Human Impact Project

A man was detained by ICE agents in a parking lot at Allan Hancock College's Santa Maria campus around 9:45 a.m. on October 5, shortly after dropping off his daughter, a student there. She said she noticed a vehicle following them near South Bradley Road before an agent knocked on their car window, asked for identification, and took her father into custody. "My dad was kidnapped by ICE today," she said at a press conference hosted by Santa Maria City Councilmember Gloria Soto, adding she did not know why he had been detained; a vigil was later held for him. College Superintendent-President Kevin Walthers said the administration had no advance notice of or role in the action and said the college "strongly condemns immigration enforcement actions that create fear and uncertainty for our students and their families," while ICE said it had no record of activity at the college. The detention occurred amid a broader ICE operation across Santa Maria and Guadalupe that day, in which at least 17 people, mostly men commuting to or from work, were arrested at locations including a jail, a DMV office, a health center, and a market. State Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limon said a family had been "torn apart," and local officials condemned the operation; the Santa Maria City Council canceled its next meeting due to lack of quorum. The incident may be the first known case of ICE targeting a California community college campus.

Norma Bowe, a 69-year-old registered nurse, grandmother, and public health professor at Kean University who runs the Global Grace Health mobile clinic for undocumented and uninsured families outside Delaney Hall detention center, was grabbed from behind and thrown face-down onto the pavement by a masked ICE agent on Memorial Day. She had moved toward a wall of agents after seeing one drag a young woman across the ground, intending to de-escalate using skills from her decades as a psychiatric nurse. Bowe suffered a fractured kneecap, torn meniscus, concussion, whiplash, and bruising around her eye, requiring ER treatment, physical therapy, acupuncture, and ongoing neurological care, and still experiences headaches, sleep trouble, and limited mobility. She returned to volunteer at the clinic two days later and has continued since, despite receiving threats and harassment online after posting video of the incident. In July 2026, Bowe filed a federal tort claim through the ACLU of New Jersey seeking $500,000 in damages for assault, battery, and emotional distress, part of a broader effort of more than 50 similar claims filed across 17 states. Former students described her as someone who taught empathy and kindness and would never provoke harm.

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 in Kearny, New Jersey, and detained at the Delaney Hall facility in Newark. He helped lead a hunger and labor strike protesting poor food and inadequate medical care, and in late May agents broke through a protester blockade to transfer him overnight to solitary confinement at the Elizabeth Detention Center, where his lawyer said he was held for months in what she called 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. After roughly nine months in custody, a federal judge cited the 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.

Jose Mejia Hernandez, a 45-year-old Mexican immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 18 years and works two jobs in commercial cleaning and office maintenance, was walking to a bus stop near Columbia Pike in Arlington, Virginia on August 11 when plainclothes, masked ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle approached him without identifying themselves. He fled, was shocked with a stun gun, and was struck by a vehicle, suffering two black eyes, facial lacerations, brain swelling, and a subarachnoid brain bleed; witnesses described the impact as hitting "human flesh." He was hospitalized for several days at George Washington University Hospital with ICE officers stationed in his room, returned for an MRI days later due to worsening symptoms, and was later fitted with an ankle monitor he says delayed further medical testing. His attorneys say a hospital employee had to demand he be placed in a bed and given an interpreter, and that he now struggles to eat, sleep, speak normally, or work. They have filed a police report seeking criminal charges, notified federal agencies under the Federal Tort Claims Act, filed a $35 million excessive force claim, and are pursuing a U visa on his behalf. DHS disputes his account, saying officers used necessary force after he attempted to flee and denying he was ever unconscious, while citing a prior voluntary return to Mexico and a 2020 public intoxication conviction. He has been placed in deportation proceedings, and Arlington County Police have opened an investigation. Virginia officials including Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Reps. Don Beyer, Suhas Subramanyam and James Walkinshaw have criticized the circumstances of his arrest, which occurred during a broader ICE enforcement surge that led to roughly 1,300 arrests across the D.C. area in August.

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.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who has lived in Maryland for years with his U.S. citizen wife and young son, who has autism, was arrested in Baltimore in March 2025 and mistakenly deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison despite a 2019 court order protecting him, an error ICE later admitted. Following public pressure and a Supreme Court order, he was returned to the U.S. in June 2025, after which federal prosecutors indicted him on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Costa Rica offered him refugee status in August 2025, but the administration instead pursued deporting him to Liberia. A judge ordered his release from ICE custody in December 2025 after finding government lawyers misled the court, and later blocked his re-detention and deportation to Liberia. A federal judge dismissed the smuggling charges in May 2026, finding them a vindictive response to his legal challenges, a ruling the government is appealing to the Sixth Circuit. A federal court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, meant to determine whether he would be deported to Liberia was abruptly canceled, as his legal team seeks a permanent injunction and argues he should instead be sent to Costa Rica.

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.

Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant and honor student who had just begun studying at Wright State University after being recruited to play soccer, died after being struck by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 70 near Springfield, Ohio, in what his family describes as a suicide. Bel hoped to study neuroscience and had a pending asylum claim with a hearing scheduled for October. His father said his son felt 'treated like an animal' after ICE required him to report to its Cincinnati office in August, where he was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor; in a July Instagram post, Bel wrote that wearing the device brought him 'shame and humiliation' he never imagined experiencing. Loved ones say he was deeply affected by bullying tied to the monitor. His death followed intensified ICE enforcement against Haitians in Springfield after many lost Temporary Protected Status, including the detention of two longtime Haitian pastors. Hundreds gathered in Springfield for his funeral, as Haitian families in the community remain afraid to leave their homes while deportation flights to Haiti continue.

