Human Impact Project

Petronila Elizabeth Poma Perez, a 24-year-old from Guatemala also known as "Heidy," died after falling about 30 feet from the U.S.-Mexico border wall near San Diego in March, with another person injured in a similar fall. Body-worn camera footage released by Border Patrol shows she called for help for roughly 24 minutes before falling, as agents waited for fire department assistance rather than using a nearby ladder and a fire engine was initially led to the wrong location. She was pronounced dead at the scene after striking her head on a concrete platform at the base of the fence.

Cliona Ward, a 54-year-old Irish national who has legally resided in the United States for approximately 40 years, was detained by ICE after returning from a trip to Ireland where she visited her ill father. Ward, a green card holder, was questioned about criminal convictions from 2003-2008 related to drug possession charges. She claims these convictions were expunged. Ward is being held in an ICE facility in Tacoma, Washington, and is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge in Seattle to argue her case.

A Nicaraguan asylum seeker is a citizen and national of Nicaragua who has lived in the United States since September 2021. He is married and living with his wife in California. He fled Nicaragua after police beat him for participating in anti-government protests, fracturing his arm. He was detained by DHS upon arrival in the US but released in October 2021 on reporting requirements to ICE, which he never missed. On September 14, 2023, he applied for asylum and received work authorization. In April 2025, he reported for a routine ICE appointment and was detained without notice or hearing despite full compliance with check-in requirements. He was transferred between multiple detention facilities where he suffered inhumane conditions, including excessive heat in transport vehicles, contaminated food and water, and injury from handcuffs. An immigration judge released him on a $5,000 bond in June 2025, and he was placed in ICE's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. On July 13, 2026, the immigration judge denied his asylum application and ordered removal to Nicaragua. He timely appealed. The federal court granted his preliminary injunction, prohibiting ICE from re-detaining him without a pre-detention hearing where the government must prove by clear and convincing evidence that he is a flight risk or danger.

Immigration Judge Jem Sponzo issued 25 deportation orders for minors in a single morning in April 2025 in a downtown New York immigration courtroom, with some hearings lasting only minutes and conducted virtually. Among those ordered deported were an 8-year-old girl from Ecuador seeking asylum and SIJS whose mother had already won asylum; a Guatemalan child whose attorney requested more time to prepare evidence for an asylum petition citing an abusive father in the home country; and a high school senior from Guatemala seeking SIJS and asylum. Attorneys said the hearings proceeded rapidly, with interpretation services sometimes waived to speed proceedings. Sponzo was subsequently fired; by mid-2026, roughly 200 immigration judges—about a quarter of the nationwide bench—had been laid off or pushed out since Trump returned to office.

Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year-old Philadelphia man who arrived in the U.S. in 1990 through the Amerasian Homecoming Act, suffered a stroke and collapsed on April 1 at Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana, after being detained during a routine ICE check-in in Philadelphia the previous August and spending months at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. Fellow detainees said it took about 15 minutes for a guard to respond and 10 more minutes for medical staff to arrive, while an Iraqi detainee performed CPR; ICE said Bui had a history of asthma and hypertension and received appropriate medication, and the local coroner attributed his death to natural causes related to cardiovascular disease, though the exact cause remains under investigation. His family is asking that his body be returned to Philadelphia for burial and is calling for an independent investigation, noting that his wife suffered a stroke after he was detained. His death is among 50 in ICE detention since Trump took office in January 2025, a rate more than double the 2009-2024 average.

Marco Antonio Herrera, a Guatemalan citizen, was arrested by ICE officers in Williamsport on April 1, 2025, and subsequently indicted on charges of assaulting a federal officer and unlawful entry. According to prosecutors, Herrera resisted officers and struck one with his elbow during the enforcement operation. If convicted, he could face up to eight years in federal prison, along with supervised release and possible fines.

Gary Patrick McGuiness, a 39-year-old Irish citizen, was arrested by ICE in Los Angeles on April 1. McGuiness is registered as a sex offender and had previously been convicted of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, serving a two-year prison sentence. He remains in ICE custody while his deportation proceeding is underway.

Jose Alexis Baeza-Combaluzier, a 26-year-old Mexican national, was driving a Ford Explorer suspected of human smuggling when U.S. Border Patrol agents attempted to stop him in McAllen, Texas. He fled and drove the vehicle into a canal about a half-mile away, where it became submerged. Agents rescued five occupants, including Baeza-Combaluzier, but a woman and a 13-year-old boy drowned; the woman's body was recovered on March 28, and the boy's body was found in the vehicle the following day. Autopsies determined both deaths were caused by drowning. Baeza-Combaluzier has been charged in connection with the smuggling deaths and faces up to life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.

