Human Impact Project

Immigrant families detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas describe prolonged stays, despondent children, limited access to potable water, and inadequate food in court declarations filed in December 2025. A report from Human Rights First and RAICES found more than 5,600 people, including parents, toddlers and newborns, were held at the facility between April 2025 and February 2026, alleging months-long detentions, limited access to asylum protections, poor medical care and psychological harm. A Canadian citizen living in Texas said she and her 7-year-old daughter were detained for hours at a checkpoint and later transferred to a processing center despite her pending lawful immigration status. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security maintain the facility is safe and family-friendly, providing food, medical care, education and legal access, and say some detained families raise enforcement or security concerns.

Lucy, a 3-year-old unaccompanied minor, was presented without legal representation before an immigration judge in Tucson, Arizona. According to reports, multiple unaccompanied immigrant minors are appearing in immigration court without legal representation or support due to federal budget cuts to organizations that previously provided assistance.

Kamel Maklad, a Syrian man who migrated through Venezuela, was released from Eloy Detention Center on December 9, 2025, after spending 14 months detained. He had won his immigration court case in November 2024 where he was granted withholding of removal. His release came after a federal judge granted a habeas corpus petition filed on his behalf.

Augsburg University president Paul Pribbenow stated that ICE agents illegally detained a student on campus without displaying a warrant. In response, the university plans to lock more buildings to prevent ICE agents from entering without proper legal documentation. Federal officials countered that university staff attempted to obstruct the arrest.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with Border Patrol and Florida Highway Patrol, conducted immigration enforcement operations in central Palm Beach County on December 8, 2025, including roadblocks and an attempted raid on a residential construction site. Activists estimate at least 50 people were detained during the sweeps, with children separated from apprehended parents. A 19-year-old U.S. citizen was wrongly detained but later released. Local officials stated the operations disrupted the community and economy.

Bruna Ferreira, a Brazilian woman who arrived in the U.S. in 1998 at age six and previously held DACA protection, was arrested by ICE agents on November 12, 2025, in Massachusetts while driving to pick up her 11-year-old son from school. Ferreira shares custody of her son with her former fiancé Michael Leavitt, brother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She has no criminal convictions, and her brother, sister and son are U.S. citizens. She was held for 26 days across multiple facilities, including the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, before an immigration judge granted her release on a $1,500 bond on December 8 after DHS attorneys did not challenge her release. She remains in removal proceedings with mandatory periodic check-ins with ICE.

A Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. on a B-2 visa in 2019 and overstayed was arrested during a targeted ICE raid in Los Angeles on December 8, 2025, without an arrest warrant. He was detained and received a bond hearing on April 30, 2026, where bond was denied. The federal court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding the arrest violated 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) requirements and ordered his immediate release, prohibiting re-detention without a pre-detention hearing before an immigration judge.

Neysis Mairena, a Nicaraguan immigrant six months pregnant with twins, was hospitalized while in ICE detention at the Basile, Louisiana processing center after experiencing contractions. She was shackled to a hospital bed during her hospitalization. Mairena had been arrested on allegations of child endangerment related to an incident in which her 7-year-old daughter was present during an altercation with her partner; her attorney states she was acting in self-defense. She was released from detention on November 26, 2025, following a news outlet's inquiry into her case.

A lawful permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. since 1966 was arrested by Las Vegas police for driving under the influence on December 8, 2025. He was released into ICE custody the next day and has remained in immigration detention since, despite Jordan declining to accept him for removal. The court ordered his immediate release, finding his detention violated due process after over six months in custody with no reasonably foreseeable removal.

Four Cuban immigrants held at the Fort Bliss detention center in El Paso say they were among dozens driven to the U.S.-Mexico border and pressured by masked officials to cross or face imprisonment and beatings, with two reporting being beaten after initially refusing. The claims are part of a letter to ICE based on interviews with 45 detainees, alleging the agency violated federal rules on third-country deportations by not providing written notice or hearings. Internal ICE records reviewed by the Washington Post confirmed the men resisted removal but did not verify the abuse allegations; ICE declined a request to visit the facility. Advocates also cited broader complaints of inadequate food, hygiene and medical care at Fort Bliss, which a prior Post investigation found had violated 60 federal detention standards within its first 50 days of operation.

