Human Impact Project

Vilma Palacios was detained by immigration agents in Belle Chasse days after graduating from LSU nursing school in Spring. The incident was reported on an Instagram post by fox8nola with a link to more information.

Elder Chavez Carranza, 18, a junior at Asbury High School in Albertville, Alabama, was detained by ICE on December 30, 2025, after a state trooper stopped him for speeding and driving without a license and contacted immigration officials. Chavez Carranza fled violence and poverty in Honduras in 2022 and had been living with his sister as his legal guardian. He holds Special Immigrant Juvenile status and had applied for a green card and deferred action, but has missed required fingerprint appointments while detained. He is held at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, where he says he has lacked adequate food and dental care for his braces, works as a painter earning $1 per day, and shares a room with 54 other men. His sister, a former teacher, and a pastor who visited him described him as a hardworking student who has missed half a year of school, his senior year activities, and the birth of his nephew. Community members across three states, including local churches and activists, have organized vigils and rallies calling for his release.

An immigration detainee who had previously been released on bond or conditional parole was re-detained by immigration authorities on December 29, 2026. He challenged his ongoing immigration detention through a habeas corpus petition, arguing that his re-detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing violated due process. The court granted his petition and ordered his immediate release with the same conditions he had prior to his December 29 detention.

Asif Amin Cheema, a 63-year-old Pakistani restaurant owner in Humboldt Park who lived in Chicago for 30 years, was deported to Pakistan in early 2026 after the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a deportation order from the 1990s that his family said they were unaware of. Despite having a valid work permit and a scheduled green card interview, Cheema was detained in September 2025 and subsequently removed. A community fundraiser was held in March 2026 featuring Chicago chef Zubair Mohajir to raise awareness and support for efforts to bring Cheema home, with proceeds directed to his family and immigration advocacy organizations.

David Courvelle, a former contract detention officer at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a Nicaraguan detainee in federal custody. Between May and July 2025, Courvelle engaged in multiple sexual encounters with the detainee inside the facility, including in a janitorial closet, while enlisting other detainees to act as lookouts. He also smuggled gifts into the facility to maintain the relationship. The case was uncovered when investigators obtained recordings of phone calls between Courvelle and the detainee, prompting his resignation.

Seven people were arrested at an ICE Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) check-in office in San Jose on Monday and Tuesday of the week of December 24, 2025, according to the Rapid Response Network (RRN) in Santa Clara County. The arrests occurred inside the office during scheduled check-ins for ICE supervision programs. RRN stated the arrests were not random and encouraged people with upcoming ICE check-in appointments to contact their organization for volunteer accompaniment.

An immigration detainee was arrested on December 29, 2025 for misdemeanor driving under the influence and providing false information to a police officer. He was granted pre-plea diversion with the case set for dismissal in June 2026. Months after his arrest, he reported for his scheduled check-in with ICE, where ICE arrested and detained him. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release.

A Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. in June 1998 with no criminal history was detained by ICE on December 28, 2025, outside her home without any pre-deprivation process or notice, despite not being subject to a final removal order. She has cancer requiring monthly medical monitoring and is the primary financial support for her family. On June 18, 2026, the federal court granted her petition for habeas corpus and ordered her immediate release, finding that her detention without pre-deprivation due process violated the Constitution, and enjoined respondents from re-detaining her without written notice and a pre-deprivation hearing.

Malik Velimetov, 21, born in Turkmenistan but raised in Key West, was taken into custody by US Border Patrol on December 28, 2025, while traveling with his family on US 1 in Marathon. He was detained for a month at Florida's immigration detention center in the Everglades due to his pending asylum case and was released with an electronic monitor. His family, including his parents and 17-year-old sister, were also taken into custody and separated from him.

Arturo Rafael Brito Goncalvez, a 22-year-old Venezuelan pilot, was detained by ICE during a scheduled immigration appointment in Westerville, Ohio. His family claims he entered the country legally in 2023 with valid visas and employment authorization. He is fighting deportation and fears returning to Venezuela due to political persecution.

Marwan Marouf appeared before Immigration Judge Abdias Tida after 60 days in ICE detention. He accepted deportation rather than continue fighting his case.

