Human Impact Project

An unconfirmed ICE sighting was reported on July 3, 2025 in Anaheim, California. According to the alert, ICE agents in a white van were observed circling a Target parking lot and a nearby Quick Quack car wash, with reports indicating they picked up several people. The agents were reported to be moving southbound along Euclid Street toward a 7-Eleven gas station.

Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a 30-year-old Portuguese immigrant who arrived in the U.S. at age 13 and became a licensed general contractor and homeowner in Baltimore, was shot multiple times by ICE agents during a targeted enforcement operation in Glen Burnie, Maryland, on Christmas Eve while driving to an electrical job. Agents said they fired after Sousa-Martins allegedly tried to run them over; his van then crashed into a tree. Anne Arundel County Police later contradicted DHS's account, saying one person DHS identified as a passenger in the van was actually already in ICE custody in a separate vehicle at the time of the shooting. Sousa-Martins was hospitalized for about two weeks with spine, lung and thigh injuries before being detained at facilities in Maryland and Virginia, where his attorneys said ICE denied him prescribed medication and physical therapy. He had applied for a visa for trafficking survivors, citing abuse by his father, and was protected from deportation under a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. After pleading guilty to damaging government property and being sentenced to time served, a federal judge granted his habeas petition and ordered his release after nearly nine months in custody, reuniting him with his partner and two young sons. "Today, I can finally say I am free," he said, while advocacy group We Are CASA said it continues seeking accountability from ICE.

Óscar José Araujo-Mejía, a 21-year-old from El Salvador who had lived in the U.S. for four years and worked at McDonald's, was seriously injured after ICE agents pursued his vehicle through Glen Burnie, Maryland. A relative who witnessed the chase said agents in unmarked vehicles rammed his car and beat him while pulling him from the vehicle, while ICE and DHS said agents fired after Araujo-Mejía failed to stop and drove into several ICE vehicles, nearly striking an agent before crashing between two buildings. He suffered a head wound requiring 29 stitches, fractures to his vertebrae and skull, and was later listed in fair condition at a Maryland trauma center. A passenger from Portugal was also injured in the crash. His family said hospital policy prevented them from visiting him or receiving updates on his condition, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore criticized ICE's enforcement tactics in the state following the incident.

A man with valid asylum status, no criminal history, and a valid work permit was detained by ICE agents in a Walmart parking lot in Yakima, Washington on Christmas Eve while placing groceries in his vehicle. Yeimi Ortiz, a volunteer with the Yakima Immigrant Response Network, witnessed and filmed the arrest. The incident occurred as part of a pattern of federal enforcement actions in the Yakima area during the Christmas holiday period, prompting Ortiz and local activists to hold a boycott protest of Walmart on December 28, alleging the corporation's cooperation with immigration authorities.

ICE agents stopped a U.S. citizen named Said Mohamed during a traffic stop and demanded he prove his citizenship. Mohamed repeatedly asked why he was being stopped. Agents cited the vehicle's possible connection to individuals without legal status. After showing his ID, Mohamed was allowed to leave. ICE agents confronted a woman outside her home and demanded she provide ID to prove U.S. citizenship. When questioned, agents claimed to have a warrant for an unspecified target at the address but refused to present it.

Lucía Pedro Juan and Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, a couple married 25 years, were arrested during a traffic stop in Florida in September 2025 and transferred to Fort Bliss ICE detention facility in El Paso. They were held separately and ICE agents ordered them not to communicate during processing. Pedro Juan was deported to Guatemala on November 28 without being allowed to see her husband. Gaspar-Andrés died on December 3 at a hospital in El Paso after 10 weeks in custody. At least 30 people died in ICE custody during 2025.

Ignacio Sosnava Rodriguez had lived in Texas for 22 years before ICE detained him following a traffic stop in 2025. Rodriguez filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that holding him without a bond hearing violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process. A lower court granted his petition in February using the Mathews v. Eldridge framework and released him from ICE custody. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision, denying Rodriguez's petition and ruling that immigrants in removal proceedings have no constitutional right to bond hearings regardless of length of residence in the United States.

Abdulkadir Sharif Abdi, a Somali refugee who became an addiction recovery leader, was arrested in December 2025 and transferred to Lincoln County Detention Center in North Platte, Nebraska. ICE described him as an active gang member, though community members contested this characterization. Abdi filed a habeas petition on December 9 claiming his detention was unlawful, and Judge Susan Bazis ordered his interim release on December 23 after the government did not contest the petition. Abdi was released on Christmas Eve with assistance from HOPE-Esperanza, a nonprofit serving North Platte's minority community, which helped him contact his family and book a flight home to Minneapolis.

Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio, a 23-year-old Honduran asylum seeker living in Wendell, North Carolina, was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents at an HVAC construction job site in Cary/Raleigh as part of a statewide enforcement sweep called Operation Charlotte's Web that led to at least 370 arrests. A co-worker's video captured agents handcuffing her and placing her into a van. Velasquez-Antonio came to the U.S. alone at age 14 after her father was killed by a gang and her mother later died of cancer; she graduated high school, held a valid work permit, had no criminal record aside from two traffic violations, and had recently bought a home in Wendell with her boyfriend with plans to start a family. She was held overnight at the New Hanover County jail before being transferred to the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, leaving her family without information on her whereabouts. After more than a month in custody, a federal immigration judge ruled that her detention violated a settlement agreement governing unaccompanied minors who arrived in the U.S. as children, and she was released and returned to North Carolina on December 23, 2025. Her case remains pending.

Donna Hughes-Brown, a 59-year-old Irish citizen who has lived in the U.S. since age 11 (47 years), was detained by ICE in July 2025 upon returning to Chicago from a trip to Ireland visiting relatives. She was held on moral turpitude charges tied to two overdrawn checks totaling less than $80 written more than a decade earlier. After being detained at the airport, she was transferred to Campbell County Detention Center in Kentucky, where she reported unsanitary conditions, pest infestations, and inadequate food and utilities. Her case drew attention after her husband testified before Congress, prompting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to promise a review. She was released just before Christmas and reunited with her family in Missouri, avoiding deportation, and said she will not visit Ireland again until she becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen for fear of future detention.

ICE has agreed to reform measures at its Central Islip federal courthouse holding facility after a federal judge found the agency in contempt for inhumane conditions and excessive detention lasting up to 72 hours. More than 100 migrant detainees reported sleeping on floors, lacking access to showers and medical care, and being held in spaces designed only for brief detention. The agreement comes as ICE expands its nationwide detention capacity amid increased enforcement operations.

Marcos Flores, bassist for local band Summer of Peril, was detained by ICE on December 23 while attempting to pick up a visitor's badge at Colorado Springs Air Force Academy. Flores, who was brought to the U.S. as a young child from Mexico, has been held at Aurora ICE Detention Center with his bond request denied despite community support and legal efforts. His case was affected by a federal policy memo reversing protections against no-bond detentions.

A Russian citizen on parole through the CBP One program was arrested on December 22, 2025 in Hollywood on misdemeanor solicitation charges. After being released from criminal custody, ICE immediately detained him without a hearing despite his compliance with parole conditions. The court ordered his immediate release, finding his detention violated due process rights.

A federal judge in Charlotte ruled that ICE violated a man's due process rights by unlawfully detaining Mostafa Said, an Egyptian asylum seeker, during a routine check-in. The judge ordered immigration officials to hold a bond hearing for Said within 48 hours. Said had been released on humanitarian parole after entering through the U.S.-Mexico border and was arrested in Charlotte and transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia.

U.S. Army veteran Zahid Chaudhry, a green card holder and disabled veteran who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years, was released from ICE detention at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma after more than three months. A federal judge ordered his release following a habeas hearing on December 22, 2025, calling his detention "flat out wrong." Chaudhry had been detained since August 2025 after being taken into custody at a citizenship interview, during which time he was separated from his wife and two young children and lost vision due to untreated thyroid eye disease. The government acknowledged it had cited an incorrect statute but maintains the detention was lawful, and the case continues before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jose Gonzalez, a 53-year-old Mexican national who worked as a maitre d' at an upscale Palm Beach restaurant for 20 years, was detained on December 10 during a traffic stop and held at Alligator Alcatraz detention facility. Gonzalez was transferred to Krome Detention Center on December 22. He had a pending asylum application and valid work permit at the time of his detention.

A Columbus, Ohio mother and her three daughters, ages 18, 15, and 11, were pepper-sprayed by ICE agents on December 21, 2025, while driving near Easton Town Center. The mother reported that her eyes burned and the children cried after agents deployed spray into their open car window without activating police lights. The mother said she made no threatening gestures. ICE stated that agents had been involved in an incident at a nearby Dollar Tree where anti-ICE demonstrators had blocked their exit, though the agency did not clarify why pepper spray was deployed in the moving vehicle. A retired FBI Special Agent in Charge reviewed ICE's use-of-force policy and raised concerns about whether agents followed proper protocols, noting that verbal remarks alone do not justify force deployment. The mother filed an assault report with Columbus police.

Karla, an activist who publicly exposed medical neglect of a lesbian woman with cancer detained in Eloy, has herself been detained at the same facility. Activists are demanding her immediate release, protection from retaliation, and access to her hormones while in detention.

Miguel Garcia Pazaran and his wife Dulce Maria Trejo Segura were pulled over by immigration agents while driving to work in Hillsboro, Oregon and detained without proper clothing. The couple was taken to a detention center in Tacoma and deported to Mexico within eight days, leaving behind their 2-year-old daughter Sofía, who is a U.S. citizen.

ICE agents arrested a Honduran mother and her two children, including a 4-year-old U.S. citizen, at a check-in appointment on December 20, 2025. The family was detained in hotel rooms for 18 days across multiple locations, including near LaGuardia Airport and Alexandria, Louisiana, during which they had minimal contact with the outside world. They were briefly placed on a plane to Honduras before being taken off due to a federal judge's temporary restraining order blocking their deportation, and were eventually released on January 7, 2026.