Human Impact Project

Rapheal Oludemilade Adebowale, a Nigerian national, was arrested by ICE in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, as part of a Department of Homeland Security enforcement operation. Adebowale had been previously convicted of larceny and money laundering in Massachusetts following a jury trial, after a motion to dismiss the indictment against him was denied. DHS also arrested Jawwad Ali Ahmed, a Pakistani national with a prior conviction in Sacramento, California, and Alexandre Esdras Pandolfi-Soares, a Brazilian national with a prior conviction in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the same operation. DHS described the men as priority targets but did not disclose further details about their immigration status, pending court dates, or the specific immigration allegations against them. Adebowale now faces immigration proceedings and possible removal from the United States.

Carlos Josué Marchena Marchena, a 36-year-old Costa Rican national from Guanacaste who worked as a ride service driver and had four children, died on September 18, 2026 after being found unresponsive at Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, where he was later pronounced dead. He had been detained since January and was moved between facilities in several states, with his cousin saying his care had been adequate in Michigan but grew inconsistent after later transfers. His sister, girlfriend, and a detainee in a neighboring cell said he had complained of missed insulin shots, missed meals, spoiled food, and insufficient water, and that in the day before his death he was vomiting, sweating, and turned pale purple; his girlfriend said he called around midnight saying his medication wasn't helping. ICE said his medical care was appropriate, while the fellow detainee said he received only irregular insulin shots and a single pill for his symptoms. Marchena had requested bail and voluntary deportation to Costa Rica, both denied, and friends said he had migrated seeking better opportunities for his children. He is at least the third detainee to die in less than six months at the Louisiana facility and the 58th ICE detainee to die since January 2025; a prior federal inspection had found Winn fell short of medical care and food service standards. A GoFundMe was launched to help return his body to Costa Rica while the family awaits autopsy results.

Arsalan Saleh Fard (referred to as "Ali" in one account), a 25-year-old Christian convert from Qazvin Province, Iran, fled after being pursued by Iran's intelligence services and the Basij paramilitary force. He struggled to find work because of tattoos, and when a bank refused to hire him over them, he burned one off himself — only to then be rejected for appearing mentally unstable. After crossing the U.S. border to seek asylum, he was expelled to Panama on a military flight in January/February 2025 without an asylum hearing, as part of a group of 299 migrants deported there weeks after President Trump's inauguration. Eighteen months later, he remains stranded in Panama with no clear path to permanent refuge, at times sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Bella Mosselmans, a human rights lawyer who directs the Global Strategic Litigation Council and represents deportees sent to Panama, said such outcomes are an inevitable result of sending migrants to a country with a nonfunctioning asylum system, language barriers, and little access to legal counsel.

Unmarked vehicles carrying agents wearing 'ERO' patches, identifying them as ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, entered a Home Depot parking lot in Concord early one morning and detained up to five day laborers who were waiting for work. Advocates with the Concord Immigrant Protections Network said the detained individuals' names and whereabouts remain unknown, and that ICE has not responded to requests for information. Advocates and community members rallied outside the store the following day, calling on Home Depot and city officials to take action to protect immigrant workers.

Frank Duran, a Cargill meat plant worker, and his 20-year-old daughter, Guadalupe Navarrete, who works at National Beef, were followed by an ICE vehicle with sirens while driving home from work and pulled over. An officer demanded that Navarrete roll down her window and show identification without responding when she asked if he had a warrant or why they were stopped. Both are U.S. citizens who have lived in Kansas their entire lives, and Navarrete was left shaking and crying after the encounter, telling her father, 'We're both born here in Kansas. We're legal citizens, Dad. They profiled us.'

A New Bedford man from Guatemala, who arrived four years ago and had permission to work in the U.S. while his asylum application was pending, was arrested by ICE agents while on break from his job at an auto repair shop. According to his brother Nicolás, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of being targeted himself, the man did not immediately open his car door when agents approached, and an agent smashed the car window to pull him out. Nicolás, whose sister was also arrested during a 2007 immigration raid in New Bedford, said he later spoke with his brother by phone from ICE's Burlington, Massachusetts headquarters.

