Human Impact Project

Pedro Fernández, an undocumented Cuban national with a prior cocaine trafficking conviction, was detained by ICE agents in Hialeah, Florida on May 7, 2026. The detention was part of a broader ICE operation targeting undocumented immigrants with serious criminal convictions, including sexual abuse of minors, assault, drug trafficking, and other felonies. Fernández lacked documentation confirming legal residence in the United States and faces deportation proceedings.

Eliana G. was detained before her asylum court proceedings began in 2025. After losing her asylum case, she waived her right to appeal and elected to self-deport. Despite this choice, she remained in ICE custody across Arizona and Louisiana detention facilities for over seven months awaiting travel documents. A court designated Ecuador as her third-country deportation location despite her being originally from Honduras, but she has not been given an opportunity to contest this choice. She has two children, ages 10 and 2, living with family members in Western Massachusetts.

Maikel Rojas, a 45-year-old Cuban, was released from Alligator Alcatraz detention center in March 2026 after nearly five months in custody and subsequently issued a removal order requiring self-deportation by August 4, 2026. The order requires him to obtain a Cuban passport and purchase a one-way airline ticket while wearing an electronic ankle monitor. Rojas, who arrived from Cuba in 2004 and was convicted as an accomplice to a crime in 2005 with a 13-year sentence, faces uncertainty about whether Cuba will accept his deportation and fears re-arrest by immigration authorities.

A Newport man was arrested by ICE agents on Monday. According to ICE, the man has an extensive criminal record and has been deported four times previously.

Jeury Concepcion, 19, was chased down and taken to the ground by ICE agents near East Gun Hill Road and Hull Avenue in the Bronx in a case of mistaken identity. He was left bloodied and bruised, requiring several stitches. Concepcion was eventually released after producing his ID to prove he was not the suspect the agents were seeking.

Sanan Atou, 43, who spent most of his life in Michigan, was deported to Iraq despite not being an Iraqi citizen. The Detroit Free Press reported on his case, highlighting the circumstances of his deportation.

ICE agents conducted a 9-hour standoff at a residential property in Antioch, California, and arrested Miguel Antonio Blanco, who lived at one address. The agents were targeting Gerson Manuel Portillo-Escobar, wanted for human trafficking, who lived a few houses away at a different address. According to the family, agents were told multiple times they had the wrong person but proceeded with the arrest anyway.

A three-year-old girl was separated from her mother at the U.S.-Mexico border on September 16, 2025, and placed in federal immigration custody under the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). She was held in an ORR-funded foster home in Harlingen, Texas, where she was sexually abused by an older child in the home in November 2025. Her father, a legal permanent resident living in Chicago, filed a federal habeas corpus petition in February 2026 after ORR delayed reunification for five months despite his sponsor application being approved. ORR officials did not initially disclose the sexual abuse to the father. The girl was forensically examined and the allegations were reported to law enforcement. She was released to her father two days after the petition was filed.

ICE arrested Luis Manuel Saucedo-Cardenas, a 40-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico with a criminal record including assault, burglary, and drug offenses, after Chicago police released him despite being aware of a federal arrest warrant. Chicago police had detained Saucedo-Cardenas but did not transfer him to ICE despite multiple requests, citing the city's sanctuary policies.

Two immigrants, one with a scheduled check-in on May 25, 2026 and the other on May 27, 2026, sought emergency protection from ICE detention during their scheduled check-ins. The U.S. District Court for Massachusetts granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting ICE officials from arresting, detaining, or removing the petitioners during their mandatory check-ins. The court order is effective until June 5, 2026.

A Cuban man who entered the United States without inspection on March 18, 2022, and has since accrued no criminal history. He was detained by ICE shortly after entry, then released on his own recognizance in March 2022, during which time he established a life in the US with his spouse, who filed an Alien Relative Petition on his behalf in February 2025. On May 6, 2026, he was re-detained by ICE at a scheduled check-in without explanation, notice of changed circumstances, or a hearing. He was transferred to the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico. On May 14, 2026, he filed a habeas corpus petition arguing his re-detention violated the Due Process Clause and the Immigration and Nationality Act. On May 27, 2026, the federal court granted his petition, finding that he possessed a protected liberty interest in his release, that a pre-deprivation hearing was required before re-detention, and that the Mathews factors weighed in his favor. The court ordered his immediate release within 24 hours and prohibited further re-detention unless ICE demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that he is a danger to the community or a flight risk.

