Human Impact Project

Yousof Azizi, a 40-year-old Iranian PhD candidate at Virginia Tech, was detained by Homeland Security Investigations agents outside his Germantown, Maryland home on April 13 and transferred to an immigration detention facility in Arizona. His wife denies DHS allegations that he lied on his student visa application about membership in Iran's Student Basij Organization and claims his visa status issue was a pretext, asserting he was speaking publicly about U.S.-Iran relations based on his academic research.

An immigration attorney reports that approximately 80% of his clients granted bond by a judge are held for days beyond their legal release date by ICE. The case of Deonicio Castillo, a Colorado resident detained in January 2026, exemplifies the pattern—he was held six days after a judge granted his $2,500 bond. The attorney argues the delays violate constitutional rights and represent a departure from prior practice where bond releases typically occurred within hours.

Several ICE detainees were hospitalized after suffering heat-related illnesses while being transported by bus in Oklahoma on April 13, 2026. The transport bus, which was carrying detainees to an ICE facility in Watonga, stopped in Canadian County to provide medical assistance. Multiple detainees required hospital treatment for heat-related conditions.

A father named Adith was detained by ICE outside his workplace. He is a working man who provides for five children. His family is seeking financial assistance to bring him home, as the legal process to do so is expensive.

Rev. Yeison Cortes Vasquez, a 46-year-old evangelical pastor at The Gathering Place Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, was detained by ICE on March 20, 2026, while working a food delivery job. ICE cited an overstayed tourist visa from Colombia that expired in 2016, though church members stated Vasquez had an active asylum case and was following legal processes. During his approximately three-week detention at Delaney Hall in Newark, church leaders reported he was denied access to a Bible for at least a week; DHS denied these allegations and stated detainees may request religious items. While in custody, Vasquez ministered to other detainees. Members of Congress visited the facility and raised concerns about detention conditions. Vasquez was released on bond with GPS monitoring while awaiting removal proceedings. The National Latino Evangelical Coalition confirmed he has no criminal record.

A 23-year-old Honduran man granted legal status and work authorization under a federal court settlement for families separated by the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy was arrested by ICE in October 2025 after Louisiana wildlife officers reported him for target shooting in a protected area. Despite possessing valid immigration documents and parole status, he was detained for over five months and issued a deportation order on January 6, 2026. At least 25 other people with similar legal protections have been detained or deported by ICE in recent months. The government has also imposed new $1,000-per-person fees and canceled contracts with legal service providers, violating the terms of the federal settlement agreement. The ACLU filed a motion for his release on April 1, 2026.

Maryam Tahmasebi, a psychology and statistics professor at Los Angeles Pierce College, and her son have been detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center since April 9, 2024. Her husband, Eissa Hashemi, a professor at The Chicago School's Business Psychology department, was taken to the South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall, Texas. All three are legal permanent residents with valid green cards and no criminal record. The Trump administration is seeking to revoke their green cards and deport them based on Hashemi's mother's alleged role as a translator during the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran—an event that occurred before Hashemi was born. According to their lawyer, Curtis Morrison, there are no specific allegations against the three individuals other than their familial relationship. Friends and colleagues describe Tahmasebi as highly intelligent and dedicated to her work as an educator, and Hashemi as kind and joyous. The family is allowed to speak for only 10 minutes every two weeks under supervision, and Tahmasebi reports their physical and mental health have deteriorated significantly. A federal judge temporarily barred the government from deporting the family after they filed petitions challenging the legality of their detention.

Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a 27-year-old Cuban national, was found dead on April 12, 2026, hanging from a bedsheet in his cell at Miami Federal Detention Center. He had entered the United States legally in October 2024 under parole after being cited by CBP as an undocumented immigrant. In November 2025, he was arrested in Miami-Dade County on charges of resisting an officer with violence; prosecutors later abandoned these charges. He was transferred to ICE custody on February 11, 2026, and held under a deportation order. He had been diagnosed with anxiety and prescribed medication in March 2026 but reportedly denied suicidal ideation. His death was investigated by ICE as an apparent suicide and was reported as one of at least nine to ten suicides among men in ICE custody since Trump returned to office in January 2025, and the second reported suicide in Florida ICE custody within a month.

