Human Impact Project

Anselmo Martin Matias, who had been released on $16,000 bond in 2019 during withholding proceedings, was detained by ICE on February 24, 2026, during his routine check-in. ICE told him he was being detained for "breaking the rules" due to his March 2025 guilty plea to reckless driving, which they incorrectly described as driving under the influence. The federal court ordered his immediate release, finding that due process requires a hearing before a neutral arbitrator when someone is re-detained based on alleged supervision violations.

A Nicaraguan man has been in immigration detention since February 24, 2026, after being arrested at a scheduled ICE check-in. ICE did not set bond and did not provide him with a custody review by an immigration judge as required under the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision in Matter of Yajure Hurtado. A recent DHS policy classifies anyone arrested within the United States and charged with being inadmissible under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) as an 'applicant for admission' subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), a change from prior policy that allowed for bond or conditional parole under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). He filed a habeas corpus petition and ex parte application for a temporary restraining order seeking to prohibit his removal, transfer outside the Central District of California, and continued detention without a constitutionally adequate bond hearing. The federal court granted the temporary restraining order, ordering respondents to either provide him an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) on or before April 7, 2026 at 9:00 a.m., or release him from custody by April 7, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. The court set a hearing on the preliminary injunction for April 16, 2026.

An ACLU legal fellow visited the North Lake Processing Center in Michigan to meet with a detained Venezuelan woman seeking asylum. The author describes arbitrary security screening practices, including being required to remove her underwire bra, and documents severe detention conditions including inadequate food, limited outdoor access, medication costs passed to detainees, and a recent death at the facility. The detained woman, who entered the U.S. legally through CBP One screening and a port of entry, was separated from her 3-month-old infant after a false accusation by an abusive ex-partner and faces an impossible choice between deportation to Venezuela or relocation to Ecuador without her child.

A West Virginia federal judge ordered the immediate release of Eduardo Tinajero Rodriguez from ICE custody, finding his detention violated federal law and the Constitution. The judge found serious procedural failures including ICE's use of a document showing marijuana convictions from 2009 when Rodriguez was only four years old. Rodriguez was detained following a traffic stop based on an illegible license plate and an officer's call to ICE due to a language barrier.

A class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of five individuals against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its agencies (ICE, CBP, USBP) for conducting warrantless immigration arrests across North Carolina. The plaintiffs include U.S. citizens and a visa holder who were arrested without legal justification during enforcement operations in Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh, and other communities. The lawsuit challenges the conduct of warrantless arrests.

George Retes, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen and Army veteran, was detained by ICE agents on July 10, 2025, during a workplace raid at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, Ventura County, California. Despite repeatedly identifying himself as a U.S. citizen, he was pulled from his car, tear-gassed, and arrested without being told why he was detained. He was taken to a Navy base for DNA collection, then held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles for three days without access to phone calls, legal representation, a shower, or a judge appearance before being released without charges. Retes filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, challenging the Trump administration's claimed absolute immunity for immigration enforcement officers. In February 2026, he attended the State of the Union as a guest of Rep. Mark Takano.

Colleen Fagan, a social worker, was observing an immigration enforcement operation at an apartment complex in Portland, Maine when federal agents scanned her face with a smartphone and recorded her car license plate. When she asked why they were taking her information, an agent told her, "Cause we have a nice little database. And now you're considered a domestic terrorist." Her video of the exchange went viral. Fagan is now a plaintiff in a federal class action lawsuit arguing that DHS unconstitutionally retaliates against people who lawfully observe and record immigration enforcement by gathering their personal information and labeling them domestic terrorists. She is concerned about being placed on a "no-fly" list and worries her employment could be affected.

An 18-year-old U.S. citizen has been living alone in his family's Texas home since February 2025, after immigration authorities removed his five siblings and undocumented parents to Mexico, interrupting his 11-year-old sister's treatment for a rare brain tumor. The family was detained at a mandatory Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas while traveling to the hospital and deported the next day, despite previously passing through the checkpoint with hospital and attorney letters. The family has been waiting since June for a decision on a humanitarian parole request to allow the girl to return with her parents for treatment. The teen attended the State of the Union as a guest of Rep. Adriano Espaillat to advocate for his family's return, describing a year of loneliness that he compared to being 'trapped in a coffin.'

The petitioner entered the United States without inspection in February 2004 and has lived here continuously since then, more than 20 years. He applied for a U-visa, was granted deferred action, and received employment authorization valid from March 2023 to October 2024 while seeking adjustment of status. On February 24, 2026, he was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for DUI alcohol, an allegation he disputes; the arrest did not result in criminal charges. Upon his release from county custody, he was detained by ICE and has been held at the Adelanto Detention Center for roughly six months. An immigration judge reportedly dismissed his removal proceedings on August 5, 2026, though records suggest a master hearing remained scheduled for September 2026. He filed a counseled habeas corpus petition arguing his detention without notice or a hearing violated procedural due process. The court agreed, finding the government's failure to provide pre-deprivation process unconstitutional, and ordered his release within 24 hours.

