Human Impact Project

Wesley Powers, a U.S. Navy veteran and U.S. citizen, was shot with chemical agent by ICE agents while protesting at Minnesota's Whipple Detention Center in January 2026. He was detained for 9 hours in an overcrowded cell, had his lawyer calls monitored, and was photographed by agents using personal phones before being released without charges. Powers reports subsequent incidents including vehicles at his home and lost work income.

Denny Lener Abad, a Venezuelan actor and singer known on social media as Lener Abad, was detained by ICE agents on September 18 while traveling from Miami to Orlando for work commitments. He has lived in the U.S. for more than four years, has a pending immigration case, and holds a valid work permit and driver's license, according to people close to him. He is currently being held at the Indian River County Jail in Vero Beach, Florida. Abad is known for appearing in the Puerto Rican reality show "PR La Casa del Campo," and family and friends say he has no criminal record and are requesting help spreading information about his case.

Ligia Garcia, an asylum-seeker from Colombia with no criminal record, was arrested by ICE on July 31, 2025, after attending her immigration court hearing in San Francisco and detained at the ICE field office at 630 Sansome Street. She was held in harsh conditions including small, cold rooms with no beds, forced to sleep on the floor under bright lights, limited hygiene supplies, and restricted access to counsel after 3 p.m. and on weekends. She was held for extended periods despite the holding cells being designed for stays under 12 hours. On September 18, 2025, the ACLU and immigrant rights lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Garcia and three other plaintiffs detained at the same facility, challenging ICE's detention practices and courthouse arrest policies and alleging unconstitutional conditions and violations of due-process protections.

Martin Hernandez-Torres, a noncitizen who has lived in the United States for 30 years and has cancer, was arrested Wednesday during a "reasonable fear" interview at the ICE field office at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. He was held in harsh conditions including small, cold rooms with no beds, forced to sleep on metal benches or the floor with only thin plastic or foil as blankets, bright lights kept on all night causing sleep deprivation, open toilets, limited hygiene supplies, and restricted access to counsel and medical care. He was held for extended periods—sometimes up to six days—despite the holding cells being designed for stays under 12 hours. The ACLU, alongside the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights and CARECEN, filed a class-action lawsuit on September 18, 2025, on behalf of Hernandez-Torres and three other asylum-seeker plaintiffs, challenging ICE's detention practices and courthouse arrest policies and alleging unconstitutional conditions and violations of due-process protections.

Santos Reyes Banegas, a Honduran man, died on September 18 at the Nassau County Correctional Center on Long Island, New York, where he was held by ICE. During intake at 11:22 a.m. on September 17, a nurse noted he was experiencing alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Two hours later, a doctor evaluated him and prescribed medications for withdrawal but the ICE report does not specify which medications or confirm they were administered. Reyes was found unresponsive in his cell at 6:25 a.m. the next morning and declared dead 20 minutes later. DHS reported the preliminary cause as liver failure complicated by alcoholism. Medical experts noted that timely hospital care could greatly reduce life-threatening risks from alcohol withdrawal.

An 11-year-old U.S. citizen girl recovering from a rare brain tumor was deported to Mexico on February 4, 2025, when immigration authorities arrested her undocumented parents at a checkpoint while the family traveled to Houston for her emergency medical checkup. The girl had undergone surgery to remove the tumor and requires specialized care every three months. Since deportation, her health has deteriorated significantly, with worsening seizures, muscle spasms, and loss of neurological functions. She has received only one MRI scan instead of the recommended quarterly monitoring. Four of the family's five children are U.S. citizens. The family filed humanitarian parole applications through the Texas Civil Rights Project, but USCIS has not yet responded. Congressional members including Reps. Adriano Espaillat, Sylvia Garcia, and Joaquin Castro are advocating for the family's return.

A Senegalese national who entered the US in 2006 and applied for asylum in 2007 was detained without bond on September 17, 2025 for removal after an immigration judge denied his asylum claim in 2012. ICE initially planned to remove him to Gabon, but when that country refused travel documents, they arranged for his removal to Ghana without allowing him to assert fear-based claims about that country. The court granted a temporary restraining order preventing his removal until he receives a fair hearing.

Three women were found not guilty of conspiracy to dox an ICE agent on February 27 after a week-long trial revealed they did not know they were following the agent to his home and never disclosed his address during their livestreamed protest. Two of the women were convicted of stalking, a charge their attorney argues represents an unprecedented application of federal law, as the incident occurred over a single day within an hour and a half rather than involving repeated behavior.

Felipe de Jesus Hernandez Marcelo, 28, a Mexican native and single father raising a 9-year-old son while working construction in Muscatine, Iowa, was shot and nearly killed during a robbery attempt on June 21, 2025, undergoing emergency surgery for gunshot wounds to his arm and leg. Days later, when he went to the police station to retrieve his impounded car and cash, officers arrested him on an old unpaid traffic ticket warrant and turned him over to ICE within hours. He has since been held at the Muscatine County Jail, separated from his son and mother, unable to attend medical appointments or receive physical rehabilitation, and says he was denied pain medication for five days. He is seeking a U visa as a crime victim and witness against his attackers, one of whom has pleaded guilty, but the county prosecutor has not certified his eligibility. A federal judge ruled on September 10, 2025 that his detention without a bond hearing was illegal, but Immigration Judge Alexandra Larsen subsequently denied him bond, calling his U visa eligibility "speculative at best" and finding him a flight risk. His attorney, Emily Rebelskey, said she would continue fighting for his release.

