Human Impact Project

ICE officers arrested Jose Saul Canas-Guandique, a 49-year-old Salvadoran national, in Falls Church, Virginia on August 31, 2026. He is wanted in Colorado on felony charges including child sexual assault, solicitation of child prostitution, and using the internet to lure a child. He had lawfully entered the U.S. in 2004 but remained after his permitted stay expired, and he is now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

Gilberto Jacobo Mata was taken into ICE custody on August 31, 2026 while on his way to work. He had lived in the United States for 14 years and was the sole income provider for his four children, ages 1 1/2 to 14. Family members describe him as a hardworking man who treated others with kindness and are raising funds to cover legal fees and support his children.

The petitioner was detained at a facility in or near Vinton, Texas, though his exact facility and immediate custodian had not been reliably confirmed to him or his supporters at the time of filing. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, along with a motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent his removal from the country and to prevent his transfer outside the Western District of Texas without advance notice. The court found it lacked jurisdiction to stay his removal because such claims are barred under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g) as directly connected to execution of a removal order. The court did find it had jurisdiction over the underlying habeas petition itself, since it was filed in the district of confinement and named the facility administrator as respondent. The court noted that its jurisdiction would not be lost even if he were transferred to another facility after filing. The motion for a temporary restraining order was denied in full.

A man held at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention under 8 U.S.C. §§ 1225 and 1226, seeking release or, alternatively, a bond hearing. He argued that the government's interpretation of these statutes to deny him a bond hearing was unlawful. The court found this dispute had already been resolved in his favor by a recent Tenth Circuit decision interpreting the same statutory provisions. The court granted the petition in part, ordering that he receive a bond hearing within seven days at which the government must bear the burden of proving his continued detention is justified. The court also enjoined the government from denying him bond on the basis that he is detained under § 1225(b), and barred his removal from the District of Colorado except pursuant to a final removal order, in order to preserve its jurisdiction over the case.

Victor Salgado Araujo, 44, was detained by ICE on July 7, 2026, after witnessing an ICE agent fatally shoot his brother, Houston homebuilder Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, while the two drove their construction crew to a job site. He was held for 54 days at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center, where he missed his brother's funeral. The three detained witnesses filed habeas petitions and sought U visas, and reported pressure from ICE to self-deport while in custody. Victor was released in late August 2026, the last of the three witnesses freed, and reunited with his family. His attorney said he is expected to testify before the Harris County grand jury investigating the shooting while pursuing a U visa and facing separate removal proceedings.

ICE Phoenix arrested two men during targeted enforcement actions in northern Arizona the week of August 2. Norberto Osornio-Gutierrez, a 50-year-old Mexican national with a history of immigration violations and past deportation orders, was arrested near Prescott. Dinesh Sapkota, a 28-year-old Nepali national who overstayed his visa, was arrested near Flagstaff following 2023 convictions tied to a 2022 arrest.

Julio Alfredo De Ávila Hernández disappeared in Jalisco, Mexico, ten years ago after being tortured by a cartel. His parents and siblings later fled to the United States and applied for asylum, but an immigration judge ruled in April that they must continue their asylum process in Ecuador, Honduras, or Guatemala instead of remaining in the U.S. The family has filed an appeal to try to stay. Julio's sister, Alondra De Ávila, 26, crossed the border with her four-year-old son in 2024 to turn themselves in to immigration authorities and tell their story. "We want to stay here. I don't want my son to live what I lived," she said.

Sae Joon Park, 57, a Korean-born US Army veteran awarded a Purple Heart for injuries sustained during the 1989 US invasion of Panama, self-deported to South Korea last year after ICE threatened to detain him at a routine immigration check-in over old criminal convictions. Park had lived in the US since age 7, moving from South Korea to join his mother in Miami, and struggled with PTSD and drug use following his military service, leading to a 2007 drug possession conviction and a 2009 bail-jumping conviction. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned Park for both convictions, opening a pathway for him to seek to have his removal order vacated and legally return to the US. His attorney said the pardon does not guarantee his return. Park now lives in Busan, South Korea, separated from his two adult children.

