Human Impact Project

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.

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.

Zahra Razavinik, a 66-year-old Iranian immigrant, has taught preschoolers at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston for nearly 30 years and cared for her husband with a heart condition. She was detained by ICE in January 2026 during a routine immigration check-in and has been held at El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas for six months. Her attorneys argue she cannot safely return to Iran because she is Christian and faces persecution there, and that no other country has agreed to accept her. A 2006 immigration judge's order had previously granted her a stay of deportation due to risk of persecution as a Christian.

In December 2025 and January 2026, federal agents posing as utility company employees lured residents out of their homes in Gresham, Oregon, leading to the detention of at least three people, according to state Rep. Ricky Ruiz. Ruiz said agents used the ruse to get one man to leave his house before taking him into custody, and he later contacted NW Natural and Portland General Electric after hearing of similar incidents. Both utilities have since issued customer guidance—NW Natural's published in seven languages—explaining that their employees wear uniforms and badges, never demand immediate home entry, and typically only need yard access to reach meters. ICE did not respond to requests for comment on the incidents.

Khadija (also referred to by the pseudonym Abina), a bisexual woman from Ghana, fled her country fearing for her life after she and her family were persecuted because of her sexual orientation. She crossed the U.S. border in December 2024 to seek asylum and was detained at the Eloy detention center in Arizona. Denied eligibility for asylum only because of the "circumvention of lawful pathways" regulation, she proved to an immigration judge that she was a refugee and was granted withholding of removal in July 2025. Instead of releasing her, ICE continued to detain her and told her she would be sent to Cameroon — a country she had never been to and where homosexuality is also criminalized. When she requested a fear interview and refused to sign voluntary deportation papers, an ICE officer told her to "get the fuck out of my face." In January 2026 she was placed on a flight in shackles around her wrists, ankles, and waist, with stopovers in Louisiana and Senegal, and deported to Cameroon. There she lives in a crowded room with about ten other women and other third-country nationals, lacking clothing, sanitary pads, and basic hygiene products, and was told she has temporary authorization to remain for only two months. As of July 2026, she remains in limbo, afraid to go outside the building where she is housed and unable to return to Ghana, where she fears persecution.

Multiple Minnesota residents detained by ICE in January 2026 and transported to Camp East Montana detention center in El Paso, Texas reported serious medical neglect and unsafe conditions. An 18-year-old legal resident with a thyroid condition arrived with severe abdominal pain but received no medication during her detention and had her documents taken upon release. A Cuban man with a pending asylum application waited five days to see medical staff, at which point he was diagnosed with COVID. Two detainees under age 21 were placed in a holding cell with 40 people despite its 20-person capacity, and detainees reported limited phone access and inadequate food. In March 2026, U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison, D-Minn., a doctor, conducted an unannounced oversight visit to the facility, where security initially delayed her entry for about an hour. She was not permitted to speak with detainees but was shown an empty tent structure holding pods of 64 to 72 people with crammed metal bunk beds, partial-privacy showers, and about six sinks, comparing the facility's appearance to a commercial livestock building.

Alexander Perez, a 15-year-old from the Dominican Republic, was detained with his mother and 14-year-old brother when immigration agents stopped their bus traveling from Los Angeles to Houston and checked everyone's immigration status. He had been detained for four months at Dilley by the time of interviews. He reported inadequate school instruction with mixed-age classes limited to 12 students for one hour, lessons below his level, and an uncomfortable interrogation about immigration policy during a social studies class. His mother Teresa was appealing a denied asylum petition.

Ariana Velasquez, a 14-year-old from Honduras who moved to the U.S. with her mother, Stephanie Valladares, at age 7, has been held at the Dilley immigration detention center for about 45 days. Valladares had applied for asylum and later married a neighbor from Honduras already living in the U.S., with whom she had two more children, Gianna ("Gigi") and Jacob, whom Ariana cared for after school. Ariana, a freshman at Hicksville High School, has fallen behind in her classes and misses her siblings and her favorite sign language teacher; her mother installed a kitchen security camera so she could check on the younger children from work, and Jacob has been talking to the camera hoping to reach his mother. Ariana has reported severe depression, sadness, and inadequate medical care with long wait times for medication.

Two brothers, both U.S. citizens, were arrested in January 2026 without being asked about their immigration status during warrantless enforcement operations across North Carolina. They are among five plaintiffs — including a naturalized citizen, a landscaper, and a cook holding a U visa — in a federal class-action lawsuit filed in February 2026 against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, ICE, and CBP, alleging widespread warrantless arrests without probable cause. The suit cites a sharp rise in ICE arrests statewide in 2025, a November enforcement operation in Charlotte that led to mass school absences, and a January 2026 ICE memo it says encouraged broader use of warrantless arrests. It asks a judge to block the practice in North Carolina.