Human Impact Project

Javier Ramirez, who became a U.S. citizen 30 years ago, said he was racially profiled by an ICE agent last year at a Home Depot in Baldwin Park, California. Ramirez works as a street vendor at the site, where he also helps connect day laborers with work trucks and watches out for them amid ongoing immigration enforcement activity. He said his citizenship did not make him feel untouchable, but years of navigating harassment from law enforcement as a street vendor kept him from being afraid during the encounter. Javier said conditions have grown increasingly difficult due to combined pressure from ICE presence and extreme heat, which has reduced pay and worsened conditions for laborers and hurt his own business.

Adela Nohemy Castellanos, who gave birth two months earlier, is detained with her 10-year-old daughter Sofia at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, separated from her husband and three other children. According to her family, Adela cannot tolerate the facility's food, is under significant stress, and is unable to sleep while recovering from childbirth. Her attorneys have filed an appeal of her deportation.

A Border Patrol tactical unit confronted protesters blocking construction activity at the Arizona border wall. A protester described agents as wearing gas masks and wielding pepper spray, saying they were assaulting demonstrators rather than communicating with them. The confrontation highlights ongoing tensions between border communities and militarized enforcement at wall construction sites.

A resident of Kerman was detained by ICE agents on Thursday morning while stopping to buy a pastry and coffee, according to local officials who informed California Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria. Soria said she was "deeply disturbed" by the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations and reports of racial profiling in the community, saying "no one should be targeted because of their color of their skin, the language they speak, their accent, or their last name."

An unnamed man was arrested by ICE agents in Mendota on Thursday morning without being asked any questions, according to Linda Martinez, an organizing coordinator with the United Farm Worker Foundation. He was released from ICE's downtown Fresno office later that afternoon after agents found his work permit in his wallet. The arrest occurred amid a broader ICE enforcement surge that advocates say has involved racial profiling of immigrant workers in the Fresno area this week.

An Angolan asylum seeker living in Maine was taken into ICE custody after negotiating a swap with immigration agents who had first detained his wife. The couple arranged the exchange so their 10-year-old son would not be left without a parent at home. Court records describe the arrangement as part of a broader pattern of federal agents tracking down immigrants with legal status at homes and workplaces in Maine, with lawyers noting Maine has stood out among New England states for this type of enforcement activity.

On October 19, 2025, more than 200 officers from roughly 14 federal and local agencies raided La Catedral Arena, a horse track in Wilder, Idaho, under a warrant covering only five gambling suspects. About 400 attendees, including children as young as 7, were zip-tied and detained for hours; 105 people were taken into ICE custody and five were arrested on gambling charges. Lead plaintiff Juana Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen, said she was restrained for nearly four hours while holding her 3-year-old son. Anabel Romero said her children, among more than a dozen American minors detained, remain deeply shaken, with her 7-year-old son later warning his older sister ahead of another race, 'Watch out for ICE, make sure you have your phone to film — I'll come save you.' A lawsuit alleges officers used racial epithets and denied food, water, and medical care; four protesters were also arrested, with most charges later dropped. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered 15-16 detainees released, ruling mandatory detention violated due process, and awarded about $87,000 in attorneys' fees.

In January, hours after Renee Good's killing, immigration agents tackled and handcuffed a school staff member in Minneapolis. "I feel lucky to be alive," he recalled, describing the encounter as terrifying.

In November, immigration agents took an 18-year-old U.S. citizen off the street and eventually left him in the woods.

During a Sept. 4 ICE raid in Dover, N.J., a Honduran man was picked up on his way to work, loaded into a van, and taken with nine other detained men to a warehouse in nearby Roxbury, where they were handcuffed and held in a parking lot for hours. Frightened, he signed deportation papers and said he regretted it the next morning; NPR later located him in Honduras, where he had been deported, and he requested anonymity out of fear for loved ones still in the U.S. During the same raid, a 59-year-old worker was cornered against a wall by two masked ICE agents in footage that later circulated on social media. His daughter recognized him in the video and received a disoriented call from him afterward saying he was handcuffed somewhere she believed was the Roxbury warehouse; she has not been able to reach him since and asked not to be named for fear of being targeted.

Tesfay T., a 35-year-old Ethiopian man who had been imprisoned and tortured in Ethiopia and later kidnapped and tortured again in Mexico, fled to the United States and spent more than a year in immigration detention after crossing the border irregularly. An immigration judge denied his asylum claim but granted him 'withholding of removal' because of the likelihood he would be tortured again if returned to Ethiopia. In February 2026, while his lawyer was pursuing a habeas corpus petition for his release, an ICE officer told him to sign a voluntary departure form and said, 'I don't care, I'm going to sign it myself' when Tesfay refused and asked to speak with his attorney. He was then flown to Cameroon chained at his wrists, legs, and stomach for the entire journey, denied the ability to stand or use a bathroom without restraints, and was not told his destination until after landing.

Volkan Guzey, a longtime captain at Carbone Miami and native of Turkey, was detained by ICE agents at Miami International Airport on September 4 as he and his wife, Eliana Cabrera, prepared to board a flight for their honeymoon. The couple had married less than three months earlier and had planned a road trip through Cabrera's home state of Utah. Guzey had worked at Carbone Miami, part of Major Food Group, since January 2021, with prior restaurant experience at Fig & Olive, Del Posto, and The Grill. Cabrera says authorities transferred him from Florida to Texas and then to Colorado, where as of October 8 he was listed as held at the Denver Contract Detention Facility. She described him as the couple's primary income earner and started a GoFundMe to help cover legal fees, rent, and other expenses related to his detention.

