Human Impact Project

The brother of Zolia Virgen Verduzco, who had lived in the United States for 45 years, was detained and deported to Mexico despite having legal counsel and ongoing documentation processes underway, according to Verduzco. She said her family had paid thousands of dollars in legal fees to try to keep him in the country. Verduzco shared her brother's story while attending a community rally in Tallahassee supporting other detained immigrants.

A group of roofing workers was intercepted by ICE agents at a gas station in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Enrique Hernández Díaz, owner of the roofing company, told N+ Univision that one of his employees was detained and taken away by agents who said they were looking for a person with a criminal record connected to the vehicle. Hernández Díaz, a lawful permanent resident, said he was also handcuffed and held because he did not have his green card on him, and that agents threw him to the ground, injuring his elbow, knee and forehead, prompting a hospital visit. His wife, Roxanna Álvarez Cruz, arrived minutes later with his residency card; she said agents told her they would not release him until they confirmed his immigration status, and he was later released.

Mario Mata Cruz, a Salvadoran national with a pending Special Immigrant Juvenile Status application and no criminal record, was arrested by ICE on Long Island in October 2025 while driving to work with his brother. He had crossed the border at age 17 and obtained SIJ status in 2019, putting him on a path toward a green card. ICE transported him to Texas and deported him to El Salvador without a final removal order from an immigration judge or signed voluntary departure paperwork, which his attorney Ed Cuccia says was illegal. His lawyers sued the Trump administration, and the government agreed to return him from El Salvador over the summer, but instead of being released to New York where his brother lives, he has been held in detention facilities in Louisiana, New Jersey, and Virginia with no ties to those states. An immigration judge in New Jersey denied him bond, and a hearing on his green card application was scheduled. His case is part of a broader pattern NY1 documented of at least 132 cases where people were deported without final removal orders.