Human Impact Project

Roxana Valladares, a 29-year-old Salvadoran woman, spent the night at a hospital in Homestead, Florida with her 6-year-old son, who had a fever and was struggling to breathe, before rushing to line up outside the Miami immigration court for a mass hearing. She arrived by Uber at 4 a.m. with a blanket, a change of clothes, a cooler with water and snacks, and a folding beach chair, ending up third in line for a 1 p.m. hearing amid crowds stretching around the building. Her son slept on a blanket on the sidewalk while she fanned him as they waited. Valladares said she had originally been scheduled for a hearing in September 2027 but received a notice the week before to appear instead. She said she crossed the border two years earlier to seek asylum after fleeing domestic violence and fearing for her life and her son's, and that she was told missing the hearing could result in an automatic deportation order.

Two young men were stopped by ICE agents at a stoplight in Alamo, Texas. One was taken by agents while the other, who was driving, was pepper sprayed. Both were taken into ICE custody, and a local politician intervened to secure their release; both are now reported to be home.

A 16-year-old minor was chased by several ICE agents in Livonia, Michigan, and climbed onto a residential rooftop with his hands raised while an agent pointed a gun directly at him. Video shared by @metrodetroitnews shows additional agents then climbing onto the roof and taking him into custody.

ICE agents in unmarked vehicles boxed in a car near San Diego City College on September 8, 2026, and arrested the driver, identified as Renatho Kemsley Casseus. A passenger fled onto campus grounds, and agents pursued him before retreating after realizing they had entered college property. The San Diego Community College District said both individuals were City College students, though a DHS spokesperson disputed that Casseus was a student, saying he entered the U.S. without authorization through El Paso, Texas, in May 2023. District Chancellor Greg Smith denounced the incident, and officials said City College, SDCCD, and campus police do not cooperate with ICE enforcement. The college offered counseling and legal support to affected students, who organized a rally in response, and elected leaders condemned the arrest.

Samson Birhane, 47, arrived in the US as an Eritrean refugee at age 13 and lost his immigration status after a robbery conviction in 1988, though he had already served his sentence and had been regularly checking in with ICE as required. A US immigration judge had previously ruled he faced a risk of torture if returned to Eritrea, but he was instead deported to Equatorial Guinea under a $7.5 million agreement between the countries. On September 11, 2026, Birhane and fellow deportee Ahmed Soliman were arrested and allegedly beaten, blindfolded, and pushed down a staircase by police after helping document abusive conditions at Hotel Bamy, a site used to detain US deportees, with officers accusing him of property damage and seizing his phone. He was transferred to a prison in Malabo, where he has limited access to medical care and his whereabouts have been kept from other detainees.

An unidentified immigrant man with an active work permit was detained by ICE agents in a West Palm Beach parking lot on September 11, according to the nonprofit Guatemalan-Maya Center. His two U.S. citizen children, one of whom is deaf, were left without a parent because their mother was already in ICE custody. The nonprofit's assistant director rushed to the scene to provide legal guidance and care for the remaining family members.

Ainara Andreina Calderon Pena, a woman from Ecuador who legally entered the U.S. through New York City in August 2022, was arrested by ICE agents at Tweed New Haven Airport on September 11, 2026. A DHS spokesperson said she is being held for overstaying her visa and will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. State court records show no pending criminal cases or convictions associated with her, and she has filed a sealed petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts contesting the legality of her arrest and detention.

Six employees of GLC Property Maintenance, a landscaping company in Highland Township, Michigan, were stopped by nine ICE vehicles while driving to work. The company says all six workers are legally employed in the U.S. on H-2B visas, and agents released them after reviewing their paperwork. Company owner Tyler Ralko, whose parents founded the business 25 years ago, said the employees are hardworking and pay taxes, and he has contacted an immigration attorney and U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin's office seeking clarity on why they were stopped.

A former Guilford County detention officer, Michael Diehl, was charged with 20 counts of felony forgery after allegedly submitting fake magistrate signatures on ICE detainer forms. The forged documents allowed the jail to hold inmates beyond their release time so ICE could take custody, even though the inmates had not been properly presented to a magistrate. Diehl was fired and arrested, and the investigation into additional forged documents is ongoing.

Pietro Graza de Lima, a gay Brazilian man who lived in Orlando, Florida for about seven years running a small services business, fled Brazil after corrupt police shot him over his sexuality, an attack that cost him a kidney and left lasting physical damage. After his student visa expired and he was arrested for drug possession, ICE detained him for nearly two years, including time at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. On April 16, 2026, an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation to Brazil under the Convention Against Torture, but ICE continued holding him while seeking another country to deport him to. After he refused to sign a document accepting removal to Liberia, he was shackled for roughly 36 hours and flown to Liberia—where he and other detainees refused to disembark—and then to Equatorial Guinea, a country with which he has no ties. His attorney said he was denied the interview he was entitled to under CAT protections before being sent there. He and about a dozen other deportees have been confined at a decommissioned hotel, Hotel Bamy, in Malabo, where armed officers confiscated his phone on September 8, 2026 after he spoke with journalists, cutting off contact with his attorneys and leaving him unreachable since September 9, 2026.

Julian David Palacios Obregon, a 27-year-old Colombian human rights activist and lawful permanent resident with ties to Canada, spent about 650 days in ICE detention at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. During his detention he suffered from a severe gastrointestinal bacterial infection causing vomiting, diarrhea and fecal incontinence that required him to wear diapers, saying he had no health problems before entering custody. Staff errors caused him to miss three scheduled colonoscopy appointments recommended by a gastroenterologist, forcing him to choose between receiving medical treatment and attending his asylum hearing. Representing himself, he filed two federal habeas corpus petitions and five humanitarian requests with ICE; a federal court had previously found his removal to Canada reasonably foreseeable but ordered he be given a chance to have his fear of removal reviewed by an immigration judge, while denying earlier requests for expedited release or bond. On September 11, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ordered his release, finding that the deficient medical care had made his detention 'punitive' in violation of due process.

