Human Impact Project

Ruperto, a Mexican roofing contractor who lived and worked in Oklahoma for 28 years, was stopped by Oklahoma Highway Patrol after his truck blew a tire and overturned on an interstate in Oklahoma City. Troopers, working under ICE's 287(g) program, detained him despite having insurance and deported him to Mexico. He was transported through multiple facilities, including a jail in Purcell, before deportation, and agreed to voluntary removal rather than continue fighting through the legal system. His U.S. citizen daughter Karen, a college student majoring in elementary education, has stayed in school, while her older brother left school and work to support the family and cover the mortgage and other household expenses; the family has withheld their last name for fear of further immigration action. Ruperto cannot reapply for reentry for 10 years.

ICE agents detained Willian Gimenez in Little Village on September 12 while he entered a barbershop with his wife. ICE refused to disclose his location and denied his attorneys access to him. Gimenez is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Home Depot and off-duty Chicago police for targeting immigrant day laborers.

Denis Omar Rivera Martinez, a 42-year-old parent from Honduras, was arrested by ICE agents outside Gerald E. Talbot Community School on September 11 and deported to Honduras on October 8. An immigration judge ordered his removal before Rivera Martinez could appear in court for a pending domestic violence charge, preventing him from responding to the allegations. The District Attorney stated ICE did not notify her office of his deportation status, and a scheduled court hearing on Thursday found neither prosecutors nor the judge aware of his whereabouts.

Satvir Singh, an Indian national from Punjab who lived in New Jersey and worked as an interstate truck driver, was arrested by ICE's Boston field office on September 11 at a commercial-vehicle inspection station in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. According to ICE, Singh legally entered the United States in 2017 but later remained beyond the period authorized by his admission, living and working in the country for over eight years. The agency did not allege any criminal charges or traffic offenses against him. He remains in immigration custody pending removal proceedings.

Two 17-year-old U.S. citizens, including Luis Ochoa, were detained by ICE agents in Alamo, Texas, after stopping to record an immigration enforcement operation on their way to a Marine Corps recruitment office. Video showed an agent repeatedly hitting one teen and agents using pepper spray while pulling him from his car and handcuffing him; Ochoa said his wrist was broken and that an agent told him, after he identified himself as a citizen, "I don't give a damn. Your parents can't help you now." The teens were held for eight hours before being released, and DHS described them as "anti-ICE agitators" who obstructed and assaulted officers. Ten days later, Luis's mother, Teresa de Jesus Ochoa Briseño, was arrested outside the Alamo restaurant where she worked as a cook, denied the chance to sign voluntary departure papers, issued a final removal order, and sent to Reynosa, Mexico the same day without Luis or her attorney being allowed to see her beforehand; Luis said agents told the family the arrest was connected to their Facebook posts and pending lawsuits over his detention.

A young man was pulled from a vehicle, thrown to the ground, and punched in the face by ICE agents on a frontage road in Alamo, Texas, according to video shared by the group Stop ICE. The driver of the vehicle was also taken into custody during the incident, which occurred in the middle of the road as bystanders in traffic recorded and tried to alert others nearby. The group reports that ICE and Border Patrol activity has been increasing in the area, with drivers targeted in stops based on vehicle registration information.

As ICE increases patrols in Washington, D.C., immigrant neighborhoods have organized "walking school buses" where groups of parents escort children to school. The initiative was established in response to Trump administration immigration enforcement targeting residents who entered the country illegally.

In December, a Salvadoran day laborer named Josué was detained by masked agents outside a Home Depot in Signal Hill. The incident was captured on video by a Long Beach Rapid Response patroller. Josué has since spent months in the Adelanto Detention Center, while his partner Maria and her daughter Sara seek answers and legal representation for his case.

Mariela, a mother of three, was denied proper medical care while in immigration detention and is now facing a possible cancer diagnosis. She is seeking urgent medical care, housing, and legal support to address her health condition and provide stability for her children.

Alan Phetsadakone, who arrived in the United States as a toddler, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in in Tukwila, Washington in July 2025 and released in September following an order by US authorities. As deportation flights to Laos resume for the first time in years under a new immigration enforcement effort, Phetsadakone now faces renewed threat of deportation despite decades of residency in the country.

