Human Impact Project

Tesfay T., a 35-year-old Ethiopian man who had been imprisoned and tortured in Ethiopia and later kidnapped and tortured again in Mexico, fled to the United States and spent more than a year in immigration detention after crossing the border irregularly. An immigration judge denied his asylum claim but granted him 'withholding of removal' because of the likelihood he would be tortured again if returned to Ethiopia. In February 2026, while his lawyer was pursuing a habeas corpus petition for his release, an ICE officer told him to sign a voluntary departure form and said, 'I don't care, I'm going to sign it myself' when Tesfay refused and asked to speak with his attorney. He was then flown to Cameroon chained at his wrists, legs, and stomach for the entire journey, denied the ability to stand or use a bathroom without restraints, and was not told his destination until after landing.

Volkan Guzey, a longtime captain at Carbone Miami and native of Turkey, was detained by ICE agents at Miami International Airport on September 4 as he and his wife, Eliana Cabrera, prepared to board a flight for their honeymoon. The couple had married less than three months earlier and had planned a road trip through Cabrera's home state of Utah. Guzey had worked at Carbone Miami, part of Major Food Group, since January 2021, with prior restaurant experience at Fig & Olive, Del Posto, and The Grill. Cabrera says authorities transferred him from Florida to Texas and then to Colorado, where as of October 8 he was listed as held at the Denver Contract Detention Facility. She described him as the couple's primary income earner and started a GoFundMe to help cover legal fees, rent, and other expenses related to his detention.

Luis Caiza, an asylum seeker from Ecuador with a work permit and no criminal record, was pulled from his car and thrown to the ground during a traffic stop in Maple Grove, Minnesota, part of ICE's Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities. His wife, Marjorie Flores, said officers kneed and kicked him while he was down, then pulled her from the car, threw her onto the icy street, and pointed a weapon at her as she pleaded that their three children, Camila, Sneyder, and Emilio, were at home. Caiza has since been held for nearly 10 months at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico, where he has described tooth infections, inadequate food, lack of clean clothing, and severe delays receiving legal mail. He said video calls with his children have become too painful to continue. His attorney, Danielle Molliver, disputes a judge's finding that he is a flight risk due to prior DWIs and has filed a second petition challenging his prolonged detention while his asylum appeal, which he recently lost, remains pending. Flores now works three jobs totaling 93 hours a week to support their children.

Thongxay Nilakout, who resettled in the U.S. from Laos as a child in 1980, was released from a life sentence in 2023 after a Supreme Court ruling found mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders unconstitutional. He was working as a restaurant cook when immigration authorities detained him in early 2025 and placed him on a deportation flight to South Sudan, a country with which he had no connection, as part of a broader removal program. A federal judge ruled the deportation violated a court order requiring migrants a meaningful chance to contest removal, but he was deported anyway, joining seven other men held in a gated house in Juba under armed guard. His attorney, Tin Nguyen, said Nilakout had been willing to return to Laos all along and that Lao travel documents had already been issued before the U.S. instead sent him to South Sudan. Birte Pfleger, daughter of the woman Nilakout was convicted of killing, said she was never notified of his arrest or deportation despite requesting updates. After more than a year in detention in South Sudan, Nilakout left for Vientiane, Laos on October 8, 2026; four of the original group and a fifth deportee from Congo remained in South Sudan.

Brian José Morales García, a 25-year-old HVAC worker from Austin born in Denver, Colorado, was riding in his employer's truck near Fredericksburg, Texas, on April 3, 2026, when a state trooper stopped the vehicle over an alleged window-tint violation. He repeatedly told officers he was a citizen and offered his birth certificate, Social Security card, and baptismal record, but said they refused to accept the documents; the Gillespie County Sheriff's Office held him before Border Patrol took custody. He said agents mocked his citizenship claim and pressured him into signing paperwork admitting illegal entry, which he did to avoid prolonged detention and reunite with his pregnant wife in Mexico. He was deported four to five days after the stop, missing the birth of his daughter and spending nearly five months with relatives in Mexico. His attorneys, including Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, filed a federal lawsuit alleging coercion and racial profiling, submitting his birth certificate, hospital records, baptismal certificate, and witness affidavits, while DHS disputed his citizenship claim. A federal judge called the case 'highly unusual' and ordered discovery; the Department of Justice agreed to let him return to Austin on August 30, 2026. His civil rights lawsuit continues, and his case is cited among more than 500 reported instances of U.S. citizens detained by ICE nationally.

Babucarr Touray, a Gambian immigrant, was taken into ICE custody on October 7 after reporting for a scheduled immigration check-in at the USCIS field office in Tukwila, Washington, according to his attorney and family members. Touray had attended similar appointments many times before without incident. His family and the Pacific Northwest Seattle Gambian Association are raising funds to cover an immigration bond and ongoing living expenses, including rent, while he remains in custody. As of Thursday, the family had not confirmed the bond amount, his location, or next steps in his case.

