Human Impact Project

Nestor Alejandro Umana Barquero, a 23-year-old Honduran citizen, was arrested by Durham police in May 2025 on misdemeanor charges, none of which required notification to ICE under North Carolina's new referral law. He was nonetheless referred to ICE, which issued a detainer on May 8, 2025, and he remained in the Durham County jail for more than 60 days. His attorney filed a habeas petition arguing he was being held on an improper judicial order; the same day the petition was filed, prosecutors dismissed the charges against him, but the judge denied his habeas petition. He was later confirmed to be in ICE detention in Texas before disappearing from the detention system, and could not be reached for comment.

Eight men believed to be in the U.S. without authorization were arrested during a targeted traffic stop operation in Fargo on May 6, 2025. ICE and Border Patrol agents from the Grand Forks Sector conducted the operation. Those arrested were transferred to Enforcement and Removal Operations and characterized as public safety risks.

A small panga-style boat carrying migrants capsized off Torrey Pines State Beach near San Diego, killing four people including a 14-year-old boy and resulting in a 10-year-old girl missing at sea. The children's father is in a coma and their mother remains hospitalized. Five Mexican citizens have been charged with human smuggling resulting in death and other related crimes.

Two U.S. citizen children, ages 5 and 4, were deported to Mexico after their mother was lured to an immigration processing appointment under false pretenses. The mother, who was told she would be eligible for asylum and a work permit if she appeared for a routine check-in, was instead deported to Reynosa, Mexico along with her three children. The two youngest children are U.S. citizens who were deported without proper legal process or opportunity for informed consent from their mother.

A 37-year-old Guatemalan woman, identified in court papers as D.N.N., was arrested by masked ICE agents at a routine immigration check-in in Baltimore on May 7, 2025. She had previously been granted withholding of removal in 2012 after an immigration judge found she would likely face torture or persecution if returned to Guatemala, but ICE sought to deport her to Mexico as a third country. She was transferred from New Jersey to a tent facility in Texas and then to New Mexico, losing contact with her husband, young daughter, and lawyer along the way.

Victor Avila, a 66-year-old legal permanent resident since 1967 and longtime legal assistant at Kiwan & Chambers, was detained by ICE at San Francisco International Airport on May 7, 2025, during secondary inspection while returning from a trip to Japan. The arrest was triggered by a 2009 misdemeanor conviction for DUI and drug possession, an offense for which he had already served his sentence and after which his green card was reissued twice. Avila is married with four children and six grandchildren, all U.S. citizens, including a son who serves in the U.S. Air Force; he is currently held at a federal detention center near Bakersfield, California, facing deportation proceedings. His daughter, Carina Mejia, said, "He's a productive member of society, it was a nonviolent offense, he has paid his dues, and detaining him is very unjust," and coworkers have raised over $20,000 for his legal defense via GoFundMe.

Leyvis Edi Velasquez-Perez was arrested by ICE in Chattanooga, Tennessee while on supervised probation after conviction for solicitation of a minor. He had prior convictions for driving without a license in Georgia and failure to obey traffic laws in North Carolina. According to ICE, he has no documentation of legal entry into the United States and is being held pending removal proceedings.

Rodolfo Hernandez-Yanez, 56, was arrested by ICE agents on May 6, 2025, in a rideshare parking lot along Highway 50 near Carson City while driving his children, aged 17 and 18, to school. He had attempted unauthorized entry in 2005, was turned away, and later entered illegally. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2014 and received a deportation order in 2019; his appeals were denied in March 2023 and his petition for review was dismissed in May 2024. He was processed for deportation to Mexico as part of a broader ICE enforcement operation that arrested 33 people across northern Nevada in two days.

A pregnant Guatemalan woman became lost in the Arizona desert near the U.S.-Mexico border while attempting to cross. She navigated dangerous terrain while pregnant and provided a firsthand account of her experience.

Denisse Parra Vargas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was stopped for expired tags in North Austin on Thursday and later instructed to report to a processing center in Pflugerville on Tuesday. When she reported with her three children, ICE arrested all of them. Two of her three children are U.S. citizens. The family was deported to Mexico within 24 hours.

