Human Impact Project

Mikel Junior Sanchez Ortiz, a 24-year-old Venezuelan man, was beaten and taken into custody early on August 19 while driving to work with his girlfriend, Haklin Olivares, 22, on Dawsonville Highway in Gainesville, Georgia. Olivares said several men in a truck stopped them, demanded their licenses, forced open the car doors, and struck Sanchez Ortiz until he bled before pulling him out; she was released after the men said her immigration status was in order but his was not. Sanchez Ortiz later told her by phone that his nose and mouth were injured internally, with a cut on his forehead and marks on his neck from being grabbed. Olivares said the men confiscated her phone and demanded she delete photos of the incident, and said she is uncertain whether they were ICE agents or bounty hunters. The couple has a pending asylum case with a court date scheduled for 2027, hold valid work permits and driver's licenses, and say they have no criminal record. Sanchez Ortiz is being held at Stewart Detention Center in southwest Georgia, and Olivares started a GoFundMe seeking $1,600 to support him.

Carlos Tellez Sanchez, a 35-year-old Venezuelan man who fled to Dallas, Texas in 2021, worked days at a car dealership and nights delivering for Uber Eats to support his family. He held a 2021 Withholding of Removal order protecting him from deportation to Venezuela and had no criminal record beyond civil immigration violations, but was detained by ICE in December 2025 during what he believed was a routine check-in appointment. After nearly eight months in detention, he was flown in handcuffs to Liberia on August 20, 2026, along with 19 other deportees, nearly 6,000 miles from his wife and newborn U.S. citizen son, whom he has only seen via video calls since the boy's birth. His brother, Juan Tellez, described him as 'a good person and hard worker' who 'doesn't deserve what happened to him.' He said returning to Venezuela is not an option because he fears for his safety there, and he is now staying at a hotel in Liberia while deciding whether to seek asylum there or travel elsewhere.

Christopher Gil Ortíz, who had lived in the U.S. since childhood, was detained by ICE agents in June while on his way to work in Los Angeles and later deported to Mexico, leaving behind his wife and two young children. He was dropped in Tulum, had his belongings stolen in Cancún, and traveled to Mexico City, where he has family, settling in the Tabacalera neighborhood known as 'Little LA.' His sister sent him a TikTok video about New Comienzos, an organization founded by Israel Concha that helps deportees reintegrate, prompting him to seek its support amid what Concha describes as a growing wave of returnees. Since January 2025, the Trump administration has deported an estimated 145,500 Mexicans, according to data cited by The Guardian.

Jonatan López, a man from Guatemala, was eating chips and drinking a soda on the steps outside a residential building in New Rochelle, New York, when ICE agents approached and began questioning him. Witness Brenda Figueroa, who recorded part of the encounter, described the detention as violent and said one agent who arrived later acted with particular aggression. Another witness said agents arrived in three unmarked vehicles, took a bystander's phone during the incident, and did not present a warrant despite repeated requests to do so.

An Oceanside, California man originally from Mexico was shot and killed during a robbery in Tijuana, according to his family. The killing occurred seven months after he was detained and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A 1-year-old unaccompanied migrant child appeared in an Arizona immigration court and was ordered to file a 12-page asylum application before the next hearing or face deportation. Court filings allege that an attorney from USCRI, a new government contractor, was present but never spoke up on the child's behalf, calling it part of a broader "façade of compliance." This follows the July 31 end of a federal contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which had funded legal representation for over 24,000 unaccompanied migrant children; payments to those nonprofits reportedly stopped in November after they declined to share confidential client information with the government. Some legal aid groups, including the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, say they are continuing to represent children without pay despite a court order requiring continued legal services.