Vicente Garcia Jr., 18, of Roma, Texas, was arrested after allegedly driving a vehicle involved in human smuggling operations in McAllen on March 28. According to federal prosecutors, Garcia was transporting a smuggled person to another smuggler, Jose Alexis Baeza-Combaluzier, who was driving a vehicle with four additional smuggled passengers. When law enforcement observed the suspected smuggling operation and attempted to approach, Baeza-Combaluzier drove through a flooded road and crashed his vehicle into a canal, resulting in the deaths of a woman and a 14-year-old child. Garcia faces up to life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.

Maria's father, an undocumented immigrant from Durango, Mexico, is currently in ICE custody facing deportation. He came to the United States with Maria's mother decades ago but was unable to obtain legal residency. After Maria's mother passed away in 2018, he attempted to legalize his status based on a new law but was ultimately denied and ordered to return to Mexico for 1–10 years. Maria and her grandmother, who are dependent on him, face financial hardship and loss of transportation as a result of his detention.

Maiker Alejandro Espinoza Escalona, a plaintiff in Escalona v. Noem challenging ICE transfers to Guantánamo Bay, was held at the U.S. detention facility there from March 28 to 29, 2025 before being flown to El Salvador, where he was placed in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). His partner, Yorely Bernal Inciarte, was deported to Venezuela in April 2025 without their daughter, Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, who remains in U.S. custody under the Office of Refugee Resettlement. According to reporting by the Morning Star, Maikelys has been moved through three foster homes over the past year, with one placement changed following allegations of sexual abuse. Demonstrators in Caracas have called for her return to Venezuela.

Felipe Zapata Velásquez, 27, a food and resource economics student who transferred to the University of Florida after graduating from Santa Fe College in 2023, was arrested by Gainesville police on March 28 for driving with an expired license and registration. He was turned over to ICE custody and held at the Krome Detention Center in Miami before voluntarily departing for Colombia on April 6, according to an ICE spokesperson. ICE said his F-1 student status had been terminated in October 2024 for failing to enroll in SEVIS, though a University of Florida spokesperson said he was enrolled both last fall and currently. His case was among nearly 300 international student visa terminations amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, and appears to be the first such case involving a Florida college student. His mother, Claudia Velázquez, said he is undergoing physical and emotional recovery in Colombia, and Rep. Maxwell Frost criticized the action as part of the broader crackdown on foreign students.

A 28-year-old Venezuelan man was detained by ICE agents during his final interview for permanent residency at a USCIS office in Phoenix, Arizona, despite having valid work permits and approval of his family petition. He was separated from his U.S. citizen wife and 3-year-old daughter during the interview and subsequently arrested and deported.

Jaime Cabriales-Carlos, a graduate student at UTSA, was detained by ICE on March 28th following a traffic stop in San Antonio and taken to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center. He came to the United States at age three, earned his undergraduate degree from UT Rio Grande Valley, and was pursuing a scholarship-funded master's degree at UTSA when detained. He is the oldest of four siblings, one of whom serves in the U.S. Army, and has an immigration court hearing scheduled for the coming week.

Jerce Reyes Barrios, a 36-year-old Venezuelan soccer player and father of two, was deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison under the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act, allegedly as a member of Tren de Aragua gang. His attorney claims the deportation was wrongful, arguing the government's only evidence is a tattoo of a soccer ball with a crown (a tribute to Real Madrid) and hand gestures from old Facebook posts.

A 53-year-old woman was detained by ICE while obtaining meat for a stew. Her 21-year-old daughter Samantha describes the incident. The woman is a long-term undocumented resident who has lived in the United States for three decades.

ICE conducted a raid on a paint business in El Cajon on March 27, 2025, arresting Jorge Lopez Leon and approximately 14 other workers. Lopez Leon, a father of four whose wife is a U.S. citizen and who was in the process of obtaining a green card, was detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center. The operation involved dozens of agents with weapons and resulted in the deportation of at least three workers who chose not to contest their cases in immigration court.

ICE transferred 20-year-old Cristofer Ortega from New Jersey to a detention center in Louisiana despite having an approved legal pathway to citizenship through Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Ortega, who arrived in the U.S. at age 9 and has no criminal record, was detained after an encounter while completing his HVAC certification. ICE is planning to deport him to Honduras before he can apply for his green card.

Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama from Iran, was detained by ICE agents on March 25, 2025, around 3-5 a.m. at his home after the State Department revoked his F-1 student visa. Doroudi had entered the U.S. in January 2023 and his visa was revoked six months after arrival, though university international student services advised he could remain legally if he maintained student status. DHS cited national security concerns as the basis for the detention and visa revocation, but provided no specific allegations. Doroudi's immigration attorney stated he is unaware of any such concerns. He is being held at the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana.

An Instagram post reports that ICE detained a working father in San Diego, leaving behind his family and a two-month-old baby.