Human Impact Project

Children's entertainer Ms. Rachel appeared on MSNBC to describe conditions at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas after speaking with detained families. She reported undrinkable water, worms in the food, rotten food, and dangerously inadequate medical care for children in ICE custody.

Carlos Rodelo, a 43-year-old from Barranquilla, Colombia, fled his home country after being repeatedly extorted and entered the U.S. through the Mexican border, where a federal judge granted him protection under the Convention Against Torture, barring his return to Colombia but not to a third country. Detained since August, Rodelo was held at the Alexandria, Louisiana airport and shackled without food by ICE agents despite his objections and a pending habeas corpus challenge, then flown via Dakar and Accra to the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a Trump Administration third-country deportation agreement covering the first group of 15 Latin Americans. Rodelo, who has diabetes and other medical conditions, described feeling like a prisoner in Congo despite being told he was free, and stayed in a Kinshasa hotel hoping to be repatriated. The Department of Homeland Security asserted he had violated the terms of his parole. Rodelo later returned to Colombia through the International Organization for Migration's Assisted Voluntary Return program.

William 'Danny' Rosenmund, a Springdale resident who regularly spoke at borough council meetings, was forcefully pulled from the podium and taken to the ground by Springdale police during an April 21 public meeting. He had repeatedly questioned the borough's 287(g) agreement with ICE and criticized officials for approving it without a public vote.

A self-represented noncitizen detainee was detained on April 21, 2026. The detainee filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention and seeking a bond hearing, arguing the detention violated due process as indefinite. ICE notified the court on July 14, 2026 of intent to remove the detainee on July 15, 2026. The court denied the detainee's emergency motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, finding the detainee failed to comply with Rule 65 procedural requirements and was unlikely to succeed on the merits given the scheduled removal date.

A citizen of El Salvador who entered the U.S. in August 2022 was re-detained by ICE on April 21, 2026 while driving to work in Houston, Texas. He had been released into the community for nearly four years, during which time he obtained work authorization, secured employment, paid taxes, and applied for asylum. ICE provided no notice or justification for his re-detention. The court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding that ICE failed to make any finding of changed circumstances before re-detaining him, and ordered his immediate release with procedural protections requiring a pre-deprivation bond hearing if the government seeks to re-detain him.

A 16-year-old identified as "Elias" in court filings was deported to Guatemala without a removal order or any attempt to obtain one, according to a pending lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia. His lawyers argue that "this removal was lawless: Defendants had no removal order for Elias, nor did they even attempt to obtain one." The case follows a similar pattern to Mario Mata Cruz's deportation and is part of a broader pattern documented by lawyers across the country of noncitizens being deported without final removal orders from immigration judges.

A Honduran man has resided continuously in the United States since 2021 and has substantial ties to the country including family members lawfully present, consistent work history, and a fixed address. On April 21, 2026, he was taken into ICE custody and remains detained at the West Tennessee Detention Facility. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention without an individualized bond hearing before a neutral decisionmaker, seeking either a bond hearing or immediate release. The court's order references the Sixth Circuit's decision in Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft, which affirmed that noncitizens who have spent significant time in the United States interior and have not committed certain offenses cannot be detained without an individualized bond hearing. The court ordered the respondent to respond within two business days, and if his detention is based on 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), to either distinguish the case from Lopez-Campos or consent to the issuance of the writ. The court also imposed a stay on any transfer of him out of the West Tennessee Detention Facility during the litigation.

A Mexican woman who has lived in the U.S. since 2001 was arrested on April 21, 2026 for driving under the influence and causing injury to a child. Although an Idaho magistrate judge ordered her release on her own recognizance, she remained detained at Jefferson County Jail in ICE custody under mandatory detention provisions. The federal court granted her habeas corpus petition and ordered her immediate release.

A Bosnian citizen and lawful permanent resident was detained by ICE on April 21, 2026, at Washington County Jail in Utah after completing a 120-day sentence for violating protective orders. ICE determined he was deportable under immigration law for domestic violence-related convictions including protective order violations, child abuse, and assault. The federal court denied his habeas corpus petition, finding his detention lawful under immigration law.

A Peruvian national with a pending asylum application was detained by ICE on April 21, 2026, during a scheduled check-in appointment in San Francisco. He had been previously released on recognizance but was re-detained after being charged with identity theft and failing to appear for his criminal arraignment. The court granted his habeas petition in part and ordered ICE to provide him with a bond hearing within 14 days.