Pedro Joaquin Aviles-Mena, a Nicaraguan citizen, was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022 and subsequently released on parole. After living and working in the United States for more than two years, he was re-detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a scheduled check-in. He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus and sought a temporary restraining order, arguing his re-detention violated procedural due process under the Fifth Amendment and that mandatory detention under the expedited removal statute no longer applied to him once he had been paroled into the country. A federal judge granted the temporary restraining order and later a preliminary injunction ordering his release, finding he had raised a serious question on the merits and enjoining the government from re-detaining him. On August 20, 2026, the court granted his habeas petition on the merits, ruling that he may not be re-detained without notice and a hearing before a neutral decisionmaker absent a material change in circumstances.

Adams County Health Department confirmed a laboratory-confirmed case of active tuberculosis involving a detainee at the GEO Group-operated Aurora ICE Processing Center. Officials said GEO failed to provide medical records, patient access, and housing or movement information required to investigate possible exposure among detainees, staff, contractors, or visitors, prompting a Public Health Order on June 25, 2026 requiring compliance with Colorado tuberculosis investigation laws. ICE denied any active TB cases at the facility and denied violating any laws or guidelines. As a lawsuit between the state and GEO Group continued, Colorado health officials asked a judge in August 2026 to force the company to allow investigators to complete the tuberculosis probe.

ICE agents detained a Cambodian man Tuesday morning while he was working at Veranda Asian Market in Woodfords Corner, Portland, Maine. His name has not been publicly released, but Khmer Maine, a nonprofit in contact with him, described him as "quiet, kind and a hard worker." Marpheen Chann, executive director of Khmer Maine, said the arrest has sparked fear in local Asian immigrant communities and is "hurting Maine's local economy and making our communities feel less safe." Khmer Maine says it is working with his family and immigration advocates to ensure transparency. ICE has not released statistics on its recent operations in Maine, though national ICE detention numbers reached a record high of more than 65,000 last month.

Camila Toro de Paula, a 25-year-old transgender woman from Venezuela seeking asylum, has spent 11 months at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, a facility for men. She says she has been assaulted, threatened and deprived of medical care, and has been held in solitary confinement without ready access to water for up to 24 hours a day. Medical files show she complained to social workers about being punished for her gender expression, and immigration officials cited her criminal history, though records show the most serious charges against her, felony assault and weapons possession, had been dismissed. Her case comes as the federal government has halted specialized care for transgender detainees at at least 10 detention centers nationwide and removed longstanding protections for transgender people in custody.

Isaac Melendez-Carranza, 31, a Salvadoran national, was arrested by the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and taken to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center in Leesburg, Virginia. The same day, ICE Washington lodged an immigration detainer and warrant of removal with the detention center, which honors ICE detainers under a 287(g) agreement. Border Patrol had previously encountered Melendez near Hebbronville, Texas, in 2016 after he crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico.

Arín García Yepes, a Colombian migrant who had worked in construction in Dallas, Texas, arrived in Liberia on August 20 aboard an ICE-operated deportation flight from Louisiana, despite holding a stay of removal granted due to fears of persecution in Colombia. He had lived in the U.S. for 15 months, had no criminal record or traffic violations, and said he was never told by ICE where he was being sent. He is among roughly 20 Latin American migrants—from Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala and Brazil—now housed in a hotel near the Atlantic coast in Monrovia, where local authorities have advised them not to leave for safety reasons and they remain without identification documents or a clear timeline for release.

William Ortiz Hernández, a Honduran man previously granted protection from removal by a U.S. immigration judge under the Convention Against Torture, was deported on an ICE flight that left Alexandria, Louisiana on August 20 carrying about 20 people and landed in Liberia. He is now housed at the Creed Lodge hotel in Monrovia, where he has received treatment for his diabetes but has no passport or identification beyond a card that lets him withdraw money sent by family. "I feel like they dumped me in a trash heap," he said, describing fear and confusion in a country whose language he does not speak.