Marta was taken into ICE custody after arriving for a routine biometrics appointment at the USCIS office in Gardena, California. Video showed her being seated in a room before ICE agents detained her shortly afterward. Her nephew, Victor Jimenez, started a GoFundMe campaign titled "Help Bring Marta Home" to help cover her bills and provide family stability, noting she may lose the job she worked hard to get. The family says they are heartbroken and uncertain how long she may remain detained, and are asking the community to donate or share the fundraiser.

Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles, a Haitian national who had lived in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status since 2013, was arrested by ICE in the Boston area (Mattapan) on January 22, 2025, in a video that went viral after he shouted profanities and declared 'Biden forever' while resisting arrest. DHS said his TPS had been terminated by USCIS in 2022 after he accumulated 17 criminal convictions, including assault, weapons, and drug offenses, and alleged gang membership. Massachusetts' Norfolk House of Correction had released him in October 2023 without honoring an ICE detainer. He spent roughly 19 months in federal custody before an immigration judge issued a final removal order in November 2025. ICE deported Charles to Haiti on September 10, 2026, via a flight from Louisiana, during which officials said he became combative.

A man was detained by ICE, according to a GoFundMe campaign started by his cousin, Ashley Zuniga. He has a young daughter he is trying to get home to. The family says this is the fifth time a family member has been detained by ICE, and funds raised will go toward paying for a lawyer and other needs related to his detention.

Gustavo Barrera Reyes was also arrested by ICE officers in Seaside around the same time as another local resident. According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Barrera Reyes entered the United States without authorization in 2014 and now faces removal proceedings.

Martin Anguiano, 63, a longtime Clatsop County resident who has owned and operated Guadalajara Taco Shop in Seaside for 23 years, was arrested by ICE officers on Sept. 10 while picking up supplies at a Safeway. Officers cited a 1993 removal order tied to a decades-old drug possession arrest, after which Anguiano was previously deported and later returned to the country. His wife, Michelle, said she is struggling to understand what happened and described him as a hardworking father, grandfather and husband well known throughout the community. Anguiano is currently held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, where his family says conditions are poor, and a GoFundMe campaign started by his daughter has raised more than $14,000 to help pay bills and legal fees.

The petitioner is currently held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. He filed an ex parte application seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the Department of Homeland Security from transferring him to another detention facility. The federal court denied the motion, finding that he failed to meet the procedural and substantive requirements for ex parte relief under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65. The court also held that it lacked jurisdiction to enjoin DHS from transferring him under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii), citing precedent that ICE has authority to determine detention locations and transfer individuals between facilities. The case has been placed on an expedited schedule for further resolution. The document does not specify the petitioner's nationality, family circumstances, employment, or the circumstances of his initial detention.

James Mervil and Josselene Polidor were arrested by ICE agents near John Marshall Elementary School in the Chollas Creek neighborhood of San Diego minutes after dropping off their 2- and 5-year-old children. Witnesses said officers boxed in the family's car, and the mother ran barefoot into a nearby home under construction, where she was handcuffed while pleading with workers for help and explaining her daughter attended the nearby school. Construction workers reported that an officer unholstered his gun and threatened pepper spray when a supervisor tried to intervene, and that the officer entered the home without the owner's permission. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrests, stating the parents had overstayed their visas. San Diego Unified School District confirmed both parents were taken into ICE custody, said the children were not present and were doing well, and arranged for a family friend to pick them up, while also condemning ICE arrests near its campuses. Local elected officials, including Rep. Scott Peters and Mayor Todd Gloria, condemned the arrests, saying such actions traumatize children and families.

Kenis Alberto López, a Nicaraguan man, was detained in Minnesota and held in U.S. immigration detention for about eight months before being deported to the Central African Republic on August 28, along with two other Nicaraguans, Luis Carlos Mendoza Santamaría and Isaac Cruz. López says ICE officers shot him with rubber bullets, injuring him, then bound, hooded, and dragged him before tying him to a stretcher to force him onto the deportation flight from a Texas airport, which carried about 100 deportees from various countries. He says he has no criminal record and had received a deportation stay in 2024, though DHS told Noticias Telemundo he had re-entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was later released under the Biden administration before his removal. López says he cannot return to Nicaragua due to danger there, and he and the other two men are now confined under police custody in a housing complex in Bangui alongside roughly 40 other migrants, facing severe mobility restrictions and limited access to water and electricity. ICE has not responded to the allegations of mistreatment.

Chang Yeon Cho, 71, a Gardena, California resident known as 'Auntie Jo' who ran a clothing alteration business with her husband Jongs Soo Kim, was detained by ICE in June during her permanent residency interview despite having no criminal convictions. Her detention reportedly stemmed from an old, uncharged arrest linked to a dispute with a customer over unpaid alteration fees. Cho, who speaks Korean and Portuguese but not English after years living in Brazil, was physically restrained on her first night in custody following a communication breakdown, then collapsed and was hospitalized for eight days; the Korean consulate attributed this to low blood pressure and vomiting caused by stress and unfamiliar food. She is held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, where her bond request was denied on August 25 and she received a final order of removal. The Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles has visited her multiple times, and a GoFundMe campaign has raised over $20,000 toward a $24,000 goal for her legal expenses.