Human Impact Project

Sorayda Noyola, 31, and her siblings Claudia, 19, and a third sibling were arrested by ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents during a construction site raid near their mother's home in Texas. Sorayda was documenting the raid when an agent grabbed her arm and attempted to seize her cell phone; when she objected, agents tackled all three siblings to the ground, handcuffed them, and arrested them. Sorayda and Claudia were detained for hours at the ICE Field Office in Harlingen, and agents confiscated both of their phones without returning them. MALDEF filed a Federal Tort Claims Act administrative claim seeking $2.5 million in damages for personal injury and $2,000 for the lost phone for each sibling, alleging unlawful assault, arrest, and detention in violation of their constitutional rights.

Z.G., a citizen of Ethiopia, was arrested by immigration authorities on July 22, 2025, and held in immigration detention for nine months without a bond hearing pending removal proceedings. The petitioner filed a habeas corpus petition claiming his prolonged detention violated due process. The federal court granted the petition and ordered immigration authorities to provide a bond hearing within 14 days.

A federal judge placed U.S. Army veteran Ian Davis Austin on probation with restricted travel to Pennsylvania and Minnesota, mandatory mental health assessment, and suspended firearm access following a disorderly conduct charge stemming from anti-ICE protests. Austin was arrested twice during clashes between state police and protesters outside a detention facility in Newark, New Jersey on Memorial Day weekend. He is one of 39 defendants charged under the Face Act following a January 18 protest at Cities Church in Saint Paul during Trump administration immigration enforcement actions.

Alberto Banicescu, a 27-year-old Romanian national, was taken into custody outside his Jackson apartment on July 21. ICE agents detained him based on assumptions about international travel patterns between Mexico City and Romania. He had a misdemeanor DUI citation from January and was on probation. He was placed in belly chains and leg irons before transport to Sweetwater County Detention Center.

Tae Heung "Will" Kim, a 40-year-old Korean American legal permanent resident and Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University studying infectious disease, was detained by CBP at San Francisco Airport upon returning from his brother's wedding in South Korea. He was held at the airport for more than a week without access to legal counsel, sleeping on a chair with lights on 24 hours, and denied contact with the outside world. Kim was subsequently transferred to ICE detention facilities in Arizona and Texas. His attorney states the cited reason for arrest was a 2011 marijuana possession conviction, though Kim had completed community service and had the record sealed; the government used it anyway. He faces a September 4 deportation hearing.

A Human Rights Watch report released on July 21, 2025, documents severe conditions at three Florida immigration detention facilities—Krome North Service Processing Center, Broward Transitional Center, and Federal Detention Center Miami—between January and June 2025. The report profiles 11 detained immigrants and includes interviews with family members and lawyers. Detainees experienced overcrowding (Krome reached 249% capacity by March), denial of critical medications including insulin and inhalers, forced sleep on cold concrete floors, degrading treatment including forced eating without hands, and excessive force including stun grenade deployment during protests. Substandard medical care is alleged to have been linked to two deaths. The detention population surge followed Trump administration executive orders establishing prolonged detention policies, with overall U.S. immigration detention reaching 56,000 people daily by June 2025, the highest level in U.S. history.

A 5-year-old girl identified as a U.S. citizen was taken into ICE custody along with her mother after Austin police responded to a disturbance call and identified the mother with an ICE administrative warrant. The family has been unable to locate the child in government databases and is seeking custody arrangements so she can stay with relatives while her mother remains detained.

On July 21, 2025, Dan Mathers of Key West was arrested by a Customs and Border Protection agent while filming the agent detaining a Haitian immigrant on Eaton Street. Mathers was accused of threatening the agent and held for 8 hours at a facility in Marathon before being released. The Haitian immigrant was also later released. Mathers was unable to contact his family until approximately 9:15pm.

An 82-year-old man from Pennsylvania was deported to Guatemala after being apprehended during a visit to an ICE office to replace his lost green card. He had lived in the U.S. for nearly 40 years and was granted political asylum in 1987. His family initially could not locate him and later learned he was in a hospital in Guatemala. Guatemala has an agreement with the Trump administration to receive deported immigrants of other nationalities.

On July 15, 2025, ICE agents arrested Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a 38-year-old chiropractor, outside a Montessori preschool in Beaverton, Oregon, while he was dropping off his child. According to ICE, Khanbabazadeh lawfully entered the U.S. in 2017 but overstayed his student visa. His immigration attorney states he married a U.S. citizen who filed a green card application, and they were awaiting approval at the time of arrest. Video of the arrest by masked ICE agents was subsequently published. Khanbabazadeh was detained and held at an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington. The arrest marked the first confirmed case of an immigration enforcement action at an Oregon school.

Hector González, a 38-year-old construction worker, was crushed to death by falling building materials on July 21, 2025, during construction of Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration later found three subcontractors responsible for the death. One of the subcontractors was owned by Nathan Albers, a Trump campaign donor, whose companies had prior infractions including employing undocumented workers and violating minimum-wage and overtime laws.