Federal agents arrested a teacher at a Chicago daycare in front of parents and children; the educator had a work permit and can be heard telling authorities she had papers. In a separate incident in Los Angeles, federal immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen during a Home Depot raid and drove away with his 1-year-old daughter still in the vehicle; the child and her grandmother are both U.S. citizens.

A native and citizen of India entered the United States without inspection on December 25, 2023 and was detained by ICE on December 26, 2025. He was issued a Notice to Appear charging him as a noncitizen present in the US who has not been admitted or paroled, and was transferred to the Torrance County Detention Center in Estancia, New Mexico. The court granted his habeas petition in part and ordered that he receive a bond hearing within seven days.

Rey David Velasco Rodriguez was arrested by ICE agents in a Williston parking lot on December 26 after agents determined he matched a physical description of someone they were investigating. Fingerprint records showed he had been issued an expedited removal notice in September 2024 and was found unlawfully in the U.S. for a third time in over a year. Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle ordered his detention pending a probable cause hearing scheduled for January 12, 2026.

ICE agents detained a pregnant woman at Karmel Mall in South Minneapolis, holding her face-down on the ground while handcuffed. Witnesses reported that she was unable to breathe during the detention and shouted that she was pregnant. Bystanders protested the incident, with dozens of neighbors gathering at the scene and pelting agents with snowballs. Video of the encounter circulated on social media documenting the use of force during the detention.

An unconfirmed ICE sighting was reported on July 3, 2025 in Anaheim, California. According to the alert, ICE agents in a white van were observed circling a Target parking lot and a nearby Quick Quack car wash, with reports indicating they picked up several people. The agents were reported to be moving southbound along Euclid Street toward a 7-Eleven gas station.

Anne Arundel County Police contradicted the Department of Homeland Security's account of a Christmas Eve ICE shooting in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Police stated that one of the individuals identified as a passenger in the van was actually already in ICE custody in a separate vehicle at the time of the shooting, contradicting DHS's account. ICE agents fired at a white van after the driver, Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, allegedly attempted to run them over during a targeted immigration enforcement operation.

Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a 30-year-old Portuguese immigrant who came to the U.S. at 13 and became a licensed general contractor and homeowner in Baltimore, was shot multiple times by ICE agents during a targeted enforcement operation in Glen Burnie, Maryland, on Christmas Eve while heading to an electrical job. His van crashed into a tree during the encounter, and he was hospitalized for about two weeks with injuries to his spine, lung and thigh before being placed in immigration detention at facilities in Maryland and Virginia. His attorneys said ICE denied him prescribed medication and physical therapy and threatened to transfer him if he had bullet fragments removed. Sousa-Martins, who said his father had withheld his passport and forced him to work for little or no pay, had applied for a visa for trafficking survivors and was protected from deportation by a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. He pleaded guilty to damaging government property and was sentenced to time served; after his attorneys filed a habeas petition, a federal judge ordered his release after nearly nine months in custody, reuniting him with his two young sons and partner. "Today, I can finally say I am free," he said, while advocacy group We Are CASA said his children had been without their father since the shooting and that it continues seeking accountability from ICE.

Óscar José Araujo-Mejía, a 21-year-old from El Salvador who had lived in the U.S. for four years and worked at McDonald's, was seriously injured after ICE agents pursued his vehicle through Glen Burnie, Maryland. A relative who witnessed the chase said agents in unmarked vehicles rammed his car and beat him while pulling him from the vehicle, while ICE and DHS said agents fired after Araujo-Mejía failed to stop and drove into several ICE vehicles, nearly striking an agent before crashing between two buildings. He suffered a head wound requiring 29 stitches, fractures to his vertebrae and skull, and was later listed in fair condition at a Maryland trauma center. A passenger from Portugal was also injured in the crash. His family said hospital policy prevented them from visiting him or receiving updates on his condition, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore criticized ICE's enforcement tactics in the state following the incident.

A man with valid asylum status, no criminal history, and a valid work permit was detained by ICE agents in a Walmart parking lot in Yakima, Washington on Christmas Eve while placing groceries in his vehicle. Yeimi Ortiz, a volunteer with the Yakima Immigrant Response Network, witnessed and filmed the arrest. The incident occurred as part of a pattern of federal enforcement actions in the Yakima area during the Christmas holiday period, prompting Ortiz and local activists to hold a boycott protest of Walmart on December 28, alleging the corporation's cooperation with immigration authorities.