Human Impact Project

Cristian Romario Saenz-Argueta, a 31-year-old noncitizen from El Salvador, was arrested after an investigation into reports that he sexually assaulted a girl under 15 in a parking lot in November 2025. He is charged with three felony counts including rape and carnal knowledge of a child. According to authorities, Saenz-Argueta used social media to connect with the victim, falsely portraying himself as 18 years old before arranging an in-person meeting where the assault occurred. ICE lodged an immigration detainer against him, claiming he entered the U.S. without legal documentation. DHS used the case to criticize Virginia's sanctuary policies and the expiration of Prince William County's 287(g) agreement with ICE.

Alexander Jose Regnault-Avila and his 4-year-old daughter Alexandra were detained by ICE agents on Friday, May 31, 2026, in Albany while walking to the girl's pre-school. The family had entered the U.S. without authorization in 2023, and an immigration judge ordered their removal in 2024. The pair were held for 4 days and deported to Venezuela on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, just days before Alexandra's pre-K graduation. Regnault-Avila's partner and 1-year-old daughter remain in the United States. The detention sparked protests in Malta and Albany and is being cited in advocacy for the Access to Representation Act, which would provide free immigration attorneys to immigrant residents in New York.

Juan Ayala-Montero, a 60-year-old Mexican national with an extensive criminal record including prior homicide and assault convictions, was arrested on May 23, 2026, after allegedly shooting multiple people in New Caney, Texas over the Memorial Day weekend. He was charged with unlawful firearms possession as a noncitizen and faces federal charges related to the shooting. ICE lodged a detainer seeking custody of Ayala-Montero from Montgomery County authorities, and he is currently in custody pending federal court appearance.

Jesus Ramirez Ramos was detained by ICE at North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, for nine months. Upon release, he had no way to return to his home in Salina, Kansas, and ICE had lost his cellphone and his clothes remained unwashed in storage. Delight Lester, a 66-year-old volunteer with Hope for Neighbors advocacy group, picked him up and drove him more than 900 miles home in her Toyota Prius, providing him with fresh clothes, snacks, and a phone for the journey.

The Andre family—Carine, an activist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and her three children Estafania, Olivia, and Joel—fled persecution and were initially vetted and released in 2022 to await asylum hearings. After deportation and denied entry to Canada, they were returned to the U.S. and detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley beginning in November 2025, violating the Flores Settlement requiring prompt release of children. Carine and Joel (17) were released in March 2026 after nearly four months in detention; Olivia (19) was released in June 2026 after over five months. Detainees reported inadequate conditions including contaminated food and water, mold, and sleep disruption.

Maria Alejandra Gomez-Quiroz, a 21-year-old pregnant woman from Colombia, has been held for more than 40 days at the Dilley family immigration detention center in Texas after being arrested by Border Patrol at the border. She and her partner had been fleeing violence from guerrillas in Colombia and planned to apply for asylum. Her sister, Kelly Ocampo, said the family paid more than $3,000 to someone posing as an immigration lawyer who sent a fake letter on ICE letterhead falsely claiming her bond had been approved, but she remained in custody. Her family says she has experienced lower abdominal pain and depression while detained. DHS says she was convicted of illegal entry and remains in custody pending removal proceedings. She is one of at least 500 people detained at Dilley and one of four pregnant women held there, according to lawmakers, and a federal judge in California has ordered a special master and independent monitor to examine time in custody and medical care at the facility.

Javier (pseudonym) left Colombia in 2023 with his wife and two children due to threats from armed groups where he worked in the medical field, and the family applied for asylum in the U.S. After he obtained a work permit, and while his wife was pregnant and the family awaited their merits hearing in immigration court, ICE detained him. He was held for three months, denied asylum, and deported to Colombia in March 2026 despite significant evidence of the dangers he faced there. While he was in Colombia, his son was born and placed in the NICU. Desperate to reunite with his wife, children, and newborn, he reentered the U.S., was detained at the border, and was quickly deported to Costa Rica in June 2026. He has yet to meet his third child and is applying for asylum in Costa Rica, hoping to reunite with his family there.

A noncitizen who entered the United States in December 2024 and resided here for over one year is at the center of this case. He was served with a Notice to Appear and paroled from custody into the United States. In June 2026, he was apprehended by immigration authorities and taken into ICE custody. An Immigration Judge ordered his removal, and he had until August 20, 2026 to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. He filed a pro se habeas corpus petition challenging his mandatory detention as violating his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. The court found that because he was previously paroled from custody and had established ties to the United States through his residency, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment guaranteed him an individualized assessment of his flight risk and dangerousness before detention. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release from custody under reasonable conditions, with a requirement that respondents submit a status report by August 11, 2026, and return all identification documents and personal belongings.

Mirsy Maricela Alva López, a 39-year-old Guatemalan mother, was first separated from her son Ederson in 2018 when she was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and he was placed in government custody as an unaccompanied minor for nearly five months before a federal court order reunified them in the Ms. L v. ICE case. In June 2025, while traveling to a landscaping job near Mar-a-Lago, federal agents stopped her, transferred her through two Florida jails to ICE custody in Louisiana, and deported her to Guatemala despite being a protected Ms. L class member with legal status, work authorization, and a court-ordered pathway to residency and asylum. She was not given the opportunity to speak with immigration officials about her legal protections before deportation. Her son Ederson, who had been in fifth grade in Florida, suffered nightmares and had to repeat fourth grade in Spanish during the family's 11 months in Guatemala. After a federal judge's order in May 2026, Mirsy and her children returned to Florida, though she remains under ankle monitoring and required to attend ICE check-ins every two weeks.

