Human Impact Project

The Miccosukee Tribe is pursuing legal challenges against the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigrant detention facility in the Everglades, arguing that Florida's acceptance of $608 million in federal funds for the facility strengthens their case. The Tribe contends the facility was constructed unlawfully on public lands without required environmental review and poses risks to their 11 villages and the fragile ecosystem. Multiple lawsuits have been filed opposing the detention center, including claims regarding inadequate legal access for detainees and lack of federal authority for state operation.

A volunteer legal observer was detained and arrested by ICE agents on January 11th while documenting enforcement activities at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. Agents surrounded the observer's car, pepper-sprayed the vehicle, shattered windows, and roughly handcuffed the observer without identifying themselves or providing instructions. The arrest occurred during increased ICE enforcement operations in Minnesota, part of coordinated community efforts to document and warn residents about immigration enforcement activities.

More than 560 students missed school in Willmar Public Schools on Monday due to rumors of an ICE enforcement operation. School officials quickly reassured families that schools were safe spaces and would not be entered by immigration agents. The rumors were based on federal authorities later identified as Homeland Security Investigations agents, not ICE, who had detained five or six people in the area over the weekend.

Ashleigh Brown and Cynthia Raygoza were convicted of stalking a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent after following him to his home in Baldwin Park on August 28, 2025. Both were acquitted of conspiring to publish the agent's personal information, while a third defendant, Sandra Samane, was acquitted of both charges. Brown and Raygoza each face up to five years in federal prison with sentencing scheduled for June 8, 2026.

ICE arrested and detained a Russian mother and daughter on December 18, 2025, for removal proceedings after they stopped reporting for immigration check-ins in November 2024. The petitioners had initially arrived at a U.S. port of entry in December 2021 and were released under the Alternative to Detention program. The federal court granted their habeas petition and ordered their release, finding their detention violated immigration law and due process.

A Canadian citizen residing in the U.S. since 2019 was arrested on December 18, 2025 during a USCIS interview for his green card application based on marriage to a U.S. citizen. He remained detained until February 3, 2026 when an immigration judge released him on bond, finding he posed no flight risk or danger. Despite the judge's determination, ICE placed him on an ankle monitor and in intensive supervision, prompting his habeas petition challenging the conditions as violating his due process rights.

A noncitizen was detained on December 18, 2025, after having been previously released on bond or conditional parole. The government re-detained him without providing a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter, as required by the Due Process Clause. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging his immigration detention. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California found that the government violated his constitutional rights by failing to provide a pre-deprivation bond hearing before re-detaining him. The court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release with the same conditions he was subject to before December 18, 2025. The court also established that if the government seeks to re-detain him in the future, it must provide at least seven days' notice and hold a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter.

Families of immigrants arrested in a federal ICE surge in Maine are struggling to find basic information about their detained relatives as the government rapidly transfers them to detention facilities across multiple states. Erik Orellana-Mejia was arrested at his worksite on January 20 and has since been transferred to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Louisiana, and Missouri. ICE has been building out detention and deportation infrastructure in New England and across the country to support intensified enforcement operations.

Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was convicted of obstructing federal agents from arresting an undocumented immigrant. Dugan allegedly helped an undocumented immigrant leave her courtroom in April to avoid arrest by ICE agents waiting in the hallway. She was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge.

Yessica Rivera Sanchez, who had lived in Las Vegas for over two decades, was detained by ICE agents at Honolulu airport on December 18 as she exited a plane during a family vacation. Her daughter Jessivet Sanchez, who turned 21 in September and had just filed an I-130 family petition on her behalf, was present when her mother was taken into custody without prior warning. Although Sanchez had attempted to pursue legal status through a 2003 political asylum application and had visas that did not expire until 2005, she was unaware of a removal order issued after her asylum appeal was denied in 2004. After being transferred through detention centers in California, Texas, and Louisiana, Sanchez was deported to El Salvador in late December. Her daughter has hired an immigration attorney and started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees as the family explores options to bring her back.

