Human Impact Project

Montgomery County Sheriff Maxwell Uy admitted that his office improperly transferred a person to ICE custody on June 18, 2026, in violation of the Maryland Community Trust Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from transferring individuals to ICE without a judicial warrant. After receiving backlash from Montgomery County Council President Natali Fani-González, Uy stated the transfer did not meet the act's exceptions and pledged to implement additional measures to prevent similar incidents.

Dionicio Miguel Francisco-Gutierrez was arrested by ICE on Friday, June 14, 2026, while waiting at a bus stop in North Bergen, New Jersey, in front of his two children who were in school uniforms. The arrest was recorded by a bystander. According to federal officials, Francisco-Gutierrez has a prior criminal conviction for violating Pennsylvania's Controlled Substance Act, with previous arrests on drug charges in 2022 and 2023. Following his arrest, his two children were placed in the custody of a legal guardian that he had designated. North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco and Commissioner Hugo Cabrera condemned the enforcement action, with Cabrera stating that "the trauma inflicted on young children witnessing a parent or caregiver being detained is profound and lasting."

Friedrich Castillo-Ormeno self-deported to Peru in March 2026 after receiving a final deportation order and was approved for CBP Home incentive payments ($2,600) in April verifying his departure. In June 2026, ICE mistakenly identified him as a suspect in a violent incident in Stafford Township, New Jersey, where an officer was struck by a vehicle during an enforcement operation on Route 72. Federal prosecutors later charged a different man, Eduardo Cruz Garcia, with the assault. Castillo-Ormeno expressed concern that the misidentification could harm his reputation and affect his ability to legally return to the United States, as well as his U.S.-born daughter's documentation.

Olga Perez, a 47-year-old indigenous Mam language interpreter and community leader in Palm Beach County, Florida, was arrested during a traffic stop on I-95 in November 2025 and placed in ICE custody in Arizona. After seven months in detention and nine delayed immigration hearings, an immigration judge ordered her deported to Guatemala by July 6, 2026. She was released on her own recognizance pending voluntary deportation and made a surprise visit to her family and the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach before being deported. Perez had spent 30 years in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant, volunteering as an interpreter and translator for indigenous communities in the region. Her deportation leaves behind four U.S. citizen children, ages 13 to 21.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 72 Haitian asylum seekers, including 21 children and a 2-month-old baby, to Port-au-Prince on Monday, three days after President Biden suspended deportation flights to Haiti. The deportations occurred despite Biden's 100-day moratorium on deportations, which was limited to convicted criminals and suspected terrorists. The action followed a January 26 federal court injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton that blocked Biden's moratorium, which ICE used to resume deportation operations.

Daniel, a man with an IQ of 47 and severe intellectual disabilities who had lived in the U.S. since the early 1990s under the conservatorship of his siblings, was detained by ICE agents while collecting recyclables in his East Los Angeles neighborhood. Despite being unable to meaningfully understand English-language removal documents or consent to his own deportation, and without notice to his conservator or any immigration judge review, he was removed to Mexico under a claimed 'voluntary departure.' His nephew Christopher, a U.S. citizen, searched for him for months using ICE's online detainee tracker and eventually worked with legal aid group ImmDef to locate him, discovering Daniel had ended up hospitalized in Tijuana unaware his family was searching for him. After more than nine months, lawyers secured his parole to return to the United States. A federal judge then issued a temporary restraining order blocking ICE from detaining him again, citing serious due process concerns since no removal proceedings had ever been properly initiated against him.

Mostly young Honduran men at the La72 migrant shelter in Tenosique said they are heading to Monterrey instead of the U.S., understanding they are not welcome. Some still attempt dangerous maritime crossings into the United States; others are captured, detained, and deported, only to try again weeks later. Some likely never arrive and their fates remain unknown.

Diego was arrested and is currently detained by ICE. His wife Rosali, who is four months pregnant with their second child and caring for their daughter full-time, is struggling to meet basic household expenses including rent, utilities, groceries, and transportation while her husband fights his case.

Polina (born 2002) and Alexandra (born 2005), sisters from Belarus, have been detained at the California border for over 9 months. Their initial lawyer failed to properly defend them in court and stopped cooperating with the family. The sisters were denied habeas corpus twice due to legal errors and now face deportation to Belarus while awaiting a new asylum application. They have documented health issues and are seeking legal and financial support to continue their case.

A man was detained by ICE during an interview at the immigration office in Philadelphia while applying for adjustment of status (green card). He had a final exclusion order issued 30 years prior but no criminal history in the intervening decades. Under current immigration policies, ICE is detaining anyone with a final exclusion order who applies for adjustment of status, and he has been denied access to habeas corpus relief. His family is seeking legal options to prevent his deportation.

