Human Impact Project

A pregnant Guatemalan woman became lost in the Arizona desert near the U.S.-Mexico border while attempting to cross. She navigated dangerous terrain while pregnant and provided a firsthand account of her experience.

Denisse Parra Vargas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was stopped for expired tags in North Austin on Thursday and later instructed to report to a processing center in Pflugerville on Tuesday. When she reported with her three children, ICE arrested all of them. Two of her three children are U.S. citizens. The family was deported to Mexico within 24 hours.

Bryan José Rojas Galofre, a Venezuelan immigrant married to a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE on January 27, 2025, following a security checkpoint stop at Trump National Doral hotel during a honeymoon trip. Agents discovered an airsoft gun and marijuana grinder in his vehicle, leading to local drug paraphernalia charges and questioning about gang ties based on his tattoos. Despite an immigration judge granting him bond in April 2025, Rojas remained in federal detention until his release on May 6, 2025. His nearly three-month detention resulted in job loss, expiration of his work permit, loss of his home and vehicle, depletion of retirement savings, over $80,000 in debt, and significant family financial hardship. His immigration case remains pending with a hearing scheduled for 2028.

Akbor Miah, a Bangladeshi national, was arrested by U.S. Marshals in New York on May 6, 2025, and extradited to Florida to face first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of Monica Islam, his sister-in-law, whose body was discovered along a road in Mount Dora in May 2025. Investigators found evidence linking Miah to the crime. Federal immigration officials have lodged a detainer on Miah with the Lake County Jail, requesting his transfer to federal custody if released. Records show Miah was previously deported in January 2019 after an immigration judge issued a removal order, but later re-entered the United States illegally and was released by federal authorities in March 2022.

Patricia Vázquez Topete, a DACA recipient who had lived in California for 20 years, self-deported to Mexico in May 2025. She cited legal uncertainty surrounding DACA's future, immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, the inability to travel safely using Advance Parole, and lack of a permanent legal status pathway as factors in her decision. Vázquez Topete sold her belongings and left the U.S. to pursue a master's degree in Spain while reconnecting with family in Mexico.

On May 6, 2025, ICE and HSI agents conducted unannounced visits to multiple Washington, D.C. restaurants as part of a Trump administration immigration enforcement crackdown targeting businesses suspected of employing undocumented workers. Agents requested I-9 employment verification forms and issued inspection notices requiring document production within three business days at establishments including Chef Geoff's and Pupatella. No arrests were made during the sweeps. Restaurant employees, managers, and members of immigrant communities reported anxiety about their legal obligations.

ICE agents conducted a multi-day enforcement operation across northern Nevada, making 17 arrests on Monday, May 5, 2025, and an additional 16 arrests by noon on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Reno, Sparks, Sun Valley, and Carson City. ICE officials stated that all arrested individuals had previous criminal convictions. The operation prompted the Nevada Immigration Coalition to express concerns about increased federal immigration enforcement in the state.

A 21-year-old Colombian woman who was eight months pregnant was deported from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. She had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in November seeking asylum but was subject to expedited removal. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop the deportation, but the order came approximately three hours after the flight had departed.

Ximena Arias-Cristobal, a 19-year-old Dalton State Community College student, was arrested on May 5 after a traffic stop for an improper turn on red and driving without a license. Police dashcam footage later revealed the officer had stopped the wrong vehicle—a black pickup truck committed the violation, not Arias-Cristobal's dark gray truck. Though local charges were dropped, she remains in ICE custody at Stewart Detention Center facing deportation proceedings.

Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado, a 68-year-old construction worker who had lived in the United States for 40 years, died on May 5, 2025, while being transported from Lowndes County Jail to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. The coroner suspected an aortic aneurysm as the cause of death, though the exact cause remained under investigation. According to his family, Delgado had no prior health conditions but was placed in a wheelchair during his detention and given medications he had never taken before. He had been detained multiple times since 1979 as an undocumented immigrant.

