Human Impact Project

Polina (born 2002) and Alexandra (born 2005), sisters from Belarus, have been detained at the California border for over 9 months. Their initial lawyer failed to properly defend them in court and stopped cooperating with the family. The sisters were denied habeas corpus twice due to legal errors and now face deportation to Belarus while awaiting a new asylum application. They have documented health issues and are seeking legal and financial support to continue their case.

A man was detained by ICE during an interview at the immigration office in Philadelphia while applying for adjustment of status (green card). He had a final exclusion order issued 30 years prior but no criminal history in the intervening decades. Under current immigration policies, ICE is detaining anyone with a final exclusion order who applies for adjustment of status, and he has been denied access to habeas corpus relief. His family is seeking legal options to prevent his deportation.

An older Russian man who crossed at a port of entry and requested asylum in August 2024 was hospitalized days later for stroke-like symptoms while detained at Otay Mesa. He was cuffed to his hospital bed despite half his body being paralyzed, and upon return to detention received no mobility support until other detainees filed grievance reports on his behalf. He continued to lose consciousness regularly and was eventually released on parole in February 2025 after six months in detention.

Carol Black, a Jamaican-born lawful permanent resident who moved to New York in 1983, was detained by ICE in 2019 for seven months without a bond hearing following a 2000 sex abuse conviction for which he had completed probation. Unable to obtain a hearing to post bond while deportation proceedings continued, Black filed a federal habeas petition arguing the detention violated his constitutional due process rights. During the proceedings, Black sold his home and business and voluntarily left the United States after 40 years of residency. His case is now before the Supreme Court, which will decide whether ICE can hold lawful permanent residents indefinitely without bond hearings.

A 39-year-old Russian man held at Otay Mesa Detention Center for 17 months filed multiple grievance reports documenting severe sanitary conditions, including only two working urinals and one sink for over 100 detainees, which led to an outbreak of eye infections. He also filed grievance reports on behalf of other detainees, including an older man who needed mobility support after a stroke. He was released in 2026 after exhausting oversight channels that were subsequently gutted under the Trump administration.

Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, a 22-year-old mother born in Laurel, Maryland, was detained by ICE near her Baltimore home on December 14, 2025, stemming from a 2023 CBP encounter in Arizona where she was recorded claiming Mexican citizenship. Despite her family and attorneys presenting a Maryland birth certificate, hospital birth records, and fingerprints, DHS maintained she was not a citizen and pursued removal proceedings against her. A federal judge blocked her deportation days after her arrest, but she remained in custody for 25 days, transferred five times through facilities in Louisiana, Texas, and New Jersey, spending Christmas away from her young son. She was released on January 7, 2026, with an ankle monitor and reunited with her 5-year-old son. Her attorneys maintained the documentation clearly established her citizenship. On June 17, 2026, DHS dismissed her deportation case after confirming her birth in Maryland, and she obtained a U.S. passport.

A 22-year-old woman was detained by police in Hamilton, Tennessee, who then contacted ICE, leading to her transfer into immigration custody. She was moved to a jail in Etowah County, Alabama, before being transferred to a facility in Louisiana after three days. Her girlfriend, who organized a fundraiser to cover legal and bond costs, described her as hardworking, cheerful, and always willing to help others; she also cares for her 14-year-old brother.

Keisy G.M., a lawful permanent resident from the Dominican Republic who has lived in New York City since 2011, was detained by ICE for 21 months without receiving a bond hearing. G.M. was arrested in October 2020 after being charged with assault following a fight and served a two-year sentence. Throughout his detention, the government sought to deport him without providing an individualized bond hearing to determine whether continued detention was justified. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2024 that his prolonged detention violated due process, and G.M. was ultimately released following a court order. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Genalo v. Black, which will determine whether the Constitution requires the government to provide bond hearings for lawful permanent residents in deportation proceedings and whether due process requires the government to justify continued detention by clear and convincing evidence.

Rozenna Nazia Ali, from Fiji, was detained by ICE on June 17, 2026, after agents visited her residence and located her at a motel in Allison, Iowa. Ali was a former international student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and worked at Allison Bible Church in Butler County on a student visa. According to her family, she came to the United States in 2017 to pursue higher education as part of a missionary family and has no criminal record. Her sister stated Ali aspires to become a mental health counselor. The detention is part of a broader wave of ICE enforcement actions targeting immigrants with community ties.

The Tohono O'odham Nation filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to block construction of 62 miles of border wall across its tribal lands. Tribal leaders argue the project unlawfully takes tribal land, damages sacred cultural sites, and interferes with religious practices. The federal government planned to award construction contracts in June 2026.

On June 17, 2026, ICE agents stopped a vehicle on Highway 59 near Mobile, Alabama, and detained Alejandro Alvarado Ramírez, leaving his 5-year-old son Ericson/Erikson alone in the car at a church parking lot. An ICE agent provided the child with his father's phone to contact his mother. The child's mother called a babysitter, and when the babysitter's 20-year-old twins arrived at the parking lot to retrieve the child, ICE agents approached them, requested identification, and photographed their licenses before departing. Advocates raised concerns about the safety risks posed by leaving a young child unattended during the detention.