Elder Chavez Carranza, an 18-year-old junior at Asbury High School in Albertville, Alabama, was detained by ICE on December 30, 2025, after a state trooper stopped him for speeding and driving without a license and contacted immigration officials. Chavez Carranza, originally from Copan, Honduras, fled violence and poverty and entered the U.S. at age 14, later being granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, though a separate deferred-action and green card application remains unresolved. He is held at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, where he says he has lacked adequate food and dental care, works as a painter earning $1 per day, and shares a room with 54 other men. His sister and legal guardian, Maryuri Chavez Carranza, a former teacher, said he calls her daily and misses his teachers, friends, senior year activities, and the birth of his nephew. By September 2026 he had spent more than 200 days in detention, as advocates including Angela Del Valle organized vigils across three states and raised concerns about conditions at Winn, where two detainees had died in less than two months.

Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen and teaching assistant, was shot seven times by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum on October 4, 2025, in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood during Operation Midway Blitz. Prosecutors initially alleged Martinez and co-defendant Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz rammed an agent's vehicle, charging her with assaulting a federal officer and calling her a 'domestic terrorist.' Martinez's attorneys disputed the account, citing body camera footage of an agent telling her to 'do something' before shooting and a bullet trajectory analysis showing Exum fired from behind her vehicle. She was arrested by the FBI while still bleeding in the hospital, and a judge ordered her release two days later. Federal prosecutors dismissed all charges in November after text messages surfaced showing Exum bragging, 'I fired 5 shots and she had 7 holes,' and a federal judge ruled the agents' use of force 'shocks the conscience.' The dismissal is among at least nine protest-related cases tied to the operation that prosecutors have dropped. Martinez has since filed a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit against the federal government seeking damages.

Delaney Hall, a for-profit ICE detention center in Newark, faced scrutiny after detainees began a hunger strike and reported spoiled food, lack of medical care, and inadequate gynecological services, including an 18-year-old high school student and a woman who said she miscarried without assistance. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was handcuffed and arrested on trespassing charges while visiting the facility with congressional representatives, repeating 'I'm not resisting' as agents restrained him; he was held for five hours before charges were dropped. Rep. LaMonica McIver, who stood between Baraka and ICE agents during the visit, was later charged with three felony counts of assaulting federal agents after the government claimed she had 'slammed' an agent; she is still fighting the case. Days later, on Memorial Day, Senator Andy Kim visited to mediate between protesters and detainees, standing with arms raised between armed ICE agents and the crowd before agents fired tear gas and pepper balls at him and demonstrators, leaving him needing aid for burning eyes and throat. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was denied entry but heard from detainees' family members about conditions inside.

Amy Lucia López Belloza, a 19-year-old Babson College freshman on scholarship, was detained by ICE at Boston Logan Airport in November 2025 while trying to board a flight to surprise her parents for a family Thanksgiving reunion. She was unaware a removal order had been issued against her in 2017, when she was 11, after an immigration judge denied her and her mother's asylum claims. A federal judge in Massachusetts ordered that she not be moved out of state or deported, but ICE transferred her to Texas and deported her to Honduras, a country she had not visited since leaving at age 8; the government later conceded in court that an agent had misread the judge's order and apologized, but argued the violation should not affect her case. When offered a return flight in February 2026, she declined after ICE indicated she would be redetained in Texas and deported again. Her habeas corpus lawsuit was dismissed in March 2026 for lack of jurisdiction. She is now continuing her Babson studies remotely while living with her grandparents in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, as her attorneys argue before the First Circuit Court of Appeals that she should be allowed to return to Massachusetts.

Godfrey Wade, a 65-year-old Jamaican-born U.S. Army veteran and lawful permanent resident who came to the U.S. at 15 in 1975, was deported to Jamaica on February 5, 2026, while his appeal remained pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Wade worked as a chef, tailor, tennis coach and fashion designer while raising six children and three grandchildren with his fiancée April Watkins. He was detained by ICE for nearly five months following a September 2025 traffic stop for driving without a valid license, held at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia and later Richwood in Louisiana, where he endured overcrowding, inadequate food, a water outage, and illness that caused significant weight loss. His deportation stemmed from a 2014 in absentia removal order tied to a 2008 misdemeanor bounced-check conviction, after immigration court notices were mistakenly sent to the wrong address. His daughter said he was removed without warning, arriving in Jamaica with only the clothes he wore before being hospitalized for pneumonia; his fiancée and daughter said he drew portraits of fellow detainees to lift their spirits and have since raised funds and a petition seeking him a day in court. In October, a Douglas County Superior Court judge granted his habeas corpus petition, voiding the 2008 conviction and giving him a new chance to fight his case, which remains pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Danilo Alves Silva, 46, was arrested after authorities said he dressed up as an ICE agent—wearing an ICE hat, raid jacket, tactical gear, and a face mask—to intimidate voters at a Miami-Dade College polling site during Brazil's presidential election. Several voters became visibly afraid that an immigration agent was interfering with the election and could deport them. Silva later admitted the outfit was a costume he bought online and said he returned to record people's reactions after voting himself. He allegedly threatened a detective and offered a bribe after being detained, and faces charges including felony voting intimidation, bribery, threatening a public servant, and unlawful use of police insignia.