A man was deported by ICE this past month after living in the United States for 24 years, according to a GoFundMe campaign organized by a family friend. He leaves behind a wife and two children with limited resources, and the family is now seeking help securing basic necessities and support services.

Kwesi Menezes, a 35-year-old lawful permanent resident who had lived in the U.S. since age two and grew up in Burlington County, New Jersey, was found unresponsive in Guyana on August 30, months after being deported there in April. His family believes he overdosed on medication prescribed for schizophrenia, a condition he had struggled with for years. Menezes had been arrested by ICE in Mount Holly, New Jersey, in connection with a prior conviction for assaulting a police officer during what his family described as a mental-health episode, and was later transferred into ICE detention and placed on DHS's 'Worst of the Worst Criminal Aliens Arrested' list in December. His mother and sister said his psychiatric condition was not adequately considered during his immigration proceedings and questioned whether he understood what was happening to him while in custody. Relatives describe him as a gifted singer and dancer who was always willing to help others, and are working to bring his remains back to the U.S. for burial.

Gustavo Parraga Durán, a Venezuelan journalist who has been seeking asylum in the U.S. for nearly a decade, was detained by ICE agents during a traffic stop in Utah. He is currently being held at a detention facility in Washington state. His wife said he has no criminal charges, not even traffic tickets, and has lost his job while the family risks losing their home. Parraga Durán is married and the father of two young daughters.

Khalil, a 24-year-old Afghan man whose brother served alongside U.S. forces in the Afghan Army and another brother died fighting the Taliban as a pilot, was deported to the Central African Republic despite having been granted 'withholding of removal' by a U.S. immigration judge in August 2025, who found he could face persecution in Afghanistan. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2024 and was held in ICE custody throughout his time in the U.S.; he did not qualify for asylum due to a Biden-era policy requiring migrants to seek protection in other countries first. His immigration lawyer, Alma David, said his case shows the administration's effort to 'obliterate the global refugee protection system,' while a retired Marine colonel who supervised his brother said he fears Khalil could be killed if eventually returned to Afghanistan.

Milo Yiannopoulos, a 41-year-old British national and former Breitbart News editor, was detained by ICE agents at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on August 27, 2026. He was moved to an ICE processing facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, before being deported to the United Kingdom about 24 hours later. DHS said he had legally entered the U.S. in 2019 but overstayed his authorization, and that an immigration judge issued a final removal order on July 22 after he failed to appear at a hearing. Yiannopoulos disputes this, saying he held a valid O-1 visa and later a green card through his 2017 marriage to an American man, which he claims was quietly canceled without notice. He said he was surrounded by roughly 15 agents, denied food for a day, and moved repeatedly to keep him from reaching his lawyer, and plans to challenge the removal in court. Far-right activist Laura Loomer claimed she had reported him to ICE, and border czar Tom Homan denied allegations of preferential treatment in the speed of his removal.

The petitioner, who was lawfully admitted to the U.S. on a B-2 visa in March 2025, has resided in the country since then and applied for asylum in January 2026, a claim that remains pending. On August 29, 2026, she was detained after the vehicle she was riding in as a passenger, driven by her boyfriend, was stopped; the document states no process was provided to her during the detention. She is now in removal proceedings and has been held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. She has a history of breast cancer and takes related medication, and imaging taken since her detention showed a mass or tumor in her breast, yet for more than two weeks she received no follow-up care or prescribed medication. She filed a habeas corpus petition and a TRO application seeking release, arguing her detention violated due process. The government did not respond to the petition despite a court-ordered deadline, and the court granted the petition, ordering her immediate release on reasonable conditions without monetary bond.