Two employees at Charra's and Tequila restaurant in north Bismarck were taken into ICE custody, according to a Facebook post from a person representing the business. The employees were not U.S. citizens but held permanent resident status and valid, unexpired work authorization; one of them was the owner's nephew. The restaurant's owner said the business would close temporarily, adding that staff were "scared" and the team was "in shock" after the arrests.

João Ferreira, 59, a Portuguese national with a green card, was taken into custody early Tuesday morning in Dartmouth while driving to a landscaping job in New Bedford, along with a Brazilian man traveling with him. Ferreira had a 1992 case involving indecent assault and exposure charges that was continued without a finding and later closed, and a 2009 conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon resulting in probation. In 2019, Customs and Border Protection stopped him at Logan Airport and began removal proceedings citing a crime of moral turpitude; he later filed a motion for a new trial arguing he had not been properly informed of his rights, but court records show no resolution to that motion.

Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, five ICE agents in four vehicles arrested two men taken from a vehicle stopped in front of Restaurante y Tortilleria Guatemalteco on Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. Volunteers from LUCE New Bedford blew whistles and shouted at the agents while a reporter's questions about the arrests went unanswered; the driver identified one of the men only as "Mario Aguilar." Agents blocked further questioning before driving away with the men in custody.

Dannick Massamba-Bankela, a corrections officer at the Cumberland County Jail, was detained by ICE agents following a scheduled appointment at the agency's Scarborough office. He came to the United States from the Republic of Congo in 2023, applied for asylum within three months, and holds work authorization with no criminal record. He previously worked as a transportation coordinator for a Portland assisted-living facility and is the sole breadwinner for his wife and two young children, whom he told he loved before his appointment. Protesters said he arrived at the office with his children but was told to return later without them. His attorney, Christina Corbaci, said he entered legally on a visa and has a pending asylum claim, but ICE cited a visa overstay as the reason for detention; she called him courageous and said he anticipated the detention. He is being held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, and Corbaci plans to file a motion for a bond hearing. He is the fifth known Cumberland County corrections officer detained by ICE, following the detentions of Nilton Ribeiro of Angola in August and a York County corrections officer in January.

A man doing landscaping work for Tommy Builders was detained by six to eight federal agents near Fifth Street in North Everett on a Monday morning. Video recorded by homeowner Jennifer Gordon shows masked agents in tactical vests reading 'Police' and 'Immigration and Customs Enforcement' pulling the man from a work truck as he shouted for help in English and Spanish, said 'They don't have a warrant,' and said 'I can't breathe' while agents leaned over him. A second man working with him ran from the scene. Gordon said the agents wore no badges or identification and used unmarked vehicles; when she asked to see a warrant, an agent told her, 'I don't have to show it to you,' and later photographed her house and address before leaving, which she said felt intimidating. A neighbor said an agent claimed the man was being arrested over a murder allegation in his home country, but ICE declined to confirm details or release his name, citing privacy concerns.

Yeferson Francisco Sequera Ruiz, a 31-year-old immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is being held in a Texas detention center. According to immigration, state and federal court records, he has no criminal convictions and is facing deportation.

Malena Chacón Santos, a 24-year-old Cuban woman who entered the U.S. legally in November 2024 through the CBP One app and applied for asylum, was detained by ICE in November 2025 after voluntarily attending a routine immigration supervision appointment in Dallas. She was transferred to the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, more than 175 miles from home, where she has remained for nearly 10 months. In February 2025, she married Juan Carlos Alvarez, a U.S. Army veteran who lives with disabilities including depression, anxiety and arthritis, and became stepmother to his three children. Alvarez drives three hours every Sunday to visit her, and the couple speaks by phone daily. Her attorney filed a federal habeas corpus petition in May 2026, which a judge denied with prejudice on August 4. Chacón Santos says she has no criminal convictions and is still awaiting a decision on her case.

