Human Impact Project

On November 21, 2025, ICE agents detained Christian Jimenez, a 17-year-old U.S. citizen and McMinnville High School senior, during lunch break in Oregon. Despite asserting his citizenship, agents broke his car window and transported him to an ICE facility in South Portland before releasing him later that day. The detention was part of ICE sweeps in Yamhill County that week resulting in at least 7 total detentions, including at least 4 U.S. citizens. The incident occurred off school grounds but was witnessed by students in the area. A protest was held in response. The McMinnville School District confirmed increased ICE activity in the community while noting that agents have not entered school buildings.

Bryan Cuautle Romero, 29, a long-term U.S. resident married to a U.S. citizen with two U.S. citizen children, was detained at West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason on November 21, 2025, after checking in at an ICE office. ICE invoked a mandatory detention policy for individuals without admission or inspection. Despite a subsequent Sixth Circuit Court ruling against the mandatory detention policy in May 2026, Bryan had already accepted voluntary deportation to Mexico with a final removal date of June 6, 2026. His wife Lauren plans to pursue an I-130 petition to bring him back to the United States.

Alejandro Orrego Agudelo, a 27-year-old Colombian asylum seeker, was arrested by Boston police on November 21 after a dispute over a parking space on Falcon Street in East Boston. He was charged with assault and battery on a police officer and released by a judge that same day at East Boston District Court. However, ICE agents arrested him in the courthouse lockup and detained him for four months at Plymouth County jail under the Laken Riley Act. After legal challenges including a habeas corpus petition and dismissal of criminal charges, an immigration judge granted him bond, and he was released.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted enforcement operations in Long Beach on Thursday, resulting in at least nine detentions at workplaces. Mayor Rex Richardson and Supervisor Janice Hahn commented on the operations, with Richardson referencing a violent incident involving a gardener at a restaurant. DHS stated six people in the country without authorization from Mexico were arrested who had prior criminal histories.

Two U.S. citizen women were detained by ICE agents in Canby on Thursday after filming the agents in a parking lot. They were held for hours without access to an attorney before being released. The Oregon for All coalition, which reported the detentions, noted the women have chosen to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation. The detentions occurred during ICE sweeps in Yamhill County that resulted in at least seven other arrests.

ICE agents detained a 16-year-old high school intern at the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence on November 20, 2025, after misidentifying the teenager as their target. Superior Court Judge Joseph J. McBurney intervened, and agents verified their information and released the intern. Governor Dan McKee and Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos issued statements regarding the incident.

The longtime owner of La Playa Taco Shop, a well-known decades-old Mexican restaurant in Pacific Beach, San Diego, has been detained by federal immigration authorities and is facing possible deportation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been holding 23-year-old Eric Sebastian Ferrales, a Laveen landscaper who has lived in the United States since age 3, for two weeks. Although Ferrales lacks legal status, his family states the U.S. is the only country he has ever truly known. He now faces deportation proceedings.

Federal immigration agents detained a gardener in Long Beach's University Park Estates neighborhood on January 21, 2026, after he fled into a restaurant. The man claimed to be a dual citizen and showed agents an identification card during the detention. Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson criticized the operation as an "abduction" and said it reflected "a pattern of enforcement rooted in fear and intimidation."

Emmanuel Gonzalez-Garcia, a 16-year-old with autism, was separated from his mother Maria Garcia on October 4-5, 2025, while they were selling fruit as street vendors in Houston. After going missing, he was located by firefighters during a welfare check and told police he was homeless, providing a different name. Houston police turned him over to ICE, and he was placed in federal custody with the Office of Refugee Resettlement as an unaccompanied immigrant minor. After approximately 48-50 days in detention, a federal judge ruled that authorities lacked legal authority to detain him since he was not truly unaccompanied. He was reunited with his mother, though their immigration court cases remain pending.

ICE conducted a raid at a Koreatown plaza in Los Angeles. A security guard at the location reported that approximately 10 people were detained during the operation. The guard stated that shoppers were present at businesses in the plaza including Speakeasy Fitness and Food 4 Less.