The ACLU and human rights organizations released reports on 12/8/2025 documenting conditions at Fort Bliss, the largest immigration detention site in the U.S., specifically at Camp East Montana, a tent facility in El Paso. Based on interviews with over 45 detained immigrants and 16 sworn declarations, the reports detail physical abuse, sexual abuse by officers, medical neglect, and coercive deportations to third countries. Specific cases cited include a teenager beaten into unconsciousness and another who sustained a broken tooth and ear damage, a Cuban immigrant whose head was slammed against a wall, and Geraldo Lunas Campos, whose death in ICE custody at a nearby facility was ruled a homicide following reports an officer choked him.

John Biestman and Janet Lee, a married couple in their late 60s from Linden Hills, followed an ICE vehicle after a December 7 raid at Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary in Richfield. ICE agents boxed in their car, pointed guns at them, and threatened to arrest them. They are named plaintiffs in an ACLU lawsuit alleging ICE violated constitutional rights of observers and protesters.

Greggy Sorio, a 37-year-old lawful permanent resident from the Philippines, was detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington for eleven months, during which he developed severe medical conditions including ulcerative colitis, a bone infection that required toe amputation, and kidney disease due to alleged medical neglect. On December 7, 2025, as he was being deported on a Philippine Airlines flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, union members and Tanggol Migrante activists coordinated to alert the airline of his status as a medical liability. Philippine Airlines subsequently cancelled the deportation flight, stopping his removal.

Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani, a 48-year-old Pakistani man who had lived in the United States since 1996, died on December 6, 2025 after 162 days in ICE custody at Prairieland Detention Center in Texas. He entered detention with serious preexisting health conditions, including advanced kidney disease requiring dialysis, respiratory disease, diabetes and anemia, and was hospitalized multiple times during his detention before being returned to the facility. Life-sustaining therapies were ultimately withdrawn after he developed complications from pneumonia and sepsis during his final hospitalization.

ICE agents engaged in an hours-long standoff with a man who barricaded himself in a second-floor apartment unit in Elgin on Saturday. Federal agents deployed tear gas canisters and flash-bang grenades while protesters gathered to provide supplies to the man on the balcony. One person was detained around 3 p.m. after agents breached the building. Community members clashed with agents. State officials made statements regarding the incident.

A woman's security camera captured federal ICE agents chasing her home in Louisiana. She says she ran away from the agents after telling them she was a US-born citizen. CNN's Victor Blackwell interviewed the woman about the incident.

Pete Sumalo Montejo, a 72-year-old Filipino man who had been a lawful permanent resident since age nine, was arrested by ICE on February 25, 2025, and held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, for 284 days. During his detention he was repeatedly hospitalized, underwent heart surgery, and required dialysis and burn care before being moved to a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility. He suffered cardiac arrest on December 5, 2025, and died after being transported to Valley Baptist Medical Center. Medical reviewers cited cardiac arrest amid multiple chronic conditions, noting that the timing and contribution of his earlier severe burns remained unclear.

State-funded Operation Prairie Thunder saturation patrols jailed 75 people across Huron, Belle Fourche, and Yankton — 42 on drug charges and 33 on non-drug charges. Twenty-five people were interviewed on behalf of ICE, with 21 held for the federal agency. The patrols, part of Gov. Larry Rhoden's two-pronged initiative announced in July, generated concern in Huron's Hispanic community, with some residents believing ICE rather than state police conducted the operations.

Jacelynn Guzman, a 23-year-old U.S.-born citizen, was chased by masked Border Patrol agents to her home in Marrero, Louisiana while walking from a corner store. The agents were conducting a targeted enforcement operation but mistakenly pursued Guzman, who was not the intended target. The agents stopped at the property line and left after the altercation.

Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona stated she was pepper-sprayed and pushed by ICE agents during a raid at a Tucson restaurant on Friday. The congresswoman identified herself as a member of Congress and stated she witnessed others being sprayed, including press and staff members. The Department of Homeland Security stated she was in the vicinity of another person being pepper-sprayed.