Human Impact Project

A Cuban man who fled Cuba with his politically active family as a teenager lived in the U.S. for over two decades, raised six U.S.-citizen children and owned a business before being detained after attempting to cross into Canada out of fear of third-country deportation. He was held at the Plymouth, Massachusetts ICE detention facility, where his attorney, Sarah Sherman-Stokes of Boston University's Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Clinic, said she was not notified of his fear-of-return interview regarding removal to Mexico, which she believes violated his rights. He was deported to Mexico in November 2025, and his continuing legal challenge led U.S. District Judge William G. Young to reveal in a March 2026 order that the Department of Homeland Security has deported about 6,000 Cuban nationals to Mexico over the past year under an unwritten, standing agreement between the two countries. Young questioned the legality of the arrangement, noting it lacked any formal process beyond the government's own assertion that it was permissible.

Roberto López Falcón, a fifth-grade ESL teacher at Hart Elementary School in Austin ISD who was named Campus Teacher of Promise in January 2025, was detained by ICE on September 3, 2025, at an immigration check-in appointment in San Antonio. Falcón, 34, a Cuban national who entered the U.S. without inspection near San Luis, Arizona on March 22, 2022, was released by Border Patrol on an order of recognizance pending an immigration hearing. He was held at the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center to continue his immigration proceedings and remained in custody as of November 2025. At least four additional Austin ISD employees—a bus driver and lunchroom workers—were also detained in the same ICE enforcement sweep. Education Austin, the largest union representing district teachers and staff, confirmed the detentions. Falcón's family reported being devastated by his arrest and struggling without his presence and support.

A 39-year-old Ecuadorian woman who came to the U.S. nearly a decade earlier seeking asylum was detained by ICE in November after attending regular ICE check-ins every six months since 2020. Her detention forced her to miss scheduled surgery to remove a uterine myoma, and she struggled to obtain medical care for an infection. The detention also affected her now 9-year-old son who has severe autism and ADHD, causing him emotional distress and affecting his ability to focus at school. Her case was documented in habeas corpus petitions filed to challenge her detention.

A Mexican father caring for his 7-year-old son with kidney disease, hypothyroidism, and chronic respiratory failure requiring a feeding tube and ventilator was detained by ICE for 22 days. While he was detained, his son's medical care fell entirely to his mother. A federal judge ordered his release in November.

A Mexican citizen who has resided in the United States since 1995 has been detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center since November 2025. She is the mother of three U.S. citizen children and has no criminal history. She was denied bond during immigration proceedings based on alleged flight risk, and the court denied her motion for temporary restraining order seeking release.

Carlos Guerra Leon, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate from Spring Valley, New York, was arrested without a warrant by federal officers on August 9, 2025, and transferred to Jackson Correctional Facility in Louisiana despite holding approved Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) and deferred action status that protected him from deportation under the Biden administration. He came to the U.S. from Guatemala at age 10 after experiencing abandonment and neglect, and had built a stable life attending school and working legally in New York. The National Immigration Project, ACLU of Louisiana, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights filed a federal habeas petition challenging his detention. After nearly three months in custody over 1,000 miles from home, Federal Judge Terry Doughty issued a temporary restraining order on October 31 ruling Guerra Leon's detention unlawful and that his release "serves the public interest by ensuring that the Government adheres to its own laws." Despite the court order, ICE officials at the Louisiana facility initially refused to release him, claiming to have "no knowledge" of the ruling and forcing an emergency motion before he was finally released and returned home to New York.

An undocumented immigrant and his family, including three U.S. citizen children, hid in their apartment during a police response to a violent crime in Memphis, fearing ICE enforcement. The family remained on the floor in the dark for about 10 minutes, worried that police would knock on doors searching for suspects and potentially take the father into custody.

L.H., an Indigenous Quechua woman, fled Peru in 2021 with her minor son Y.V. after years of severe gender- and race-based domestic violence, including kidnapping, stalking, and a knife assault by her ex-partner. After settling in California and applying for asylum, DHS moved at a November 2025 hearing to pretermit her applications and seek their removal to Honduras under an Asylum Cooperative Agreement.

Beatriz Pastrana Candela was nearly three months pregnant when ICE agents arrested her at a Tempe hotel in November 2025 and detained her at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, where medical and corrections staff repeatedly told her she was not pregnant despite her reporting pain. She miscarried in detention and remains held five months later, separated from her three children, including a 14-year-old. Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva called her treatment "a shocking failure of basic humanity," and her case is cited in a congressional review by Sen. Jon Ossoff's office documenting inadequate medical care for pregnant people in ICE custody since January 2025.

A Guatemalan immigrant identified only as "D," who lived in Providence for 20 years, was detained by ICE in November 2025 and held at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls before being woken around 3 a.m. and transferred without explanation to a federal facility in Berlin, New Hampshire, ten days later. During the overnight transfer in a cramped van, he was handcuffed tightly enough to draw blood and exposed to winter cold through the vehicle's back door. He said he stayed quiet out of fear officers would treat him worse if he showed emotion, and worried he might be deported without being able to say goodbye to his family. He was ultimately released on bond, and immigration lawyers report that rapid transfers increasingly cut detainees off from legal counsel, with 12% experiencing at least four transfers in 2025.

Hanne Engan, a Norwegian national, was arrested by ICE officers at her green card interview in November 2025 after her student visa expired and detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center for approximately one week. Medical experts told inewsource that the care she received for her Type 1 diabetes was at times substandard and potentially life-threatening. An inewsource investigation of court records and interviews with 10 former detainees identified dozens of migrants who described chronic conditions, deteriorating health, or inadequate care at the facility.

