Human Impact Project

In Naperville, Illinois, five roofers working on a home were detained during a Sept. 17 immigration enforcement operation while the homeowners were away. Homeowner Bobby Fischer said neighbors reported agents removing ladders and chasing a worker down the street with guns drawn, forcing workers to jump from the roof, with one injured before being detained; he said he later learned all the workers were properly documented. ICE Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin disputed the ladder claim, saying agents arrested four people in the country illegally during a 'targeted immigration enforcement operation.' One roofer told a local station, 'It's very hard what is happening to us. It's a lot of harm that they're doing to us.'

In Hyattsville, Maryland, federal agents pinned a man in a busy intersection, pressing against his neck, when one agent dropped his gun. After scrambling to retrieve it, the agent turned the weapon toward the crowd of bystanders. A second agent later drew his weapon and moved toward bystanders.

Martin G., a 66-year-old Cuban man and testicular cancer survivor who has had a partial lung removal, was detained at Camp East Montana from September 2025. Despite daily written and verbal requests, he was never taken to see medical staff during his months of detention. His conditions worsened — he experienced severe headaches, trouble breathing, low oxygen levels, and lightheadedness. 'I'm scared that I will die here,' he said. When he engaged in a hunger strike to bring attention to his medical needs, guards tried to force him to eat on at least three occasions and then placed him in solitary confinement for seven days as punishment. His wife said: 'I pray for my husband's health every day. I pray that he will live and that I will be able to hug him again.'

Ramiro G., a 45-year-old Cuban man detained at Camp East Montana, was twice subjected to attempted forced expulsion to Mexico. On September 22, 2025, he was woken at midnight, chained, and bused with about 15 mostly Cuban men to the border. Guards told them to cross into Mexico. Ramiro refused, saying he was Cuban, had no ties to Mexico, and had previously been kidnapped by a cartel there. Some men crossed; Ramiro and three others refused and were returned. On December 15, guards tried again, this time telling him he was being transferred to another facility. When he overheard guards mention the Santa Teresa port of entry, a guard admitted the transfer was being carried out 'in secret.' He began shaking uncontrollably. Other detainees banged on doors in protest until he was returned to his cell. Guards had told him: 'Your country won't take you; leave now or we'll lock you up for life.'

Sebastian R., a 26-year-old man from Oaxaca, Mexico, who had lived and studied in New York for six years, was detained by ICE in September 2025 and flown to Camp East Montana. 'I cried the entire time because I always dreamed that I would travel on a plane,' he said. 'I was handcuffed, hands and feet, with chains around my waist. The cuffs were so tight they left marks on my body. I couldn't move and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like I was being kidnapped. My brother had no idea where I was. I could not call him until a week after I got to El Paso.'

Ernesto Diaz, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was walking down Archer Avenue on Chicago's Southwest Side in late September when masked federal agents grabbed him, slammed him against a vehicle, and handcuffed him. Agents ripped out his earbuds and threatened to tase him when he moved. After about five minutes of questioning and inspecting his ID and Social Security card, agents threw his wallet on the ground and drove away. Diaz believes he was targeted based on his race and ethnicity during Operation Midway Blitz.

The Trump administration attempted to repatriate 76 Guatemalan children from U.S. government custody in overnight operations. Children were woken from their beds and reported crying and vomiting. A federal judge temporarily blocked the removals after attorneys argued the government violated U.S. law protecting unaccompanied minors from deportation without due process. The children were returned to shelters after being placed on planes. Declarations indicated many had not requested to return and stated they feared danger if sent back to Guatemala.

Two carwasheros were detained from car washes in Orange County. Their families and legal advocates fought to secure bonds, with Cuberto's bond set at $2,500 and Rodolfo's at $2,000. The post appeals for help reaching fundraising goals to release these individuals.

Leidy Tatiana Mafla-Martinez, a Colombian immigrant and TikTok influencer living in Los Angeles, was arrested by ICE agents while livestreaming from her car. Federal agents detained her and the incident was recorded by bystanders. The Department of Homeland Security stated that Mafla-Martinez had entered the country in 2022 and was convicted of driving under the influence in Los Angeles. A government vehicle was also reportedly towed during the incident.

Lorena Pineda, a 27-year-old Salvadoran mother of two, was arrested by ICE agents on June 19, 2025, while five months pregnant at a food stand in California. Despite ICE policy prohibiting detention of pregnant women for administrative violations, an agent told her he would not release her. She was transferred through multiple detention facilities—Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Atlanta, Alexandria, and finally South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana—where she was held for over 3.5 months separated from her young children by 1,500 miles. At the facility, she was housed with at least 20 other pregnant women and witnessed multiple miscarriages, including a woman carrying twins. She received inadequate prenatal care, poor nutrition, and was unable to contact her family for the first month. After three months, she signed papers for voluntary self-deportation to El Salvador with a departure date extended to March due to her full-term pregnancy.

Maribel Lopez, a Guatemalan mother of three who fled years of abuse in her home country, was detained in early September 2025 when federal agents raided the nutrition-bar factory where she worked in Central New York. Although her pending asylum appeal should have protected her from removal, she was deported to Guatemala within four days of the raid. Her 2-year-old son, Jorge, remained in the U.S. in the care of his two older siblings, who are barely adults themselves. Her case was profiled by The New York Times as part of a growing pattern of rapid deportations that bypass pending legal claims.

