Human Impact Project

The petitioner is a citizen of Nepal who entered the United States without authorization roughly four years before this order. In August 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A) pending his removal proceedings. He filed a habeas corpus petition seeking immediate release or, alternatively, a bond hearing. The court held that binding Fifth Circuit precedent forecloses his statutory argument, as § 1225(b)(2)(A) mandates detention without bond for unadmitted individuals like him throughout removal proceedings. The court also rejected his due process claims, finding both that a precedential stay order forecloses such claims and that, independently, his detention does not violate procedural or substantive due process. The court further noted that any prior release on recognizance under a different statute does not exempt him from mandatory detention here. His Fourth Amendment argument was likewise rejected. The court denied the habeas petition and all pending motions as moot.

Tareq Zakarneh, a 44-year-old Palestinian man who lived in Portland and Vancouver, Washington for more than a decade, has been in ICE detention since May 2024, mostly at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. He moved to the U.S. on a student visa in 2013 to attend Portland State University and later married a U.S. citizen, but lost his legal status after a divorce in 2017, when an immigration court found the marriage was not entered in good faith. Zakarneh said ICE agents beat him and broke his teeth on Sept. 9 after he refused to board a deportation flight to the West Bank via Tel Aviv, restraining him on the floor for four hours without access to water or a bathroom, leaving his hand and shoulder swollen and numb while he received only ibuprofen. Advocates and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden have raised concerns about his treatment and the danger he could face if deported amid escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

A man was arrested by ICE agents alongside Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers near 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Miami Beach. According to a witness account, two unmarked vehicles and a Florida Fish & Wildlife truck were used in the operation, and children were reportedly present as a school crossing guard had to stop traffic during the arrest. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has a 287(g) agreement with ICE authorizing its officers to conduct immigration arrests.

Marianela Pujol and Nelson José Díaz, a Venezuelan couple originally from Ciudad Ojeda, Zulia, were detained by ICE agents on the night of Sunday, September 6, while stopped at a Wawa charging station on 87th Avenue in Doral, Florida, to recharge their electric vehicle. The couple, who work as insurance agents, entered the U.S. legally in 2021 on a visa and have a still-pending asylum application. Their 21-year-old daughter, Daniela Pujol, said an officer told her mother there was no specific infraction but that she was being taken into custody because of the pending asylum case, leaving Daniela alone in the country. Family members said the couple has no criminal record, and Daniela has sought legal representation, appealed to a local council member and advocacy organizations, and started a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal defense costs.

Ernestina Pavlovsky, a 33-year-old Argentine personal trainer who lived in Aspen, Colorado for 13 years, was detained by plainclothes ICE agents at Miami International Airport on August 1 while returning from visiting family. She was held for several days in Miramar/Pompano Beach, Florida, where her partner said constant lighting felt like 'a torture chamber,' before being shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles and driven overnight to the CoreCivic-run Laredo Processing Center in Texas. She has no criminal record, had entered the U.S. on a tourist visa, and had a stalled application to regularize her status after a divorce from a U.S. citizen. She and her family described conditions at the Laredo facility including rats, cockroaches, ants, mold, contaminated water, restricted bottled-water access, and sleep deprivation from overnight guard patrols. A judge initially denied her bond over flight-risk concerns, but at a September 1 hearing granted her request for voluntary departure. She remains in ICE custody in Texas awaiting a flight back to Argentina, and supporters have raised roughly $50,000 through a GoFundMe campaign for her legal costs.

César David Miranda Pinedo, a Venezuelan father with a pending asylum case, was detained by ICE agents in South Florida on August 25 while returning from the pharmacy with medication for his 6-year-old daughter, who had been treated at a hospital the night before for a severe ear infection. His wife, Paola Álvarez, said he texted her 'ICE detained me' and left the medication and their car at Central Park before being taken into custody. Miranda Pinedo entered the U.S. legally in 2018 and had waited about eight years for a decision on his asylum application. He was transferred to the Krome Detention Center, and his attorney filed a habeas corpus petition arguing he should not be held without a formal charging document. His wife, whose own immigration status is also pending, said she has prepared a legal power of attorney for their two daughters in case she too is detained. Immigrant rights organizations in South Florida are calling for prosecutorial discretion so he can continue his immigration case while free to care for his daughter.

Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant and honor student who had just begun studying at Wright State University after being recruited to play soccer, died after being struck by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 70 near Springfield, Ohio, in what his family describes as suicide. Bel hoped to study neuroscience and had a pending asylum claim with a hearing scheduled for October. His father said his son felt 'treated like an animal' after ICE fitted him with a GPS ankle monitor, and in a July Instagram post Bel wrote that wearing the device brought him 'shame and humiliation' he never imagined experiencing. His death followed intensified ICE enforcement against Haitians in Springfield after many lost Temporary Protected Status, including the detention of two Haitian pastors, Adrien and Dumano, who had lived in the U.S. for over a decade and supported the community. The migrant-rights group Amica filed a lawsuit in June over the administration's expanded use of GPS monitors, which were being worn by about 50,000 people at the time. Haitian families in Springfield reportedly remain afraid to leave their homes as deportation flights to Haiti continue.

Iara do Carmo Santana, a 29-year-old Brazilian woman working as a house cleaner, was arrested by Malden police after her fiancé, Gabriel Lemos, called 911 out of concern for her mental health following a recent miscarriage and related infection. She was booked, released from police custody, then detained by ICE, which accessed her information through a shared FBI database, and held for roughly four days at ICE's Burlington, Massachusetts field office. She said she received no medical evaluation upon arrival and was often denied her prescribed antibiotics, causing her infection symptoms to worsen. Federal judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her release on September 8, criticizing ICE for its failure to provide necessary medical care. She was reunited with Lemos, a legal permanent resident she plans to marry next year, and her 6-year-old son. Do Carmo Santana has a pending asylum case and holds employment authorization. "I was afraid that I was going to go crazy in there," she said. "I was really scared."

Angel Ivan Chavez Salas, a father of two who works as an HVAC technician in Decatur, Georgia, was arrested by ICE agents outside his home on August 16. He arrived in the U.S. lawfully on a visa in 2016 and applied for asylum after fleeing political persecution in Peru, regularly attending immigration interviews but never having had a hearing before a judge. His attorney, Peter Isbister, said Chavez Salas has no criminal history. He was held at the D. Ray James Processing Center in southeast Georgia awaiting a court date. Students at Decatur High School, including a friend of his son, organized an online fundraiser that raised nearly $20,000 from more than 300 donors to support his family. A judge later granted him a $10,000 bond, allowing his release while he continues fighting his asylum case.

David Eduardo Mejía Martínez, a Salvadoran man who has lived in Los Angeles for years, was detained by ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle while driving to work in Sherman Oaks, with no arrest warrant. ICE accused him of being an MS-13 gang member, but a federal judge found no evidence to support the claim, noting he has no tattoos, no criminal record, steady employment, and has paid taxes since arriving in 2014. He is married with two U.S. citizen children, ages seven and four, and is the family's main financial provider. After more than 10 months in detention at the Adelanto facility, Judge Serena R. Murillo ordered his release on September 8, finding an earlier immigration judge had abused his discretion in labeling him dangerous, and ICE complied the next day while publicly objecting.

Jihoon Yang, a golf instructor from Lewisville, Texas, was detained by ICE agents while attending a marriage-based green card interview at a USCIS office in Irving. His wife, Jennifer Oh, said two agents entered mid-interview without presenting a warrant and verbally told him he was being arrested for failing to comply with a deportation order. ICE said Yang had received an in absentia removal order after missing a court hearing, but his family disputes ever being notified of that hearing. Yang is currently held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, and his family has retained a new attorney while the South Korean consulate looks into the case.

The petitioner is being held in immigration detention at the Midwest Regional Reception Center in Kansas under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), which allows for discretionary release on bond. In an earlier habeas case, the court ruled on June 3, 2026 that his detention was governed by this discretionary bond statute and ordered the government to provide him a bond hearing before an immigration judge. That immigration judge subsequently denied his request for release on bond. He has now filed a new habeas petition arguing that changed circumstances entitle him to a second bond hearing under federal regulations, and he states he is simultaneously requesting such a hearing from the immigration court. He is separately appealing his removal order to the Board of Immigration Appeals but is not challenging that order or the immigration judge's initial bond denial in this petition. The court found he had not yet shown any violation of federal law, since the government has not denied his pending request for a second hearing. The judge ordered him to show cause by September 25, 2026 why the petition should not be denied, noting the case could become moot if the second hearing is granted or could proceed if the request is denied or ignored.

