Human Impact Project

Randall Gamboa Esquivel, a Costa Rican man, was detained by ICE after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in December 2024. During nearly 10 months in detention at facilities in south Texas, his health deteriorated significantly, and he was deported to Costa Rica in September 2025 in a vegetative state. He died five weeks later without regaining consciousness, while his family and authorities remain unclear about what caused his severe health decline while in ICE custody.

Brandon Sigüenza, a volunteer legal observer documenting ICE enforcement activities in Minneapolis, was pepper-sprayed, arrested, and detained for eight hours after ICE agents surrounded his car while he was legally recording their operations on a public street. He was released without charges. His detention was part of a pattern of intimidation against community members observing and reporting on ICE activities in the area.

ICE agents detained Jose Roberto Ramirez, a Native American citizen born in Minneapolis with family from the Red Lake Reservation, outside a Hy-Vee grocery store in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. The incident was documented on video and shared on social media. Ramirez was subsequently released from custody.

According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Online Detainee Locator System, an individual named Yee has been detained as a public safety or flight risk. However, no court hearing dates are available for Yee on the portal, and no deportation information is listed on the U.S. Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Border Patrol agents smashed a car window and dragged a Honduran man from a vehicle during an immigration enforcement operation at a gas station in St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 11, 2026. Video posted by Ford Fischer of News2Share shows agents surrounding the parked vehicle, breaking the window, pulling the man out, forcing him to the ground, and taking him into custody as a crowd gathered. DHS said the man had a final order of removal issued in 2020 and refused to obey orders. After multiple warnings, agents broke the window and arrested him. During the arrest, bystanders surrounded the agents, who fired pepper balls toward the crowd. A U.S. citizen who hit an officer was also arrested. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino was present at the scene and was heard ordering bystanders to move back. A second individual was also detained during the incident.

A migrant man died while attempting to cross the Rio Bravo into the United States and was found floating in the river in Piedras Negras, Coahuila. Rescue teams and Mexican and U.S. authorities coordinated to recover the body. Authorities are investigating whether the victim is José Antonio Sánchez Ríos, 35, from Guanajuato, who disappeared while crossing the river earlier in the week.

Adonay Mancia Rodríguez was detained by ICE agents near his home in Morristown, New Jersey on January 11, 2026, during an enforcement sweep while picking up a dinner delivery. His six-year-old daughter Annabella was found wandering the streets alone following his detention. According to DHS, ICE took 11 individuals into custody during the operation who were undocumented and facing deportation.

Five-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos, a U.S. citizen, was deported to Honduras on January 11, 2026, alongside her mother Karen Guadalupe Gutiérrez Castellanos despite being born in the United States. ICE agents acted on an administrative deportation order against the mother issued in 2019, before the child was born. The two were detained for nearly a week in a hotel without access to legal representation or a judge hearing before being deported. The mother plans to send her daughter back to the U.S. with a relative, as the child is a U.S. citizen.

ICE officers in Minneapolis conducted multiple "show me your papers" encounters with residents in public spaces. In one incident last weekend, officers approached a man pumping gas and demanded to see documentation of U.S. citizenship. The man refused initially but eventually provided a driver's license; officers continued questioning whether he was naturalized and when. In another incident, officers questioned a man at a vehicle charging station about his citizenship. These encounters were recorded on video and shared on social media, prompting criticism from public figures. The Department of Homeland Security did not provide information on the citizenship status of the people approached or details about these specific incidents.

A 21-year-old protester named Kaden Rummler was struck in the face by a nonlethal round fired by a Department of Homeland Security agent during a protest outside a federal building in Santa Ana. The impact left shrapnel embedded in his eyes and face, resulting in permanent blindness in his left eye and a fractured skull. The incident occurred during demonstrations against the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent in Minnesota.

Khadra Muse Mohamed, a 25-year-old Somali refugee and single mother, was pulled over by undercover ICE agents on January 10, 2026, one day after Operation PARRIS began. She had legally arrived in the U.S. in April 2024, passed security screenings, and was living in St. Cloud with her 7-year-old son and extended family including her disabled stepfather. After her arrest, she was transferred to a detention facility in Texas before her family could secure legal representation, separating her from her young son and elderly relatives who depend on her care. She was released on January 19 after nine days in detention.

Border Patrol detained Guatemalan father Arnoldo Tiul Caal and his 10-year-old daughter Karla on January 10 in Spokane, alleging he missed multiple required immigration check-ins while seeking asylum. The pair were transported to a detention facility in Texas but were released Friday by a federal judge. The father had been living in Spokane since 2019 with his daughter, who was a fourth-grader at Logan Elementary School.