A U.S. Border Patrol officer in Key Largo, Florida threatened to arrest a 64-year-old legal observer for following an unmarked CBP vehicle and recording the encounter. The observer, part of a local group monitoring immigration enforcement activity, was warned he would be arrested for allegedly impeding an investigation. Multiple federal circuit courts have upheld the First Amendment right to record police and federal agents, and civil liberties groups say such monitoring is protected activity.

Fernando Vazquez, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen, was detained by Border Patrol agents at his workplace in Cary, North Carolina on November 20, 2025, during a broader immigration enforcement sweep. Agents confiscated his wallet and personal belongings, including college and high school IDs and AirPods, before placing him in a vehicle. Vazquez asserted his First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights during the detention. Agents released him after realizing their error, but he was left without his personal items. The incident occurred as part of enforcement operations that detained over 250 people in Charlotte during the same period.

ICE states that video footage from Broadview Detention Center was lost in a system crash on October 31, one day after the facility was sued on October 30 for allegedly abusing detainees. Two weeks of surveillance footage was reportedly destroyed. Government lawyers stated they lack resources to preserve surveillance footage.

Federal immigration agents conducted enforcement operations at multiple locations in Long Beach on November 20, 2025, including at Polly's Pies restaurant where agents chased and tackled a gardener in front of Long Beach Police Department officers. Agents also arrested three people outside Cherry Donuts and were spotted at four additional locations throughout the morning.

A British woman was arrested by ICE while holding her 5-month-old baby at her green card interview in San Diego on November 20, 2025. She spent five days in custody before being released with her green card approved on November 25. Multiple immigration attorneys noted that federal law provides exceptions for direct relatives of U.S. citizens undergoing adjustment of status.

ICE conducted operations at six locations in Long Beach on November 20, 2025, detaining at least nine people. One detention involved a gardener who was chased and attacked inside Polly's Pies restaurant in front of customers and dining police officers. Local elected officials and community organizations issued criticism regarding ICE's enforcement tactics.

A 41-year-old undocumented immigrant and stepfather of a 22-year-old Army National Guard member was detained by ICE agents around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday while walking to work in Port Richmond, Staten Island. The stepfather, who immigrated from Mexico in the early 2000s and has no criminal record, is now being held in an ICE detention facility. The National Guard member, a U.S. citizen, said the detention occurred just one month after completing his first year of military service.

Gladys Tentes-Pitiur, a 25-year-old Indigenous Shuar woman from Ecuador, was detained by ICE for 135 days at Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana after being arrested outside a courthouse in New Haven on July 7, 2025. She had fled Ecuador due to persecution and traveled through seven countries with her two young sons, surviving cartel kidnapping in Mexico before arriving in New Haven in November 2023. After an immigration judge granted her asylum on October 17, 2025, based on the violence she experienced in Ecuador, she was released on November 19 and reunited with her children. Her lawyer noted this was an increasingly rare outcome, with Tentes-Pitiur's case being the only successful asylum grant her office had achieved in 2025.

Nine people were detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents during an immigration enforcement sweep in the Raleigh area on November 19, 2025, and held overnight at New Hanover County jail in Castle Hayne. The nine detainees, consisting of one woman and eight men ranging in age from 24 to 59, were transferred to an undisclosed location on November 20, 2025. ICE officials did not disclose to jail staff the reasons for the detentions or the destination of the detainees. This operation was part of a broader U.S. Border Patrol enforcement surge that began in Charlotte over the weekend, which had resulted in more than 250 arrests by the time of this article.

On October 19, 2025, approximately 200-plus law enforcement officers from at least 14 agencies, including the FBI, ICE, and Border Patrol, conducted a raid on La Catedral Arena, a horse track near Boise in Wilder, Idaho, as part of a gambling investigation. The operation detained approximately 400 people for hours, resulting in 105 immigration-related detentions and 5 arrests on gambling charges. Officers zip-tied children as young as 8 and 11 years old, used flash-bang devices, and fired rubber bullets when crowds surged forward. Four protesters, including activist Avalon Hardy, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor resisting or obstructing officers after officers used force against them. One month after the raid, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered the release of 15 detainees, ruling the government failed to demonstrate they posed a danger or flight risk and that mandatory detention violated due process rights.

