Human Impact Project

Kenia Jackeline Merlos, a Honduran mother of four U.S. citizen children, was arrested by ICE agents in June at the U.S.-Canada border during a family outing. She had been granted deferred status to reside in the U.S. after being threatened at gunpoint by a man. Merlos was detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma for nearly four months. An immigration judge terminated the government's deportation case on October 14, and Merlos was released on October 28. Her husband was deported to Honduras, and her mother also resides there.

A man detained at the California City Processing Center filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his detention there. He is seeking release from custody through habeas corpus proceedings and a temporary restraining order. On May 7, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued an order consolidating the habeas petition with the temporary restraining order motion, requiring respondents to file a response within three calendar days and prohibiting deportation or removal from the district while the petition is pending.

The City documents five months of immigration enforcement activities at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, where masked federal agents arrested immigrants in and around immigration courts. A photojournalistic report documents these activities and their effects on affected immigrants during this period.

Ricardo Rodriguez, a 53-year-old construction worker and father of two deaf teenagers, was arrested by federal agents on Sunday morning in Melrose Park, Illinois while riding his bicycle home from a grocery store. According to video footage, agents grabbed him in a stranger's driveway, pepper-sprayed him, placed him in a chokehold, and struck his head. He was gasping and saying 'Por favor, amigo' during the encounter. Rodriguez was taken to Gottlieb Memorial Hospital with head wounds and complaints of chest pains. While hospitalized, federal agents restricted visitation from his U.S. citizen sister and other family members.

In Maryland, Montgomery County Councilmember Kristin Mink filmed federal agents detaining a person behind a Prince George's County store. As she recorded, an agent grabbed her arm and ordered her to leave.

At an intersection in California, a plainclothes federal agent pulled his weapon on a woman following and recording him — until a local police officer driving by intervened, explaining to the federal agent that there was no crime being committed.

In Temecula, California, a 17-year-old U.S. citizen driving a friend home was ordered out of his car at gunpoint by an off-duty federal agent and interrogated before his mother arrived with his U.S. passport. The agent was later arrested.

Immigration agents forcibly entered a family's apartment in November 2025 searching for the mother's cousin, breaking down the door and using force against the mother while her children hid. The 10-year-old boy, identified as J., witnessed agents point a gun at him and his sister as they tried to film the encounter on an iPad. Months later, J. continues experiencing nightmares and flashbacks, struggling to focus in school and fearing for his parents' safety. The incident is part of a broader pattern of immigration enforcement affecting children's mental health nationwide, with studies showing significant psychological impacts on minors in immigrant families.

Maria Vargas, 6, was detained with her parents at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas after her family was arrested during a September immigration check-in. The family had fled Colombia in 2022 and settled in New York, where they applied for special visas for human trafficking victims. At Dilley, Maria experienced severe trauma including regression (bedwetting and accidents), loss of appetite and weight loss, a staff member's accidental eye injury, and persistent psychological distress. Her parents reported officers pressured them to abandon their visa applications by threatening to separate Maria. After two months, the family agreed to self-deport and was sent to Colombia in November 2026. Maria continues to suffer vision problems, headaches, and behavioral changes including fear of police.

Alejandra's undocumented parents, who own a home and pay taxes in Nebraska, plan to self-deport to Mexico within six months due to fears of detention by ICE and concerns about conditions at ICE facilities that could jeopardize the mother's health. The family has lived in Nebraska for years as part of a Latino community that has been present for decades, but rising ICE enforcement operations and a new detention facility opening in the state have created an atmosphere of fear among undocumented immigrants.

Alejandra, a 30-year-old undocumented mother of four U.S.-born children, lives in fear of detention and family separation in Nebraska as ICE enforcement intensifies. In June 2025, ICE conducted a raid on a meatpacking plant in Omaha, detaining dozens of people including family friends and church acquaintances. A new ICE detention facility called "Cornhusker Clink" is opening in McCook with capacity for 300 adults. Alejandra's undocumented parents plan to self-deport to Mexico within six months due to fears of detention and concerns about ICE facility conditions.

