Human Impact Project

Noemi Chavez, her husband Jaime Ramirez, and their children, 8-year-old Dasha and her 3-year-old son, were detained by federal agents without a warrant during a family outing at Chicago's Millennium Park on September 28, 2025. Witnesses and video showed Dasha crying and clutching a doll as heavily armed agents in camouflage took the family away in a white van while the children played in the water at Crown Fountain. Chavez said agents targeted them based on appearance; the family came from Guatemala in 2023 seeking asylum and has a hearing scheduled for October 2027. A neighbor whose son is in Dasha's third-grade class helped bring the family supplies and stayed in contact with Chavez via WhatsApp. The National Immigrant Justice Center filed a habeas corpus petition, and a federal judge ordered Chavez and the children protected from deportation; they were released from ICE custody. Ramirez remains detained at a Texas facility, where attorneys are seeking his release or a bond hearing, arguing he poses no danger or flight risk.

Multiple Haitian nationals deported from the United States described arriving in Haiti with little money and missing property. Reginald Dorvilma, 36, arrested in Orlando after a fight with his roommate, said a friend disappeared with his banking password and money, leaving him with less than $40 and no way to pay for a dangerous trip home through gang-controlled territory. Dikenson Gerard, 29, said his hometown of Gressier had become so dangerous his family fled, and he feared being killed trying to reach them. Natacha Antoine, 42, a former nurse's aide who lived in Indianapolis for four years and cared for 10 patients, was deported after being accused of a sham marriage, which she denies, and said she was shackled during the flight and never had her $600 passport returned. Ribeneks Dorvil, 29, detained at a Marion County immigration court hearing after five years in Indianapolis, said his iPhone worth up to $2,000 went missing from his returned property. Bruno Chery, 34, arrested at a Massachusetts court hearing while carrying more than $6,000, said authorities never gave him access to the money after moving him between detention facilities, saying, 'I lost everything.' A Human Rights Watch report released in September, based on interviews with 44 deportees, found the U.S. has deported more than 470 people to Haiti since July, with flights landing in Cap-Haitien because the Port-au-Prince airport is considered too dangerous; the city's population has tripled to more than 1 million as it absorbs new arrivals. Interviewees said they went hours without food or water and days without bathing while in U.S. detention, and that documents and money were not returned upon arrival. One 38-year-old man interviewed for the report had lived in Florida since 2019 working at the same hotel for six years before being deported, leaving behind his wife and 5-year-old U.S.-citizen son.

Fanny Jakelinne Núñez, 38, is caring for her eight-year-old son, Néstor Josias, alone after her husband, Néstor Luis Rivera Chavez, was detained by ICE in October 2025 while running errands in New Brunswick. Her son is medically fragile, requiring constant monitoring of oxygen levels, feeding through a gastric tube, medication administration, and seizure management. Since her husband's detention at Delaney Hall in Newark, Núñez has lost the family's sole income and the only person physically able to help transport and care for her son. The family fled Honduras, where adequate medical care for their son's condition was unavailable, and came to the United States where the boy gained weight and began receiving necessary treatment. With her husband detained, Núñez struggles to afford rent, food, transportation, and medical visits, and fears that deportation would force them to return to Honduras and endanger her son's life.

A father from Guatemala, separated from his daughter at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2017, was returned to Guatemala under the first Trump administration but came back to Florida in 2021 to reunite with his children under the Ms. L settlement agreement. He was re-separated from his children in October 2025 after being stopped in West Palm Beach while performing landscaping work near Mar-a-Lago. He was detained first at Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades, then transferred to Camp East Montana in Texas, where he reported being fed moldy food with worms and berated by guards; he also learned that a fellow detainee died from mistreatment. The ACLU filed a motion on behalf of detained Ms. L parents, and he was released in April 2026. Though reunited with his children, he continues to feel tracked through ankle monitoring and required bi-weekly ICE check-ins, and his children worry he will not be present when they leave school.