Michel Manuel Garcia Rojas, a 39-year-old Nicaraguan national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2023, was arrested on March 5, 2025, when Homeland Security Investigations agents attempted to detain him for deportation. During the arrest, Garcia Rojas resisted and assaulted a federal agent, striking him in the face and throwing him repeatedly into a door, causing injuries including jaw bruising and a back injury. It took six officers and a Taser to subdue him. Garcia Rojas pleaded guilty on February 9, 2026, to resisting, impeding, and assaulting a federal officer and inflicting bodily injury. He was sentenced on June 17, 2026, to 51 months in federal prison, after which he will face deportation to Nicaragua.

Fidel Ramos, 52, a previously deported registered sex offender, was captured during a forced-entry tactical raid at a residence in Grimes County, Texas on June 17, 2026. Ramos had illegally re-entered the United States after deportation and was living in the Bedias area while failing to register as required. He was taken into custody on a third-degree felony charge of Failure to Register as a Sex Offender, with an active federal immigration detainer placed against him. The operation was triggered by a newly reported sexual assault of a child case under investigation by local authorities.

In May 2026, 14-year-old Dilan Maney Paredes and his mother, Margoth Paredes-Ortiz, were detained by ICE in the Tempe area. Paredes-Ortiz was arrested at a Walmart, and her son was taken into custody outside Cecil Shamley School. Both were transferred to Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas, where they were held for approximately 20 days in conditions described as prison-like. They were released in June 2026 pursuant to the Flores Settlement Agreement, which limits child detention to 20 days. Rep. Greg Stanton's office submitted a congressional inquiry to ICE and coordinated with advocates on the case. The family returned to Arizona, where they will remain while their case proceeds before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

On June 17, 2026, ICE agents detained three people—a man, a woman, and a child—at the Bridgeview Courthouse in Illinois. The man had run through courthouse security before deputies stopped him; ICE then handcuffed and removed him, claiming to possess an arrest warrant that was never presented for inspection. The woman and child were detained earlier that morning as they attempted to enter the courthouse. State and local officials, including State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid and multiple elected representatives, characterized the detentions as violations of Illinois state law and a Cook County court order prohibiting civil immigration arrests at courthouses without judicial warrants.

Wilber Urbina Garcia, an 18-year-old honors graduate from Jordan High School in South Los Angeles, was detained by ICE on June 10, 2026, during a routine check-in appointment at a federal courthouse the morning after his graduation ceremony. Garcia's family fled Nicaragua in late 2022 seeking asylum due to political persecution and were in asylum proceedings with valid work permits at the time of his detention. Teachers described Wilber as shy but disciplined, with leadership roles by senior year, and he had dreamed of becoming a doctor and registered for fall classes at El Camino College. During the check-in, ICE agents separated Wilber from his mother in an interview room and took him into custody. His attorney stated that ICE agents told the family Wilber was no longer covered under his mother's asylum case because he had turned 18, though as a derivative applicant filed before age 21, he should remain tied to the case. Wilber was detained at Adelanto ICE Processing Center. His mother and eldest brother subsequently entered removal proceedings and were fitted with ankle monitors. An ICE agent told the family that Wilber's 17-year-old sister would face detention when she turns 18.

ICE arrests have increased 136% in Wyoming and 924% in Idaho since Trump returned to office in January 2025. From March to early July, ICE picked up 51 people from Teton County jail after the sheriff began honoring federal detainer requests. About three-quarters of those arrested in 2025 have no serious criminal convictions, according to analysis.

Diego Armando Escalona Polanco, a 19-year-old Chipotle cook in Orlando, was detained by ICE agents following a Florida Highway Patrol traffic stop for a vehicle registration issue. Unable to afford legal representation and facing unfavorable odds in his case, Escalona signed paperwork to self-deport. He spent 42 days at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami before being transported through four states in shackles and flown to Venezuela, where he reunited with family in Maracaibo after 11 years living in the United States.

A 19-year-old Russian citizen lawfully entered the United States on a visa in 2022 at age 16 with his parents and younger sister. His father filed an asylum application listing him as a derivative beneficiary before his visa expired in September 2022. USCIS granted him work authorization in July 2024 while his asylum application remained pending. He graduated from high school, worked lawfully at two jobs, obtained a Florida driver's license, and has no criminal history. On June 16, 2026, Border Patrol agents stopped him while he was driving to work without a traffic violation, arrested him for visa overstay despite his pending asylum application, and transported him to Golden State Annex Detention Facility in McFarland, California. After being detained for over 40 days with his bond hearing postponed to August 5, 2026, he filed a habeas corpus petition. The federal court granted the petition and ordered his immediate release, ruling that due process required a pre-deprivation bond hearing before detention given his four years of government-sanctioned liberty while his asylum case proceeded.

A noncitizen subject to an order of supervision under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b) since 2013 was informed by an ICE officer at a routine check-in on June 16, 2026, that ICE planned to remove him to a third country and instructed him to return with a plane ticket for El Salvador, Guatemala, or Mexico, with threats of deportation to Africa if he did not cooperate. An Immigration Judge had previously granted him withholding of removal in 2022, finding he would likely face persecution in Honduras based on his sexual orientation. The court is examining whether he received proper notice and due process protections regarding the threatened removal and whether a bond hearing is required before any detention.