Early Sunday morning, Tennessee Highway Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Department of Homeland Security conducted a joint operation in South Nashville, pulling over approximately 150 people for alleged traffic violations. Federal ICE agents used the stops to investigate immigration-related matters, and those detained were transported to a federal immigration facility in Louisiana. Advocacy groups including Hijos de Immigrantes and the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition criticized the operation as racial profiling, with organizers noting that officers stopped people for minor infractions like broken tail lights and tinted windows in the heart of the immigrant community. As of the article, advocacy groups had verified about 40 detainees and were working to provide legal assistance to all those affected.

ICE agents apprehended a man at a Sinclair gas station in Oxnard, California on May 4, leaving two children in his vehicle. A gas station attendant witnessed the arrest and reported that the children remained in the truck after the father was taken into custody. DHS stated that the man's 19-year-old son took possession of the vehicle and that ICE offered to relocate it, though advocacy groups contend the children were left unattended.

As the Trump administration accelerates deportations, child welfare advocates have stated concerns about potential violations of children's rights. Cases include a 2-year-old kept in U.S. custody after her mother was deported to Venezuela.

During a May 2025 joint THP and ICE operation in Nashville, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a vehicle for a broken light and shared the driver's immigration status with an ICE agent, resulting in the driver's detention and deportation. The week-long operation resulted in more than 100 arrests, separating families and leaving relatives behind in Nashville. Body camera footage from one traffic stop shows how the operation unfolded, with the ICE agent detaining the driver after learning of his undocumented status. Nearly a year later, families of those deported continue experiencing the operation's impacts.

Kapil Raghu was arrested by Benton police on May 3, 2025, after officers mistook a perfume bottle for an illegal substance during a traffic stop. While in jail awaiting charges, it was discovered his temporary visa had expired, leading to his transfer to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. After being released after 30 days, Raghu is now in immigration limbo with his work authorization suspended and previous citizenship efforts halted.

An undocumented landscaper known as Esdras was detained during a May 2 traffic stop by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents while driving to a landscaping job with his coworkers. Video footage shows officers pulling him out of the van by his leg and neck, forcing him to the ground while he was rigidly resisting, and tasering him twice in the stomach despite no indication of a threat. He spasmed and fell crying to the pavement. Esdras was transferred to the Krome Detention Center in Miami and faces deportation proceedings, though he has been released on bail.

Kenny Laynez, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen born in West Palm Beach, was detained for six hours by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents on May 2 after being stopped while driving to a landscaping job with his mother and two undocumented coworkers. Video footage captured officers using physical force against Laynez, twisting his arms and pushing him face-down to the pavement, while tasering one of his coworkers twice. An officer told Laynez, "You have no rights here. You are a 'Migo,' brother," after Laynez asserted his citizenship. Laynez was eventually released from a Riviera Beach federal facility after agents confirmed his citizenship status, but was charged with misdemeanor obstruction without violence and entered a pretrial diversion program.

Over a dozen U.S. citizens have been caught up in the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown, according to interviews, court records and news reports. Attorneys, civil rights advocates and immigration scholars have stated that citizens face vulnerability in a system with faster processing and fewer procedural safeguards.

In Arizona, a woman watering her flowers spoke with two men who said they were from Tucson Electric Power and were looking for a resident who wanted a 'free estimate.' She watched as they entered her neighbor's yard. Noticing one had a badge under his shirt, she suspected they were immigration agents and ran to warn her neighbor, a Honduran man who had lived in the community for more than a decade, before he let them into his home.

After a Guatemalan woman gave birth at Tucson Medical Center in Arizona while in Border Patrol custody, she was told she faced immediate deportation and would have to decide whether to take her U.S.-citizen newborn daughter with her. Agents stationed at the hospital refused to let her attorney access her so that she could sign a G-28 form. After public pressure and intervention from local officials and counsel, the mother and baby were released into the care of a nonprofit in Phoenix.