Human Impact Project

Victor, a legal resident and father of two in Minneapolis, was detained by ICE in late May despite holding legal resident status. His family sought community support to pay legal fees for his release and cover basic living expenses while he remained in detention.

Homeland Security Investigations agents raided two locations of Buona Forchetta restaurant in San Diego's South Park neighborhood on Friday evening, deploying flash bang grenades and detaining multiple employees. According to the restaurant manager, at least four workers were detained during the operation. Community members gathered outside to protest, and San Diego Police were called to assist with crowd control, though they did not participate in the enforcement action.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari visited the Eloy Detention Center in late May and spoke with over 20 detainees who reported forced outdoor walking until fainting, manipulated air conditioning, and sickness. Ansari requested information from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the reported conditions.

Yasmir Marquez, a Venezuelan man with a pending asylum claim and work authorization, was detained by ICE agents outside the Richard C. White Federal Building in El Paso immediately after his immigration hearing on May 29, 2025. Agents presented a Department of Justice document stating his notice to appear had been "improvidently issued" and that circumstances had changed, allowing for his removal proceedings to be reinitiated. A friend who witnessed the arrest said agents initially called him by the wrong name before detaining him. Marquez is currently being held at the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico.

A Honduran mother and her two children, ages 6 and 9, were arrested by ICE agents at Los Angeles Immigration Court on May 29, 2025, as they left a courtroom. The 6-year-old boy has leukemia and missed a medical appointment for worsening symptoms. The family was transported to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas and placed in expedited removal proceedings. Their attorneys filed a lawsuit challenging the arrests as violations of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

Federal immigration authorities deported a 9-year-old Torrance Elementary School student and his 50-year-old father to Honduras after they appeared for a routine immigration hearing on May 29, 2025. Both were undocumented, and an immigration judge had ordered their deportation in September 2022, though they remained in the United States and appealed. The boy had attended the school since first grade. The boy stated he was unhappy about separation from his friends and remaining family members in California.

A Watsonville resident was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at approximately noon on Tuesday, May 28, 2025, according to Your Allied Rapid Response Santa Cruz County. The advocacy group confirmed the arrest appeared to target one individual rather than being part of a sweep or raid. The detainee is expected to be held until brought to immigration court to determine deportation eligibility.

Miguel Angel López, a Livermore father deported to Mexico in June 2025, lost a federal court case on a statute of limitations technicality in April 2026. López, who lived in the U.S. for 27 years and worked as a welder, was detained during a routine immigration check-in and deported hours before a court order could have allowed him to stay. His family is pursuing an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court, with support from U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, as a final legal pathway for López's return.

ICE agents arrested Paola Clouatre, a 25-year-old mother of two and wife of a Marine Corps veteran, at a USCIS office in New Orleans on May 27, 2025, following her permanent residence status interview. She was detained based on a final order of removal issued in 2018 that she was unaware of due to a missed immigration hearing by her mother. Her husband, Adrian Clouatre, is caring for their two young children while seeking to overturn the removal order through an emergency motion.

Maximo Londonio, 42, a green card holder who immigrated from the Philippines to the United States at age 12 and is the father of three living in Olympia, Washington, was detained by CBP agents on May 15 as he returned from a family vacation to the Philippines with his wife Crystal, a U.S. citizen, and their 12-year-old daughter. He was celebrating his 20th wedding anniversary during the trip. Londonio was pulled aside at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport upon landing and transferred to an ICE detention facility in Tacoma after receiving a notice to appear before an immigration judge. His wife and community organizers with Tanggol Migrante Network WA believe the detention may be connected to a 2002 guilty plea to grand theft when he was 19 years old, for which he completed his sentence and probation without issue. Crystal described him as hard-working, family-oriented, devoted, and the primary provider for their family. Londonio works as a lead union member at Crown Cork and Seal manufacturing company in Lacey, Washington, and his union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, called for his immediate release. The Port of Seattle Commission expressed being "deeply concerned" about the prolonged detention, noting that CBP's own standards generally limit detention to 72 hours. The Philippine Consulate was notified and has been coordinating with U.S. immigration authorities. Community members gathered outside the airport demanding his release.