A 23-year-old woman detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint was charged with assaulting a federal officer but the charge was dismissed in August after body-camera video revealed agents used a Taser on her while she was turning away to enter a holding cell. Court documents showed agents had found no evidence of criminal activity before the incident and that one falsely told her about deleted evidence on her phone. Nearly half of 22 assault-on-officer cases filed in San Diego during Trump's second term were later dismissed.

Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio, 23, of Wendell, North Carolina, was detained by federal agents during a U.S. Border Patrol immigration enforcement sweep on November 19, 2025. Velasquez-Antonio came to the United States at age 14 from Honduras after her father was killed by a gang and her mother died of cancer; she had no criminal record beyond two traffic violations, had graduated high school, and recently purchased a home in Wendell with her boyfriend with plans to start a family. She was arrested near her workplace at an HVAC business and transferred to New Hanover County jail before being moved to an undisclosed location on November 20, 2025. Her family has received no information about her whereabouts or what will happen to her next. The detention occurred as part of a broader U.S. Border Patrol operation in the Triangle area that detained nine people total.

Melissa Tran, a Maryland mother who came to the U.S. from Vietnam in the 1990s as a refugee with a Green Card, was deported to Vietnam after being detained by ICE in May. Though a judge ordered her release in October, she still faced deportation due to a 2003 removal order stemming from a 2001 conviction for stealing checks as a teenager. Vietnam had previously refused to accept her, allowing her to remain in the U.S. for over 20 years while completing regular immigration check-ins, until her detention during a check-in in Baltimore.

Federal immigration agents arrested a man in a parking lot at Eastway Crossing shopping center in Charlotte while he was documenting their activities. The man, Joshua Long, was released from an FBI office six hours later. DHS claimed he was arrested for vehicular assault against a federal agent, which Long disputed.

Prosecutors dismissed charges without prejudice against 54-year-old John Bennett, an assistant principal at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach, and his 59-year-old brother Mark Bennett. The two men had been arrested in November 2025 for allegedly threatening violence against local police and ICE agents.

Katherine Carreño, who was facing 10 years for a felony assault charge on a federal officer, was acquitted of all charges. The post references an individual also known as Yorhena Panama or Bertha.

Two U.S. citizens, Aliya Rahman and Marimar Martinez, testified before Congress about their experiences being apprehended by ICE. Rahman, who is disabled, was forcibly removed from her car while en route to a medical appointment in Minneapolis and denied medical care in detention. Martinez was shot five times by ICE agents in Chicago while attempting to warn neighbors about ICE presence in the area.

Vicente Ventura Aguilar has been missing for over 45 days after suffering a medical emergency while in ICE custody in South Los Angeles. He and a friend were taken by masked agents, and his friend, who was deported to Mexico, last saw him fainting in ICE custody. Despite searches of hospitals, morgues, and government agencies, and DHS reporting no records of him, his whereabouts remain unknown.

On November 18, a 23-year-old asylum seeker named Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents at a construction site in Cary, North Carolina, and held at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia for over a month. A federal immigration judge ordered her release in late December, ruling that her detention violated a juvenile-arrival settlement agreement since she had entered the United States unaccompanied as a minor nine years prior and held a valid work permit. The detention was part of Operation Charlotte's Web, a federal enforcement operation that resulted in at least 370 arrests in North Carolina.

Misael Garcia Lopez, 48, spent 18 years building a life in Eugene, Oregon with his wife Valeria and three children—Leo, 11, Jasmine, 22, and Luis—working in landscaping, roofing, and other jobs. On November 19, 2025, ICE agents in unmarked vehicles conducted a traffic stop near Meadowlark Prairie minutes after he dropped Leo at school and arrested him for lacking legal status, despite his clean criminal record. Over nearly two months detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, Garcia Lopez received support letters from family, friends, and community members attesting to his work ethic, kindness, and role as a devoted father. His 22-year-old daughter Jasmine, a U.S. citizen and certified nursing assistant, spoke publicly about his case despite her mother's fear. On January 15, 2026, Garcia Lopez accepted voluntary departure and was deported to Mexico, arriving with only 96 cents and no documents. His family remained in Oregon; months later, he watched via video call as his grandson was born.

