Human Impact Project

A viral cellphone video shows a woman being surrounded by plainclothes, masked men and placed into an unmarked white van with DHS markings outside Los Angeles International Airport before dawn. In the footage she repeatedly pleads for bystanders to call 911, insists 'I'm not doing anything wrong,' and only gives her name after being pressed, while one man confirms he is an ICE agent citing an 'immigration violation' without further explanation. Social media users identified her as Jing Zhao, an Irvine, California special education teacher with an MBA who provided early childhood intervention and speech support to children with developmental needs. A parent of a child she once tutored described her as a patient, dedicated teacher who 'walked into our family and helped my child, little by little,' and expressed hope she would receive legal help and a fair process. Detention records later showed she was transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County, though ICE has not issued a public statement confirming her identity or the specific violation alleged. Airport officials said federal agencies conduct independent investigations and that airport operations continued as normal.

Aminata Seck, a 26-year-old graduate student and women's basketball player from Dakar, Senegal, at Kentucky State University, was detained by federal officers at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Aug. 7, 2026, while preparing to travel with her team to a tournament. Her attorneys said she entered the U.S. on a student visa in 2019 and never received notice of a September 2025 hearing that resulted in an in absentia removal order. She was moved among at least four detention facilities, suffered seizures requiring hospitalization, and needed surgery for an ACL injury and torn Achilles, with attorneys describing inconsistent medical care. By late September she was found hospitalized and appeared sedated, prompting her attorneys to file a motion to reopen her case and a habeas corpus petition. A Memphis immigration judge reopened her case after finding she never received notice of the removal order, though she remained in custody, including time in solitary confinement at Grayson County Detention Center. Kentucky State coach Amani Williams and Rep. Morgan McGarvey publicly supported her, with McGarvey saying, 'The Trump administration's cruelty knows no bounds but we will never let this become normal and we won't stop fighting for her.' Her legal team announced she would be released on $2,500 bond on Oct. 6, 2026.

Martin Soto, a Peruvian immigrant and father of two, was arrested by ICE agents in February 2026 while buying diapers for his son in Kearny, New Jersey, and detained at the Delaney Hall facility in Newark. He helped lead a hunger and labor strike over poor food and inadequate medical care, and in late May agents transferred him overnight to solitary confinement at the Elizabeth Detention Center, where his attorney said he was held for months in what she described as retaliation for his activism. His wife, Gabriela Soto, a U.S. citizen, organized rallies outside the facility and said she lost her pregnancy in July after an emergency C-section, delivering the news to her husband while he was in solitary; his lawyer said he had suicidal thoughts during this period. Court records show an assault charge against him was dropped. After roughly eight to nine months in custody, a federal judge cited the length and conditions of his detention and lack of justification for continued confinement, and Soto was released and reunited with his family, though fitted with an ankle monitor despite having no criminal record. ICE data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showed more than 700 detainees were transferred out of Delaney Hall, which advocates said was an attempt to break the strike; a Homeland Security spokesperson disputed the data's accuracy, and dozens of detainees at a Georgia ICE facility began a separate hunger strike the same week.

Protesters who had camped in a roughly 100-to-200-year-old Fremont cottonwood tree near Lochiel, Arizona, since late July to block border wall construction were removed by Border Patrol agents, who then tore down the tree. Sierra Club borderlands coordinator Erick Meza, a spokesman for the group, said more than 50 Border Patrol agents arrived before dawn on private property; protesters said as many as 200 agents entered during a sunrise prayer and meditation session. A cherry picker or crane was used to pull one activist from a platform about 60 feet up in the tree's branches before the tree was excavated. About a dozen people were arrested, with some later released, and ten others were cited; Customs and Border Protection confirmed the tree's removal, which cleared the way for a 27-mile double-layer border wall project under a $334 million CBP contract. Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway said his office was not involved in or notified of the raid. Three other protesters had previously been arrested by Cochise County sheriff's deputies in September and charged with disorderly conduct for protesting the construction.

