Human Impact Project

Senator Alex Padilla was handcuffed by federal agents after interrupting a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles. Padilla attempted to question Noem's characterization of federal military deployment in response to protests over immigration enforcement actions targeting undocumented immigrants. The senator was physically removed, placed on the ground, and restrained in handcuffs after identifying himself and asserting his role.

During an immigration sweep on June 19 outside a Lowe's store in Pacoima, Border Patrol agents arrested a 54-year-old woman selling tamales. She suffered a heart attack during the detention after agents bear-hugged her to the point she struggled to breathe. A U.S. citizen recording the incident was also arrested and detained. A federal judge later ruled the sweeps violated the 4th Amendment due to racial profiling.

A petitioner in immigration proceedings challenged his detention without an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge. On May 15, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) ordering respondents to immediately release him from detention and enjoining them from continuing to detain him or placing any new restrictions on his liberty, such as electronic monitoring, unless he received a proper bond hearing with reasonable notice and opportunity to prepare before an immigration judge pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). On May 29, 2026, the court held oral argument on whether to issue a preliminary injunction. At the hearing, respondents consented to the adoption of the TRO's terms as a final judgment and permanent injunction. The court granted the petition and permanently enjoined respondents from detaining him or restricting his liberty without proper process.

Job Garcia, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and PhD student, was arrested and detained for over 24 hours on June 19, 2025, while filming an ICE immigration raid at a Home Depot in Hollywood, Los Angeles. CBP agents tackled Garcia without warning, smashed his phone, and restrained him as he attempted to document the arrest of day laborers and inform them of their rights. Garcia was released without arraignment or court date notification. MALDEF and Garcia are seeking $1 million in damages from the Department of Homeland Security through a Federal Tort Claims Act notice, citing wrongful arrest, detention based on race, assault, battery, false imprisonment, and interference with his right to document government actions.

Two individuals were arrested in Fontana on June 20, 2025, at approximately 9:24 AM by Fontana Police Department officers who were misidentified as ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents during the operation.

An ICE agent drew a gun on a man who was photographing a vehicle's license plate during an enforcement operation at a bus stop near Orange Grove Boulevard and Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena on Wednesday morning. Video footage posted by immigration advocacy account Stop ICE Mobile Alerts shows the agent jumping out of an unmarked car and pointing the gun directly at the individual before returning to the vehicle without making an arrest or explanation. Multiple people were reportedly taken away from nearby Dena's Burgers by masked agents in unmarked vehicles during the same operation.

Claudia Alvarenga España, a Guatemalan woman living in Manassas, Virginia, with her husband Jhoan Mesen and four U.S.-born children, was taken into ICE custody on June 3, 2025, during a required check-in at an ICE office in Chantilly while pursuing withholding of removal protection. She fled Guatemala in 2010 to escape domestic abuse and human trafficking, has no criminal record, and was in compliance with her order of supervision. Despite a federal judge's order prohibiting her removal, she was deported to Guatemala on June 10 but returned to the U.S. the next day after a Guatemalan official informed her of a pending hearing. She has since requested voluntary deportation and remains in ICE detention in Texas with no clear timeline for processing her request. Unable to endure continued family separation, her husband announced in mid-June that the family has decided to voluntarily leave the United States and relocate to Costa Rica to reunite with her, ending their 15-year residence, and has begun preparations to sell their home.

Pedro Luis Salazar-Cuervo, a 28-year-old Venezuelan migrant with no criminal record, was accused by Texas DPS of being a Tren de Aragua gang member based on a photo showing him with a tattooed man. He was deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador in March 2025. A Texas judge ordered the state to request his return to face trespassing charges in August.

ICE agents detained an estimated 12 to 15 people in Danbury on June 17, 2025, in what Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants described as a significant enforcement operation. According to witnesses, one woman was removed from her car (which contained children's toys) on a residential street, and at least one man was taken from outside the Danbury Superior Courthouse. The detentions, which occurred across 5th Street, Moss Avenue, and White Street near the courthouse, sparked fear in the community and prompted a rally organized by immigrant advocacy groups. The operation was part of stepped-up immigration enforcement across Connecticut in recent days.

