Human Impact Project

Five men from an extended Mexican family in Snohomish County — described as fathers, husbands, uncles, godfathers, and primary breadwinners — were detained by ICE during a Labor Day weekend camping trip at Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest near Granite Falls, Washington. U.S. Forest Service rangers first visited the campsite over a reported trash complaint and photographed the men's identification; one individual who had posed as a ranger later returned armed with a rifle as ICE 'backup.' Just before midnight, armed ICE agents returned, initially identifying themselves as police before revealing they were immigration officers, shook tents, and handcuffed the men one by one in front of children ages 1 to 14 and a pregnant mother. Carmen, 19, said she watched agents arrest her father, uncles, and godfathers, and that the experience traumatized younger cousins who had viewed the campground as a safe retreat. Families said they had no cell service and could not reach a lawyer or the detained men until after the holiday weekend. DHS said four of the five men had no criminal record aside from a 2016 misdemeanor negligent driving conviction, citing prior voluntary returns to Mexico, a 2021 driving-related arrest, and unlawful entry as grounds for removal proceedings. The men remain at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, and families are raising roughly $100,000 for legal fees and living expenses while fearing transfer out of state. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson called the detentions cruel and ordered a legal investigation, while Representative Pramila Jayapal demanded answers about whether federal land management staff improperly facilitated civil immigration enforcement.

ICE agents detained Arturo Vasquez, a 48-year-old father with no criminal record, while he was a paying customer getting his family car washed in Culver City, California in June 2025; his teenage son was recorded on video pleading with agents as his father was driven away. In a separate incident in spring 2025, Cuban national Eduardo Nuñez Gonzalez was detained by ICE outside his North Miami home while carrying a bag of household trash to the curb; his family said he had no history of criminal charges. Rather than remain in a New Mexico detention facility for months contesting his case, Nuñez Gonzalez ultimately chose deportation to Spain. Both cases were cited amid a surge in ICE arrests, with Los Angeles-area arrests reaching a rolling average of roughly 100 a day, including a single-day record of 228 arrests on July 11. Data showed Latino immigrants were being arrested at 115 times the rate of other groups.

Jose Antonio Caballero-Nolasco, a 32-year-old Salvadoran national living in the U.S. without legal status, was charged with manslaughter and vehicular homicide after allegedly driving drunk the wrong way on the I-270 Spur in Bethesda/Montgomery County, Maryland, causing a head-on collision. The crash killed 46-year-old Musammat Shamima Begum and her 23-year-old daughter Areebah Jahin, and left an 8-year-old girl in their vehicle with life-threatening injuries. Caballero-Nolasco was treated at a hospital before being transferred to the Montgomery County Detention Center, where he is being held without bond. ICE lodged an immigration detainer asking local officials not to release him, though Montgomery County's sanctuary policies and Maryland's Community Trust Act make it unclear whether the detainer will be honored. His attorney said he is a construction worker who has lived in the U.S. for 10 years and is expecting a child with his girlfriend.

A 22-year-old Filipina registered nurse working in an acute-care telemetry unit at a Phoenix hospital was detained by ICE agents at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Her family says she held a valid work permit at the time and has no criminal history, and they remain unaware of the reason for her detention. She was transferred to the Eloy Detention Center, and her immigration case has a court hearing scheduled for September 4. Her boyfriend set up a GoFundMe page to help cover legal and financial costs as proceedings continue.

A woman driving to work on Sept. 4 saw an ICE raid underway in Dover, N.J., and followed the vehicle carrying detained people up Route 46 toward the Roxbury warehouse, recording video along the way. She said a white Dodge Durango and then a black Tahoe began circling and filming her on a public sidewalk, which she described as intimidating. She asked that her name not be used, saying she fears what the government might do.

Jean Alix Comper, a Haitian citizen, was arrested by ICE in Englewood on Sept. 4 and has since challenged his detention at the Butler County Jail in federal court. He argues he has been held without bond and has not received an adequate assessment determining that his continued incarceration is necessary.

Katsiaryna Bartko, a 33-year-old Belarusian asylum seeker and thyroid cancer survivor, is being held at the CoreCivic-operated Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, where her partner says her medical condition has severely deteriorated. Lab records show her thyroid-stimulating hormone level spiked to more than 31 times the normal range, with dropping calcium levels causing pain, spasms and voice loss, and she has not been seen by an endocrinologist despite a referral. Days before a federal court hearing on her medical care, she was moved to a solitary isolation room and staff allegedly attempted to confiscate legal documents she had prepared for the hearing. Bartko entered the U.S. legally in 2022 and applied for asylum in 2023 after speaking out against the Belarusian government and the war in Ukraine.