Gaetano Cateno Mirabella Costa, 45, an Italian national from Sicily, was arrested by ICE officials in early 2025 upon his release from jail after serving a six-month sentence for domestic violence and drug possession. He is being held at the ICE detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades, where he is housed with 32 other detainees in cramped conditions with open bathrooms. According to his account to Italian state broadcaster RAI, he has been denied access to a lawyer or judge. His mother, Rosanna Mirabella Costa, reported he appeared at a hearing in shackles and has not seen daylight for extended periods. DHS states Costa overstayed his B2 visa by nearly seven years. Italian diplomatic officials have sought consular access to verify his wellbeing, and Italian lawmakers have pressed for intervention over detention conditions.

Three Cuban nationals filed a lawsuit challenging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's use of I-220A forms to release them without proper parolee status. The plaintiffs, who were apprehended upon entry and subject to mandatory detention, allege ICE unlawfully misclassified their immigration status, which excluded them from eligibility for adjustment of status under the Cuban Adjustment Act. The case raises claims of Administrative Procedure Act violations, Fifth Amendment due process violations, and ultra vires agency action.

A family facing ICE enforcement operations decided to self-deport but were unable to bring their 6-year-old German Shepherd, Draco, on their flight due to airline size restrictions. The family surrendered the dog they had raised for over five years to the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control. Pet surrenders from families affected by recent immigration enforcement operations have occurred in Southern California.

Lewelyn Dixon, a lab technician at UW Medicine who arrived from the Philippines at age 14 and held a green card for more than 50 years, was detained by Customs and Border Protection at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Feb. 28, 2025, while returning from a family trip to the Philippines. Her attorney said the detention stemmed from a 2001 nonviolent embezzlement conviction for which she had already served her sentence and paid restitution, though it had never before affected her travel or green card renewals. She spent nearly three months at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, where she described conditions as 'horrific' and 'super crowded' and spent time helping other detainees and forming friendships, including with an Afghan woman who gave her a beaded bracelet. Immigration Judge Tammy Fitting ruled on May 29, 2025 that Dixon should not be deported, citing her decades as a lawful permanent resident, community ties, and arrival as a child. Family, coworkers, and union supporters from SEIU Local 925 rallied outside the detention center and celebrated her release. About a month later, Dixon applied for U.S. citizenship, passed her interview in October, and took the Oath of Allegiance on July 20. Her niece, Donna Cristobal, said, 'I'm relieved now that she's documented and doesn't have to go through this again... It was a really bad time for us, the whole family.'

A few dozen people gathered at the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice in Philadelphia to protest an ICE arrest that occurred outside the courthouse. ICE agents arrested a man who was leaving a court hearing on Wednesday, with witnesses reporting the agents refused to identify themselves or present a warrant and used physical force during the arrest.

Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza, a 19-year-old 11th grader from Ecuador at Grover Cleveland High School in Queens, was detained by ICE on June 4, 2025, during a scheduled immigration court hearing. He was initially held at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City in severely overcrowded conditions—confined in a room so crowded he could not lie down and forced to sleep sitting up with approximately two dozen other people. Over two days of detention at that facility, he was given only two meals total. He was then moved to a gymnasium inside the facility that was equally overcrowded with no beds, blankets, or access to basic necessities. After six weeks in a Texas detention facility, the Envision Freedom Fund posted his $20,000 bond, and he was released on July 18, 2025, to reunite with his family.

Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old former youth soccer coach from Venezuela, was detained by CBP agents at a scheduled border appointment in October 2024 after they photographed his tattoos. Internal DHS data showed he had no criminal history and no U.S. or foreign convictions or charges. He was deported to CECOT prison in El Salvador on March 15, 2025, under the Alien Enemies Act as part of a group of 238 Venezuelan deportees labeled as terrorists and gang members despite DHS data showing most had no U.S. criminal convictions. While incarcerated, Colmenares reported being tortured—guards stomped on his hands, poured filthy water in his ears, and threatened beatings. He was returned to Venezuela on July 18, 2025, as part of a prisoner swap.

In mid-July, ICE agents conducted a series of raids in Passaic, New Jersey, arresting dozens of residents including José Efraín Chajón Raxón, a Guatemalan national. He was transferred to the Delaney Hall detention facility and died less than four days later after a medical emergency, becoming the second person to die at the facility within a month. At least 75 people, including one U.S. citizen, were arrested by ICE in Passaic that month, with arrests spiking 4,200% compared to the previous year.

Gerson Josué Santamaría Turcios, a 23-year-old Honduran immigrant and Rhinebeck High School graduate, was arrested by ICE on July 18 as he returned home from work. He owns a local lawn care, maintenance and landscaping business in Rhinebeck and has lived in the community for years, attending high school there and building long-term employment relationships with local residents. A Manhattan judge denied his request for a temporary restraining order to pause his deportation on July 23, though the order expires July 30, giving supporters an additional week to pursue legal options. Community members including his former employers, high school teachers, and classmates have rallied behind him, raising over $60,000 for his legal defense through a grassroots fundraiser organized by Jenny Friedberg, who has employed him regularly for five years.