Parady La, a 46-year-old Cambodian refugee and longtime Philadelphia-area resident, died in January 2026 after being detained by ICE. La was arrested by ICE on January 6 outside his home and held at the Federal Detention Center (FDC Philadelphia), where he was treated for severe drug withdrawal. On January 7, officers found him unresponsive in his cell, administered CPR and Narcan, and transported him to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was diagnosed with anoxic brain injury, shock, and multiple organ failures. He died on January 9. His family and organizations including the ACLU of Pennsylvania and CAIR-Philadelphia demanded accountability and transparency, with the ACLU filing a Freedom of Information Act request for records related to his detention, medical treatment, and death.

Arlit Martinez-Carrada's 15-year-old son, Kevin Mendoza Martinez, died of cancer two days after she was arrested by ICE agents outside her workplace in Maryland. Martinez was denied release to be with her son during his final days and learned of his death while in ICE custody at the Baltimore federal building. She was later released on $12,000 bond and attended her son's funeral. Martinez has now decided to self-deport, with her attorneys working on the voluntary departure process.

Everyone had their case dismissed that afternoon which meant ICE could now take them at anytime. With only one way out of the building and ICE sitting in cars throughout the parking lot I knew what was going to happen. The mother’s friend-who had been sitting in the car next to mine-stepped out and met them by the front entrance, just a few feet from where I stood with the Priests. For a second, I couldn’t tell if the mother realized what was about to happen. But it only took that second. Suddenly, the ICE agents-every one of them a masked man-began walking toward us. Toward her. And that’s when it started. The little girl saw them first. “Mommy! Mommy!” she screamed, and burst into tears. Then her brother realized what was happening and started crying too. ICE doesn’t like to take children when the Priests are present and watching. ICE -asked whoever is with the kids to follow them to a different location, so they can take the children too. Because the kids are also in removal proceedings. Please donate so The Sidewalk School can continue to document and record these “disappearances” To donate: SidewalkSchool.org ***Video recorded by The Sidewalk School

Rachel Dionne-Thunder, who is Plains Cree and co-founder of Indigenous Protectors Movement, was stopped and questioned by ICE agents near Powwow Grounds coffee shop on January 10, 2026 without being given a reason for the stop. She locked her vehicle doors and refused to comply with agents' orders to show ID or exit the vehicle, citing Know Your Rights training. Community members came to her aid and the agents left.

ICE agents in Maryland used the state's driver's license database to conduct license plate checks in January 2026 without a traffic violation or warrant, detaining Santos Alvarenga-Rodriguez, 47, a Salvadoran citizen, based on license restrictions. The operation, part of "Operation Take Back America," ran checks on approximately 10 vehicles, with nine resulting in no enforcement action. Nearly a quarter-million Maryland drivers carry similar license restrictions, which can indicate various factors unrelated to immigration status. Alvarenga-Rodriguez resisted during the encounter and was charged with assaulting and resisting officers.

Jorge Elieser Gonzalez Ochoa, a 27-year-old Colombian national seeking asylum, was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents at Bread Garden Market in Iowa City on September 25, 2025, while working and wearing a court-ordered GPS monitor. Agents charged him with document fraud and misuse of immigration documents. A federal judge ruled the DHS actions "indefensible" and found Gonzalez Ochoa was illegally detained, noting agents attempted to circumvent a court order and violated procedural requirements. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served plus one day. After several months in federal immigration detention, Gonzalez Ochoa was released following sustained community organizing and protests by groups including the Iowa City Catholic Worker and Escucha Mi Voz Iowa.

Jose Manuel De Paz Cruz, a 31-year-old father with no criminal record, was arrested by ICE agents in Sunset Park on January 10, 2026, while walking home from work to attend his step-son's birthday party. After being detained in Brooklyn, Cruz was transferred to multiple locations including Manhattan, New Jersey, Arizona, and California.

An Eritrean single mother of three with a pending green card application was detained during Operation PARRIS operations beginning January 9, 2026. During a five-hour interview with USCIS officers, she was questioned about her application materials and reasons for fleeing her country. Her attorney reported that the USCIS officer conducting the interview stated he had no knowledge of why she was detained or authority regarding her detention. She was released a few days after arrest and returned to Minnesota, and her green card application was approved while she was in detention.