A man was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents following a car crash on October 1 near Congress Parkway and California Avenue in East Garfield Park. Eyewitnesses recorded video showing an agent with his arms around the man's neck while he was on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back. Chicago police said a 49-year-old woman driving the other vehicle suffered injuries to her shoulder, neck, and hip and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition. The man was released at the scene after Chicago police completed an investigatory stop report. DHS disputed the chokehold allegation, stating agents believed they witnessed the theft of a $5,000 saw from a nearby construction site, the man fled in a vehicle, crashed into another motorist, and began resisting when agents attempted to render aid. Community leaders and city officials condemned the incident, questioning why Border Patrol agents were intervening in a suspected theft.

Carlton Junior Burke, a 25-year-old Jamaican national, was arrested by ICE at his home in Madison, Wisconsin on October 1, 2025, after overstaying a B2 tourist visa he entered on in 2021. Burke says his passport and driver's licenses were taken during detention and not returned to him, disputing DHS's claim that ICE does not confiscate documents. He had built a life in the U.S., married, and was attempting to adjust his immigration status when arrested. Burke was transferred through multiple detention facilities over several months, including county jails and a correctional facility in Indiana, where he raised concerns about food quality, limited medical assistance, and inadequate family communication. He was granted voluntary departure on January 7, 2026, and ultimately left the country on January 28, 2026, leaving his wife and young child behind in the United States.

Gratien Milandou-Wamba, a 32-year-old corrections officer at the Cumberland County Jail, was detained by ICE on April 19, 2025, while driving to work. He had fled torture and political persecution in the Republic of Congo, entered the U.S. lawfully in May 2023 on a visitor's visa, and obtained a work permit while his asylum application was pending, allowing him to be hired as a corrections officer in August 2024 after passing a background screening. ICE cited his expired visa as grounds for detention, though his attorney said Milandou-Wamba believed he was in legal status while awaiting his asylum decision, and suggested an attempted firearm purchase in September 2024 may have flagged his status to immigration authorities. Cumberland County District Attorney Jackie Sartoris publicly defended him as an upstanding community member, and his friend and landlord, Tyler Brinkmann, described him as kind and gentle and involved in his church. He left his corrections officer position on May 31, 2025, while remaining in ICE custody at Strafford County Department of Corrections in New Hampshire, fearing imprisonment or death if deported to Congo. A federal judge denied him bail citing flight risk, a decision he is appealing, with his asylum hearing scheduled for October 2025.

L. Vural Elibol, a photojournalist working for Turkish news agency Anadolu Ajansi, was violently shoved to the ground by federal officers outside an immigration court in lower Manhattan on October 1, 2025. The incident occurred as officers were detaining a person from Peru at the courthouse. Elibol was injured and hospitalized, spending 35 to 40 minutes semiconscious on the ground before being transported by ambulance to New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he was treated and discharged the same day. Fellow photographers Dean Moses and Olga Fedorova were also pushed by federal agents during the incident.

Garcia's husband was arrested by a Manatee County sheriff's deputy on a DUI charge last October and transferred to ICE custody. He is being held at a detention center in California. Garcia, a mother of three, works as a cleaner and party venue staff member while applying for a T visa (trafficking victim relief) for both herself and her husband at a cost of approximately $15,000. She disclosed that at age sixteen, smugglers brought her into the U.S. and held her against her will for years in what she describes as kidnapping; her husband faced labor abuse as an H-2A visa migrant farmworker before overstaying. Since his arrest, Garcia has taken only one day off for an immigration appointment. Most of her earnings go toward legal fees and her husband's detention account so he can purchase food and make phone calls home. With limited funds remaining, she struggles to feed her children and has had to forgo celebrating family birthdays and holidays.

Rey, a Cuban in his mid-fifties who arrived in the U.S. in 1994 and had been authorized to remain in the country due to Cuba's non-cooperation with deportation, was arrested at an ISAP (Intensive Supervision Appearance Program) check-in in El Paso in October 2025. Rey had built a life in El Paso as a truck driver and small business owner, opening a Cuban pizzeria, nightclub, and trash-collection and furniture-restoration businesses. He was married to Sara, a U.S. citizen and Texas state employee, and was a father figure to her son. After his arrest at the ISAP office, he was transferred to Camp East Montana, where he spent six weeks in the facility's deteriorating conditions.

Jean, a 33-year-old Haitian, was deported from the United States to Mexico in late October 2025. He was transferred by bus to Villahermosa, then relocated to Cancún, where he was left without official assistance or resources. He submitted an asylum application to COMAR in mid-November but has not received confirmation of receipt. Jean cannot work because he is undocumented, cannot leave Quintana Roo state where he filed his application, and cannot access banking services or receive money from relatives.

