A living database documenting reported immigration enforcement incidents and their human impact.
We collect individual stories of people impacted by U.S. immigration enforcement from news reporting, court records, and community accounts into one searchable public database, updated daily and reviewed by our team. The Human Impact Project is run by the Human Security Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
A man referred to as Eyvar was recently detained by ICE, separating him from his wife, a U.S. citizen who is unable to work due to a serious hand injury. He had been the family's primary financial provider and also supports a son who lives in Mexico. Friends describe him as hardworking, kind, and responsible, and the family has already paid $5,000 in attorney fees to fight his immigration case.
Ehsan Rajabi, an Iranian graduate student at Johns Hopkins University studying art history, had his student visa cancelled by U.S. border officials at the American border near Buffalo, New York. After presenting all required documentation including his student visa and Canadian visitor visa, officers searched his car and phone, interrogated him for hours, and then used a red marker to draw a cancellation line across his student visa.
A man held in federal immigration custody has been detained since November 29, 2025, a period of six months. He is detained at the Otero County Processing Center and is assumed to be subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b). He filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus on May 7, 2026, challenging the legality of his prolonged detention. The federal respondents filed a response on May 26, 2026. The court determined that his indefinite, prolonged detention may violate his substantive due process rights under the Fifth Amendment, citing precedent from Mardanpour v. Warden. The court ordered him to file a supplemental reply by June 3, 2026, addressing whether he is entitled to habeas relief based on the six-month detention threshold established in Zadvydas v. Davis.
U.S. citizens testified before Congress about violent encounters with federal immigration agents. Daniel Rascon, a 23-year-old from San Bernardino, California, described agents pointing rifles at him and shooting at his car during an August 16, 2025 stop. He said agents later conducted two home invasions targeting his family, during which his father-in-law, Francisco Longoria, was detained and held in jail for three months.
U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino deployed tear gas and pepper spray against protesters in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on October 23, 2025, during immigration enforcement operations under Operation Midway Blitz. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Bovino acted after being struck by a rock, but video evidence and witnesses contradicted this account, showing him throwing a tear gas canister into the crowd. Federal Judge Sara Ellis ordered Bovino to appear in court to answer allegations that he violated a temporary restraining order prohibiting such tactics without imminent threat. Ellis later found that Bovino had lied about the rock-throwing incident and issued a preliminary injunction against federal immigration agents for using force without warning.
Fredy Arcenio Zavala-Baires, 25, a Salvadoran national who entered the U.S. as a child, was detained at an ICE appointment in November 2025 and deported to El Salvador on November 27, 2025, despite being married to Sgt. Nataly Castro, a seven-year Army National Guard veteran. An immigration judge issued a removal order against him in 2017, which was affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2018. As of June 2026, Castro had spent over $3,000 in legal fees attempting to bring her husband back, while ICE officials maintained that Zavala-Baires received full due process and that clear legal pathways exist for military spouses seeking immigration benefits.
Alma Bowman, a 59-year-old Macon resident, was detained by ICE on March 26, 2025, during a routine check-in and held at Stewart Detention Center for 243 days until her release in late November 2025. Bowman claims U.S. citizenship as the daughter of an American Navy serviceman and was born in the Philippines. ICE asserted she was in the country illegally. This was her second detention; she had previously been held for three years (2017-2020) at Irwin County Detention Center following criminal convictions deemed deportable offenses. During her detention, Bowman reported inadequate medical care and overcrowded conditions. Her attorney argued the prolonged detainment violated her constitutional rights, and her citizenship status remained legally disputed throughout her custody.
A person warned their community that ICE agents were staging outside houses and then parked at a trolley station to observe. When ICE agents returned to the station, they attempted to detain the person, who fled because the agents were masked and refused to identify themselves. The person claims to be an American citizen and states that other people were also detained at the scene.
San Diego Humane Society has taken in 18 pets from 11 owners since June 2025, operating at 173% capacity. Animals including Tita, a 4-year-old Chihuahua whose owners were deported, and Cata, a pit bull mix found in Mira Mesa after her owner's deportation, are among those left behind. The county Department of Animal Services has also received pets from deported individuals.
Joel Andre, a 16-year-old Deering High School student from Congo and a well-known member of Portland's Kennedy Park pickup soccer community, was detained with his family by Customs and Border Protection on November 12, 2025, at the Champlain Port of Entry after they attempted to seek asylum in Canada. The family had entered the U.S. without authorization in 2022, received a deportation order in February 2025, and had their appeal dismissed in October before being transferred to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas. Attorney Todd Pomerleau secured the release of Joel and two family members after a federal appeals court paused their deportation while the asylum case continues, though his sister remains in detention. Joel returned to Portland and resumed playing in the Kennedy Park soccer league, where friends and teammates had raised money for his family's legal fees, and his school district and congregation mobilized support during his detention.
