Human Impact Project

Orlais Lores Mayeta, a Cuban national, was detained by federal officers near his home in Stockbridge, Georgia on August 2, and is being held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. His wife, Kayla Lores Mayeta, a U.S. citizen who is five months pregnant, says the detention stems from a paperwork error in which their attorney submitted his Cuban Adjustment Act application to USCIS instead of the immigration court, despite his open immigration case. An immigration judge denied him bail, and his final hearing is set for September 30. Kayla says the detention has left her covering household, pregnancy, and legal expenses alone, and the family has launched a fundraising campaign for support.

A federal judge dismissed charges against Jonathon Redondo-Rosales, a 36-year-old TikTok creator and U.S. citizen arrested at an August 2 protest against immigration enforcement, after finding the government acted in bad faith. Redondo-Rosales had spent six months in jail awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting a Federal Protective Service officer with a cloth hat. The judge noted discrepancies in the officer's statements, that video evidence contradicted the assault claim, and that prosecutors sought dismissal to avoid disclosing problematic officer records rather than address legitimate legal issues.

A visibly pregnant U.S. citizen and her undocumented mother were arrested by federal agents outside a health clinic in Los Angeles.

Customers at a gas station in Takoma Park, Maryland, witnessed armed, masked agents in vests marked only 'POLICE' emerge from an unmarked black Kia with generic Maryland license plates, chase a man, and swiftly handcuff him. One agent repeatedly asked him in Spanish, 'Why were you running?' then demanded to know whether he was 'legal or illegal' and asked for his papers, while the driver stood nearby holding a rifle before stowing it in the vehicle's trunk. A CNN reporter who witnessed the arrest said, 'I felt like I was watching someone being kidnapped,' and later spent days trying to locate the man.

In New Mexico, a father was en route to a school event when his vehicle was surrounded by agents in a supermarket parking lot. Agents smashed his window with a sledgehammer. His partner and two young girls slipped out the passenger side as an armed agent hovered beside the car. ICE, which was assisted by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office, claimed that when officers first tried to stop Jorge Martín Ortiz-Rosalez's vehicle earlier that day, he fled at high speed.

In the San Diego area, a mother was arrested by federal agents outside an elementary school as students arrived. Her two children were in the car with her. The school district confirmed the children were students at the school.

A man in his mid-30s who came to Huron as a teenager without legal status was detained by ICE outside his home in August 2025 and subsequently deported to Guatemala. His wife, a U.S. citizen, and their two children (ages 2 and 9) were left behind. The family had consulted multiple lawyers about obtaining legal status for him but found no feasible options under current law. The man now lives with his parents in Guatemala while his family struggles financially and emotionally in South Dakota.

Pablo Sequen filed a habeas corpus petition challenging unlawful detention by immigration authorities. The case involves a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction proceedings. A judge granted a preliminary injunction on September 16, 2025, halting the petitioner's deportation.

Sharareh Moghadam, a legal green card holder from Iran working toward U.S. citizenship, was detained by ICE on August 1, 2025, after reporting to immigration offices as instructed. She had traveled to Iran to visit family members with serious health issues and was detained upon her return to California. She is currently held in a facility in Phoenix, Arizona, with a court date scheduled for September 12.

Detainees at a South Florida immigration detention center nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz" have been on a hunger strike for ten days, protesting living conditions. One detainee, Pedro Hernández, was hospitalized during the strike but continues to refuse food, citing conditions and treatment. Civil rights groups have filed lawsuits stating detainees lack access to legal counsel, food, hygiene, and medical care.

Lam T, who is in his 50s and requested anonymity, has a removal order stemming from a fake driving license he made as a teenager. He was detained in 2003 and again in early 2026, both times later released, and has since received a gubernatorial pardon and filed a motion to reopen his removal proceedings in hopes of reinstating his green card. His wife Susan said the family, including three young children living in the Midwest, lives in constant fear of his re-detention while she supports them financially during his unemployment.

Andrew Fenton, 58, was adopted from Vietnam by an American couple in 1975 after his father falsely claimed he was an orphan, but he never obtained US citizenship because the adoption agency and his parents were not told to file the required paperwork. He accumulated minor arrests over decades, and in August 2025 immigration agents detained and deported him to Vietnam. Fenton, who has no family there and does not speak Vietnamese, initially worked 12-hour security shifts before finding better-paying work as a cook at a cafe in Vung Tau. More than a year after his deportation, he obtained a Vietnamese birth certificate listing his name as Nguyen Bao Linh and his birth date as Oct 23, 1967; it names his father, Nguyen Bao Tinh, a former South Vietnamese Air Force member who raised him at an airbase in Danang, while leaving his mother's name blank.

