Human Impact Project

Juan Francisco Areche Minaya, a 49-year-old Dominican citizen who has lived in Puerto Rico for more than 28 years with no criminal record, was detained in San Juan on August 11, 2026 by several masked ICE agents while waiting near a business for a friend who was picking up electrical materials for a job. He is the father of two U.S.-citizen children and the son of a U.S.-citizen mother, both of whom depend on him for financial and daily support, and he has two previously approved I-130 family petitions. His daughter, Darjeerling Areche, said he has 'been present throughout my entire life' and called his detention 'completely incomprehensible.' U.S. District Judge Gina Méndez Miró barred his transfer out of Puerto Rico and ordered a bond hearing under the First Circuit's ruling in Guerrero Orellana v. Moniz, but Immigration Judge Elvin Talavera Peraza denied him bond on August 21, 2026, citing an alleged flight risk; his habeas petition alleges the stop was racially motivated. The ACLU of Puerto Rico and the University of Puerto Rico's Immigration Clinic denounced the bond denial as part of a broader pattern of biased rulings. On September 1, 2026, the federal court dismissed his amended habeas petition without prejudice, finding he had not exhausted administrative remedies or presented a proper constitutional question.

An unnamed Cuban man detained at the GEO Group-run Montgomery ICE Processing Center near Houston, Texas, was arrested by ICE on July 22 and declared a hunger striker three days later. DHS says he entered the U.S. unlawfully in 1980, was ordered deported in 2004, and has prior convictions; he currently lacks legal representation and many of his court records are sealed. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen authorized force-feeding, first via nasogastric tube and later approving a rare, nonconsensual surgical gastrostomy (PEG) tube procedure, with the order extended into September. DHS later said the man had resumed eating and drinking and was not being force-fed, though it remains unconfirmed whether the surgical procedure was performed. ACLU of Texas attorney Savannah Kumar and civil rights attorney Eunice Cho criticized the tactics as torturous, noting the case is likely the 19th in which ICE has sought court approval for involuntary medical procedures on hunger-striking detainees since January 2025.

An Iranian woman in her early thirties, a pro-democracy activist who said she had been threatened by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, fled Iran, crossed the Darién Gap, and arrived in the U.S. at the end of 2024, where a judge granted her legal protection from being deported back to Iran after finding she had credible fear of persecution. Despite that protection, she was deported on June 12, 2026, from Louisiana to the Central African Republic on a flight carrying roughly two dozen migrants from countries including Jordan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia, and Afghanistan, under the Trump administration's third-country deportation agreements. Her attorney, Emily Trostle, said she was left in a country where she has no status, no connection, and no support network. She now lives in isolation, afraid to leave her apartment, and says local police have extorted her for cash. Her family said she could be killed if ever returned to Iran, and she fears execution if her situation changes once her temporary visa expires. Two other Iranian women originally scheduled for the same flight, whose asylum claims had been denied under a transit rule later vacated by a California federal court, received emergency court orders temporarily halting their removal.

The Gámez-Cuéllar family—parents Luis Antonio Gámez Martínez and Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar López, and their three sons Antonio (18), Caleb (12), and Joshua (14)—were detained by ICE on February 25, 2026, during a routine immigration check-in in Edinburg, Texas. The family had legally entered the U.S. in May 2023 through the CBP One asylum app and were in active asylum proceedings with a final hearing scheduled for September. Antonio was separated from his family and shackled during transport to an adult detention facility in Raymondville, while his younger brothers and parents were held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. Two of the brothers are award-winning mariachi musicians with McAllen High School's Mariachi Oro band, which has performed at the White House and Carnegie Hall and won eight state championships. After approximately 13 days in detention, bipartisan congressional pressure from lawmakers including Rep. Monica De La Cruz and Rep. Joaquin Castro, combined with a successful parole request by their attorneys, resulted in the family's release on February 28, 2026. The parents were required to wear ankle monitors and restrict travel to 75 miles from their home.