Abdellatif (Latif) Hafraoui, a 60-year-old Moroccan immigrant who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 40 years and worked about 18 years as a Manhattan building concierge, was detained by ICE agents at Newark Liberty International Airport in August 2025 as he and his American wife, Sandra, prepared to leave for a Florida vacation. He was held 108 days, mostly at Delaney Hall in New Jersey but also at facilities in Louisiana and Arizona, based on a 16-year-old deportation order issued in absentia after a notice was sent to the wrong address and his lawyer failed to inform him of a hearing. Hafraoui said he was pressured to accept deportation, placed in solitary confinement for 10 days after refusing to sign documents or board a flight, and witnessed guards abuse other detainees; he said agents later falsely claimed a ticket to Morocco had been purchased and attempted to put him on a deportation flight to Qatar even after a judge voided the original order. U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez's office intervened to help locate him during the transfers and advocate for his return to New Jersey. He paid a $15,000 bond and was released the day before Thanksgiving, though the government kept his passport, and he must wear an ankle monitor and report regularly to authorities while his green card application remains pending; he has not returned to work, and Sandra said legal costs have depleted the couple's savings and that he seemed traumatized after visits.
A 26-year-old St. Paul man is federally charged with assaulting an ICE agent after allegedly ramming his car into the agent's vehicle on Nov. 25 while fleeing an immigration arrest at a St. Paul home. According to a federal affidavit, agents had come to arrest another man living there when he fled in his car, struck the agent's vehicle, then returned to the home and ran inside. He has since pleaded not guilty and was released from jail. The raid drew demonstrators who threw rocks and bricks, and St. Paul police responded with chemical irritants and projectiles, injuring several photojournalists.
Two 16-year-old Venezuelan cousins were detained by ICE agents during a raid on their Detroit home in late November 2025. The teens arrived in the U.S. in 2023 and were formally seeking asylum with valid work permits. Both were students at Western International High School, where a teacher described one cousin as an excellent student eager to learn English. One cousin worked at Chili's. During the raid, agents also detained two of the teens' parents while searching for a different individual. All four family members were transferred to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Texas, hundreds of miles from their support network. Both teens had pending asylum cases scheduled for immigration court. Community members, students, and advocates held a rally at Clark Park calling for their immediate release.
Josue Rodriguez Perez, a Cuban immigrant who fled Cuba with his father in 1993 and held legal U.S. residency, was detained by ICE at a federal office in Miami in July while trying to renew his work permit. He spent 40 days in the Natrona County jail in Wyoming and was later deported in September to Mexico, a country where he has no ties. Rodriguez, a commercial truck driver with a valid U.S. work permit, is now sharing an apartment in Cancun with other deported Cubans, unable to be with his wife and family or see his brother, who is battling advanced cancer. He had lost his legal residency years earlier following a felony conviction tied to a car accident and subsequent addiction, but had since married, rebuilt his life, and worked as a truck driver.
Allan Marrero, originally from the Cayman Islands, has been detained by ICE for 113 days following a marriage-based green card interview at Federal Plaza in New York City on November 24, 2025. His husband Matthew Marrero and advocates including clergy and legal counsel have been working to secure his release.
Vahid Abedini, an assistant professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Oklahoma's College of International Studies, was detained by ICE at Will Rogers International Airport while preparing to board a flight to a Middle East Studies Association conference in Washington, D.C. Abedini holds an H-1B visa for specialty occupation employment. He was held for three days before being released, and federal authorities characterized the detention as standard questioning, though colleagues said he was asked very few questions. After his release, Abedini described the experience as deeply distressing on LinkedIn, thanking colleagues at the University of Oklahoma, the Middle East Studies Association, and the broader Iran studies and political science community for their support. He has remained fearful of retaliation and has limited his public comments about the incident.
Matheus Silveira, 30, a Brazilian national, was detained by ICE agents during his green card interview at a USCIS office in San Diego on November 24, after his marriage-based application had just been approved. His wife, Hannah Silveira, an Army veteran and California attorney, said agents burst into the interview room and arrested her husband on a warrant tied to his overstaying a student visa, despite their marriage. He remains at Otay Mesa Detention Center, where he has described inadequate food and sleeping on the floor in a crowded room, and has since been granted voluntary departure rather than deportation, barring his return to the U.S. for 10 years. The couple, married since August 2024, now plans to relocate to Rio de Janeiro once he is released.
Matthew Marrero and his husband Allan Dabrio Marrero attended a green card interview at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan on November 24, 2025. Allan was detained by ICE after it was discovered he had missed an immigration court hearing in December 2022 and had a deportation order against him, which neither he nor Matthew knew about. Matthew says they were told Allan could leave the facility but were then handed over to ICE agents, and he had only 30 seconds to say goodbye before they were separated. Allan has since been transferred to Delaney Hall ICE Detention Center in Newark, New Jersey.
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