Ruben Arguera Lopez, 39, a cook who holds a U visa for crime victims who assist law enforcement, was arrested without a warrant by ICE and CBP agents during immigration enforcement operations in North Carolina. He has lived in Charlotte for 15 years and obtained humanitarian protection after helping law enforcement investigate a serious crime. He is one of five plaintiffs—including four U.S. citizens—in a federal class-action lawsuit filed in February 2026 against the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, CBP, and Border Patrol, alleging that agents made warrantless arrests without probable cause. The lawsuit covers arrests made between January 20 and October 15, 2025, during which ICE arrested 3,304 people in North Carolina, more than 2.8 times the total during the same period in 2024.

On February 17, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Sonia Espinoza Arriaga, a Mexican national, and her three children (ages 5, 16, and 18) in Soldotna, Alaska. The family had entered the United States in 2023 and declared themselves at the border seeking protection. Arriaga was married to a U.S. citizen and had been in regular contact with her immigration attorney, who believed no enforcement action would occur for 90 days. The detention followed Arriaga's missed immigration court hearing in January due to miscommunication about the date. Within 36 hours of detention, Arriaga and her two youngest children were deported to Tijuana, Mexico, while her 18-year-old son was transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. An immigration attorney filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of the detention, and the rapid deportation prompted an Alaska House Judiciary Committee investigation into ICE activity in the state.

Two Haitian girls, ages 4 and 5, were found dead in a septic tank at Casa Hogar Patos, a migrant transit center in Oaxaca, Mexico on February 24, 2026. The children had been admitted to the facility with their mother while awaiting immigration processing. The Support Group for Repatriated and Refugees (GARR) is demanding an investigation. Two officials have been dismissed but no one has been formally held responsible.

A woman in her 50s, adopted from Iran as a toddler by a U.S. Air Force veteran, is facing deportation proceedings after discovering she was never formally naturalized as a U.S. citizen. She entered the country on a tourist visa and was excluded from the 2000 Child Citizenship Act, despite growing up in the Midwest and having no criminal record. She fears deportation to Iran given her father's military service, her Christian faith, and her lack of family or language connections to the country.

Multifaith leaders held their seventh vigil at Southside Christian Church in Kokomo to oppose ICE detention at Miami Correctional Facility. The vigil came a week after 59-year-old Lorth Sim, an ICE immigrant detainee, died in custody at the facility. Religious leaders called for thorough investigation and better treatment of detainees, noting it was the seventh death in ICE custody nationally that year.

An ICE whistleblower testified before Congressional Democrats during a public forum titled "Our Values at Stake Pt. III: Terrorizing Communities Without Warrants and No Restraint." The whistleblower discussed concerns about defective training practices within the agency.

Jorfrank Lugo, a Venezuelan father of two young children, was detained by ICE on February 23, 2026 while attending his required annual check-in appointment, something he had consistently complied with since arriving in the U.S. nearly four years ago. He and his wife Daniela are asylum applicants awaiting their interview, and he has no criminal record. His detention has left his wife, who cares full-time for their two young children, without their family's sole source of income while she tries to fund his legal defense.

A Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. in 2004 as a teenager was arrested by ICE on February 23, 2026, after receiving a citation for driving without a license in Wilson County, Tennessee. He was detained without a bond hearing despite having significant U.S. ties including a U.S. citizen spouse and three U.S. citizen children. The court stayed his transfer and ordered ICE to respond to his habeas corpus petition, requiring them to either distinguish his case from Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft or consent to his release.

Rep. Dan Goldman requested information from the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons regarding the treatment of over 191 ICE detainees at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Goldman raised concerns about inadequate medical care, barriers to legal counsel, and delays in court appearances, noting he had been denied access for inspections previously.

Juana Felipe Mateo, a Guatemalan mother of two, was deported from the South Texas Family Residential Center (Dilley) while 8 months pregnant with a third child after three months in detention. She alleges ICE and DHS deceived her into signing voluntary departure papers by offering $15,000 (which she says she never received) and obtaining a doctor's authorization to fly despite her advanced pregnancy. Juana reported that pregnant detainees, including herself, were hidden from U.S. Congressman Joaquín Castro during a facility inspection to prevent them from reporting lack of medical care and alleged mistreatment. She also described being placed in a cold room known as 'la hielera' for five days when her 2-year-old daughter developed fever. She learned of her unborn son's sex only on the day of her deportation.

Court documents revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego conducted surveillance on activists through Operation Road Flare, targeting individuals who document ICE activities such as Jeane Wong and Arturo Gonzalez. The operation began monitoring activists on October 23, 2025, and documents describe confrontations at the 47th Street Trolley Station on November 18, 2025, where Wong was accused of throwing belongings at agents during a crowd altercation. Wong subsequently pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault on a federal officer and received home detention.