Bryan José Rojas Galofre, a Venezuelan immigrant married to a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE on January 27, 2025, following a security checkpoint stop at Trump National Doral hotel during a honeymoon trip. Agents discovered an airsoft gun and marijuana grinder in his vehicle, leading to local drug paraphernalia charges and questioning about gang ties based on his tattoos. Despite an immigration judge granting him bond in April 2025, Rojas remained in federal detention until his release on May 6, 2025. His nearly three-month detention resulted in job loss, expiration of his work permit, loss of his home and vehicle, depletion of retirement savings, over $80,000 in debt, and significant family financial hardship. His immigration case remains pending with a hearing scheduled for 2028.

Akbor Miah, a Bangladeshi national, was arrested by U.S. Marshals in New York on May 6, 2025, and extradited to Florida to face first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of Monica Islam, his sister-in-law, whose body was discovered along a road in Mount Dora in May 2025. Investigators found evidence linking Miah to the crime. Federal immigration officials have lodged a detainer on Miah with the Lake County Jail, requesting his transfer to federal custody if released. Records show Miah was previously deported in January 2019 after an immigration judge issued a removal order, but later re-entered the United States illegally and was released by federal authorities in March 2022.

Patricia Vázquez Topete, a DACA recipient who had lived in California for 20 years, self-deported to Mexico in May 2025. She cited legal uncertainty surrounding DACA's future, immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, the inability to travel safely using Advance Parole, and lack of a permanent legal status pathway as factors in her decision. Vázquez Topete sold her belongings and left the U.S. to pursue a master's degree in Spain while reconnecting with family in Mexico.

On May 6, 2025, ICE and HSI agents conducted unannounced visits to multiple Washington, D.C. restaurants as part of a Trump administration immigration enforcement crackdown targeting businesses suspected of employing undocumented workers. Agents requested I-9 employment verification forms and issued inspection notices requiring document production within three business days at establishments including Chef Geoff's and Pupatella. No arrests were made during the sweeps. Restaurant employees, managers, and members of immigrant communities reported anxiety about their legal obligations.

ICE agents conducted a multi-day enforcement operation across northern Nevada, making 17 arrests on Monday, May 5, 2025, and an additional 16 arrests by noon on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Reno, Sparks, Sun Valley, and Carson City. ICE officials stated that all arrested individuals had previous criminal convictions. The operation prompted the Nevada Immigration Coalition to express concerns about increased federal immigration enforcement in the state.

A 21-year-old Colombian woman who was eight months pregnant was deported from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. She had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in November seeking asylum but was subject to expedited removal. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop the deportation, but the order came approximately three hours after the flight had departed.

Ximena Arias-Cristobal, a 19-year-old Dalton State Community College student, was arrested on May 5 after a traffic stop for an improper turn on red and driving without a license. Police dashcam footage later revealed the officer had stopped the wrong vehicle—a black pickup truck committed the violation, not Arias-Cristobal's dark gray truck. Though local charges were dropped, she remains in ICE custody at Stewart Detention Center facing deportation proceedings.

Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado, a 68-year-old construction worker who had lived in the United States for 40 years, died on May 5, 2025, while being transported from Lowndes County Jail to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. The coroner suspected an aortic aneurysm as the cause of death, though the exact cause remained under investigation. According to his family, Delgado had no prior health conditions but was placed in a wheelchair during his detention and given medications he had never taken before. He had been detained multiple times since 1979 as an undocumented immigrant.

Early Sunday morning, Tennessee Highway Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Department of Homeland Security conducted a joint operation in South Nashville, pulling over approximately 150 people for alleged traffic violations. Federal ICE agents used the stops to investigate immigration-related matters, and those detained were transported to a federal immigration facility in Louisiana. Advocacy groups including Hijos de Immigrantes and the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition criticized the operation as racial profiling, with organizers noting that officers stopped people for minor infractions like broken tail lights and tinted windows in the heart of the immigrant community. As of the article, advocacy groups had verified about 40 detainees and were working to provide legal assistance to all those affected.

ICE agents apprehended a man at a Sinclair gas station in Oxnard, California on May 4, leaving two children in his vehicle. A gas station attendant witnessed the arrest and reported that the children remained in the truck after the father was taken into custody. DHS stated that the man's 19-year-old son took possession of the vehicle and that ICE offered to relocate it, though advocacy groups contend the children were left unattended.