A man who had lived in the United States for more than 24 years and is the husband and father of U.S. citizens was detained by ICE on November 1, 2025, and taken to Adelanto Detention Facility. He had previously been released on bond in 2013 after an earlier detention, received work authorization, and had been checking in with ICE regularly without missing appointments. The court granted a temporary restraining order ordering his immediate release, finding his re-detention violated due process since he was not informed of changed circumstances that would justify revoking his bond.

A 37-year-old man named Jose Argueta reported a stolen vehicle to Maryland police in November and was subsequently arrested by ICE at a DC police station. Argueta spent Christmas at an immigrant detention center following the arrest.

Maria, a Venezuelan mother in her 30s seeking asylum, was detained in November 2024 during a routine ICE check-in appointment in San Antonio along with her toddler son. They had entered the U.S. through the southern border in 2023. During two months in detention at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Maria reported seeing worms in food, experiencing 24/7 lights, and her son losing weight. In mid-January 2026, after refusing a $5,000 government offer to leave the country, she was released to Laredo with an electronic ankle monitor and required to continue periodic ICE check-ins as an alternative to detention.

Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old nurse who spent more than 30 years in the U.S. caring for Covid-19 patients and disabled adults, was detained by ICE agents during a routine check-in appointment in Baltimore on July 1, 2025, with her son Mohamed present. Kuyateh had fled civil war in Sierra Leone as a child and lived in the U.S. on renewable work permits, saying she had been granted a withholding of removal and had no criminal record: "I did not commit any crime; I always abided by the law." After four months in ICE custody, she was deported to Ghana, a country more than 1,000 km from Sierra Leone with which she had no ties. In November 2025, officials in Ghana attempted to forcibly remove her onward to Sierra Leone, dragging her by her hair into a van while she was shoeless and screaming. Video of the incident, filmed by another deportee, spread widely on social media.

Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, a 20-year-old asylum seeker from Guinea and student at Brooklyn Frontiers High School, was detained by ICE on August 4, 2025, following a routine court appearance. He was transferred to a detention facility in Pennsylvania. Elected officials, immigrant advocates, and teachers rallied outside the Tweed Courthouse in Lower Manhattan in response to his detention. Diallo was held for approximately five months before being released in November 2025.

Roberto López Falcón, a fifth-grade ESL teacher at Hart Elementary School in Austin ISD who was named Campus Teacher of Promise in January 2025, was detained by ICE on September 3, 2025, at an immigration check-in appointment in San Antonio. Falcón, 34, a Cuban national who entered the U.S. without inspection near San Luis, Arizona on March 22, 2022, was released by Border Patrol on an order of recognizance pending an immigration hearing. He was held at the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center to continue his immigration proceedings and remained in custody as of November 2025. At least four additional Austin ISD employees—a bus driver and lunchroom workers—were also detained in the same ICE enforcement sweep. Education Austin, the largest union representing district teachers and staff, confirmed the detentions. Falcón's family reported being devastated by his arrest and struggling without his presence and support.

A 39-year-old Ecuadorian woman who came to the U.S. nearly a decade earlier seeking asylum was detained by ICE in November after attending regular ICE check-ins every six months since 2020. Her detention forced her to miss scheduled surgery to remove a uterine myoma, and she struggled to obtain medical care for an infection. The detention also affected her now 9-year-old son who has severe autism and ADHD, causing him emotional distress and affecting his ability to focus at school. Her case was documented in habeas corpus petitions filed to challenge her detention.

A Mexican father caring for his 7-year-old son with kidney disease, hypothyroidism, and chronic respiratory failure requiring a feeding tube and ventilator was detained by ICE for 22 days. While he was detained, his son's medical care fell entirely to his mother. A federal judge ordered his release in November.

Hanne Daguman, a Norwegian national who arrived on an F-1 student visa in 2022, was detained by ICE in November 2025 during a green card interview after her visa lapsed. She was held for nine days at Otay Mesa Detention Center, where she alleges she was denied proper medical care for her Type 1 diabetes, experiencing dangerously high blood sugar levels and developing untreated infections. A judge terminated her removal case in January 2026, but she remains subject to an ankle monitor that ICE has not yet authorized for removal despite a court order.