An older Russian man who crossed at a port of entry and requested asylum in August 2024 was hospitalized days later for stroke-like symptoms while detained at Otay Mesa. He was cuffed to his hospital bed despite half his body being paralyzed, and upon return to detention received no mobility support until other detainees filed grievance reports on his behalf. He continued to lose consciousness regularly and was eventually released on parole in February 2025 after six months in detention.

A 39-year-old Russian man held at Otay Mesa Detention Center for 17 months filed multiple grievance reports documenting severe sanitary conditions, including only two working urinals and one sink for over 100 detainees, which led to an outbreak of eye infections. He also filed grievance reports on behalf of other detainees, including an older man who needed mobility support after a stroke. He was released in 2026 after exhausting oversight channels that were subsequently gutted under the Trump administration.

Margoth Paredes-Ortiz, 47, an undocumented Ecuadorian immigrant, was arrested at a Walmart in the Tempe area after being found in a vehicle suspected of involvement in immigrant smuggling. Her 14-year-old son, Dilan Maney Paredes, was taken into ICE custody outside Cecil Shamley School the day before his eighth-grade promotion ceremony, which he missed. Both were transferred to the Dilley Family Detention Center in South Texas, where they were held for about 20 days in conditions described as prison-like. Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., visited the facility, spoke with Paredes by phone, and said both mother and son suffered emotional distress, with Dilan frequently crying; his office also submitted a congressional inquiry to ICE. Paredes' two older children remained detained in Arizona, and the family's detention prompted protests outside the school. Citing the Flores Settlement Agreement limiting child detention to 20 days, authorities released Paredes-Ortiz and her son in June 2026, and the family returned to Arizona, where their case proceeds before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

A 22-year-old woman was detained by police in Hamilton, Tennessee, who then contacted ICE, leading to her transfer into immigration custody. She was moved to a jail in Etowah County, Alabama, before being transferred to a facility in Louisiana after three days. Her girlfriend, who organized a fundraiser to cover legal and bond costs, described her as hardworking, cheerful, and always willing to help others; she also cares for her 14-year-old brother.

Keisy G.M., a lawful permanent resident from the Dominican Republic who has lived in New York City since 2011, was detained by ICE for 21 months without receiving a bond hearing. G.M. was arrested in October 2020 after being charged with assault following a fight and served a two-year sentence. Throughout his detention, the government sought to deport him without providing an individualized bond hearing to determine whether continued detention was justified. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2024 that his prolonged detention violated due process, and G.M. was ultimately released following a court order. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Genalo v. Black, which will determine whether the Constitution requires the government to provide bond hearings for lawful permanent residents in deportation proceedings and whether due process requires the government to justify continued detention by clear and convincing evidence.

Rozenna Nazia Ali, from Fiji, was detained by ICE on June 17, 2026, after agents visited her residence and located her at a motel in Allison, Iowa. Ali was a former international student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and worked at Allison Bible Church in Butler County on a student visa. According to her family, she came to the United States in 2017 to pursue higher education as part of a missionary family and has no criminal record. Her sister stated Ali aspires to become a mental health counselor. The detention is part of a broader wave of ICE enforcement actions targeting immigrants with community ties.

The Tohono O'odham Nation filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to block construction of 62 miles of border wall across its tribal lands. Tribal leaders argue the project unlawfully takes tribal land, damages sacred cultural sites, and interferes with religious practices. The federal government planned to award construction contracts in June 2026.

On June 17, 2026, ICE agents stopped a vehicle on Highway 59 near Mobile, Alabama, and detained Alejandro Alvarado Ramírez, leaving his 5-year-old son Ericson/Erikson alone in the car at a church parking lot. An ICE agent provided the child with his father's phone to contact his mother. The child's mother called a babysitter, and when the babysitter's 20-year-old twins arrived at the parking lot to retrieve the child, ICE agents approached them, requested identification, and photographed their licenses before departing. Advocates raised concerns about the safety risks posed by leaving a young child unattended during the detention.

Michel Manuel Garcia Rojas, a 39-year-old Nicaraguan national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2023, was arrested on March 5, 2025, when Homeland Security Investigations agents attempted to detain him for deportation. During the arrest, Garcia Rojas resisted and assaulted a federal agent, striking him in the face and throwing him repeatedly into a door, causing injuries including jaw bruising and a back injury. It took six officers and a Taser to subdue him. Garcia Rojas pleaded guilty on February 9, 2026, to resisting, impeding, and assaulting a federal officer and inflicting bodily injury. He was sentenced on June 17, 2026, to 51 months in federal prison, after which he will face deportation to Nicaragua.

Fidel Ramos, 52, a previously deported registered sex offender, was captured during a forced-entry tactical raid at a residence in Grimes County, Texas on June 17, 2026, after allegedly refusing to come out, and was initially charged with failing to register as a sex offender. An active federal immigration detainer was placed on him the following day. On June 26, 2026, a Grimes County Grand Jury indicted Ramos on five additional felony charges, including three counts of sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child by contact. Jamie Ramos was also arrested on July 10, 2026, on a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse in connection with the same investigation.