returned to Guatemala. Ramirez-Diaz had previously been deported in 2013 before reentering the country. He was later enrolled in ICE's Alternatives to Detention program but allegedly cut off his GPS ankle monitor and was rearrested in Florida in 2019.

A Maryland Heights, Missouri man who was commended for his service as a translator for the U.S. Army during the war in Afghanistan was arrested by ICE officers. He is being held in a Ste. Genevieve County prison.

Ramon Avilez-Frias and Maria Del Pilar Moreno-Loredo, longtime employees of Cisco's, Austin's oldest Tex-Mex restaurant, were detained by ICE on September 7 at 6 a.m. as they arrived for work. Both are described as hardworking, tax-paying people with no criminal records who are parents and spouses. A GoFundMe campaign was started to help their families cover legal costs and daily expenses while they remain in ICE custody.

A man referred to as 'John' was detained by ICE after his car was stopped on his way home from work in California, and was forced to agree to self-deport to Mexico within a week of his arrest rather than remain in an ICE detention facility. He was held without legal representation or access to his medication, and his family did not know his whereabouts for three days. John came to California from Mexico 30 years ago, worked in construction, and supported his wife and three children, none of whom had legal status despite having no criminal record. A GoFundMe campaign was launched by a family friend to support John's health and new start in Mexico and to help his family, who remain in the U.S. struggling emotionally and financially.

A Honduran mother and her son, who entered the United States in 2012 when he was one year old, have remained under an Order of Supervision and complied with reporting requirements for over a decade. The mother also has two other children who are U.S. citizens. In May 2026, she and her attorney submitted a written request seeking referral to an asylum officer based on her fear of returning to Honduras, but the government never scheduled an interview. When she tried again in person in September 2026, an ICE officer refused to discuss the request and instead instructed her to appear with travel tickets for herself, her son, and her two citizen children, warning that the family would be detained and deported if she failed to comply. No formal notice revoking their release was ever provided. The mother and son filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and an underlying habeas petition to halt their removal. The court found they showed a likelihood of success because the government failed to follow regulations requiring notice and an informal interview before revoking supervised release, and found they would suffer irreparable harm without relief. The court granted a temporary restraining order barring removal pending resolution of the habeas petition and ordered the government to respond by September 16, 2026.

Ibrahim Topkaya, a 33-year-old medical doctor from Turkey working as a bioengineering researcher studying diabetes at Upstate Medical University, was detained by U.S. immigration officials after a GPS error rerouted him toward the Canadian border while he was returning from a trip to Niagara Falls with his visiting mother. Canadian border patrol turned him around with documentation confirming he never entered Canada, but U.S. officials detained him upon his return, and he is now held at the Batavia federal detention facility. His friend Omar Alsafadi said Topkaya has an approved asylum case, active work authorization, and a Social Security number, and described him as a well-respected researcher who has authored numerous medical papers. The Department of Homeland Security said Topkaya overstayed his authorized status after legally entering the country in June 2023. Topkaya has requested research materials to continue his work while detained, and his mother, visiting from Turkey for the first time in three years, has extended her stay while awaiting updates on his case.

A young Venezuelan man, a recent graduate of Orange County Public Schools, was detained by immigration authorities while traveling to start college. His father was also detained around the same time in St. Augustine, Florida. According to the report, the young man never made it to the university.