Hermel, a migrant from Ecuador, was arrested by ICE and detained for nearly four months before signing voluntary departure paperwork and being returned to Ecuador. His wife Anita and two children—Scarleth, now 11, and Ashley, 3—remained in New York. Hermel's deportation devastated the family: Hermel reported his house is half-built and he is struggling emotionally. Anita has ended their four-year relationship, cannot find full-time work, and her debts are mounting as she struggles to support their children alone.

A prominent photographer, who requested anonymity, had the top of his camera smashed by ICE agents while covering anti-ICE protests outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark. The incident occurred during clashes between protesters and federal agents over the weekend.

Photographer Madison Swart, a frequent contributor to The New York Times, was deliberately pushed to the ground and struck with a baton by an ICE agent while documenting anti-ICE protests outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark. Swart was moving back as instructed when an agent shoved her forcefully with a baton, causing her to fall. She reported being in shock over the incident.

Reuters photojournalist Ryan Murphy was struck repeatedly with a baton by ICE agents while covering anti-ICE protests outside Delaney Hall immigration detention center over multiple nights in late May 2026. Murphy says agents deliberately targeted his camera during an incident on Thursday, striking his hand near his flash and breaking a finger. He photographed a protester being bear-sprayed moments before being hit himself.

M, an uncle and construction worker living in the Atlanta area for nearly twenty years, was detained by ICE in late June after being pulled over in Gainesville for an expired vehicle tag. He was held at Stewart Detention Center and was released on bond a few days before his brother's arrest, but is required to wear an ankle monitor.

Wendy Baca Sánchez, a Honduran national five months pregnant, has been hospitalized multiple times since her detention in late June near San Miguel, Arizona by border agents. She is currently in ICE custody at Eloy Detention Center. The nature and reasons for her multiple hospitalizations are described in reports of ICE's continued detention of pregnant women in Arizona.

Roberto López Falcón, a Cuban-born fifth-grade ESL teacher at Hart Elementary School in Austin, was detained by ICE on September 3, 2025, during a routine check-in appointment in San Antonio. He had entered the United States from Cuba in March 2022 seeking asylum after clashing with Cuban government officials over his refusal to promote Communist Party ideology while teaching civics. Employed full-time by Austin ISD and recognized as a Campus Teacher of Promise, López Falcón's sudden disappearance devastated his students and families, with at least one student diagnosed with depression. His asylum case was denied in October 2025 with rejection rates between 80-93%, and he remained in detention at Karnes County Immigration Processing Center for 297 days while appealing. A federal judge ordered his release in late June 2026 after ruling his detention illegal, despite an immigration judge's earlier denial of bail. During confinement, López Falcón read 37 books and worked in the detention center library, maintaining his focus on returning to teaching.

A Honduran man who entered the United States in 2014 and has been living in the country since that time was detained by immigration officials on June 1, 2026, and is currently being held at the Farmville Detention Center. The government sought to detain him under the mandatory detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2), arguing that because he entered without inspection, he remained an "applicant for admission" subject to mandatory detention. He challenged his detention through a habeas corpus petition, arguing that as someone already present in the country for over a decade, he should be governed by the discretionary detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), which would entitle him to a bond hearing. The federal district court granted his petition, finding that the Supreme Court's decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez established that § 1226(a) is the default rule for noncitizens already in the country in removal proceedings, while § 1225(b) applies only to those actively seeking admission. The court ordered that he be provided a bond hearing before an immigration judge within seven days and enjoined immigration officials from denying him bond solely on the basis of § 1225(b)(2) detention.

A native and citizen of Armenia who entered the United States in 2021 was arrested at a regular ICE check-in in June 2026 and remains detained at Adelanto ICE Processing Center. He has a final removal order, and an immigration judge denied his motion to reopen. He filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 on June 25, 2026, challenging the legality of his present detention primarily on due process grounds rather than seeking review of the removal order itself. The parties disputed whether he is subject to mandatory or discretionary detention and whether respondents complied with statutory, regulatory, and constitutional requirements governing his continued confinement. On July 15, 2026, respondents filed a Notice of Intended Removal, stating he was scheduled for transfer out of Adelanto on July 18, 2026, and removal from the United States on July 26, 2026. On July 17, 2026, the court granted in part his ex parte application for a temporary restraining order, enjoining respondents from moving him to a location outside the Central District of California during the pendency of the action, with the order remaining in effect for fourteen days or until the court's disposition of the petition.

Brandy Rogers, a mental health therapist, was stopped by ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle in June after she volunteered to drive a neighbor home from district court. When ICE agents pounded on the car's doors and threatened to shatter the windows if she did not unlock the vehicle, Rogers initially refused but eventually complied. Her neighbor, whom Rogers identified as being in the country legally, was taken into custody and held for three weeks before being released. Rogers recounted: "I initially refused, shook my head no, but they weren't having any of it and just kept knocking on the door."

A Cameroonian citizen who entered the U.S. in December 2022 was arrested on June 1, 2026, by ICE agents in the lobby of the Sacramento ERO office after an Immigration Judge denied his asylum application and ordered his removal. He was transferred to Golden State Annex Detention Facility in McFarland, California. The court granted his habeas corpus petition on July 8, 2026, finding his detention violated due process because his removal order was not administratively final—he had timely appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals on June 16, 2026—and ordered his immediate release.