An immigrant man who lived in Maryland with his wife and children was deported to Mexico on August 1 despite a 2024 immigration judge ruling that granted him protection under the Convention Against Torture, finding he faced likely torture or death there. The man had cooperated with federal prosecutors, providing 'substantial assistance' by testifying against defendants affiliated with Mexican drug cartels. He was detained during a routine ICE check-in in January, held for six months at a Louisiana detention facility, then deported first to Guatemala (which refused him) and then to Mexico (which also refused him) before finally being deported to Mexico again after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Acting ICE Director David Venturella intervened to override his torture protection. A federal judge later ruled the deportation violated his due process rights and ordered his return, but as of the report he remained in hiding in Mexico.

Mireille Desormeaux, a Haitian green card holder, became a U.S. citizen in early August after suing the federal government with Project Citizenship over delayed naturalization. USCIS had frozen naturalization proceedings for applicants from 39 countries deemed 'high risk,' including Haiti, Venezuela, and Côte d'Ivoire. Twelve of the 14 plaintiffs in the lawsuit have since become citizens after months of unexplained delays.

Daysi Munoz and her husband were arrested by Burleson, Texas police on suspicion of shoplifting while back-to-school shopping at a Walmart in August 2025, leading to their transfer into ICE custody and deportation to Honduras about 40 days later. Their two U.S. citizen daughters, 19-year-old Dulce Zepeda and 13-year-old Maria, were left on their own in Fort Worth, with Dulce cooking, driving her sister to school, working at McDonald's, and selling her mother's jewelry to cover bills. After nearly a year living alone, the emotional and financial strain became overwhelming, and Dulce sold their parents' truck to help Maria return to Honduras to reunite with their parents, while Dulce has remained in Texas.

Benjamin, 16, and his brother Dennis were stopped by Buffalo police in August 2025 during a traffic stop; DHS agents then arrested both brothers despite their possession of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Deferred Action protections from deportation. ICE officers questioned them, told them the U.S. would pay $2,000 for self-deportation, and presented them with English-language papers without explanation; Benjamin signed, believing he had no choice. Dennis, who had just turned 18, was deported to Ecuador while Benjamin was transported to a shelter in Texas, then moved to a shelter in Groton, Connecticut, where he spent two months unable to understand why he was being held despite having been previously vetted and approved for release to his father. Benjamin wrote that he felt "trapped" and "like a delinquent," confined to three rooms with no outdoor access without staff supervision. He was released 143 days after his arrest, four days after lawyers filed a lawsuit challenging his detention.

The Trump Administration opened Camp East Montana, the largest immigrant detention facility in the country, at Fort Bliss military base in West Texas in August 2025. Detainees initially arrived at an active construction site with non-functioning toilets, sporadic running water, and no outdoor recreation, and ICE withheld facility location information from families and lawyers. In May 2026, the ACLU, ACLU of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project and a law firm sued ICE, citing at least three detainee deaths including a homicide, a nearly monthlong measles outbreak, and nearly 50 detention standards violations found by ICE's own inspectors. The groups also allege medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse by officers, and denial of meaningful attorney access; ICE replaced the facility's prime contractor in March 2026, but advocates say conditions have continued to deteriorate, while DHS has called the allegations categorically false.

Beata Siemionkowicz, a 57-year-old with a valid permanent resident card since 2003, was detained by ICE in August 2025 while working in her daughter's garden in Illinois. An immigration judge issued a deportation order in December 2025; DHS cited two petty theft convictions from the early 2000s and claimed an arrest warrant from Poland, though her daughters provided documentation from Polish authorities showing no criminal record. Her appeal of the deportation order is pending, with a final decision expected in summer 2026.

In August 2025, a 6-year-old New York City public school student and her mother, an Ecuadorian family who had sought asylum, were deported after being detained during an ICE check-in on August 12 and removed on August 19. The family's asylum application had been denied with a deportation order issued in June 2024. The student's older sibling, age 16, remains in the United States. New York officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, condemned the deportation.

Yury Saaryan, a Russian national who overstayed his tourist visa, went to an ICE office in August 2025 seeking help returning to Russia but was detained instead. An immigration judge granted him voluntary departure in November 2025, but ICE has not arranged his removal despite his repeated requests and three hunger strikes, citing delays obtaining travel documents from Russia. Saaryan has now been held for about 11 months and filed a federal habeas corpus petition seeking his release, which a U.S. District Court in Washington denied without prejudice in July 2026.