A 19-year-old man identified only as ELA was deported to El Salvador this week while detained at a Louisiana immigration facility awaiting a psychological evaluation for his asylum case, according to his attorneys. It was the second time this year he was removed from the U.S. in violation of court orders protecting a class of young asylum seekers who sued in 2019 for the right to have their claims heard while remaining in the country. He had previously been deported earlier this year but was returned to the Louisiana detention center after attorneys confirmed his class membership. A federal judge ordered the government to explain the removal and how it plans to rectify the error, and the Justice Department said it only learned of his removal after being alerted by class attorneys.

ICE agents detained two men during a traffic stop near Hudson Avenue and South Street in Peekskill on September 1, then moved the men and their vehicles into the parking lots of two nearby restaurants, NY Firehouse Grille and Taormina Trattoria. One man was handcuffed and the other was placed in shackles before being taken away in unmarked vehicles. Restaurant owners said they were not informed in advance and only learned the vehicles belonged to ICE after nearly having them towed. ICE did not respond to requests for comment on why the men were detained, and Peekskill police said federal agents did not share the men's names, charges, or other details with the department.

Asif Amin Cheema, 64, was detained by federal immigration agents three minutes from his home in Addison, Illinois, during the early days of Operation Midway Blitz. Despite having no criminal record, he was arrested over a removal order tied to a missed court date, which the family says their former immigration lawyer never told them about. He spent nearly three months detained at the Clay County Jail in Indiana, losing 30 pounds and experiencing health complications, before being deported to Pakistan on New Year's Day after more than 30 years living in the United States. His youngest son, 19-year-old Nooran Amin, left college responsibilities behind to run the family's Best Sub #2 sandwich shop in Humboldt Park, learning the business from an employee the family calls 'Uncle' while trying to keep his father's legacy alive.

D.A., a political activist who was violently attacked in Nigeria and is married to a U.S. citizen, was granted protection from removal to Nigeria in June after a judge found he faced persecution there. He says ICE agents beat him when he refused to board a military cargo plane bound for Ghana, where he was flown with a dozen other West African men and women. After more than two weeks in Ghana's Dema Camp, where deportees faced heat, mosquitoes and unsanitary conditions, he was sent to Togo without travel documents and is now staying in a hotel room with other deportees, relying on money sent by his family in the United States.

Laura Murillo, a 55-year-old immigrant from Mexico and mother of two, was arrested by ICE in September 2025 while operating her tamale vending stand near Home Depot on 47th Street and Western Avenue during Operation Midway Blitz. She spent six months in federal immigration detention before being released in March 2026 following a court order rather than deportation. Murillo's tamale business, which she had operated for years, allowed her to support her daughters Génesis and Daniela and provide flexible work to other women in her community. Since her release, she says she is in the process of obtaining legal status and is rebuilding her life with a focus on her family, faith, and a slower pace rather than the constant work that previously defined her.

Jessica Chodor was tackled and assaulted by a Memphis Safe Task Force officer while attempting to film a traffic stop. She was held down on the ground, threatened with a taser, and arrested on a charge of "resisting official detention," which was later dropped. She now avoids filming task force operations unless other observers are present. On May 13, Chodor and three other Memphis residents filed a federal lawsuit against the task force, alleging a pattern of retaliation and intimidation against people who record its operations, including improper use of Tennessee's 25-foot "Halo Law" to push back or arrest observers.

Hunter Demster, who runs a soup kitchen in Memphis, was arrested by officers with the Memphis Safe Task Force on August 26, 2026, while attempting to film task force activity, according to newly released video and a declaration filed in his ongoing ACLU lawsuit. The footage shows federal Homeland Security Investigations officers repeatedly moving toward Demster and ordering him to retreat, despite his insistence that he remained more than 25 feet away as required under Tennessee's "Halo Law." The ACLU says the arrest is further evidence of a continuing campaign of intimidation against Demster and eight other Memphis residents who allege in the lawsuit, filed in mid-May, that they have been violently arrested, surveilled at their homes, and wrongly pulled over for trying to document the task force, which has operated in Memphis since September 2025 under orders from President Trump and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

Sergio Ayala Mejia, a 36-year-old who arrived in the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor fleeing MS-13 gang pressure in Guatemala, was detained by ICE in September 2025 while dropping off his sister at work, separated from his newborn daughter Ailany and two other children. He was deported to Guatemala without a court hearing despite a pending appeal to reopen his case—the same day an immigration judge granted his motion to reopen and rescinded his 2007 deportation order. After four months in Guatemala, he was brought back to the U.S. on humanitarian parole in December 2025 but re-detained in New York for three additional months before being released on bond in March 2026. Ayala Mejia now fears driving and worries about the lasting impact on his children, including his 3-year-old son who developed anxiety during his absence.

CRB, a 16-year-old brought to the U.S. from Mexico at age seven and protected under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, was arrested by ICE at the San Antonio field office during an annual check-in appointment in September 2025. He was detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center for 141 days with his mother. During detention, he experienced depression, panic attacks, and self-harm. He reported hearing racist comments from guards and observed poor conditions including spoiled food and lights left on all night. He and his mother were released two days after his self-harm incident.