Masked federal agents detained at least six workers outside the Hilltop Community Children's Center in Pittsburgh's Knoxville neighborhood on the morning of May 6, 2026. The operation occurred in a parking lot across the street from the daycare while parents were dropping off children at a nearby elementary school. Daycare staff used whistles and a toy drum to alert neighbors. Three of the detained workers, employed by a local roofing company, were subsequently released; several others remained in custody.

Milana Swope, a trafficking survivor who arrived in the U.S. on a fiancée visa in 2001, was detained by ICE in September 2025 during a routine check-in she had maintained for over 20 years. She received a removal order in 2003 after leaving an abusive first marriage but remained under ICE supervision while raising her child in the U.S. After nearly eight months in detention at ICE's Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana, Swope faces deportation to Russia, where she has not lived since the early 2000s and where ongoing conflict presents safety concerns. Her attorney states ICE has not previously sought her removal despite the standing order, and questions why the agency is not recognizing her status as a trafficking victim.

ICE officers stopped a vehicle on Springfield Avenue in Maplewood and arrested four men. The Maplewood Police Department was not involved in the incident and was not contacted by federal law enforcement to assist.

Javier Ramirez, a U.S. citizen, was detained for five days after being racially profiled by ICE during a traffic stop in Nashville. Body camera footage reveals ICE and state troopers targeting Black and brown drivers for minor traffic infractions while using fewer enforcement actions against white drivers.

Federal prosecutors have dismissed charges against 14 of 36 people who were arrested and charged with assaulting immigration agents during a winter enforcement operation. Prosecutors are continuing cases against the remaining defendants, including one case a judge has described as "perplexing."

ICE agents raided OK Service, a gutter company in Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania, on the morning of May 6, 2026, detaining six workers at a job site. Surveillance video captured employees running as agents chased them near the work location. The business owner stated that the workers had documentation showing they were in the immigration process, with at least one holding a valid green card. At least three of the detained workers were released within hours of the detention. Immigration agents detained at least six or seven employees at OK Service LLC, a roofing and construction company in Pittsburgh's Knoxville neighborhood, in an apparent ICE raid on Tuesday. Video showed masked agents detaining workers in the parking lot across from Hilltop Community Children's Center, causing a chaotic scene. Three of the detained workers were subsequently released. ICE officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jose Arnulfo Guerrero Orellana, an unauthorized immigrant from El Salvador who entered the U.S. unlawfully in 2013, was arrested at a traffic stop in Massachusetts. He is challenging the Trump administration's policy of mandatory detention for all unauthorized immigrants without bond hearings through a class action lawsuit, Guerrero Orellana v. Moniz et al. The case argues the policy contradicts the Immigration and Nationality Act and long-standing government practice. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the case, with federal appellate courts currently split on the issue and Supreme Court review increasingly likely.

A 44-year-old Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. on an H2B work visa in 2004 and had lived in Colorado for over 20 years was detained by ICE on May 5, 2026, following a petty offense arrest. Despite demonstrating strong ties to the community through business ownership, tax compliance, and custody of a U.S. citizen daughter, an Immigration Judge denied his bond on June 3, 2026. The federal court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding he was improperly detained under § 1225(b) and ordered a bond hearing by July 7, 2026, where the government must prove by clear and convincing evidence that he poses a flight risk or danger to the community.

ICE arrested Gabriel Maror Ayuel, 55, a Sudanese national, in Nashville on May 5, 2026, following a months-long investigation. Ayuel was convicted of first-degree attempted murder in 2003 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, with additional convictions including aggravated assault, DUI, and felony flight to avoid prosecution. An immigration judge issued a final removal order in July 2008, but Ayuel remained in the United States for over 17 years in violation of that order. He remains in ICE custody pending removal.