ICE agents conducted a targeted enforcement operation in Shelbyville on April 21, 2026, and arrested four people during a vehicle stop. The driver, Mirzon Patlan-Trevino, 33, from Mexico, was recently arrested for DUI and determined to be unlawfully in the United States. Three passengers—Antonio Aguilera Garcia, 46, Alexis Saavedra Avile, 31, and Yoni Mora-Aguilera, 22—were also found to be unauthorized to be in the U.S. All four remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. ICE agents arrested four people in Shelbyville on April 21 during targeted enforcement operations. The arrests included 33-year-old Mirzon Patlan-Trevino from Mexico, who had been recently arrested for DUI, and three other individuals identified as Antonio Aguilera Garcia, Alexis Saavedra Avile, and Yoni Mora-Aguilera. All four remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

William "Danny" Rosenmund, a library board member, was arrested at a Springdale Borough Council meeting on April 21 while speaking about the borough's 287(g) agreement with ICE. He was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and five misdemeanors after exceeding his three-minute speaking time and continuing to speak after being ordered to stop. The county's acting chief public defender called the charges "inappropriate" and said he would push for them to be dropped or reduced.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained at least four people in Heber City on Tuesday morning around 7:30 a.m. using undercover vehicles along Main Street near the Smith's Fuel Center and on U.S. 40. ICE pulled over vehicles and arrested individuals without notifying local police, though the agency later told the police chief it was targeting specific individuals with existing removal orders.

Jagdish Singh, an Indian citizen with valid work authorization through May 2029 and a pending asylum case, was arrested by ICE on February 11, 2026, after being pulled over at a weigh station near Mitchellville, Iowa during a joint operation between Iowa State Patrol and ICE called "Operation ICE Wall" that targeted commercial drivers near Interstate 80. Singh was detained in Polk County Jail without the opportunity to argue for release on bond. On April 20, a federal judge ruled that the government violated Singh's Fifth Amendment due process rights by arresting him after years of allowing him to live and work in the United States, though the judge stopped short of ordering his immediate release and instead directed an immigration judge to determine if continued detention is warranted. Singh sued the federal government over the alleged violations of his rights.

The petitioner was detained by immigration authorities immediately following his April 20, 2026 arrest for indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over; the criminal case remains pending. He is currently held in immigration custody, reportedly at the California City Detention Facility. He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus and a motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing he is subject to discretionary detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) rather than mandatory detention, and is entitled to a bond hearing. The government opposed immediate release, arguing his pending criminal charge presents a non-pretextual basis for detention and a danger to the public, but did not oppose the court ruling on the papers. The court agreed that his pending criminal case distinguished his case from others where petitioners were immediately released, and instead ordered a post-deprivation remedy. The court granted the habeas petition and TRO, ordering that he receive a bond hearing before an immigration judge within 14 days, or be released from custody if no hearing is held in that time.

Santos Mauricio Romero, a Salvadoran national, was arrested by ICE Boston during a targeted operation on April 20, 2026. According to ICE, Romero has a criminal history including pending felony sexual assault charges.

Dzhokhar Gutsiev, a Russian citizen who entered the U.S. in 2022 seeking asylum and was released on humanitarian parole, was detained by DHS in April 2026 while traveling for work in Imperial County, California. Gutsiev had been living in the community for 46 months with work authorization and no criminal history when his parole was abruptly revoked without notice. The federal court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release, ruling that the government violated his due process rights by revoking parole without justification or hearing.

Francisco Salazar-Salazar was booked on drug possession charges (cannabis marijuana not more than 20 grams) and failure to appear charges. An ICE hold was placed on him during the booking.

Louis Duxbury, a Gadsden County resident from the United Kingdom, was ordered deported after spending months in ICE custody. He was arrested for overstaying his visa following a social media investigation that did not result in criminal charges. The case comes amid a surge in immigration arrests across Florida, with over 36,000 arrests reported since the start of 2025.

Nearly 100 detainees at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County launched a hunger strike between April 16-19, 2026, to protest detention conditions and medical care. The strike began after a detainee became ill with influenza on April 16, with 50-70 detainees in the same housing pod initially refusing an evening meal due to food contamination concerns. Advocacy groups reported that detainees were protesting unsafe living conditions, including contaminated food, inadequate medical care, and staff indifference to medical emergencies, with reports of a recent medical emergency in which a detainee lost consciousness without receiving proper care. Advocacy group Frontline DIGNITY called for the facility's shutdown and independent investigation. Clearfield County commissioners met with GEO Group leadership, the facility operator, to address the incident.