A Honduran asylum seeker was detained by federal immigration authorities on or about September 10, 2025, and has since been held at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas. He filed a habeas corpus petition along with applications for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, seeking an order barring his removal from the district, production of his detention records, a show-cause hearing, an expedited individualized custody hearing, and his release. He argued that his detention without a bond hearing violates due process and that he faces practical prejudice in preparing his asylum application while detained, raising a right-to-counsel claim. The court found he was not likely to succeed on the merits, citing statutory authorization for detention during removal proceedings and holding that right-to-counsel claims must be raised before the court of appeals on review of a removal order. The court also found no showing of irreparable harm, noting he did not demonstrate how a transfer or his continued detention would harm his asylum claim beyond ordinary hardships of detention. The court denied the TRO application and held the preliminary injunction request in abeyance.

Rosalio Pelayo Salgado, detained by ICE on September 10, called his daughters from the Broadview processing facility to report being held in a room with at least 150 other men. He described officers yelling slurs, food and water being withheld based on behavior, and his anxiety medication being refused. His daughters protested at the facility on September 19, learning he was scheduled to be deported the following day.

A San Diego law firm filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court seeking to stop ICE from arresting asylum seekers at immigration court hearings. The lawsuit argues that courthouse arrests violate constitutional rights and due process and impact the immigration court system. The suit was filed on behalf of two asylum seekers arrested at San Diego's immigration court, both of whom had no criminal records and regularly attended their hearings.

Richard Antonio Goitia, a 37-year-old Venezuelan insurance agent and father of two young daughters, was detained by ICE following a traffic stop on September 9 in the Kissimmee area near Orlando, Florida. According to family members, police contacted immigration agents after asking for his documents, and ICE agents arrived within minutes and arrested him. Goitia has lived in the U.S. for about 11 years, has a pending asylum case, holds a valid work permit, and has no criminal record. His family started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his legal defense.

Maria, 39, who came to El Paso from Ciudad Juárez on a visitor visa fleeing violence targeting her husband, a Mexican doctor now a naturalized U.S. citizen, was detained on Sept. 9, 2025, immediately after an immigration judge ordered her deportation at a hearing. About seven plainclothes, masked agents handcuffed her outside the courtroom and took her to the El Paso Processing Service Center, where she remained detained through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. She was released Jan. 20, 2026, with an ankle monitor, and said she and her four U.S.-born children underwent family therapy after the ordeal.

Juan Lopez, a landscaper who had lived and worked in Des Moines for nearly four decades, was pulled over by five unmarked ICE vehicles while driving to work at Iowa Irrigation in Huxley. Agents smashed his truck's windows and removed him from the vehicle while he was on the phone with his partner, Laura Becerra, the mother of his seven children. Lopez is being held at the Polk County Jail under an ICE detainer, one of six Iowa county jails that holds ICE detainees. His daughter, Tiffany Lopez, said the family was "furious" over how he was detained, and advocacy group Escucha Mi Voz Iowa is demanding his release.

Jose Pescador Garcia, a Mexico native who has lived in the U.S. over 25 years, was detained by ICE in September 2025 and later ordered removed by an immigration judge, a ruling he is appealing to the Board of Immigration Appeals. He is married to a U.S. citizen whose family petition on his behalf was approved, and he is the father and stepfather of seven U.S.-citizen children; his wife is eight months pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy involving detected chromosomal abnormalities. A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas granted his petition for a writ of habeas corpus in January 2026, finding no lawful basis for his continued detention.

Federal ICE agents apprehended two people in Maplewood using unmarked cars. According to local officials and advocacy groups, three masked ICE and Border Patrol agents loaded the two arrestees into unmarked, out-of-state vehicles on Prospect Street around 11 a.m. The local police department was not notified of the incident, and the township does not cooperate with ICE.

Óscar Rascón Duarte, a 58-year-old Mexican national, died on September 8, 2025, at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona, while in ICE custody. He had advanced-stage Alzheimer's disease, right kidney cancer, and hepatitis C. Rascón Duarte first entered the United States in September 1976 near Douglas, Arizona, and in 2004, while in Arizona Department of Corrections custody, ICE initiated deportation proceedings against him and transferred him to the Eloy Detention Center. On January 15, 2025, ICE arranged long-term medical care for him at a facility in Mesa, where he remained hospitalized until his death. ICE said the cause of death was under investigation and that the Mexican Embassy was notified. His death was one of 17 Mexican immigrant deaths in ICE custody or during immigration enforcement operations during the Trump administration's crackdown, prompting Mexico's government to file complaints and demand investigations.

A woman who had been living legally in the United States for 47 years was detained by ICE over 22 bad checks.