Immigration attorneys and court observers say the closure of San Francisco's immigration court has overwhelmed the Concord court with new 'mega-master hearings' and scheduling changes that threaten due process. Devony Hodson, a migrant from Nicaragua, said her final hearing was abruptly moved from 2027 to this past July, giving her little time to prepare, though she has since received extensions to December 2028. The Executive Office for Immigration Review said scheduling changes are meant to prevent cases from languishing, while advocates and a local congressman question the rationale behind the court closure.

A Venezuelan man detained by an ICE agent on an Ogden street on Aug. 25 has been released after a federal judge in California ruled his detention unconstitutional, according to his attorney Sergio Garcia. The man, who came to the U.S. in 2022 and had applied for asylum and received a work permit, was held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California before the judge granted his habeas petition. His arrest drew scrutiny after an Ogden police officer, who was responding to an unrelated call, became caught between the ICE agent and the man, and after a city councilman filmed part of the encounter. Garcia said the man still faces deportation and will now have to pursue his asylum case in immigration court rather than through USCIS.

Daury Baez Seri, a DACA recipient who grew up in Boston after arriving from the Dominican Republic at age six, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for more than 24 hours at Logan International Airport. He was returning from a gaming convention in Puerto Rico when his flight was diverted to Bermuda due to a medical emergency onboard, inadvertently turning a domestic flight into an international one. His attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said Baez Seri was not allowed to call a lawyer while detained and has no criminal record. He was released from custody late Wednesday evening.

Oscar Bracamontes Trinidad, a Medford, Oregon father of five, was detained by ICE agents while at work and later deported to Mexico. His wife, Margarita Bracamontes Torres, said she wasn't notified of his arrest until hours later, by which point he was already being transported to Tacoma, Washington, and said ICE paperwork falsely stated he was picked up at an ICE facility rather than his workplace. Oscar was held in Tacoma for about 30 days before being transferred to a detention facility in Natchez, Mississippi, making visits impossible; the family ultimately decided not to fight his case in detention, which could have taken six months to a year, and he returned to Mexico. Margarita said their children struggled emotionally during his detention, and she is now raising money to relocate the family to Mexico while they pursue an I-130 petition to return to the U.S.

Luis Arreguin, a 54-year-old Fresno man who came to the U.S. as a child and has lived there for 49 years, was detained by ICE agents around 5 a.m. on October 1, 2026 while driving to work on Manning Avenue. His daughter, Elaina Salazar, said agents acted without a warrant based on a tip and told her father they knew he hadn't done anything wrong. Arreguin, described by his family as loving and hardworking, has a U.S. citizen wife, four children, and four grandchildren, and was in the process of obtaining citizenship before his arrest. His family held a candlelit vigil in Fresno on October 7, saying the arrest felt like a death in the family. He was later transferred again within ICE custody with no information on when, where, or why, and is held at an ICE facility in McFarland, where he has high blood pressure that has been elevated for days. His detention came amid a surge of roughly two dozen ICE arrests across Fresno and Madera counties that advocates have called an "election surge."

Melanie Tinoco, a 29-year-old mother of two from Ecuador who fled in 2024 after mafia threats, was arrested by Boston police at a Target over an alleged shoplifting incident her family calls a misunderstanding involving Uber Eats shopping. She has a pending asylum application, a valid work permit, and no prior criminal record. After being released from the District 4 police station, plainclothes ICE agents detained her outside without showing identification or a warrant, according to her husband Martin Gurfinkiel, who witnessed the arrest. She has since been held at the Burlington ICE processing center, where her family says agents injured her wrists and she has struggled to access her prescribed anxiety medication, reporting sleepless nights and panic attacks. Her husband is now caring alone for their two children, including a 7-year-old son with autism who has struggled emotionally without her. Her attorneys have filed a federal habeas petition seeking her release, citing her scheduled 2027 immigration court hearing and alleging a possible violation of Boston's Trust Act limiting police cooperation with ICE.

Christian Jimenez, a 17-year-old U.S. citizen and high school senior in McMinnville, Oregon, was detained by ICE officers on November 21, 2025, while driving off campus during his lunch break. Officers broke the driver's side window of his car after he told them he was a U.S. citizen; video reviewed by ProPublica captured the exchange, with an agent responding, "I don't care." Jimenez was held at ICE's facility in South Portland for nearly seven hours before being released around 7 p.m. DHS alleged Jimenez attacked officers with his vehicle, a claim disputed by his family and immigrant-justice groups, and authorities sought obstruction-related charges, with some reports differing on whether Jimenez or his brother was the intended target. The detention was one of four involving U.S. citizens in the Portland area that week, prompting a 300-student walkout and community protests over ICE tactics near schools.