The petitioner was detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) when ICE officers informed him on September 8, 2026, that he was going to be removed from the United States. He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus along with an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to block his removal until the court could rule on his habeas petition. The court entered its standard scheduling order requiring the government to provide at least 48 hours' notice (72 hours if over a weekend or holiday) before transferring or removing him. The court denied the TRO motion as moot, finding that the scheduling order's notice requirement adequately protected him from imminent removal, and noted that ICE represented it was aware of and would comply with the notice requirement. The court also struck the petitioner's unauthorized reply brief filed in violation of local rules.

Renatho Kemsley Casseus, a Haitian national believed to be a San Diego City College student, was arrested by ICE agents near campus after unmarked vehicles stopped his car at 16th Street and C Street. A second student riding in the vehicle fled on foot onto campus grounds, and agents ended their pursuit after realizing they had entered college property. DHS said Casseus entered the U.S. through El Paso, Texas in May 2023 and was released into the country under the Biden administration, and that his case will be heard by an immigration judge. San Diego City College said it was providing counseling and legal services to students and employees following the arrest.

Natalie Holmes, 51, a Jamaican national and ordained pastor, says she was deported to Equatorial Guinea in June while her habeas corpus petition challenging her removal was still pending. Holmes says she and other deportees were dragged from their rooms at gunpoint, handcuffed, assaulted and threatened by armed guards at the decommissioned Hotel Bamy in Malabo, where she remains detained and fears for her life. Witnesses and video footage from the broader deportation program show police in Equatorial Guinea pointing firearms at migrants deported there from the United States. Deportees held at the Malabo hotel, including Holmes, have complained of inadequate medical care, denial of legal assistance, and severe psychological distress.

Federal agents returned to the area of the Geisinger Medical Center construction project on September 8, beginning arrests around 6 a.m., according to immigrant-rights advocates. The Centre County Rapid Response Network said eight people were detained in this second operation, following the earlier September 2 arrests connected to the same construction project. Some detainees were held at Clinton County Jail, and advocates linked the arrests to a broader workplace enforcement surge.

Peta-Gaye Chambers, 35, who came to the United States from Jamaica as a child, had been granted 'withholding of removal' by a U.S. immigration judge in 2013 after he found she would face persecution in Jamaica. Despite that protection, ICE deported her to Equatorial Guinea in June without notice. Chambers says she and other deportees were dragged from their rooms at gunpoint, handcuffed, assaulted and threatened by armed guards at the decommissioned Hotel Bamy in Malabo, where she remains held.

ICE agents conducted an operation in the parking lot of a Home Depot on 43rd Avenue in west Phoenix, detaining about 10 people early Saturday morning, including day laborers waiting for work and some customers exiting the store. Witnesses said agents disguised themselves as day laborers and unhoused people before making arrests, and cell phone video showed men handcuffed and seated beside the road as agents surrounded them. Erika Andiola of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Clarissa Vela of People First Project said many of those detained did not match the administration's stated focus on people with criminal records, with some detainees having only come to shop. Activists noted ICE Mobile Criminal Apprehension Teams have routinely conducted undercover license-plate-scanning operations at the same location. ICE has not publicly released details about the operation, and protesters and day laborers returned to the store two days later.

Galina Bobreneva, a 40-year-old Russian national who entered the U.S. legally on a tourist visa in 2021, extended her stay after the war in Ukraine began, and applied for asylum in 2022, was detained by a plainclothes ICE agent at Burbank airport on July 13 while traveling with her husband, Brent Jindra, a technology salesman who says he voted for Trump three times. The couple married in December 2025, and Jindra had filed a marriage-based green card petition for her in April, with fingerprinting already completed; her lawyer maintains she was never out of lawful status, while DHS says she overstayed her visa and calls her 'an illegal alien.' She spent 16 days in detention, including a night on the floor of a basement holding cell in downtown Los Angeles and about two weeks at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility, where she said she was treated 'like a piece of meat, not like a human,' citing sleep deprivation, only four working showers for about 120 women, scarce drinking water, and denied healthcare. She was released on July 29 on a $35,000 bond and fitted with an electronic monitor, with an ICE check-in scheduled for September 7 and a court appearance set for October 22. 'A US citizen just watched his wife get dragged away and had no idea where she's going,' Jindra said. 'We are living in fear in my own country.'

A Maryland Heights, Missouri man who was commended for his service as a translator for the U.S. Army during the war in Afghanistan was arrested by ICE officers. He is being held in a Ste. Genevieve County prison.