Human Impact Project

Juan, a Mexican national who entered the U.S. legally on a work visa in 2018 and overstayed, was detained by ICE on February 5, 2025, during a raid at Cedar Run Apartments in Denver. He has been held at the Aurora ICE detention facility for over a year. His wife, Lucie Donovan, a U.S. citizen and Denver teacher, married him while detained in September 2025 and has pursued legal avenues including habeas corpus petitions to fight his deportation and obtain a green card, though immigration judges have repeatedly denied bond requests.

Elmerson Campos, a 45-year-old from Guatemala who has lived in Easton for 24 years, was arrested by ICE on February 5 and transferred through multiple detention facilities, eventually being held in California. His truck was later found at a local car wash, and he told family by phone that he felt very sick and had not eaten in over a day. A federal judge ordered ICE to release him on bond or schedule a bond hearing by February 23. Campos, who owns a construction business and has no criminal record beyond a 2007 traffic citation, has not received his medication for diabetes and a back injury while detained; a friend started a GoFundMe that has raised over $3,100 to help cover the family's legal and living expenses.

Yoiker Sequera, a 25-year-old Venezuelan barber, was transferred to Guantanamo Bay after being held in detention in El Paso for five months. He turned himself in to Border Patrol in Presidio in September 2024 and was detained awaiting asylum processing. He has been cutting hair since childhood, trained by his uncle, a master barber in Venezuela, and later worked as a barber in Ecuador, Colombia, and inside the detention center. His mother Angela Sequera said he wanted to join family in California, and last spoke with him the day before his transfer, when he told her he was exhausted and felt his continued detention was unfair. He is among the three Venezuelans named in the ACLU lawsuit challenging the Guantanamo detentions.

Twenty-one Haitian immigrants, including 12 with criminal records, were deported from the United States on February 4, 2025. The deportees, who had been detained during the Biden administration, were received at Cap-Haïtien International Airport. They reported confiscated belongings and minimal reintegration support. Haiti's government provided minimal assistance.

The Trump administration has flown approximately 100 immigrant detainees to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base since February 4, 2025, claiming they are dangerous criminals including gang members. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune identified nearly a dozen Venezuelan immigrants transferred there, and records show at least three had no criminal history except unauthorized entry, or minor charges incurred while detained. The government has refused to release detainees' names or crime details and denied families and attorneys access to the detainees, prompting an ACLU lawsuit over constitutional rights to legal representation. The Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department are now rushing to build multiple tent facilities at Guantanamo to house thousands of migrants, with internal confusion over which agency is in charge and what will happen once people arrive.

A South Carolina man was arrested after a video showed him impersonating an ICE officer and confronting a Latino man in a pickup truck, telling him he would be sent back to Mexico. The arrest was followed by a similar incident at Temple University in Pennsylvania, where three men falsely identified themselves as ICE officers at a residence hall and cookie shop.

Franco Jose Caraballo Tiapa, a 26-year-old barber from Venezuela, migrated to the United States in 2023 with his wife seeking asylum due to political persecution and had no criminal history. He presented himself to ICE for a routine check-in in early February 2025 and was detained without being informed of the reason, though he reported being questioned about his tattoos. Without notifying his attorneys or family, he was deported to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison under a Trump executive order allowing ICE to send noncitizens to third countries willing to accept them. His family learned of his deportation only after seeing videos of his arrival on social media, having expected him to be sent to Venezuela instead. His attorneys provided documentation proving his clean background and pending asylum claim.

Sean Michael-Emmrich Johnson was arrested after turning himself in to Sullivan's Island Police Department for allegedly impersonating an ICE officer in a viral video where he harassed Hispanic men. He faces charges including felony kidnapping, impersonating a law enforcement officer, larceny, and assault and battery. Johnson bonded out of jail after a court appearance where his family cited his mental health challenges and request for treatment.

Alfonso Garcia Vega, a 61-year-old man with health issues including a possible brain tumor, was arrested by ICE agents in a Sunnyslope neighborhood raid on Sunday. ICE deployed an armored truck with a battering ram, at least 12 unmarked vehicles, flash-bang grenades, and dozens of armed agents to arrest him. His son Marco Garcia stated that ICE officers showed his father a picture of a man named Alfonso, but it was not him, and that his father called from an ICE detention center saying the photo did not match his identity. Garcia said his father has multiple health issues and is seeking a diagnosis for a possible tumor. Neighbors described the operation as overly aggressive for a single elderly man.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in downtown Los Angeles on February 2, 2025, to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and the Trump administration's deportation plans. The protest began on Olvera Street and grew to include marches to City Hall before crowds moved onto the 101 freeway, blocking traffic for hours. Similar protests occurred in Riverside and Garden Grove, California. Police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly by 8 p.m. and cleared remaining protesters, with minimal arrests reported and no injuries.