Simranpal Singh, an Indian national who entered the United States through Arizona in June 2022 and was later released by immigration authorities, was arrested by an ICE officer during a commercial vehicle inspection at a weigh station in Newberry, Pennsylvania. At the time of his arrest, Singh had an outstanding warrant for wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy out of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and he held a commercial driver's license issued by New York State. He is being held in ICE custody pending transfer to the U.S. Marshals Service for the federal criminal case, after which ICE says it intends to resume custody of him for removal proceedings.

Molis Augustave, a Haitian immigrant pastor and DoorDash driver in York, Pennsylvania, was pulled over on September 4, 2026 for a burned-out headlight and expired registration, then handed to ICE under a local 287(g) agreement. He entered the U.S. legally in 2016 but lost Temporary Protected Status after the Trump administration ended TPS for Haitians in July 2026, despite having a pending green card application through his U.S. citizen wife, Omara Nunez, with whom he has two young children. He was transferred to a Louisiana ICE facility and moved toward a deportation flight to Haiti, but was pulled off the plane at the last minute after advocacy from his wife, church, and organizations including We Are CASA and the Haitian Bridge Alliance; 89 others on that flight were deported. Augustave says he was handled roughly during his initial detention, leaving him with ongoing neck and back pain, but has since become a source of support for other detainees, leading Bible study and counseling men who are frightened or losing hope. His wife filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court and an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, while local pastors and state Sen. Patty Kim held a news conference calling for his release.

Kira Inthisane, who is currently deployed overseas, started a fundraiser after learning her mother had been taken into ICE custody. Kira said she has spent her own resources on legal fees to try to keep her mother from being deported and is seeking donations to continue funding the legal fight.

A Colombian woman who entered the United States on a B-1/B-2 visa in December 2020 was detained by federal law enforcement on September 4, 2026, while attempting to board a flight at the San Juan airport. She has a pending derivative asylum application tied to a petition filed by her father with USCIS. After her detention, ICE officers at the Guaynabo office reportedly told her that if she did not accept voluntary departure, a Notice to Appear would be filed; she declined and was placed in civil immigration custody at the San Juan Staging Facility in Guaynabo. She requested a bond hearing on September 7, 2026, but before it was resolved, ICE informed her she would be transferred to a detention facility in Florida. She filed a habeas corpus petition and a motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing her detention violated her Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and seeking to block her transfer and secure her release. The district court granted in part her TRO request, ordering that she not be transferred out of Puerto Rico and that she be given a bond hearing before an immigration judge by September 23, 2026, while denying her request for immediate release and holding the underlying habeas petition in abeyance.

Oscar Sanchez-Corona, a 36-year-old construction worker who was brought to the U.S. as an infant and grew up attending Shawnee Mission schools, was detained by ICE agents on August 18 while pouring concrete at a job site in Lawrence, Kansas, shackled in front of coworkers. Over 18 days he was transferred through Leavenworth's Midwest Regional Reception Center, Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, and a facility in El Paso, Texas, describing leaking ceilings, understaffed units, inadequate food, denial of contact lens solution, and witnessing other detainees struggle to get insulin; he said he lost eight pounds. He was ultimately deported on foot into Juarez, Mexico, separating him from the two elementary school-aged children he shares custody of in Johnson County. DHS cited reinstatement of a prior removal order tied to a teenage misdemeanor property-damage charge, a 2013 deportation after failing to comply with a voluntary departure order, illegal re-entry, and convictions for drug paraphernalia possession, criminal property damage, and driving without a license. A family friend, Skylar Roush, described him as 'a regular American guy' who lived a peaceful life as a worker and father, and his daughter drew a picture asking ICE not to take him away.

Federal ICE agents arrived around 6 a.m. Thursday, September 3, 2025, near Stoneybrook Court and Schaffer Drive in Frederick, Maryland's Taskers Chance neighborhood, searching for a man who had fled a vehicle stop. Agents occupied the area for nearly 40 hours, prompting residents to stay inside and skip work, while observers from the Western Maryland Immigrant Rights Collective monitored the scene. On Friday night, when agents ordered the block cleared, a couple dozen residents and observers linked arms and sat down to block a doorway, chanting 'We shall not be moved.' ICE vehicles drove onto a sidewalk, nearly striking City Council Vice President Katie Nash, and agents used batons, grabbed and pushed people, and dragged protesters off a porch, injuring several, some requiring hospitalization. No arrests were made, and it did not appear anyone inside the targeted home was taken into custody. Frederick police who responded did not assist the federal agents. City Council President César Díaz and Vice President Katie Nash said observers were not violent, with Nash stating, 'It's nuts. Now people are just not leaving their houses.' Frederick Mayor Michael O'Connor, Díaz, and the county executive publicly objected to the tactics, and a local representative called for a full investigation into the agents' use of force.