Armelle Bondonga, a 21-year-old who came to the U.S. as a child from the Democratic Republic of Congo under her father's asylum case, was detained by ICE agents on August 12 during her marriage-based green card interview at the USCIS field office in Louisville. Her husband, U.S. citizen Terrance Bradshaw, and their 19-month-old U.S. citizen son were present when agents separated the couple; Bradshaw left with their son. Bondonga had a final removal order from November 2025 but was pursuing residency through marriage, with Bradshaw's I-130 petition still pending. Her attorneys argued agents lacked a warrant and unlawfully detained her, while federal officials called the arrest a lawful targeted operation. She was held for eight weeks at the Clark County jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana, after an immigration judge denied bond in September. Community members, including Sadiqa Reynolds, rallied on her behalf, and more than 1,300 people signed an open letter supporting her. A federal judge later granted her habeas corpus petition, finding her continued detention unauthorized since the 90-day removal period had expired, and ordered her immediate release.

A crew of five Ecuadorian roofing/construction workers were pulled over and detained by ICE agents while driving to a job site near Route 11 in Londonderry, Vermont. Several of the men had entered the U.S. during the Biden administration while pursuing asylum claims. A local resident captured video showing unmarked vehicles and the men being held against a vehicle during the stop. All five were transported to an out-of-state detention facility, but with legal assistance they secured bond hearings before an immigration judge and were eventually released. The arrests occurred amid months of heightened ICE activity in Vermont, including a March 11 raid in South Burlington that detained three people later released, prompting protests, lawsuits, and discussions among state representatives and local leaders about community protection measures.

In Chelsea, Massachusetts, the 15-year-old son of Mileidy Yamaly Contreras Flores, who immigrated with her from Honduras in 2019, was arrested after a fight and needed an adult to pick him up from the police station. Her husband went to retrieve him but was detained by ICE upon arrival, according to a lawsuit, and the teen was then sent to Office of Refugee Resettlement custody in another state, remaining separated from his family for nearly seven months by the time the suit was filed.

An Ecuadorian teenager in Minneapolis called his father to say he was being arrested by ICE, but the agency later told the father it did not know the boy's whereabouts, leaving him 'horribly distraught,' according to attorney Claire Glenn. The teen, who had come to the United States with his father and had never been unaccompanied, was eventually found to have been sent to an Office of Refugee Resettlement shelter in Michigan.

A 13-year-old girl in Pennsylvania was placed in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody after law enforcement encountered her at the scene of someone else's arrest, even though she had been living with her family at the time. She was held in ORR custody in New York and Texas for more than a year, according to the attorney who worked on her case.

A 15-year-old boy with an intellectual disability wandered away from his mother's fruit stand in Texas to find a bathroom and did not return; after an overnight search, authorities found him but failed to recognize him as the missing child or locate a guardian, so they contacted ICE, which sent him to Office of Refugee Resettlement custody. He remained in ORR care for 48 days despite his mother's pleas for his release, and developed appendicitis requiring emergency surgery while in custody.

Andrés, an 11-year-old Venezuelan boy who likes to draw and paint, was arrested alongside his father Luis outside their El Paso home by masked ICE agents who did not present a warrant. Agents separated the two, deeming Andrés 'unaccompanied' despite the fact he had lived with his father for years, and transferred him to Office of Refugee Resettlement custody and temporary foster care while Luis remained in detention unable to locate him for days. Luis, who held Temporary Protected Status after fleeing political threats in Venezuela, said agents 'tricked' him; his attorney later filed a federal petition arguing Andrés was unlawfully detained.

Lasha and his wife Olena, long-haul freight truck drivers who came to the U.S. legally in 2023 and held valid work authorization through 2029, were detained by ICE in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Olena was released after about two weeks and is now under house arrest at their home in Brooklyn, while Lasha has remained in ICE detention for more than a month. The couple is seeking legal representation to navigate their immigration case, and a fundraiser has been organized to help cover legal and related expenses.