Luis Caiza, an asylum seeker from Ecuador with a work permit and no criminal record, was pulled from his car and thrown to the ground during a traffic stop in Maple Grove, Minnesota, part of ICE's Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities. His wife, Marjorie Flores, said officers kneed and kicked him while he was down, then pulled her from the car, threw her onto the icy street, and pointed a weapon at her as she pleaded that their three children, Camila, Sneyder, and Emilio, were at home. Caiza has since been held for nearly 10 months at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico, where he has described tooth infections, inadequate food, lack of clean clothing, and severe delays receiving legal mail. He said video calls with his children have become too painful to continue. His attorney, Danielle Molliver, disputes a judge's finding that he is a flight risk due to prior DWIs and has filed a second petition challenging his prolonged detention while his asylum appeal, which he recently lost, remains pending. Flores now works three jobs totaling 93 hours a week to support their children.

Thongxay Nilakout, who resettled in the U.S. from Laos as a child in 1980, was released from a life sentence in 2023 after a Supreme Court ruling found mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders unconstitutional. He was working as a restaurant cook when immigration authorities detained him in early 2025 and placed him on a deportation flight to South Sudan, a country with which he had no connection, as part of a broader removal program. A federal judge ruled the deportation violated a court order requiring migrants a meaningful chance to contest removal, but he was deported anyway, joining seven other men held in a gated house in Juba under armed guard. His attorney, Tin Nguyen, said Nilakout had been willing to return to Laos all along and that Lao travel documents had already been issued before the U.S. instead sent him to South Sudan. Birte Pfleger, daughter of the woman Nilakout was convicted of killing, said she was never notified of his arrest or deportation despite requesting updates. After more than a year in detention in South Sudan, Nilakout left for Vientiane, Laos on October 8, 2026; four of the original group and a fifth deportee from Congo remained in South Sudan.

Brian José Morales García, a 25-year-old HVAC worker from Austin born in Denver, Colorado, was riding in his employer's truck near Fredericksburg, Texas, on April 3, 2026, when a state trooper stopped the vehicle over an alleged window-tint violation. He repeatedly told officers he was a citizen and offered his birth certificate, Social Security card, and baptismal record, but said they refused to accept the documents; the Gillespie County Sheriff's Office held him before Border Patrol took custody. He said agents mocked his citizenship claim and pressured him into signing paperwork admitting illegal entry, which he did to avoid prolonged detention and reunite with his pregnant wife in Mexico. He was deported four to five days after the stop, missing the birth of his daughter and spending nearly five months with relatives in Mexico. His attorneys, including Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, filed a federal lawsuit alleging coercion and racial profiling, submitting his birth certificate, hospital records, baptismal certificate, and witness affidavits, while DHS disputed his citizenship claim. A federal judge called the case 'highly unusual' and ordered discovery; the Department of Justice agreed to let him return to Austin on August 30, 2026. His civil rights lawsuit continues, and his case is cited among more than 500 reported instances of U.S. citizens detained by ICE nationally.

Federal immigration agents broke a driver's window during a traffic stop outside Century High School in Hillsboro, Oregon, on Oct. 7, shortly after 10 a.m. It remains unclear whether the driver was detained. The stop was part of a broader enforcement surge that advocates say detained at least 21 people across Oregon between Oct. 6 and Oct. 8, including activity in Hillsboro, Cornelius, Forest Grove, Gresham, Troutdale and eastern Portland. Washington County follows Oregon's sanctuary law, and local officials said deputies do not collaborate with ICE or honor administrative warrants, though no county statement addressed the October surge as of publication.

Babucarr Touray, a Gambian immigrant, was taken into ICE custody on October 7 after reporting for a scheduled immigration check-in at the USCIS field office in Tukwila, Washington, according to his attorney and family members. Touray had attended similar appointments many times before without incident. His family and the Pacific Northwest Seattle Gambian Association are raising funds to cover an immigration bond and ongoing living expenses, including rent, while he remains in custody. As of Thursday, the family had not confirmed the bond amount, his location, or next steps in his case.

Immigration attorneys and court observers say the closure of San Francisco's immigration court has overwhelmed the Concord court with new 'mega-master hearings' and scheduling changes that threaten due process. Devony Hodson, a migrant from Nicaragua, said her final hearing was abruptly moved from 2027 to this past July, giving her little time to prepare, though she has since received extensions to December 2028. The Executive Office for Immigration Review said scheduling changes are meant to prevent cases from languishing, while advocates and a local congressman question the rationale behind the court closure.

A Venezuelan man detained by an ICE agent on an Ogden street on Aug. 25 has been released after a federal judge in California ruled his detention unconstitutional, according to his attorney Sergio Garcia. The man, who came to the U.S. in 2022 and had applied for asylum and received a work permit, was held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California before the judge granted his habeas petition. His arrest drew scrutiny after an Ogden police officer, who was responding to an unrelated call, became caught between the ICE agent and the man, and after a city councilman filmed part of the encounter. Garcia said the man still faces deportation and will now have to pursue his asylum case in immigration court rather than through USCIS.

Daury Baez Seri, a DACA recipient who grew up in Boston after arriving from the Dominican Republic at age six, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for more than 24 hours at Logan International Airport. He was returning from a gaming convention in Puerto Rico when his flight was diverted to Bermuda due to a medical emergency onboard, inadvertently turning a domestic flight into an international one. His attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said Baez Seri was not allowed to call a lawyer while detained and has no criminal record. He was released from custody late Wednesday evening.