Gonzalo Ladron de Guevara, a lawful permanent resident since 2003, was detained by ICE in May 2025 after returning to Chicago from Mexico where he had scattered his mother's ashes. He was held for seven days by CBP for secondary screening before being transferred to ICE custody and charged federally. The detention is linked to a dismissed felony fraud charge from approximately 13 years prior related to prescription fraud.

Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Quinones, a Cuban man with prior convictions in Florida, was arrested by ICE in April 2025 and placed on a deportation flight that was diverted to a U.S. military base in Djibouti after a federal judge found it violated migrants' due process rights. The flight, carrying eight men including fellow Cuban Enrique Arias-Hierro, held them in a converted shipping container under conditions described in court filings as difficult for both detainees and ICE agents. On July 3, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the lower court's order, and the flight proceeded, with Rodriguez-Quinones arriving in South Sudan on July 4.

Enrique Arias-Hierro, 46, of Cuba, had been ordered removed by an immigration judge in 1999 and did not appeal. He was arrested by ICE in early May 2025 and placed on a deportation flight to South Sudan, which a federal judge initially halted, diverting the flight to a U.S. military base in Djibouti where he and other migrants were held for weeks. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned that judge's order, and Arias-Hierro arrived in South Sudan on July 4, 2025.

Tuan Thanh Phan, a Vietnamese man ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2009, was arrested by ICE in May 2025 and placed on a deportation flight to South Sudan, part of a group of eight men sent there under the program. A federal judge had ruled that the flight violated a court order requiring migrants be given a meaningful opportunity to object to removal on safety grounds. After nearly a year in South Sudanese custody, Phan was repatriated to Vietnam on June 19, 2026, in a move coordinated by the Vietnamese government and South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Nyo Myint, a man from Myanmar who lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, was taken into ICE custody in February 2025 after being released on probation in 2023, then placed on a July 2025 flight to South Sudan along with seven other men after weeks of detention at a U.S. military base in Djibouti. His former defense attorney, Nathan Sohriakoff, said Myint did not speak English, communicated through interpreters, and appeared cognitively limited but not incompetent. On February 25, 2026, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued an 81-page ruling finding that the government's third-country deportation program violated due process and the Convention Against Torture, carrying out removals with less than 16 hours' notice and preventing detainees from contacting lawyers or appearing in court.

Kyaw Mya, a man from Myanmar who lived in Iowa, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in February 2025 after losing an appeal of a 2021 removal order. He was placed on a deportation flight to South Sudan that a federal judge later found violated a court order requiring migrants be given a meaningful opportunity to object to their removal.

Thongxay Nilakout, 48, from Laos, was released from a life sentence in 2023 after a Supreme Court ruling found mandatory life sentences for minors unconstitutional. He was arrested by immigration authorities in January 2025 and placed on a deportation flight bound for South Sudan, which a federal judge ruled violated a court order requiring a meaningful chance to contest removal; he was deported to South Sudan in July 2025 regardless, as part of a broader program sending noncitizens to countries they had no connection to. Birte Pfleger, the daughter of Gisela Pfleger, the woman Nilakout was convicted of killing, said she was never notified of his arrest or deportation despite requesting updates, and expressed discomfort with how the removal was carried out.

At least eight people were arrested by ICE agents as they left San Diego's immigration court on Thursday. ICE agents waited in hallways and arrested people after their hearings. The tactic has also occurred in New York City, Miami, and Seattle. Immigration lawyers stated the practice discourages people from attending their court hearings.

Federal agents arrested 13 undocumented immigrants at a window supply business in Paducah, Kentucky during a worksite investigation into employment fraud. Eight of the arrestees were indicted on charges of using stolen or false Social Security numbers on employment verification forms (I-9s) between June 2021 and August 2025. The eight indicted defendants each face up to five years in prison if convicted. The remaining five arrested individuals were not criminally charged and remain in ICE custody pending immigration removal proceedings.

A federal judge dismissed trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka related to a standoff at a migrant detention center. The judge stated that the 13-day process from arrest to dismissal was problematic and instructed prosecutors that their duty is to justice and not solely to securing convictions. Baraka had visited Delaney Hall, a facility housing immigrant detainees, as part of an oversight visit with members of Congress. Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted for allegedly impeding the arrest and assaulting federal officers; she has pleaded not guilty.