Malick, a pseudonym for a Senegalese man who fled to the United States in 2023 citing safety concerns, had obtained a work permit and a legal protection called withholding of removal that barred his deportation to his home country. Despite this protection, he was placed on a deportation flight to Ghana under a third-country removal agreement, alongside another deportee, Rabbiatu Kuyateh. 'I had started a new life in the United States,' he said. 'I felt safe.' After arriving in Ghana, he was sent to a remote military camp guarded by soldiers with little electricity or communication. He filmed video showing Kuyateh being forcibly dragged into a van, and after the footage spread online, Ghanaian troops arrived at the camp at night with trucks of soldiers.

Nika, a 32-year-old Iranian woman who fled Iran after protesting the regime and losing friends in the government's crackdown, had been granted 'withholding of removal' by a US immigration judge to prevent her return to Iran. She was released from ICE custody on May 28, 2026, but days later was re-arrested during what officers called a routine check-in in California. She was handcuffed, shackled, and placed on a deportation flight with 17 other migrants to the Central African Republic, a country she said she had never heard of or visited. Since arriving in Bangui, she has largely stayed indoors out of fear, been stopped by local police demanding bribes, and was hospitalized after contracting malaria. Her immigration lawyer is now filing a federal lawsuit seeking to bring her back to the US and reopen her asylum claim.

Teresa Ochoa was detained by ICE agents at her workplace in Alamo, Texas, and, according to a local advocate, was deported shortly afterward. Her 17-year-old son, Luis Ochoa, a U.S. citizen, had been arrested by immigration agents days earlier after witnessing an apprehension near a Marine Corps recruiting office; he said agents offered him money to stay silent and threatened to detain his undocumented relatives if he kept speaking publicly. Advocacy groups We the People RGV and Carnalismo Brown Berets are calling for a congressional hearing and independent investigation into the family's case. DHS did not address questions about Teresa's detention or the alleged threats against Luis.

Three undocumented brothers from Honduras who shared an apartment in New Bedford were detained by ICE agents in the parking lot of a Market Basket while doing their family's weekly grocery run. Their sister-in-law, Maria, said federal vehicles surrounded the men as they arrived, and agents were 'pretty aggressive' toward the brother who was driving, twisting his arm behind his back. The family says none of the three, who worked in construction and as laborers, have criminal records, and one had lived in the U.S. for 14 years. Their elderly mother has been especially distressed, with Maria describing the brothers as 'hardworking and very kind' people who doted on their baby niece.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested four people during a targeted enforcement operation in Moab, Utah. ICE said two were Mexican nationals with final removal orders or prior voluntary departures who had re-entered the country, while the other two were Turkish nationals described as being in the country without authorization, with no further details provided on their cases. ICE did not disclose where the four are being held, which part of the agency conducted the operation, or whether any had criminal convictions. Grand County Sheriff Jamison Wiggins said he was not notified in advance, and both his office and Moab Police said they did not assist with or participate in the operation, though officers did respond to a 911 call during a traffic stop where an ICE arrest occurred. The Moab Valley Multicultural Center activated its emergency protocol, offering free rides and information to residents concerned about the ICE presence, and confirmed ICE left the county alongside the Grand County Sheriff's Office, though it could not independently verify how many people were taken.

More than a dozen people were booked into the Burleigh Morton Detention Center after ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents carried out enforcement activity in the Bismarck-Mandan area beginning Sept. 21. Of the 13 individuals, ranging in age from 19 to 58, nine had addresses in Bismarck, one had an address in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and three had unknown or unlisted addresses. The Burleigh County Sheriff's Department said it was contacted by HSI ahead of the operation and assigned a liaison, while local Bismarck police said they were not asked to assist.

At least two dozen immigrants were detained by ICE agents in roadside stops and workplace encounters across New Bedford, Dartmouth, and Fall River, Massachusetts over Monday and Tuesday, according to immigrant advocacy groups. Advocates said people were picked up while getting gas, buying sandwiches at Market Basket, dropping off spouses at work, and at a Dartmouth Mall restaurant, with most of those detained from Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Gov. Maura Healey said many of those arrested had lived in the state for years with families, including a father with several children at home, including a 1-month-old baby, and an 8-year-old boy left waiting at school when his father was detained; New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said at least eight of those detained had no criminal records beyond minor motor vehicle violations, and attorneys with the Habeas Project have filed petitions to contest the detentions and prevent transfers out of state.