Hector "Alessandro" Negrete, who came to the U.S. from Mexico as an infant and lived in Los Angeles for decades, self-deported to Guadalajara in September 2025 after facing immigration enforcement fears under the second Trump administration. Nine months later, he received a letter at his old U.S. address demanding a $1,820,352 civil penalty for failing to comply with a 2009 deportation order he says he was unaware of. Negrete and his lawyers have twice provided evidence that he is living in Mexico, but officials have demanded additional documentation. He is one of more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants who have received DHS fines totaling more than $84 billion since the start of the second Trump administration through mid-July.

On September 20, 2026, immigration agents in Evanston, Illinois, mistook a U.S. citizen for a fugitive they were seeking and tried to handcuff him after he declined to show identification. The man was left bloodied, suffering injuries to his head, neck and teeth, and was taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital for treatment. Agents released him after determining he was not the person named in their warrant, and Evanston police are investigating the encounter.

A citizen of the Dominican Republic who has lived in Puerto Rico since entering the United States without inspection in 2008 was detained by law enforcement agents during an immigration enforcement operation at his place of work on September 1, 2026. He is married to a U.S. citizen, who had filed a relative petition on his behalf with USCIS that was approved in March 2023. Since his arrest he has been held at the GSA Guaynabo Detention Center and was reportedly denied a bond hearing. He filed a habeas corpus petition and an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing his detention falls under 8 U.S.C. § 1226 and that he is prima facie eligible for cancellation of removal. The court found he is likely entitled to a bond hearing under Section 1226(a) rather than mandatory detention under Section 1225, and held that he faces irreparable harm without one. The court granted the TRO, barring the government from transferring him outside Puerto Rico, ordered that he receive a bond hearing before an Immigration Judge by September 18, 2026, and held the underlying habeas petition in abeyance pending that hearing.

On Sept. 1, ICE agents raided a day laborer gathering spot near General Hart Playground in Woodside, Queens, detaining about eight men, the second such raid in three days. Workers say ICE has specifically targeted the site during a weekly mobile soup kitchen distribution, and the usual crowd of about 100 day laborers has dwindled to just a few people showing up for work. Local officials, including Assemblymember Steven Raga and City Council Member Julie Won, say the raids are part of a broader, deliberate pattern of ICE activity across western Queens in recent weeks, including incidents near 37th Avenue and 69th Street. DHS says its "Operation Rotten Apple" resulted in 2,197 arrests statewide between July 27 and Aug. 29, though nationwide data shows fewer than a third of those in ICE detention have any criminal conviction.

Jeyson Molina's wife was detained by ICE agents in Newark while working as a package delivery driver. The sudden detention has left the family seeking financial support for legal fees to secure representation. The family is raising $8,000 for lawyers as they navigate the legal process.

Noune Phompor, 47, a Laotian refugee who has lived in the U.S. since 1981 under indefinite refugee status, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents during his lunch break at the Chipotle where he has worked since May 2025. Phompor's family says he committed crimes in his 20s while struggling with methamphetamine addiction but has not committed a crime since at least 2014, completing his supervision requirements. He is the sole provider for his partner, Joanna Mabrey, and their 1-year-old son, and is now held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma awaiting removal proceedings with a deportation date of October 20. Friends, family, and Port Angeles Mayor Kate Dexter have been working to secure him legal representation and intervene with lawmakers.

A federal magistrate judge in the Southern District of Georgia denied the Trump administration's attempt to dismiss a habeas petition filed by Ya'akub Vijandre, who has been held in ICE detention for nearly a year over his speech and advocacy. The ruling allows his case to proceed to a district judge for further review. Advocates say the decision is a step toward his potential release from custody.

A teenage asylum seeker identified in court records as E.L.A., now 19, was deported to El Salvador for a second time, prompting a federal judge to hold the Department of Homeland Security in contempt on September 25 for violating three separate court orders in the class-action case J.O.P. v. DHS. He had first been removed in March 2026 after missing biometrics appointments in April and October 2025, then returned to the U.S. in June after class counsel arranged for his asylum case to proceed. A July 29 court order found the government had breached the settlement, but he was deported again in September, less than three weeks after DHS issued internal guidance meant to prevent such removals.