A man appeared in court in Lebanon, Tennessee for a routine traffic violation when ICE agents in plain clothes detained him without showing identification. His U.S. citizen daughter intervened and was injured in the process. The man was taken away in a white van, and his family reports lacking clear answers about his whereabouts or status. Five people were detained by ICE after appearing in Robertson County General Sessions Court on November 19 to answer summons for misdemeanor traffic violations. All five had pleaded guilty to traffic offenses and paid their fines before being escorted to a private room and subsequently removed from the courthouse in handcuffs and leg shackles by masked ICE agents. The detainees, including Yanim Lopez and Aurora Leao, both originally from Mexico, were transferred to detention facilities in Knoxville and later Louisiana. ICE arrested 6,251 people in Tennessee between January 20 and October 15, 2025, with arrest rates rising throughout the year. Attorneys report that immigrants following legal requirements—including routine ICE check-ins—are now being detained and deported, a shift from previous practice. The article documents cases where immigrants with no criminal records are detained at check-ins, judges in some counties are contacting ICE, and immigration holds prevent bonded release, leaving immigrants in jail for months before court appearances.

An Australian woman and wife of a Navy veteran was arrested by ICE agents during her green card interview on November 18, 2025, in the same enforcement operation as other military spouses. She was detained for eight days before an immigration judge ordered her release on bond on November 26, 2025. She has no criminal history and remains eligible to pursue her green card through her U.S. citizen spouse. Her attorney noted this was the first arrest of this type at green card interviews in over 12 years of practice.

A native of India who entered the U.S. without inspection in 2004 was re-detained by ICE at a New York office during a scheduled check-in on November 18, 2025. He had been previously detained, placed in removal proceedings, and released, with an asylum application pending since 2024. The court ordered respondents to provide him with a bond hearing within seven days or release him.

Community organizers and immigration attorneys report an uptick in detainments at the Dallas ICE Field Office during routine check-in appointments. Multiple immigrants, including those with pending asylum cases and proper documentation, have been detained during check-in appointments.

Two U.S. citizen women were arrested by Border Patrol agents in Charlotte after allegedly honking their horn to alert others of agents' presence in the area during Operation Charlotte Web. An agent used an assault rifle to break the driver's window, and both women were handcuffed with zip ties and removed from the vehicle. They were taken to an FBI building and released later that day, charged with 18 USC 111 for allegedly impeding a federal officer.

Chanidaphon Sopimpa, a Thai national and wife of retired Marine Staff Sergeant Samuel Shasteen, was arrested by ICE agents during her final green card interview on November 18, 2025, and detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center. Sopimpa had overstayed her visa but the couple had been pursuing her green card through marriage to a U.S. citizen spouse, which includes a federal law exception for such cases. ICE stated the arrests were for visa overstays, but immigration attorneys note this enforcement action at green card interviews is unprecedented in recent history. Sopimpa has no criminal history and is scheduled for a bond hearing.

An NYPD sergeant named Atickul Islam was charged with posing as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field director and ordering a victim and their family to report to an ICE facility by April 15. Islam pleaded not guilty to personation of a federal officer and was released on an unsecured $25,000 bond. The NYPD suspended him without pay and seized his badge and service weapon.

Britania Uriostegui Rios, a Mexican transgender woman who entered the U.S. in 2003, was deported to Mexico on November 11, 2024, despite a federal judge's March order blocking her removal based on findings that she faced a substantial risk of torture. Uriostegui Rios is a trauma survivor who was sexually trafficked by cartels as a young person and faces significant threats in Mexico due to her transgender identity. She was deported without medications, identification, money, or a cell phone and went into hiding in Tijuana. ICE and Department of Justice officials acknowledged the deportation violated the immigration judge's order and was improper. The Trump administration offered to allow her to voluntarily return to the U.S., where she would be placed back in ICE custody while the government seeks an alternative country for deportation. Her legal team filed suit to prevent her return to federal custody and to secure her release under supervision, arguing the government cannot be trusted to follow court orders.

Border Patrol arrested a 23-year-old woman named Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio in Raleigh, North Carolina. The arrested woman is a high school graduate and homeowner with two traffic violations on her record.