Elvis Rodriguez Venturas, a Honduran immigrant who worked in construction in Texas, was deported by ICE to Liberia on a flight that landed Aug. 20, 2026, along with 14 other non-Liberian migrants from Latin America and Africa. An immigration judge had previously barred his deportation to Honduras after finding he could be harmed there, and he had been using that protection to work legally in the U.S. He and other deportees said they were given no advance notice of the move and are now housed in a hotel in a remote coastal area of Liberia. His wife and four children, two of whom are U.S. citizens, remain in Texas, and he said he feels "far away, on the other side of the world."

Carlos Rodríguez López, a 35-year-old Cuban man who had been living in Miami Gardens with his wife, was deported after being held in ICE custody since April 2025. He was among six deportees — including three other Cuban men, a Brazilian man and a Cameroonian woman — who refused to leave an Aug. 20, 2026 flight that departed Louisiana, stopped in Dakar, Senegal, and landed in Liberia, the first deportation flight under a new U.S.-Liberia agreement allowing up to 1,200 such transfers over a year. Officers handcuffed and forcibly removed the group before the plane continued to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where advocates say the roughly 40 detainees held at a hotel there have had meals withheld and faced physical abuse by guards, and one of the Cuban men requires regular care for a colostomy bag with no medical staff on site. His wife, Igrayne Ribot, said she learned of his location only through a brief video call, breaking down when he told her he was in Africa.

The petitioner, who had previously been released on bond, conditional parole, or humanitarian parole, was re-detained by immigration authorities on August 20, 2026. She is currently held at the California City Detention Facility. She filed a habeas corpus petition and motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing that her re-detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter violated the Due Process Clause. The government did not identify any facts or legal arguments distinguishing her case from several prior rulings in the same district finding such re-detentions unconstitutional. The court agreed, finding that the proper remedy for the government's failure to provide a constitutionally compliant hearing was her immediate release. The court ordered her released under the same conditions that applied before her August 20 detention, barred additional restrictions like electronic monitoring absent a future hearing, and required at least seven days' notice and a bond hearing before any future re-detention.

Kenia is currently in ICE custody, separated from her 2-year-old son Nico and her husband, according to a fundraiser started by her mother-in-law, Anne Limon. Kenia came to the U.S. legally as an infant on a visa that expired in 2015 while she was still a child, and she has no criminal history. A judge found her eligible for bond during a recent immigration hearing and allowed her release while she continues fighting her case, but her family needs to raise funds for the $1,800 bond and a fee for a Cancellation of Deportation application due by August 26.

Sylwester was detained by ICE in Pennsylvania on August 20, 2026, and is being held in a detention center away from his family in Brooklyn. His wife, Mariya, is raising funds for a licensed immigration attorney and an ICE bond ahead of his first court hearing scheduled for September 2, 2026. The family says they could not find pro bono legal help in Pennsylvania on short notice and describes Sylwester as the backbone of the family.

One of the Cuban men diverted from a Liberia-bound deportation flight to Equatorial Guinea arrived in Malabo still restrained, according to Meredyth Yoon, litigation director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, who represents several of the group. The man, identified by his family as Leonardo Sánchez, a lawful permanent U.S. resident, has a large abdominal hernia that left his insides visibly protruding, and he fell face-first onto the tarmac during the transfer. He had been scheduled for a tenth surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital before his deportation, and his mother and sister in Lehigh Acres, Florida, say they are now unsure whether that procedure will happen. He and roughly 40 other deportees are being held at the Bamy Hotel in Malabo, owned by the family of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, where conditions have reportedly worsened, including guards accused of withholding meals and, in some instances, choking or beating detainees.

Chief Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak ordered a habeas petitioner released after finding that ICE agents had violated an injunction issued by Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson requiring agents to meet probable cause requirements before making warrantless arrests. Varholak wrote that the case was 'one in a series' in which the Department of Homeland Security 'appears to have simply ignored the law and detained an individual in violation of the law,' noting the government could not defend the decision. He set a hearing for September 10 for the government to address its 'apparent repeated violation of the law.'