At least three people were detained Friday after immigration officials conducted a raid at a roofing job site in Morristown, according to a statement by the company. Limited details were provided about the individuals involved.

Zoilo Viloria, a 66-year-old Colombian asylum seeker who worked in building maintenance in Tacoma, Washington, was detained by ICE agents in a McDonald's parking lot while stopping for coffee on his way to work. His daughter, Stephany Viloria, said agents had been scanning license plates to check drivers' immigration status and took her father away in handcuffs after he nervously handed over his documents. She described him as a hardworking man with no criminal record, not even a traffic infraction, who entered the U.S. legally in 2018 on a tourist visa and later filed for asylum after receiving threats in Colombia tied to his work in the transportation business. He held a valid work permit and driver's license and paid taxes while his asylum case was pending. Days after his arrest, he was transferred, shackled at the hands and feet, to a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, where he has struggled with cold conditions and uncertainty about his care. His daughter posted a video denouncing the arrest, drawing attention to the case.

Since the US ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in late July 2026, more than 450 people have been deported to Haiti, with flights to Cap-Haïtien increasing from about once a month to once a week because the Port-au-Prince airport remains unsafe. Human Rights Watch interviewed 44 deportees after the August 20 and 27 flights and found Haitian authorities lack the funding, staff, and policies to safely receive and assist returnees amid a surge in criminal violence and hunger. Many deportees had lived in the US for years, were separated from US citizen family members, or had pending asylum claims. The US Senate is considering House-approved legislation to reinstate TPS for Haitians as litigation over the termination continues.

Fidel Cordero Garcia, a father and pastor in Woodburn, Oregon, was detained by federal immigration agents the same week as another local man, Juan Miguel Aldape. Cordero Garcia's son had joined the U.S. Marines with the goal of eventually helping his father obtain a green card, and was just one week away from turning 21 — the age at which he would have been eligible to petition for his father's residency. Family members say the timing meant Cordero Garcia was detained just before that path to legal status could open.

Renan Hédouville, a lawyer, human-rights advocate and former head of Haiti's Office of Citizen Protection (ombudsman), was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on August 25 while attempting to update his immigration status, after Haitian authorities issued warrants accusing him of embezzling nearly $130,000 in public funds. An investigation by Haiti's Anti-Corruption Unit alleges he billed for ten fictitious business trips and funneled payments to his daughter and chief of staff, Régine Hédouville, and his son-in-law, Tex Willer Célafoi Louis, among other irregularities; Hédouville had sued the anti-corruption unit and declined to cooperate with investigators. He requested voluntary deportation and was among 79 Haitians sent back on a flight that departed Alexandria, Louisiana, on September 3, one of three such flights since the Trump administration ended temporary protected status for more than 300,000 Haitians.

A joint operation by the Lorain County Sheriff's Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and ICE swept through farmland and roadways near Oberlin, Ohio, arresting two men on criminal human trafficking charges and detaining roughly 50 other people on civil immigration violations. The yearlong investigation targeted a suspected smuggling network accused of recruiting workers under false pretenses and transporting them to agricultural businesses using shell transportation and contracting companies. Law enforcement conducted traffic stops of at least six vans and used a drone to track movement during the operation; three U.S. citizens were left behind in a Walmart parking lot after others nearby were detained. Oberlin city officials said they had no advance knowledge of the operation, which conflicts with the city's longstanding sanctuary policy limiting local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Adnero Pinto Sebastiao, an Angolan national with a pending asylum application, was arrested by ICE agents as he returned from lunch to his job at a bank in the Lewiston area. He had entered the U.S. legally on a tourist visa in March 2024 before applying for asylum, and his immigration case remains pending. His attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus arguing the detention was an unlawful warrantless arrest lacking individualized assessment. A federal judge issued an indefinite injunction barring ICE from removing him from the U.S. or transferring him out of the District of Maine, and ordered the government to justify the detention. A DHS spokesperson said Sebastiao overstayed his visa and that a pending asylum application does not confer legal status.