Human Impact Project

During ICE's Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, Isabel, a 41-year-old Honduran woman with a pending asylum case and valid five-year work permit, was arrested at her monthly immigration check-in in Bloomington and detained for four days across three locations. After a federal judge ordered her release, she was given back a mostly empty bag missing her work permit, state ID, daughter's passport, and two uncashed checks worth over $700. Immigration lawyers report this is a widespread pattern: one attorney estimates 35 of her clients lost documents in detention, with another describing it as "more the rule than the exception" that people are not returned their belongings. A federal judge found a Trump administration attorney in civil contempt of court for failing to return documents to another detainee, Rigoberto Soto Jimenez, and imposed daily fines until documents were returned via overnight mail. The seizure and non-return of documents from people not in removal proceedings affects immigrants with work permits, pending visas, U-visas, and refugees with legal entry status.

Linet Vartanniavartanians, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and her husband Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand, an undocumented Iranian national, were arrested in June 2025 when HSI agents executed a warrant at their Tempe, Arizona home. Vartanniavartanians called 911 and threatened to shoot the agents if they entered; Eidivand possessed firearms as an undocumented immigrant. Both pleaded guilty and were released with time served and two years' probation in late November 2025. However, Eidivand was immediately re-detained by ICE and held at Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico for three months. His attorney reports ICE has pressured him to sign a deportation order to Iran without legal representation, despite him facing an execution order there due to his opposition to Iran's Islamist regime. The attorney believes ICE is retaliating against the family over his brother's hunger strike in immigration detention.

Roberto, a Cuban man, was deported to Mexico in mid-February 2026 after being detained at an immigration appointment where he was informed his I-220A form was invalid. He was held for three weeks before being transferred to Tapachula without money, identification, or communication access. His U.S. citizen fiancée in Michigan eventually reconnected with him and traveled to deliver documents so they could marry. Roberto now works as a barber in Cancún while awaiting a spousal visa determination.

Osmary Garcia, who entered the U.S. legally through the CBP One app during the Biden administration, was detained by immigration officers in February 2026 after dropping her children off at school, and held for three months before agreeing to voluntary departure. After the Trump administration revoked legal status for CBP One entrants and ended the asylum program under which the family had been admitted, her husband Hector Marin and their six children, who had not lived in Venezuela in nine years, joined her there with help from Detroit Public Schools staffer Kristen Plonsky. Two weeks after the family reunited, two major earthquakes devastated the region, leaving the children traumatized by the destruction.

Prince Sita Armel Paterne, a priest from the Congo, was detained by ICE in February 2026 after mistakenly taking the wrong exit while driving to work, which led him to the Canada border where he was arrested. An immigration judge set a $10,000 bond for his release on May 19, 2026. His family was unable to assist financially, prompting a fundraiser to prevent his deportation.

An Iranian couple seeking asylum was detained and interrogated by DHS agents less than a week after U.S.-Israeli military strikes against Iran in late February 2026. The husband, who arrived on a tourist visa in November 2024 and filed for asylum after his visa expired, was held for three weeks at an ICE detention facility in California City before an immigration judge granted his release on bond. His pregnant wife was questioned but not arrested. Immigration attorneys report the incident reflects a broader pattern of heightened scrutiny of Iranians following the strikes.

An Indonesian citizen with withholding of removal status was detained at an airport and transferred to Adelanto Detention Facility in February 2026 after almost 18 years of compliance with his Order of Supervision. He was not told why his supervision was being revoked or given an opportunity to address allegations. The court granted his TRO application and ordered his immediate release.

An Iranian man seeking asylum was detained by ICE agents at his apartment less than a week after U.S.-Israeli military strikes against Iran in late February 2026. The couple had entered the U.S. legally on tourist visas in November 2024, filed for asylum after receiving threats from the Iranian government, and held pending asylum applications with work permits. The husband spent three weeks at the ICE detention facility in California City before an immigration judge granted his release on bond. His pregnant wife was questioned for hours but not arrested due to her pregnancy.

An ICE enforcement action resulted in the detention of a father in Hopkins, Minnesota, in front of his three children at their apartment building. The incident disrupted the family, with his wife Estefany Escobar going to work at a Minnesota hospital an hour after the arrest.

Nearly 50 Democratic members of Congress are demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over allegations that the federal government is placing all pregnant unaccompanied migrant girls at a single San Benito, Texas shelter operated by Urban Strategies, where they lack adequate reproductive health care. The placement contradicts agency guidance requiring pregnant minors be placed in states where they can access full reproductive healthcare options, and has drawn objections from health and child welfare officials citing inadequate specialized care for high-risk pregnancies.