Giovanni, a 48-year-old car wash worker in the San Fernando Valley, was detained in October 2025 along with three coworkers during a federal immigration raid. Unlike his coworkers who were deported to Mexico within 24 hours, Giovanni refused to sign voluntary departure documents and was held at Adelanto ICE Processing Center for six months rather than return to El Salvador. His detention left his wife Maria and school-age children without his primary income.

Erick Pena, a 29-year-old from Honduras who came to the U.S. as a child, was detained by ICE in October while on his way to work. He had an approved petition for permanent residency through his U.S. citizen wife. After three months in ICE custody, he was released on bond while his deportation case is pending. His wife, a U.S. citizen, started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees and government costs as they pursue a hardship waiver.

A 60-year-old Mexican tamale vendor who had been selling street food in Pilsen for over a decade was detained by ICE agents when she could not provide proof of legal status. She had been supporting herself and her son while managing diabetes since her husband's death in 2023. She was released on October 22, 11 days after filing her habeas case.

Samuel Ochoa Ochoa, a Venezuelan immigrant who entered the U.S. near El Paso in October 2023, was released on his own recognizance after DHS initiated removal proceedings against him, with no later convictions or violations of his release conditions. He filed an asylum application in September 2024, but in June 2025 DHS moved to dismiss those proceedings in order to place him into expedited removal, after which he was detained by ICE for 126 days. A federal judge ordered his release in October, and his habeas corpus ruling has since been cited in 186 other immigration cases filed in the Northern District of Illinois.

Stanley Minjale, who immigrated to the United States from Malawi in 2021 on a student visa initially valid through 2022, later received an extension through March 2027, but that status was terminated after he failed to enroll in a university as required. At the time of his detention in October 2025, he held a valid work permit and was employed full-time as a nursing assistant in Indiana. He has a nearly two-year-old U.S. citizen son, and during his nine-month detention at North Lake Processing Center he has missed several of the boy's milestones, including his second birthday. Minjale has received a deportation order but continues to appeal, describing life in detention as a difficult, repetitive routine without freedom.

Kamal Tijani, who arrived in the U.S. from Nigeria in 2017 on a valid student visa, was arrested by ICE in October 2025 for overstaying his visa and has been held for nine months at North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan. He met his wife, who is from Georgia, while attending college in Chicago, where he worked night shifts as a maintenance technician; after his arrest, she lost their apartment and has not been able to visit him. "I just got married last year," Tijani said, describing feeling abandoned and isolated during his detention. The facility, operated by GEO Group, is the largest immigrant detention center in the Midwest, holding about 1,400 people.

Alberto, a 59-year-old surgical technician who fled to the U.S. in 1990 by running across the border from Tijuana to San Ysidro while his wife and two young sons crossed hidden in a car, later served as a confidential informant for federal immigration agents in the 1990s, collecting names of undocumented farmworkers in exchange for a temporary work permit and a promise of future legal status. After 36 years in Fresno — working first as a hospital janitor, then as a surgical technician, and eventually buying a home — he was arrested in October 2025 during a scheduled green card interview at a USCIS field office when ICE agents entered the room. Released after four days following a successful habeas petition, he was re-arrested at a subsequent ICE check-in appointment in November and detained for nearly four months at Golden State Annex detention center near Bakersfield before being released on bond in February with an ankle monitor.

A father from an unnamed country who was separated from his daughter at the US-Mexico border in 2017 and reunited with his children in Florida in 2021 was detained by ICE in October 2025 at Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades and transferred to Camp East Montana in Texas. While detained, he experienced poor conditions including mouldy food with worms and witnessed a fellow detainee's death from asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. The ACLU filed a motion and he was released in April 2026, but remains subject to ankle monitoring and bi-weekly ICE check-ins.

Michael James Garcia, a 39-year-old marine engineer with a valid crew visa, was interrogated by CBP agents aboard a Viking Ocean Cruises ship docked in Charleston on October 1, 2025. Agents claimed his email was linked to child pornography but never provided evidence or filed charges against him. Without a formal criminal proceeding or due process, his visa was revoked and he received a 10-year ban from entering the United States.