A 20-year-old from Guatemala who received legal status in 2022 under the child separation settlement was arrested by ICE agents at a gas station in December 2025. He was detained in Florida before being transferred to Louisiana. On December 18, 2025, despite ACLU lawyers emailing Department of Justice officials to contend that an existing court order should prevent his deportation, Homeland Security placed him on a flight to Guatemala.

Babblejit Kaur, an Indian-origin woman who has lived in the United States since 1994, was detained by ICE agents while attending a biometric interview for her green card application at a USCIS office. She had no criminal record, was sponsored by her daughter who is a green card holder, and worked for decades as a restaurant businesswoman and store employee. The detention occurred amid increased scrutiny of Indian nationals under new H-1B visa vetting policies announced in 2025.

Walter Francisco Cerrato Cabrera, a 48-year-old Honduran deckhand who had worked on oyster boats for 20 years, drowned on December 18 while jumping into Bayou La Loutre to avoid U.S. Coast Guard agents who had stopped at the docks. Cerrato and a younger coworker jumped from their boat when agents approached, but Cerrato, who could not swim, drowned in the bayou. The incident occurred amid increased immigration enforcement operations in lower St. Bernard Parish.

Jose Cadena-Velasquez, a 49-year-old Mexican national living in Fargo, was arrested by Border Patrol and ICE agents during a traffic stop after a months-long investigation based on a tip that he was in the country illegally and using fraudulent documents. When agents stopped his vehicle and asked him to exit, Cadena refused and locked the doors, prompting agents to break the window and use physical restraint techniques to extract him. He was charged with possession of false immigration identification documents, use of a false Social Security number, and assaulting or resisting a federal officer.

Seven people detained by ICE at a California immigration detention center filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on November 12, describing severe medical neglect and inhumane conditions. One detainee, Fernando Viera Reyes, reports being denied medication and urgent treatment for likely prostate cancer while in custody.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 24-year-old Vanessa Parrazal on December 17 outside Pinehurst Elementary School in Salisbury, Maryland, moments after she dropped off her child. The arrest occurred in the 400 block of Pinehurst Avenue, near but not on school property. A witness reported the arrest involved physical force.

Ernesto Cuevas Enciso, a 34-year-old Detroit construction worker, was detained by ICE on December 6, 2025, while heading to a job site in Ypsilanti. Cuevas Enciso immigrated from Mexico at age three and has lived in the United States since childhood. He is married to a U.S. citizen, father of a one-year-old daughter, and holds valid work authorization and a Michigan driver's license while his green card application is pending. A former DACA recipient, he lost that status due to nonviolent misdemeanor offenses from over a decade ago. His sister Miriam Stone confirmed he was carrying his identification when picked up. Eight Michigan Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and State Sen. Stephanie Chang, along with faith leaders and city officials, wrote letters urging ICE to release him on bond before his December 17 immigration hearing. Cuevas Enciso is being held at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan.

A man who entered the US in 1989 and has four adult US citizen children was detained by ICE on December 16, 2025. An Immigration Judge had granted him cancellation of removal in March 2023, but the Board of Immigration Appeals reversed that decision in April 2026 and ordered his removal to Mexico. The court denied his habeas petition, finding his detention lawful under federal immigration law.

Abdikadir Abdi Noor, a 43-year-old Somali-American citizen from Fridley, was pulled over and arrested by ICE on December 15 outside Karmel Mall in Minneapolis. He is a named plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit alleging ICE violated constitutional rights of observers and protesters during the agency's ramped-up raids in Minnesota targeting the state's Somali community.

A confrontation occurred in south Minneapolis when dozens of residents gathered as ICE agents operated near Lake Street and Pillsbury Avenue. During the incident, federal agents used pepper spray and at least one Taser on observers as the crowd attempted to prevent the arrest of a woman reported to be pregnant. Local law enforcement responded to assist ICE agents in leaving the scene.