A father of seven and grandfather of eight was detained by ICE during his immigration interview and is now being held at a detention center awaiting a court date to determine whether he can remain in the U.S. or will be deported. He had renewed his green card for nearly 30 years before immigration authorities determined he was no longer eligible. His family is raising money to cover $7,000 in legal fees and an estimated $5,000–$10,000 bond, while supporting his wife with bills and visits.

The parent of a student at Allan Hancock College was detained by immigration authorities after leaving the campus in Santa Maria, California on October 5. The detention occurred amid a broader surge of federal immigration enforcement activity reported across Santa Maria and Guadalupe.

José Esteban, a husband and first-time father, was detained by ICE on August 15 while working to support his family. He had entered the United States legally with a visa, hoping to build a better life. His wife, Jeudyz, is now caring for their newborn son, Agustin, alone while dealing with the emotional and financial strain of his detention, and the family is raising funds to cover rent, household expenses, and legal fees.

A mechanic and grandfather from Mendota was detained by ICE officers in downtown Fresno on Monday while he was picking up auto parts for a car he was repairing. His granddaughter, Jade Torres, said he had lived in Mendota for years and owned his own mechanic shop. Following his detention, he was transferred to a facility in McFarland, which houses two ICE detention centers, and his family said he could be moved further, potentially out of state. Mendota Mayor Victor Martinez said he had received reports of immigration operations in the area and believed they were primarily targeting people with criminal records, though he noted others without records could also be detained. Martinez said, "It seems very unfair to me, very unfair, that we're finishing harvest season in the fields, and now they're starting raids."

The Department of Justice filed denaturalization actions against 40 naturalized U.S. citizens, accusing them of concealing "serious offenses" during the naturalization process, including acting as an agent for a foreign government, voluntary manslaughter, and aggravated sodomy against a special-needs man. Attorney General Todd Blanche called it "the largest denaturalization effort in modern history," and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said the individuals "lied their way into U.S. citizenship." The 40 people originally came from countries including Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, Haiti, Nepal, and Ghana, part of a broader push that has targeted hundreds of naturalized Americans for denaturalization this year.

A man waiting on a sidewalk next to a parked car for a ride to work was detained by ICE agents in Santa Maria on Monday, after video showed an agent's government vehicle roll forward and crash head-on into the parked car during the arrest. The agent had stepped out of the vehicle without shifting it into park before it struck the car, and a second agent in the passenger seat got out as the driver reversed and repositioned it. 805 UndocuFund organizer Claudia Gonzalez, who said her group was in contact with the detainee's family, described the incident as an example of ICE agents' "aggressiveness" and "incompetence."

U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown, appointed by President Trump, ruled that ICE agents illegally arrested Angel Jesus Almonte during a May operation in the Bronx targeting Dario Santos-Amarante, despite striking physical differences between the two men. Brown's 28-page opinion found agents falsified arrest paperwork, including a "substantially false" administrative warrant prepared after Almonte's detention, and gave testimony about alleged drug transactions that bore "all the hallmarks of coordinated fabrication," while official records showed only motor vehicle charges. A supervisor testified that five database searches had initially returned negative results before the warrant falsely claimed biometric confirmation. The same operation also led to the violent arrest of U.S. citizen Jeury Concepcion, who suffered head injuries requiring stitches after being mistaken for the target; Brown provisionally granted Almonte's habeas petition and ordered the government to explain within 21 days how it will address the problems identified, while considering possible sanctions.

Peterson Nozil, a 37-year-old Haitian national who has lived in Springfield since August 2022, was stopped and arrested while driving home with his family in the car. He had been inspected at the border, granted humanitarian parole, later received temporary protected status, held a valid work permit, and had applied for asylum. His attorney, Maria Otero, filed a habeas corpus petition on Oct. 1 in the Southern District of Ohio seeking a bond hearing and his release from the Butler County Jail, joining several other Haitian nationals in southwest Ohio challenging ICE's mandatory detention policy. The petition was supported by exhibits including his marriage license, his daughter's birth certificate, an employer letter, a church certificate, and letters of support. Judge Matthew W. McFarland ordered the government to respond to the petition by Oct. 5.