A 67-year-old lawful permanent resident who has lived legally in the U.S. for about 50 years was held for eight days by CBP at San Francisco International Airport in March 2026 after returning from a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, and landing in Fresno. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that agents removed him from his flight and transported him in handcuffs to San Francisco, where he says he slept sitting in a chair under lights kept on and struggled to manage his blood sugar despite having diabetes, hypertension and vision problems. He was later transferred to an ICE detention facility for several months before his attorneys secured his release. An investigation found 25 people were held more than 72 hours at SFO through July, 19 of whom were green card holders, making it the second-highest U.S. airport for such extended holds after Miami among more than 400 cases nationwide; Senator Alex Padilla subsequently visited the 3,000-square-foot CBP holding area at SFO to examine the conditions.

José David Murcia Valdez, a 30-year-old Honduran refugee, fled Honduras six years ago after a machete attack cost him a finger and left scars across his arms and shoulders. He settled in Monterrey, Mexico, and worked for three years at a recycling plant until Mexican authorities arrived to check employees' papers and deported him back to Honduras. Unable to remain in Honduras because of the earlier attack, he returned to Mexico and joined a migrant caravan called Sueños sin Fronteras, attempting to bike more than 1,000 miles back to Monterrey in search of work.

Felipe Flores and Daniel Ramirez, a 30-year-old Texas resident raised in Brownsville, were deported together on a flight to Guatemala City as part of a broader U.S. policy that has sent at least 2,200 Mexican nationals there this year. Before the flight, Flores spent days in cramped U.S. detention facilities without being able to shower or brush his teeth, followed by a 15-hour stint in handcuffs, calling the policy "negligent." After release in Guatemala City, both men crossed back into Mexico and faced a long, costly bus journey home, with Ramirez's route leading him to Matamoros, on the border across from Brownsville. Mexico's government has told U.S. authorities it opposes sending Mexican citizens to Guatemala, saying every Mexican has the right to enter national territory directly.

Daniel Ramirez, a 30-year-old Texas resident born in Mexico's Tamaulipas state and raised in Brownsville, was detained by U.S. immigration agents near his home and held for days in detention without being able to shower or brush his teeth before being shackled for a 15-hour flight to Guatemala City under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy. He was then bused across the border into Tapachula, Mexico, more than 1,000 miles from the U.S. border, joining at least 2,200 Mexican nationals sent to Guatemala this year as part of a broader program that has deported about 22,000 people to third countries, with roughly 19,000 sent to Mexico. Ramirez, who lived in the U.S. for years without legal status, said the transfer felt like "a punishment for us so we don't go back again." He later took a multi-day bus trip to Matamoros, near Brownsville, where he found work painting cars.

Ana Garcia's mother was arrested by ICE near downtown Mount Vernon, Washington, according to her daughter. Ana said the family was not allowed to see her before she was taken away. The five siblings are now navigating daily life without either parent at home.

Hugo Ávila Villegas, 40, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Hidalgo, Mexico, says he was held by federal agents in his vehicle on the morning of August 31 near Power and Thomas streets in Mesa, Arizona, despite showing them his U.S. passport. He said agents told him they had a removal order against him and showed him a photo of a suspect born in 1983, though Ávila Villegas was born in 1986 and said the man in the photo did not resemble him. He said agents deflated one of his vehicle's tires before leaving, and about a month later he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, reporting headaches, dizziness and insomnia. A civil rights attorney who reviewed the case said the order agents placed on his windshield may not have been valid and that the officers' conduct could warrant investigation.

ICE officers arrested Jose Saul Canas-Guandique, a 49-year-old Salvadoran national, in Falls Church, Virginia on August 31, 2026. He is wanted in Colorado on felony charges including child sexual assault, solicitation of child prostitution, and using the internet to lure a child, and had previously been arrested by the Glenwood Springs Police Department in Colorado on March 7, 2024. He had lawfully entered the U.S. in 2004 but remained after his permitted stay expired, and he is now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and the Colorado criminal justice process.

Gilberto Jacobo Mata was taken into ICE custody on August 31, 2026 while on his way to work. He had lived in the United States for 14 years and was the sole income provider for his four children, ages 1 1/2 to 14. Family members describe him as a hardworking man who treated others with kindness and are raising funds to cover legal fees and support his children.