Human Impact Project

ICE agents conducted workplace enforcement actions at Manitou Equipment America and Global Polymer Industries in Madison, South Dakota on May 13, 2025. Eight workers were arrested on immigration violations across the two facilities: two from Nicaragua and one from El Salvador at Manitou Equipment, and three from Nicaragua and two from Guatemala at Global Polymer Industries. All eight were taken into federal custody and are pending deportation proceedings. ICE stated the raids were based on information about illegal employment operations.

Two men were detained by ICE agents in Waltham after one agent broke a van window during the encounter on Tuesday. A 16-year-old witness recorded the incident and informed the men of their rights. It remains unclear what charges the men face or the reasons for their arrest.

Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti, a 32-year-old Venezuelan national living in the U.S. illegally, was arrested by ICE on May 13, 2025, in connection with a December 2, 2024 mass shooting at a Chicago house party that killed three people and injured five others. She allegedly drove the two gunmen to the scene and helped them evade law enforcement. Occhipinti had overstayed her visa after entering under the Visa Waiver Program in October 2021.

Daniela Joly Serrano Landin, a 24-year-old Colombian asylum seeker married to an active-duty U.S. Army soldier, was arrested by ICE on May 12 after an ankle monitor malfunctioned, despite being granted parole. She was held at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia and later transferred to El Paso Processing Center. On Wednesday, she was released on a $10,000 bond after a hearing where her attorney argued her case.

Coast Guard agents rescued two migrants who were struggling to swim back to Mexico across the Rio Grande near the Texas border. The migrants had initially made landfall on the U.S. side with a group before attempting to return to Mexico. After rejecting medical assistance, they were taken to the Rio Grande Valley Central Processing Center.

ICE agents surrounded a family's vehicle on Mother's Day, smashed the passenger window, and detained Daniel Flores-Martinez in front of his wife and three children as they drove to church. The agents used unmarked vehicles, some wore vests labeled "police" while others were unmarked, and did not provide a warrant or explain why Flores-Martinez was being arrested. The family filed a complaint seeking $1 million in damages, alleging violations of Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and that the agents deliberately chose to arrest Flores-Martinez while he was with his family. ICE agents conducted a vehicle stop in Chelsea on Friday morning to detain Jose Ramírez-Perez, who was in the country illegally and facing felony charges. During the stop, agents forcefully detained multiple family members including Hilda Ramírez, a legal permanent resident and mother of a 13-year-old U.S. citizen with autism. Video footage shows agents pressing and dragging Ramírez to the ground, breaking car windows, and temporarily detaining her son, resulting in hospitalization for both mother and child.

Carlos De La Garza, a 55-year-old Berkeley resident and green card holder, was arrested in December at the end of a routine appointment related to his green card application by ICE officer Nolan De Long, who had been on the job for less than a month. De La Garza was wrongfully detained due to paperwork errors made by De Long. After De La Garza challenged his detention in federal court, government attorneys dropped their opposition to his release upon discovering the case relied on the officer's misrepresentations. De Long apologized for the errors.

Police in Worcester, Massachusetts restrained a 16-year-old girl on May 9, 2025 while ICE agents detained her mother. Video footage documents the incident. The girl was charged with reckless endangerment, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

Iris Dayana Monterroso Lemus, a Guatemalan woman, lost her son to a stillbirth while detained by ICE at Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana. The Trump administration publicly disputed her account, claiming she received full prenatal care, but federal documents later obtained by The Intercept show a lack of prenatal care and no record of a scheduled OB-GYN visit or ultrasound. Ten days after the stillbirth, Monterroso Lemus was shackled, put on a plane, and deported to Guatemala, causing her postpartum visit to be canceled. An OB-GYN physician who reviewed the records said the administration's denial appeared aimed at covering itself, while a senator called the treatment of pregnant women in custody unconscionable.

Jenifer Gomez Hernandez, a 15-year-old girl from Chiapas, Mexico, was abandoned in Eagle Pass, Texas after suffering heatstroke and injuring her foot during her journey. She was last heard from on May 9, 2025, when a third person called using her phone before contact was lost. A migrant search and advocacy organization is asking the public for any information that could help locate her.

Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was indicted on three counts of forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers following a May 9 incident at Newark's Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. The indictment, announced June 10 by U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, carries a maximum sentence of 17 years if convicted on all counts. McIver has pleaded not guilty and stated she was conducting lawful congressional oversight duties. McIver and her attorney deny the charges and characterize the prosecution as political retaliation.

Viktoriia Bulavina, a Ukrainian immigrant married to a U.S. citizen and applying for permanent residency, was arrested by ICE immediately after a green card interview in downtown San Diego. She was detained for three days in poor conditions, including an open toilet in view of guards, expired food, and denial of medication. Federal immigration officials released her after media coverage and attorney intervention.

Dian Peter Domach, 33, of South Sudan, was released on discretionary parole from Nebraska prison custody on May 2, 2025, and arrested by immigration authorities six days later. He was placed on a deportation flight to South Sudan that a federal judge later ruled violated a court order requiring migrants be given a meaningful opportunity to object to removal. Domach had prior convictions for robbery and possession of a deadly weapon, and represented himself in his appeals.

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.