Jose Luis Ferrer-Valdez, also known in court records as Jose David Luis Paraiso, is a father of two children ages 13 and 8 who has lived in the United States since he was 14 and holds Special Immigrant Juvenile Status with an approved I-360 petition. He entered the U.S. in May 2023, was released on parole during removal proceedings, and had those proceedings terminated by an immigration judge in February 2025. In January 2026 he was detained by ICE while riding his bicycle in Garden Grove, California, and held at the Adelanto Detention Facility, with ICE alleging he was inadmissible for entering without inspection despite his approved immigration status. After criminal charges against him were later dropped, he was transferred from local law enforcement custody into ICE custody in April 2026 and redetained without a warrant, notice, or bond hearing. His family and community members organized a fundraiser for his legal expenses, and activists visited him in detention. He filed a habeas corpus petition, and a federal court granted it, first ordering an individualized bond hearing and then ordering his immediate release while barring the government from redetaining him without notice and a hearing.

Andriy Shepitsen, a 46-year-old Ukrainian man, has been detained in ICE custody since December 2025 at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami. Despite being prescribed medications for bipolar disorder, major depression, and ADHD, detention staff denied him these drugs for over four months. In February 2026, Shepitsen began a hunger strike to protest detention conditions, which lasted 60 days and resulted in a 46-pound weight loss, causing him to develop life-threatening hypotensive shock and requiring hospitalization. He reported suicidal thoughts multiple times during his detention. Advocacy groups including Amnesty International USA and the ACLU of Florida demanded emergency medical intervention and his release.

The Trump administration revoked the lawful permanent resident status of several Iranian nationals and detained them via ICE enforcement actions in Los Angeles starting in early April 2026. Detainees included Seyed Eissa Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, their son Seyed Mobin Hashemi, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny, and Dr. Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, a researcher removed from her position at Emory University. The Hashemi family were relatives of Masoumeh Ebtekar, who served as spokeswoman during the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran. Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were claimed to be relatives of slain Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, though both women and Soleimani's family denied any familial connection. Soleimani Afshar, who suffers from a severe blood disorder, was denied medical treatment while detained. Secretary Marco Rubio announced the coordinated enforcement action, stating the individuals should not have been permitted lawful permanent resident status given their connections to the Iranian government.

Annie Yaritza Ramos Alvarado, a 22-year-old Honduran-born immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a toddler in 2005, was detained by ICE agents on April 2, 2026, at Fort Polk military base in Louisiana while attempting to complete paperwork to move in with her spouse, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank, 23, whom she had recently married. Ramos was a college student with no criminal history who had applied for DACA status in 2020, though her application was never processed. She was working with a lawyer to adjust her immigration status through marriage, a process that typically allows spouses of U.S. citizens to obtain legal permanent residency. She had been subject to an outstanding removal order issued in 2005 after her family missed an immigration court hearing when she was 22 months old. After being held for nearly a week at an ICE detention facility in Basile, Louisiana, Ramos was released on April 7 and ordered to wear a GPS monitor while removal proceedings continue.

Tania Warner, a 47-year-old Canadian citizen from Penticton, B.C., with a valid U.S. work visa through 2030 and a Social Security number, and her seven-year-old autistic daughter Ayla Lucas were detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Sarita, Texas, on March 14, 2026, while returning from a baby shower with Warner's American husband Edward. The family, who had lived in Kingsville for five years, was separated from Edward and held at the Ursula Central Processing Center in McAllen, sleeping on the floor of a cold cellblock for five days before being transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center. Warner said guards were "sadistic, inhumane and abusive," taunted her for being Canadian, and pressured her to self-deport, telling her she could do it "the easy way or the hard way." Ayla suffered chemical burns and a stress-related rash from harsh cleaning products, and the family reported inadequate healthcare, food shortages, and insufficient schooling during roughly three weeks in custody. Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee called the detention "extrajudicial," and Congressman Vicente Gonzalez said neither Tania nor Ayla should have been detained. Warner was released on bond of $9,500 on April 2-3, 2026, fitted with an ankle monitor she is contesting in court, and plans to file a lawsuit alleging unlawful detention and harm to her daughter.