On May 31, 2025, ICE agents arrested Alonzo Tomas Mendez, a 34-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, while he was shopping at a Kroger store in East Price Hill, Cincinnati. Mendez was taken into custody and left his partner and four children in a parked car. He has been held in Butler County Jail with an ICE hold pending immigration proceedings. Faith leaders, community advocates, and church members have called for his release on bond, citing his three years of residence in the U.S., active participation in his evangelical church, and lack of criminal record. His immigration hearings have been postponed.

Juan Ramirez Diaz, a U.S. citizen from Oxnard, was detained by ICE agents on June 17, 2025, while filming video of federal immigration agents arresting his father during an ICE operation. According to his family and attorney, Ramirez Diaz was tased, maced, punched, and beaten before being transported to a hospital and then the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. He was released on June 18 before 3 p.m. and returned to his family.

Migrant families with young children, including toddlers, were held for days and sometimes weeks in US Customs and Border Protection facilities with jail-like conditions, according to interviews conducted by attorneys and submitted to federal court. The filings reveal details of families detained in 2025 in border facilities not designed for that purpose, including cases where children were held for over 40 days in crowded rooms without windows. Attorneys argue CBP detention violates the 1997 Flores settlement agreement, which requires children be released without unnecessary delay and dictates conditions of custody.

Jose Francisco Orellana-Rivera, who arrived from Honduras at age 4 and was paroled into the community in 2001, was detained by ICE in June 2025 after 24 years of living freely in the United States. He is married to a U.S. citizen with two citizen children and was previously granted DACA. The court ordered his immediate release, finding his detention without a pre-detention hearing violated due process rights.

Rakesh Rakesh, an Indian national detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, was granted voluntary departure to India. On May 31, 2025, ICE officers escorted him to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and mistakenly placed him on an Alaska Airlines flight to Sitka, Alaska instead of his intended connecting flight through New York to India. Flight attendants alerted ICE officers to the error, but officers directed his boarding anyway. Upon landing in Sitka, the Alaska Airlines captain assisted Rakesh and arranged his return to Seattle. However, ICE re-detained him upon arrival rather than allowing him to continue to India. He remained in the Tacoma detention center for 16 additional days, during which he undertook a hunger strike, before being released and facilitated to depart for India on June 17, 2025.

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking ICE from detaining a severely disabled man with an IQ of 47 upon his return to the United States after he was deported to Mexico. The man was taken by ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle on June 17, 2025, and removed to Mexico on June 24 under voluntary departure, despite appearing unable to meaningfully consent to removal due to his cognitive impairments and lack of understanding of English-language documents.

ICE fabricated its authority for over a year to arrest individuals attending legally mandated immigration court hearings at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. A May 2025 ICE guidance memo that agents used to justify the arrests did not actually apply to immigration courts, according to a letter filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in March 2026. The agency conducted mass arrests and separated families under false legal pretenses, with agents stalking immigrants in courthouse hallways and transferring detainees across the country to prevent them from meeting with lawyers. The revelation prompted civil rights organizations to request the federal court reconsider its prior denial of a stay on the arrests.

A Spanish-language journalist known for documenting immigration raids was detained by ICE after being arrested by police during a weekend protest outside Atlanta. The journalist faces charges of obstructing officers and unlawful assembly while covering the protest and could face deportation proceedings.

Javier Ramirez, a U.S. citizen and father of four, was tackled and detained by masked federal immigration agents at a tow yard in Montebello on June 12, 2025. According to security camera footage, an agent allegedly told another agent to arrest Ramirez because he was Mexican. When Ramirez called 911 while handcuffed in a van, police said they could not assist because federal agents were involved. He was held in a downtown Los Angeles facility for more than four days and charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal officer. The federal case against him was dismissed without prejudice. His attorney believes the charge was fabricated to cover up racial profiling.

Juan Carlos Ramirez, a U.S. citizen, was pepper-sprayed, slammed onto vehicle hoods, punched and kneed by armed immigration agents who raided his father's auto body shop in Oxnard on June 16, 2025. Ramirez and dozens of other U.S. citizens and immigrants are seeking financial compensation through tort claims against the federal government for injuries, trauma, and deaths sustained during recent immigration enforcement operations, with claimants seeking at least $260 million collectively.

Juan Carlos Ramirez, a U.S. citizen, was pepper-sprayed, slammed onto vehicle hoods, punched in the face, and kneed by armed immigration agents during a raid on an auto body shop where his father was arrested. Ramirez filmed the incident and subsequently filed a legal claim against the federal government seeking damages for injuries and trauma.