Costa Rican content creator Julián Valverde, known online as Julián Valjota, was detained after being stopped by Orlando police while driving. The 26-year-old, whose full name is José Julián Valverde Meneses, had lived in the United States for more than five years after leaving Costa Rica for work opportunities. He was held for nearly 24 hours without appearing before a judge, and the reasons for his detention have not been made public. Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry said it is making inquiries with U.S. immigration authorities, and a Costa Rican lawmaker called on the government to protect Valverde and other Costa Ricans held by ICE.

Joe Botello, a U.S. citizen born in Texas, was handcuffed and detained by federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in Elgin on September 16, 2025. Agents forcibly entered his home, breaking down doors, and placed him in a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol vehicle before releasing him after scanning his driver's license. The operation, part of a larger immigration enforcement blitz in the Chicago area, also resulted in the detention of his roommates.

A 73-year old East Bay grandmother, Harjit Kaur, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials during a routine check-in this week. Today, her family and an expected 200 community members will stage a protest demanding her release.The protest will be held at 5 p.m. today (Friday, Sept. 12) at the intersection of Appian Way and San Pablo Dam Road in El Sobrante (below the El Sobrante Gurdwara).Kaur has lived in the East Bay for more than 30 years. She currently lives in Hercules but worked for two decades at a small business, Sari Palace, in Berkeley and regularly attended the El Sobrante Sikh Gurdwara. She was detained on Monday after ICE asked her to come to the San Francisco office to turn in additional paperwork. On Tuesday she was taken to a detention center in Bakersfield.“It’s just been a total nightmare. I don’t feel like this is real,” Manji Kaur, Harjit Kaur’s daughter-in-law, told Richmondside. Kaur has two -grandsons and three granddaughters.

ICE agents detained two American citizens near an El Super grocery store in City Heights, San Diego, after they began recording a federal enforcement operation. Brooke Benner said she was handcuffed within 14 seconds of starting to film, while a second woman was tackled to the ground and handcuffed after witnesses said she kicked a federal vehicle. Both women were taken to a federal building downtown, held for about seven hours, and released without charges. DHS said the two were 'agitators attempting to impede operations,' while Benner said agents targeted her for criticizing them.

Brooke Benner, an American citizen with a young daughter, was detained by ICE agents in the parking lot of an El Super grocery store in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood after she began filming agents who had just detained another man. Within seconds of recording, agents grabbed and handcuffed Benner, telling her she was being arrested for "impeding" their operations. Shortly after, agents detained a second American citizen steps away in the same parking lot, after witnesses said she kicked a federal vehicle; community patrollers recording the encounter said two agents pinned her against a car before one tackled her to the ground, while another agent pointed a taser at bystanders. Both women were taken to a federal building downtown and held for about seven hours before being released without charges. Benner said the experience frightened her and that she plans to continue monitoring ICE activity in her community.

A short time after the raid on an Elgin home, ICE agents stopped a driver on Route 31 a few blocks away and took him into custody. This stop was one of several ICE detentions made in the Chicagoland area on September 16, 2025, as part of DHS Operation "Midway Blitz," which targeted Illinois and Lake County, Indiana.

On the morning of September 16, 2025, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem led a military-style raid on an Elgin home, with camouflage-uniformed agents and helicopters breaking down the front door at approximately 5:30 a.m. Four people were taken into custody, but two of them were apparent U.S. citizens who were released shortly afterward. One released man stated he was relieved he had his wallet and ID and that he cooperated with agents. ICE claimed the detainees were violent criminals wanted for crimes including assault and DUI, though the accuracy of these characterizations was disputed by community members.

Roberto Lacoss, a former lawful permanent resident from the Philippines, was arrested by ICE in Pearl, Mississippi on September 16, 2025, following a criminal conviction for statutory rape. After being ordered removed by an immigration judge, Lacoss complied with the deportation order and departed the United States for the Philippines, with ICE deportation officers present to confirm his departure.

A 5-year-old U.S. citizen girl with autism was surrounded by ICE agents outside her family's home in Leominster, Massachusetts, while agents attempted to arrest her father, Edwards Hip Mejia, a Guatemalan national who had lived in the U.S. for more than two decades. Video showed the girl sitting in the driveway near an SUV as agents asked her father, who had fled into the house, to come outside. Her family and attorney said ICE used the child to pressure Hip Mejia into surrendering, while DHS said he abandoned his daughter in a car while fleeing agents after a traffic stop. Local police responded, and the girl was taken to a police station before being reunited with her grandmother after about three hours. Hip Mejia was detained by ICE two days later and is currently held at a detention center in Plymouth; his attorney said prior domestic-abuse charges cited by DHS had been dismissed, and a judge later granted him bond.

A single father of six U.S. citizen children applied for a special visa but was deported by ICE. The case involved family ties and legal efforts to prevent deportation.

Cristina Osornio, a legal permanent resident and mother of six who has lived in the U.S. since infancy, was stopped by police in Rogers on September 15, 2025, for driving without insurance and with a suspended license. She was arrested on a warrant for missing a court appearance in a misdemeanor domestic violence case and held at Benton County Jail on an ICE hold for four days before being released without explanation. Osornio said the detention was "very scary" and exacerbated her health conditions. Her husband, Edwin Sanchez-Mendoza, was deported to Mexico after a misdemeanor arrest months earlier, leaving the family without their primary breadwinner and forcing them to lose their home.