Human Impact Project

During summer 2025 ICE raids in Southern California, federal agents arrested thousands of undocumented immigrants in neighborhoods, workplaces, and homes. Giovanni, a Salvadoran worker at a car wash in the San Fernando Valley, was detained for six months at Adelanto ICE Processing Center after refusing to sign deportation documents, while three coworkers were quickly deported to Mexico. His family was left without his income and faced potential displacement.

Abdullahi Mohamed, a Somali refugee who had lived in the U.S. for decades with his family, was detained and then rapidly transferred within five days across Massachusetts, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas before being deported to Somalia. He reported being beaten and shackled during transfers and enduring long periods without food or water. ICE did not respond to his lawyer's requests for release and ignored habeas petition efforts. Mohamed has no family or means of support in Somalia and his wife remains in hiding due to her immigration status.

Esteban, a Hispanic man charged with attempted homicide, was arrested by ICE agents in Los Angeles while heading to work and transferred to the Adelanto immigrant detention center in California's Mojave Desert. At the facility, operated by private company GEO Group, he felt compelled to join the prison gang Los Paisas to protect himself from violence, eventually becoming one of the gang's leaders and serving as an informal intermediary between detainees and guards. After nearly a year at Adelanto, he was released and returned to Los Angeles. The detention center has faced complaints of abuse, medical negligence, poor food, overcrowding, and deaths of migrants.

Ernesto Puac Son, a 33-year-old roofer and legal resident of Stuart, Florida, with a valid work permit and pending asylum case, has lived in the United States for 18 years. On October 1, 2025, FDLE agents conducted a traffic stop near his house after he made a rolling stop. Puac refused to exit his van because he had just witnessed agents arresting his brother Felipe, who had a deportation order but no criminal history. FDLE agent John Soltys smashed Puac's van window and dragged him through the broken glass, pinning him face-down on the ground and leaving him with gashes on his face, back, and arms. Despite showing a valid Florida driver's license, Puac was charged with resisting arrest with violence. He was convicted on January 7, 2026, and sentenced to one year in Martin County Jail. FDLE was operating under the 287(g) program, which authorizes state and local law enforcement to enforce immigration law.

Mohamed Fofana, a 22-year-old asylum seeker from Guinea employed at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, was detained by ICE on November 11, 2025, near his home. He was held for seven months in detention facilities in Batavia and La Salle County, Texas. In February 2026, his attorney reported losing contact with him for a month due to facility transfer confusion, and an immigration judge granted a 45-day continuance. An immigration judge ordered his deportation in May 2026, but a federal judge vacated that order and approved his habeas corpus petition in June 2026. Fofana was released and returned to Syracuse on June 7-9, 2026, to reunite with his family.

Daniela Portillo, a Venezuelan woman living in Florida, called police and remained at the scene after another driver struck her car in Polk County on June 8 and allegedly fled. When a sheriff's deputy responded, he determined she was not a U.S. citizen and lacked legal residency; an immigration official confirmed her status and ICE issued a civil detainer. She was taken into custody and transferred to a migrant detention facility in Louisiana, where she has since been held for about two months. Her attorney said she has a pending asylum case with no final removal order. Portillo described the experience as 'traumatic,' 'devastating' and 'exhausting,' and her family said it felt like she was treated as a criminal despite cooperating with law enforcement and staying at the scene.

An immigration detainee who entered the United States without inspection in 2007 and established deep community ties in Utah over nineteen years was arrested by ICE on June 8, 2026, while on his way to work in Salt Lake City. He was transferred between immigration detention facilities in Utah, Wyoming, and California without receiving an individualized custody determination or bond hearing. The court granted his petition for writ of habeas corpus in part, ordering respondents to either conduct a bond hearing before a neutral decisionmaker within seven days or cease his detention.

Ronnie Price, a 40-year-old national of Trinidad and Tobago, is facing denaturalization after being convicted of statutory rape. Before naturalizing in 2016, Price had sexual intercourse with a female under age 16, a crime to which he eventually pled guilty. During his naturalization proceedings, Price falsely claimed he had never committed a crime. The Department of Justice filed denaturalization action seeking to revoke his citizenship based on his false testimony and concealment of material facts during the naturalization process.

A 69-year-old Colombian-born Roman Catholic priest is facing denaturalization after concealing his criminal conduct from immigration officials. He entered the United States in 1996 on a religious worker visa and served at churches in Virginia and Maryland, including parishes in Baltimore County and Harford County under the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He used his leadership position in the church to gain access to minor victims, sexually grooming and abusing a minor parishioner from age 11 to 13, and pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and enticement, admitting to egregious conduct involving other minor victims, resulting in a 22-year prison sentence. The Department of Justice filed a complaint on June 5 alleging he concealed his ongoing crimes from immigration officials, illegally procuring his naturalization through concealment of material facts and willful misrepresentation of his sexual activity.

Louise Hunkporti, a 64-year-old native of Congo, is facing denaturalization after using a falsified identity to obtain U.S. citizenship. In 1995, Hunkporti applied for and was denied an immigration benefit. After being denied, Hunkporti adopted a new identity and submitted a falsified application under that assumed identity. She naturalized as a U.S. citizen on March 2, 2010 under the adopted identity. After USCIS digitized its paper fingerprint cards, the Department of Justice discovered that Hunkporti's fingerprints from her 2010 naturalization matched those she submitted in her 1995 denied application. The complaint alleges eight counts for her numerous misrepresentations and unlawful acts.