Jose Mejia Hernandez, a 45-year-old Mexican immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 18 years and works two jobs in commercial cleaning and office maintenance, was approached by plainclothes, masked ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle while walking to a bus stop near Columbia Pike in Arlington, Virginia on August 11. He fled, was shocked with a stun gun, and was struck by a vehicle, suffering two black eyes, facial lacerations, brain swelling, and a subarachnoid brain bleed. He was hospitalized for several days at George Washington University Hospital with ICE officers stationed in his room, and his attorneys say a hospital employee had to demand he be given a bed and an interpreter. He later returned for an MRI due to worsening symptoms and says an ankle monitor fitted by ICE delayed further medical testing, leaving him struggling to eat, sleep, speak normally, or work. His attorneys have filed a police report seeking criminal charges, notified federal agencies under the Federal Tort Claims Act, filed a $35 million excessive force claim, and are pursuing a U visa on his behalf. DHS disputes his account, saying officers used necessary force after he fled and citing a prior voluntary return to Mexico and a 2020 public intoxication conviction, and he has since been placed in deportation proceedings. Arlington County Police have opened an investigation, and Virginia officials including Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Reps. Don Beyer, Suhas Subramanyam and James Walkinshaw have criticized the circumstances of his arrest, which occurred during a broader ICE enforcement surge that led to roughly 1,300 arrests across the D.C. area in August.

Yasmani Noel Moreno de Armas, a 31-year-old Cuban who arrived in Florida by raft in 2016 under the 'Wet Foot, Dry Foot' policy and ran a small trucking business between Miami and Tampa to help support his parents near Orlando, was detained by ICE in West Palm Beach on May 11, 2025, after his green card bid under the Cuban Adjustment Act was denied. He was held for about a year before being deported in late July/August 2026 not to Cuba but to the Central African Republic on a roughly 21-22 hour shackled flight, learning his destination only hours into the trip. Moreno, who manages diabetes and asthma, said the flight left him ill and triggered an anxiety attack. He is now confined at the Maison Confort lodging in Bangui alongside migrants from Afghanistan, Vietnam and Russia, without a passport, visa or legal status, suffering stomach problems and allergies, and says he was kidnapped twice by armed men he believed were security forces, with family and a fellow detainee paying about $100 for his release. A Cuban embassy representative told him Cuba would not take him back because he left as a 'rafter' migrant, and he fears returning there given a past imprisonment for trying to flee. 'They brought us here illegally,' he said, adding his parents 'went crazy, crying and yelling' when he told them where he was; his attorney is negotiating with federal officials for his return.

Jeffrey Jarquín, a 35-year-old Nicaraguan exile who was a prominent figure in the 2018 anti-government protests in Nicaragua, was deported from the U.S. back to Nicaragua, where he was immediately imprisoned again at El Modelo, the same maximum-security prison where he had previously been tortured and detained following the protests. Jarquín had fled to the U.S. and was living in Miami while seeking asylum when he was detained by immigration authorities and held at the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in the Florida Everglades. A Louisiana court rejected his asylum case in July, leading to his deportation. His U.S. lawyer, Osley Sallent, confirmed the deportation, and a family member said Jarquín was taken back to the prison upon landing in Managua.

ICE agents reportedly detained a vanload of farm workers in California's Central Valley on Tuesday morning, part of a series of recent enforcement actions carried out across multiple cities.

ICE agents arrested approximately 10 people on the morning of October 6, 2026, in downtown Lake Hiawatha, a section of Parsippany, New Jersey, including landscapers and a restaurant worker who had lived in New Jersey for nearly 20 years. A resident said she witnessed masked, armed ICE agents in at least four vehicles blocking in a truck from a local landscaping company on North Beverwyck Road at about 7:45 a.m. during rush hour. Parsippany Mayor Pulkit Desai said local officials received no advance notice of the operation and were working to locate the families of those detained, while the Township Council discussed taking 'more aggressive and protective' measures for residents.

A whistleblower complaint from former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Jill Fields alleges that Donald Trump directed the FBI to investigate protesters demonstrating against ICE operations in Los Angeles in February 2025. The complaint claims a dedicated 10-agent squad was formed to investigate protesters even after agents determined their activities were constitutionally protected. Fields says she was later removed from oversight roles and resigned, believing it was retaliation for objecting to the investigations.

In the unincorporated West Park community near Fresno, ICE agents detained several people, including a man taken into custody outside Saber's Mart/Market at Prospect and Jensen avenues, and a group of people—described as a man and woman by one source and four men and a woman by another—detained outside a home on Prospect Avenue as they arrived home from work. Resident Rose Arellano said she watched agents take the individuals without asking about immigration status, saying, "Nobody should have to go through our city in fear of randomly being taken simply because of the color of their skin." Resident Selina Castillo recorded cellphone video of the detentions near her mother's house. The West Park School District sent a notice to families stating it would not share immigration status information with authorities and asked parents to meet children at bus stops. Volunteers with the Valley Watch Network said they regularly assist families of detained individuals and people released from the Fresno ICE facility, amid a broader surge of ICE activity across Fresno and Madera counties.