Federal immigration agents, including ICE and Border Patrol personnel, deployed tear gas and other riot control weapons against protesters during enforcement operations in Chicago and Illinois beginning in September 2025. On October 14, 2025, Border Patrol agents pursued a vehicle on Chicago's East Side, using a precision immobilization technique (PIT maneuver) to stop it at the intersection of 105th and Avenue N, resulting in a collision. Two undocumented immigrants fled on foot and were arrested. When residents gathered to protest the operation, federal agents deployed tear gas, exposing 13 Chicago police officers to the gas. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on October 9 limiting crowd-control tactics, but subsequent court filings alleged violations occurring almost daily. An analysis of 28 protest events found seven instances of riot control weapons use without apparent threats and 19 instances of excessive force.

A CBP agent was recorded on video on October 31, 2025, repeatedly striking a 27-year-old Chicago man while he was pinned down near Oakton and Asbury in Evanston following a car crash and confrontation between agents and residents. Body-worn camera footage shows him telling officers he needed medical attention, which he did not receive during about five hours in federal custody. He was later charged with assaulting, resisting and impeding federal officers and was not required to post bond. Two other citizens detained in the incident were released without charges after a similar period in custody.

Krzysztof Klim, originally from Poland and now a U.S. citizen, was briefly detained and handcuffed by Border Patrol agents on October 31, 2025, outside a home in Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood while they verified his identification. He was later released.

Two U.S. citizen plumbers working on a property on Harding Avenue in Skokie, Illinois, were approached and questioned by federal immigration agents during an enforcement operation on October 31, 2025. The homeowner who hired the workers, who said he voted for President Trump, witnessed the encounter and stated the agents had no constitutional authority to stop and question the men or demand their papers. He said, 'I mean, two workers, American citizens, working on my lawn, for them to stop and profile them and ask them for papers, there's no constitutional right for them to do that.' No detentions occurred, but the incident raised concerns from the homeowner about agents targeting American citizens.

Jose Garcia-Sorto was shot by a federal ICE agent during a 4 a.m. traffic stop on Interstate 17 near Dove Valley Road in north Phoenix, after allegedly attempting to drive away. DHS said the agent fired twice because he was in the vehicle's path, but the Phoenix New Times reported photos showing damage to the driver's side window rather than the windshield, contradicting that account. Garcia-Sorto's wife said she has been unable to obtain information from authorities about his condition and that he is hospitalized under a different name.

Three U.S. citizens were arrested following a crash and confrontation during a federal immigration enforcement operation at the intersection of Asbury and Oakton in Evanston on October 31, 2025. A red vehicle rear-ended a federal agent vehicle; witnesses reported agents braked suddenly while the government stated agents were attempting a U-turn. During the confrontation, pepper spray was deployed and community members who intervened were also arrested. The three arrested individuals' identities and specific charges remain unclear.

Monica, an Ecuadorian child care worker seeking asylum, was pushed to the ground and shoved into a wall by an ICE agent outside a Manhattan immigration court on September 25, 2025, while agents detained her husband Ruben. The incident, which occurred in front of the couple's two young children and journalists, was captured on video and circulated widely on social media. Monica said she feared Ruben's deportation would amount to a death sentence. The officer, who reportedly had a history of aggressive conduct at the same location, was temporarily relieved of duty after DHS called the conduct unacceptable, but was reinstated days later following a preliminary review despite political calls for felony charges. In late October, a federal court ordered Ruben's release after finding he had been detained without explanation. The family of four has since been reunited, though their asylum cases remain pending.

Fernando Jaramillo Solano, a 45-year-old Colombian national seeking asylum, and his two children, Jana Michel Jaramillo Patiño (12) and Kewin Daniel Patiño Bustamante (15), were detained by ICE agents on October 27, 2025, while being driven to school near a mobile home park in Durango, Colorado. The family had lived in Colorado for over 18 months, held valid documentation showing an active asylum process since December 2024, a pending work permit request, and no criminal record. ICE officials later stated in federal court that Jaramillo Solano was not their intended target. Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Durango ICE field office, where agents in tactical gear pepper-sprayed and fired rubber bullets at demonstrators; one protester was allegedly pushed and another, 57-year-old Franci Stagi, was knocked down and put in a chokehold, while 22-year-old Drew Collie was sprayed and struck by rubber bullets. Local police attempting a welfare check on the children were denied entry by federal agents. The father was transferred to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas, and the children were held at a facility in southern Texas before immigration officials granted the family voluntary departure, with ICE stating it would facilitate their return to Colombia. The City of Durango requested an investigation into agent conduct from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which declined the request.

Arthur Berto, a 13-year-old Brazilian asylum seeker living in Everett, Massachusetts, was arrested by local police on suspicion of making a violent threat at school. When his mother, Josiele Berto, went to the police station to retrieve him, she learned ICE had taken him into custody instead, without informing her of his whereabouts or next steps. Authorities later transferred Arthur to a juvenile detention facility in Winchester, Virginia, without notifying his family or attorney. The Everett police chief said this was the first such incident in the city, and local officials disputed DHS claims that Arthur had an 'extensive rap sheet' and a firearm, stating no gun was found. His mother, whose family has a pending asylum application, has only been able to reach him through brief phone calls. A federal judge ordered the government to justify the arrest or provide a bond hearing, and a federal court petition has been filed arguing the detention violates due process.