Federico Michel Fermin, a 54-year-old Dominican Republic native, is facing denaturalization after being convicted of conspiracy to distribute prescription drugs wholesale without a license. From September 2004 through August 2005, Fermin conspired with others to distribute more than $1.7 million in prescription drugs, altering drug packaging to make them appear legitimately sourced. A jury convicted him in 2011, and he was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment. During his naturalization process, Fermin falsely testified under penalty of perjury that he had never knowingly committed any unreported crime, and the Department of Justice alleges he illegally procured his citizenship through misrepresentation and concealment of material facts. His case is part of a broader Justice Department action filed against 17 naturalized citizens accused of concealing material facts or providing false information during their naturalization processes.

Neeraj Sharma, a 50-year-old Indian native and owner/CEO of staffing company Magnavision LLC in New Jersey, is facing denaturalization for concealing fraud when he naturalized. As an officer of Magnavision, Sharma signed and filed eleven fraudulent H-1B visa petitions with USCIS between April 2015 and April 2017, falsely representing that visa beneficiaries would be employed with a particular global financial institution and including forged signatures of executives on corporate letterhead. He became a lawful permanent resident in February 2012 and later naturalized in December 2017 after falsely denying, under penalty of perjury, that he had ever committed crimes or lied to gain immigration benefits. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey filed a complaint on June 4, 2026 seeking to revoke his citizenship as part of a Justice Department effort targeting 17 naturalized citizens.

Armando Mendoza, a 39-year-old Mexican native, is facing denaturalization after pleading guilty to receipt of sexually explicit images of minors. Beginning in 2009, Mendoza knowingly received such images. During his 2011 naturalization application and interview, he falsely claimed under oath that he had never committed a crime for which he was not arrested. He naturalized later that year. In 2013, Mendoza pled guilty to receipt of child sexual abuse material. The Department of Justice alleges he committed crimes involving moral turpitude during the period required to demonstrate good moral character and willfully misrepresented material facts during naturalization proceedings.

Talman Harris, a 49-year-old Jamaican native, is facing denaturalization after being convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud. Over an eight-year period, including during his 2012-2014 naturalization proceedings, Harris conspired to manipulate stock prices in publicly traded companies, causing more than $54 million in investments and approximately $39 million in investor losses. In 2016, after naturalizing, a jury found him guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The Department of Justice alleges Harris committed crimes involving moral turpitude during the period he was required to demonstrate good moral character and falsely testified about his crimes during naturalization proceedings.

Tahir Lekaj, a 43-year-old native of Yugoslavia admitted to the United States in 1999, is facing denaturalization after being convicted of sexually abusing a child under age 15. When Lekaj applied for naturalization in 2004, he falsely claimed under oath that he had never committed a crime for which he was not arrested. He naturalized in May 2005. However, in 2022, Connecticut convicted him of two counts of sexual abuse of a child, with evidence showing the victim was 10 years old when abuse began in January 2003. The Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging he illegally procured citizenship through false testimony and concealment of material facts.

Andrea Marroquin, a 44-year-old Colombian national who inherited her father's assets, is facing denaturalization after the Department of Justice alleged she obtained U.S. citizenship through fraud. Marroquin applied for citizenship in 2001 while concealing that she was simultaneously married to two men, one Colombian and one American, and did not disclose the birth of her U.S.-born son. Prosecutors say that between 2003 and 2011 she helped arrange fraudulent mortgage loans using fictitious buyers, laundering between $550,000 and $1.5 million and causing losses of up to $565,000 to FDIC-insured institutions. She naturalized in 2009 despite falsely swearing she had never committed a crime, and the government has filed four counts seeking to revoke her citizenship.

Jean Claude Alfred, a 68-year-old Haitian-born man living in Delray Beach, Florida, who naturalized in 1994, faces a Justice Department civil lawsuit seeking to revoke his citizenship for concealing crimes during his naturalization process and falsely testifying under oath that he had not committed any unreported crimes. A Florida jury later convicted him of attempted sexual battery and lewd assault upon a child. The DOJ says the case is part of a broader effort targeting more than 400 people, described as the largest denaturalization push in U.S. history.

Jose Alejandro Cocmaxsolovid and Jose Luis Mejia Lopez, both Guatemalan nationals, were detained by ICE on June 8, 2026, at their place of work and residence in Waterloo, Iowa. According to immigrant advocacy groups, both men are workers with strong community ties and are not dangerous criminals. The detention is part of ICE enforcement actions following Congress's $70 billion funding increase for immigration enforcement, with advocacy groups expressing concern that the agency is increasingly targeting immigrants with community connections.

Leidys Delmas Garcia, a Cuban native who became a U.S. citizen on January 19, 2019, is facing denaturalization proceedings from the Department of Justice. Prosecutors say that between October 2018 and November 2022, she and others ran fraudulent physical therapy clinics that billed Blue Cross Blue Shield about $24.2 million, receiving roughly $5.8 million in payouts, of which Garcia personally obtained about $1.6 million. During her January 2019 naturalization interview, she denied under oath ever having committed a crime, despite her ongoing involvement in the scheme. She was indicted in November 2022 and pleaded guilty in July 2023, admitting her role in the conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.

Thien, who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee in 1984 at age 3 and became a permanent resident, lost his green card status at 16 due to a mistake. After serving his sentence, he was placed on an order of supervision rather than deported because Vietnam was not accepting deportees. For 24 years, he complied with every condition of the order, maintained work authorization, built a business, and raised a family. When he attended a scheduled immigration appointment, he was detained within 10 minutes without an interview and is now facing deportation.