Dr. Rubeliz Bolívar, a 33-year-old Venezuelan emergency medicine resident working at South Texas Health System in McAllen, Texas, was detained by Customs and Border Protection agents at McAllen International Airport while traveling with her 5-year-old U.S. citizen daughter to California for a scheduled asylum interview. Bolívar entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2016, held a valid work permit through 2030, and had an active asylum case and pending green card application; CBP said she had overstayed her visa since 2017. Her daughter was also held, for about 19 hours, before being released to a relative. Bolívar was transferred to ICE custody at El Valle Detention Center and missed the asylum interview, which her husband, Milenko Faria, attended alone. The American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association have advocated for her release and called for a national-interest exemption for physicians.

A federal judge in Los Angeles ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop using coercive language to pressure unaccompanied immigrant children to self-deport, ruling the practice violated a 40-year-old court mandate. Beginning in September 2025, DHS had advised detained minors they would face prolonged detention if they did not leave the U.S. and threatened to prosecute their sponsors. The judge rejected the government's request to end the longstanding safeguards protecting children's due process rights, citing language that "disturbingly mirrors" coercion documented in a 1985 case that established these protections.

Actress Natasha Lyonne claimed she was detained by ICE after being removed from a Delta flight from Los Angeles to New York on April 7, 2026. She stated she took Lunesta, a sleeping medication, after boarding the red-eye flight and was removed after not responding to flight attendants' requests to close her laptop and fasten her seatbelt before takeoff. Eyewitnesses reported she appeared disoriented while still wearing her outfit from the Euphoria Season 3 premiere she had attended earlier that evening. In a social media post on April 11, Lyonne wrote that she was detained by immigration agents instead of arriving in New York for a scheduled appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, saying "ICE had other plans & I was detained instead." The Department of Homeland Security denied her claims, stating "Neither ICE nor TSA escorted or detained Natasha Lyonne." Lyonne later appeared at a premiere in New York City.

Gilberto Garcia, a 26-year-old DACA recipient with autism and intellectual disability, was forcibly detained by ICE agents at his home in Hendry County, Florida on April 8, 2026, while awaiting DACA renewal processing after his status expired on April 1. According to family accounts and police reports, ICE agents entered his yard without a warrant and placed him in a chokehold. When his mother attempted to intervene, agents allegedly threatened to tase her and pushed her back. Garcia was transported to Hendry County Jail and charged with resisting arrest without violence. His public defender argued that his disability prevented him from understanding or identifying law enforcement. Garcia was released on April 10, 2026, after advocates raised concerns about the arrest's legality and lack of probable cause. The Florida Immigrant Coalition and United We Dream called the detention "deeply troubling and potentially unlawful."

Criselda Vasquez, a Chicana painter whose celebrated 2017 work "The New American Gothic" features her Mexican immigrant parents, says her father was detained by ICE on March 31 while on his way home from work. According to Vasquez, her father was pulled over and arrested outside a neighbor's home in what she described as racial profiling. Her father has lived in the United States for over 40 years and has four adult children who are U.S. citizens. Vasquez described him as "a devoted husband, parent, and grandfather, and the hardest-working, most selfless person I know." The family launched a GoFundMe that raised nearly $68,000 of an $80,000 goal within 10 days to cover his lost wages and legal fees. Her artwork is part of the permanent collection at the Lucas Museum for Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

Two migrants—one from Cuba and one from Yemen—were deported to Eswatini on July 16, 2025, as part of a group of five men sent to the country. Roberto Mosquera, the Cuban, was arrested by ICE at a routine immigration check-in in Florida on June 13, 2025, and deported without notice. Both men have been imprisoned in Eswatini's Matsapha Correctional Centre in isolation with no charges filed and initially no legal representation permitted. Their attorney states they have already served their U.S. sentences and are being held indefinitely while awaiting repatriation. In April 2026, after nine months of detention, Eswatini's Supreme Court ruled they have the right to meet with a local lawyer, a right previously denied. Civil society organizations have threatened legal action challenging the legality of their detention under Eswatini law.

A noncitizen previously released on bond was re-detained by ICE on April 10, 2026, following notification that he had been convicted of driving under the influence on December 3, 2025. He had a prior DUI arrest in 2012 and was arrested again for DUI on June 14, 2024. The court ordered that Respondents provide him a bond hearing within fourteen days before an immigration judge, with the government bearing the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that he is a flight risk or danger to public safety. If no hearing is provided within fourteen days, he must be immediately released on the same terms as his previous release.