Indi Veitia, a 47-year-old Venezuelan asylum-seeker who lives in Indianapolis with her wife and worked her way up from a warehouse job to a corporate position, was detained by ICE officers while walking to her gate at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport during a work trip. She said plain-clothes officers slammed her against the jetway wall, handcuffed her, and transported her in an unmarked vehicle before transferring her to a detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia, where she spent 21 days in a windowless dormitory with more than 60 other women sharing four toilets and showers, at times without running water or power, describing the conditions as 'inhumane.' Veitia entered the U.S. on a work visa in 2019 and later applied for asylum, holding a valid work permit and driver's license while her application had been pending since 2020. She was released on bond after friends and her employer wrote supporting letters and secured lawyers, but now wears a GPS ankle monitor and must report to the ICE field office in Indianapolis under a court order. Her attorney said asylum applicants like her are 'low-hanging fruit' for detention despite following legal processes, while DHS said a pending asylum application does not confer legal status. Veitia said, 'I have done everything that the government have asked me to do.'

Alex Ramirez Gonzalez and Yan Vasquez Hidalgo, a married Cuban couple working in environmental services at SUNY Upstate Medical University, were detained by ICE after appearing for a scheduled immigration hearing in Mattydale, New York. The couple had fled Cuba, entered the U.S. in 2021, turned themselves in to seek asylum, and held valid work authorization. They said they were handcuffed and chained before being transported to a federal detention facility, where they were held for nearly four months, mostly separated from each other. In January, two immigration judges ruled they could not seek asylum in the U.S. but could pursue it in Ecuador, a country to which they have no connection; their lawyer appealed, and the case remains pending. They were released on bond, with one required to wear an ankle monitor, and have returned to their jobs and families in Syracuse. A third coworker, Mohamed Fofana, remains in ICE custody in Texas.

Maisa Lopes Eliaser, a 32-year-old Brazilian national married to Fort Polk Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, was detained by ICE on July 8, 2026, after missing an immigration appointment and overstaying a tourist visa she had used to enter the U.S. in 2019. She spent more than a month held at the ICE processing center in Basile, Louisiana, separated from the couple's five-year-old son. On August 14, she was placed on a deportation flight to Brazil, but after a stop in Bogotá, Colombia, ICE officers received a call and gave her the choice to return to the U.S., which she took, and she was released from custody. Eliaser said she struggled to sleep and felt dehumanized by the detention experience. Following media coverage and a Congressional inquiry into deportations of military family members, she has a new immigration appointment to reopen her case and pursue her green card application, while the family's appeal remains pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Josue Isai Pire-Hidalgo, a 31-year-old custodian at Farnsworth Elementary School in Chicago Public Schools, was detained by ICE on July 17 during what he believed was a routine immigration appointment tied to his family's asylum case. Pire-Hidalgo, a Venezuelan national with Temporary Protected Status and a pending asylum application, has no criminal record. His wife, Yulexis Padilla Julio, and their two children, ages 13 and 6, were detained alongside him but released; his wife was fitted with an ankle monitor and continued advocating for his release. Their 6-year-old daughter has asthma requiring daily medication, and Pire-Hidalgo has hearing loss in both ears and relies on hearing aids. He was held at a jail in Clay County, Indiana, describing the conditions as difficult, while the school community and SEIU Local 73 organized support including a GoFundMe that raised nearly $15,000 and meal trains for the family. After 42 days in ICE custody, he was released and reunited with his family.

A man was hospitalized after being Tased by an ICE agent during his arrest in Danbury during a targeted enforcement operation. City officials said ICE called 911 around 6:45 a.m. reporting the man had been Tased and needed medical attention, and a city ambulance transported him to Danbury Hospital, where he was discharged later that morning. A DHS spokesperson said the man physically resisted arrest and reached for a pocketknife, and that he was carrying a counterfeit lawful permanent resident card and fake Social Security card. Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves called the incident 'deeply concerning' and said the community deserves transparency about what occurred and why that level of force was used.

Sergio Zárate, a father of six who has lived in the U.S. since 2002, was detained by immigration agents in Yakima, Washington, while he was in the state for work. He had traveled there from his home in Oakley, California, in search of employment. His daughter, Yisleth Zárate, said he has long been the family's main provider and is well regarded by his community and church. He is now being held at a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, hundreds of miles from his family, who say the detention has caused emotional and financial strain and are seeking help covering legal costs.