In New Orleans, ICE called a trans-Latina immigrant advocate and community organizer into the field office after telling her they wanted to offer her less restrictive monitoring in recognition of her community leadership. She was detained when she arrived at her check-in and held at a Louisiana ICE jail, where she says she was denied medical care, placed in solitary confinement, and subjected to verbal and transphobic harassment. She had received the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center annual human rights award in 2024 and was in the process of obtaining a visa for trafficking survivors. She was later deported to Mexico, a country she had never lived in before, and is now working to rebuild her life there while recovering from infections she says went untreated during detention.

In Maryland, ICE agents arrested a transgender woman married to a U.S. citizen after she appeared for a routine probation check-in. She was then transferred to an all-male detention facility in Miami even though her lawyers said they had provided a passport listing her gender as female. When her attorney objected to her being held with men, ICE responded in writing that "as per executive order, your client's immutable, biological, classification is that of a male." The White House later posted about her case on social media, and her lawyers say they no longer know her current location.

A Venezuelan asylum seeker in Arizona, who had arrived through CBP One and held humanitarian parole, was detained while waiting in a Walmart parking lot for a delivery order after federal agents knocked on his car window. He showed agents a valid work permit and driver's license, but they detained him anyway.

In Coral Springs, Florida, an armed federal agent was recorded at a neighborhood playground while heavily armed agents, some carrying shields, raided a home down the street.

On Feb. 21, 2025, a Border Patrol agent boarded a Las Cruces Public Schools charter bus carrying 12 swim team students and two staff members to the state championships in Albuquerque, after the Spanish-speaking driver could not answer the agent's questions in English. Coach Pamela Quiñones said the agent began yelling in Spanish and demanding documentation from all passengers without further questioning the adults, leaving students visibly shaken. Border Patrol called it a routine immigration inspection, noting the bus had no school decals and was treated as a standard charter vehicle, and said all passengers were confirmed to be legally present before agents left without incident. U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez criticized the stop, saying no student or coach should face intimidating enforcement actions and raising concerns about the checkpoint system's impact on civil rights.

A woman from Honduras was detained at Krome's processing room where she reported the one toilet in her cell was covered in feces. Despite repeated requests for cleaning supplies, officers told her sarcastically, 'Housekeeping will come soon.' No one ever came. She was denied pain relief for menstrual cramps and provided only a menstrual pad. After transfer to the Broward Transitional Center, she fell from her bunk in March. Although an X-ray showed no fracture, her ankle became swollen and bruised. She walked in pain for a week before receiving crutches, after repeated requests for some form of relief.

In late February 2025, ICE transported several women to Krome North Service Processing Center, a male-only facility, and confined them for days in a tiny cell that grew from 25 to 31 women with a single exposed toilet. The toilet was visible through windows to adjacent rooms housing men. Officers denied the women showers, saying clearing a section was 'not feasible.' Officers refused to provide medications the women had brought, claiming they were not authorized to treat women. A woman with diabetes was hospitalized after being denied insulin. Another with gallstones was denied medication for days until she began vomiting green bile and lost consciousness, requiring emergency gallbladder removal. She was returned to the cell without prescribed medication. A third woman also had to be hospitalized. When all three returned, officers again refused their medications. Only after women posted signs saying they were being treated inhumanely were they taken — shackled — to shower after four days.

A 56-year-old British man with diabetes, pancreatitis, and heart disease was detained at a routine annual ICE appointment in early February 2025 and shackled on a bus outside Krome for up to three hours. His family delivered a three-month supply of medications including insulin he needs four times daily, but staff failed to administer them consistently. When transferred to FDC, he received some heart medication and minimal insulin but nothing for pancreatitis. During his April 15 transfer to BTC, guards sent his medications to Krome instead. At BTC, a doctor dismissed his asthma diagnosis, saying 'No one has asthma over 18,' and refused to hear his medical history. Five days later, he collapsed in the dinner line. His family discovered he had been registered at the hospital under a false name. ICE refused to share any information about his condition. He was returned to BTC in shackles after three days.

Andrea, a 31-year-old woman from Argentina with a Green Card who has lived in the United States since age three, was arrested in February 2025 after calling police during a domestic dispute with her partner. A judge approved her release on $1,000 signature bond, which her family paid, but ICE issued a detainer and transferred her to Krome North. She was shackled on a multi-stop bus journey and spent a night on the bus in shackles when Krome was closed. At Krome, a male-only facility, she was confined in a small visitation room with up to 30 women with no beds, showers, or privacy for the toilet. She was denied medical care and later transferred across the country to Houston Processing Center for two months, where officers repeatedly failed to inform her of court dates and cut off contact with lawyers and family for 48 hours. Andrea was postpartum, having given birth three months before detention and breastfeeding until arrest; her mother relocated to Florida to care for her children. She was released in late April after authorities retrieved documentation of an expunged cannabis conviction.

Four undocumented immigrants were taken into custody by Burleigh County Sheriff's deputies during a traffic stop and transferred to U.S. Border Patrol. One individual is reported to be an active associate with the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela. According to Burleigh County Sheriff Kelly Leben, arrests involving gang affiliations were rare in the county. All four individuals were scheduled for removal from the country.