A man in a white truck impersonated an ICE agent by displaying a fake badge and clipboard while harassing an Uber driver and passenger near USC in Los Angeles. The man yelled racist slurs, spat at the vehicle multiple times, and chased them for several blocks before fleeing. The incident lasted approximately 20 minutes and was reported to 911 and the Newton Community Police Station.

Twenty-five Virginia and national organizations are calling on Democratic Rep. Don Beyer to push for immediate closure of Farmville Detention Center, a privately operated ICE facility. The groups document abuses including indiscriminate pepper spray use, inadequate medical care, withholding of medication, improper solitary confinement, and food contamination. The facility has a documented history of premature deaths, medical neglect, and persistent human rights violations, with calls from detainees increasing as the Trump administration expands immigration detention.

Jeffrey Suazo, 26, a Honduran national who came to the United States four years ago fleeing persecution, was detained by federal immigration agents on November 25, 2025, during an operation at his home in St. Paul. Suazo, who works as a house painter and is the breadwinner for his household, was leaving for work at the same time as a tenant who was the target of the operation. According to his family, agents surrounded both vehicles in unmarked cars and pursued Suazo when he drove back to his house; he was held inside for five hours while more than 200 community members gathered outside to protest. His family stated that agents did not present a warrant, threatened to force entry, and used manipulation tactics including taunting Suazo in Spanish and mentioning his girlfriend's 6-year-old sister to pressure him to leave the house. Federal immigration officials filed a criminal complaint charging Suazo with assaulting a federal officer. His family describes him as a devoted partner to his girlfriend Deylin, a caring person with no criminal involvement, and essential to his household's financial stability.

Manuel Ndongala, an asylum seeker from Angola, was detained by ICE on November 18, 2025, during what he expected to be a routine check-in at the Scarborough, Maine ICE office. His car was left in the office parking lot and was towed under Maine's abandoned vehicle law while he was detained for over 80 days. The incident prompted Maine's Secretary of State to temporarily adjust the state's process for transferring ownership of abandoned vehicles to better protect detained immigrants.

Border Patrol detained Moises Benitez Diaz, a 27-year-old Raleigh construction contractor, on November 18 during Operation Charlotte's Web. His wife Esmeralda Escobar, who is 8 months pregnant, is now managing the family business while he is held at a Georgia facility. Despite DHS claiming he was a criminal convicted of felony larceny, court records show his charges were dismissed and he completed a misdemeanor diversion agreement.

Harrinson Jose Osuna Benitez, a Venezuelan tattoo artist seeking asylum over fears of torture and persecution, was released on parole when he arrived at the U.S. border in September 2024 after ICE found no criminal history. He moved to Portland with his partner, who gave birth to their son in December 2024. On November 17, 2025, when Osuna Benitez appeared for an immigration court appointment in Portland, ICE detained him. Court documents indicate ICE later reassessed his tattoos as a security concern, despite having cleared him on the same basis at entry. He spent two months in detention while his family struggled financially without his income as primary breadwinner.

Cristobal Maltos, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen, was stopped by Border Patrol agents on November 17, 2025, while following a hit-and-run driver and reporting it to police. Agents surrounded his vehicle at an intersection, and when he attempted to move forward, they broke his car windows and removed him from the vehicle, allegedly causing injuries. Maltos was charged with felony assault, resisting arrest, and impeding a federal officer during the enforcement operation dubbed "Charlotte's Web."

ICE agents conducted an enforcement action at a church, arriving without visible identification and detaining individuals. According to accounts, agents chased workers into the woods. The incident resulted in children screaming and women crying.

Joel Camas, a 16-year-old with approved Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, was detained by ICE on October 23 during a routine immigration check-in at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, despite having legal protections and a pending pathway to permanent residency. After nearly a month in federal custody, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel ordered his immediate release on November 17. His attorneys argue ICE violated federal law and the Constitution by arresting a child with legal status at a routine appointment.

Hanne Daguman, a Norwegian national, was detained by ICE on November 17, 2025, during a USCIS marriage-based green card interview in San Diego after she acknowledged overstaying her student visa. She has type 1 diabetes and no criminal record. Her next court hearing is scheduled for November 24, 2025.