Steve Gaines, an English teacher at Harmony School of Innovation in Waco, Texas, was fired in early 2026 after allowing students to use class time to make signs for an ICE protest walkout in February. Anti-ICE advocates held a rally in March calling for his reinstatement, though the school district has not responded to requests for his rehiring.

Farah, a 21-year-old gay woman from Morocco, fled her country in early 2025 after her family attacked her for her sexual orientation and sought asylum in the United States. She was detained for nearly a year while her asylum claim was processed. In August 2025, an immigration judge issued a federal protection order prohibiting her deportation to Morocco due to danger to her life. However, three days before a scheduled hearing on her release, ICE agents detained her and placed her on a flight to Cameroon—a country where homosexuality is criminalized and where she had never lived. After she refused to remain in Cameroon, she was flown to Morocco, where she is now in hiding. She is among dozens of migrants reportedly deported to third countries by the Trump administration despite holding judicial protection orders.

Maria Santay, a U.S. citizen and community observer, livestreamed her detainment by federal immigration agents at an El Monte gas station on February 1, 2026. Agents surrounded her vehicle and broke her car window with a hammer while she recorded on Instagram. She was detained and released Friday evening with charges including resisting arrest.

Anti-ICE protesters held demonstrations across Southern California on January 30-31, 2026, including marches through Los Angeles, rallies at City Hall, and actions outside the Metropolitan Detention Center. Clashes erupted when protesters blocked access points and threw objects, including fireworks, rocks and bottles, at federal agents, who responded with chemical irritants and dispersal orders. Eight people were arrested Friday, and police later said 50 people were arrested following Saturday's protest, mostly for failing to disperse, along with charges including assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism; streets near the federal building were closed overnight and a police pursuit tied to the protest ended in a crash. The protests were part of a nationwide action following fatal shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis.

A three-year-old girl named Lily was separated from her family at the border and detained in an immigrant children's shelter in South Texas for over five months. Her father, a legal permanent resident, attempted to reunify with her during her detention. After her attorney at ProBAR filed a habeas petition in federal district court on February 18, she was released two days later and reunified with her father on February 21.

CNN correspondent Veronica Miracle was struck with pepper spray while reporting live on a protest at an ICE facility in Los Angeles. Protesters overtook the property and pushed Department of Homeland Security officers back inside the building. Miracle choked and coughed on camera due to the chemical irritant but continued reporting on the incident.

Thousands of protesters marched to an ICE facility in South Portland on Saturday as part of a "Labor Against ICE" rally organized by local unions. Federal agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and flash-bang grenades after some protesters approached the building's security gate. The protest coincided with a march honoring Alex Pretti, an intensive-care nurse fatally shot by Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis.

Olga Perez, a 47-year-old translator of a rare Mayan dialect who arrived in the U.S. in 1997 after Guatemala's civil war, self-deported in July 2026 after her asylum case was dismissed and efforts to stay were rejected by immigration courts. She had been detained since November 2025 at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona following a traffic stop, and her husband had been taken into ICE custody two months earlier while working a landscaping job. Perez said goodbye to her children—Eliza, 21, Jessica, 18, Romeo, 15, and Cynthia, 13—at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, with the eldest daughter continuing to run the family's landscaping business to support her siblings. Perez had no criminal record and had worked with police departments, courts and nonprofits across Florida, including helping clear a Guatemalan immigrant of criminal charges in a 2024 case.

Liam Ramos, a five-year-old pictured in a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack, was detained by ICE along with his father at the Dilley family detention center in South Texas. A federal judge issued a favorable ruling that led to their release from the facility.

Keith Porter Jr., 43, a Black father of two daughters, was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent on New Year's Eve outside his apartment complex in Northridge, Los Angeles. Friends and family described Porter as a devoted father and jack of all trades who worked as a waiter, tow truck driver, and Home Depot employee. He was close to his mother, Franceola Armstrong, and known for being compassionate and funny. Porter had recently obtained a firearm safety certificate and was proud to own a gun legally. He was firing a gun into the air to celebrate the new year when he was shot three times by the off-duty agent. Witnesses told Porter's attorney they never heard the officer identify himself as law enforcement and heard demands to "put down the rifle" followed by three shots. His mother spoke at a Los Angeles City Council meeting, saying: "He was on his way back. He didn't even get to pop the champagne. He didn't get to say goodbye. I just want to touch my baby one last time, kiss his face and hold him." Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and family lawyer Jamal Tooson urged California's attorney general to conduct an independent investigation. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is reviewing the killing to determine if the use of force constitutes a crime.