Human Impact Project

A single father of six U.S. citizen children applied for a special visa but was deported by ICE. The case involved family ties and legal efforts to prevent deportation.

Cristina Osornio, a legal permanent resident and mother of six who has lived in the U.S. since infancy, was stopped by police in Rogers on September 15, 2025, for driving without insurance and with a suspended license. She was arrested on a warrant for missing a court appearance in a misdemeanor domestic violence case and held at Benton County Jail on an ICE hold for four days before being released without explanation. Osornio said the detention was "very scary" and exacerbated her health conditions. Her husband, Edwin Sanchez-Mendoza, was deported to Mexico after a misdemeanor arrest months earlier, leaving the family without their primary breadwinner and forcing them to lose their home.

The government of Ghana announced that 14 West Africans (13 Nigerians and 1 Gambian) deported from the US had been sent on to their home countries, prompting a lawsuit from US lawyers alleging the deportations violated immigration protections and that Ghana was used as a third country to bypass US law. Reuters later found that more than 30 third-country nationals were deported to Ghana, including at least 22 who had court-ordered protection against removal to their home countries, with lawyers saying none had a chance to raise legal objections before being sent back. One deportee, Rabbiatu Kuyateh, who had been granted protection from deportation to Sierra Leone over fears of torture tied to her father's political ties, was filmed being forcibly dragged onto a van in Ghana before being returned to Sierra Leone. Reuters also reported that Equatorial Guinea sent home at least three US deportees who had similar US protections, a previously unreported practice now the subject of complaints to the UN human rights office.

ICE agents detained at least two Venezuelan men in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on Monday, including one pulled from his car at 24th and Albany despite claims of legal status. Witnesses say agents hit the car before the man exited, then left his wife and two small children crying in the intersection without providing a warrant or information about his location. The Little Village Community Council, which had distributed whistles during Sunday's Mexican Independence Day parade to alert neighbors of ICE presence, is now working to secure legal representation as detentions increase and fear spreads through the community.

Immigration agents moved a car off the road after breaking its windows and detaining someone on the southwest side. The car was returned to family. Agents abandoned several other vehicles during arrests around Chicago.

Federal immigration agents raided Bixby Knolls Car Wash in Long Beach, California, arresting seven workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Masked agents in tactical vests arrived in roughly 10 unmarked dark-colored SUVs, blocking the car wash's entrance and exits as some workers attempted to flee. During the operation, a woman being placed into a federal vehicle appeared to faint and collapse while in custody. Witnesses documented the raid on their cellphones, with one bystander describing the scene as impactful. A social media post also captured the incident, describing it as part of a broader pattern of workers being detained by federal agents.

ICE agents raided the Bixby Knolls Car Wash in Long Beach on Saturday, detaining seven workers (four women and three men). The workers, from Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico, had various forms of legal status according to the manager, but agents allegedly confiscated or dismissed their immigration documents. The detained workers have been processed at facilities in Santa Ana, Adelanto, and Los Angeles.

Mauricio Prado, 45, was detained by ICE at a Home Depot in Santa Ana on October 6 while buying construction supplies. He is a father of five, including a US Navy veteran, and a stroke patient who has had six prior strokes and takes multiple medications. He was admitted to Orange County Global Medical Center. A friend recorded the arrest on a cell phone, during which Prado asked agents to remove their masks.

The first state-funded Prairie Thunder saturation patrol resulted in 44 felony drug arrests in Sioux Falls. Federal inmates including ICE detainees had to be moved from Minnehaha County Jail to other facilities to make room. U.S. Marshals and ICE transported 35 people to other regional facilities.

José Daniel López Peña, a 26-year-old from Honduras who came to the U.S. in 2020, was detained by ICE agents on Churn Creek Road while dropping off his girlfriend for work. According to his sister, agents showed no warrants and the family still does not know why he was detained. López Peña has never been arrested and has no deportation order but lacks legal status, and organizers say he is the sole caregiver for his 6 young siblings. He was transported to Mesa Verde Detention Facility. Hundreds of people gathered in Redding to protest his detention, and local officials said they had no information about the incident and directed questions to ICE.

Ruperto, a Mexican roofing contractor who lived and worked in Oklahoma for 28 years, was stopped by Oklahoma Highway Patrol after his truck blew a tire and overturned on an interstate in Oklahoma City. Troopers, working under ICE's 287(g) program, detained him despite having insurance and deported him to Mexico. He was transported through multiple facilities, including a jail in Purcell, before deportation, and agreed to voluntary removal rather than continue fighting through the legal system. His U.S. citizen daughter Karen, a college student majoring in elementary education, has stayed in school, while her older brother left school and work to support the family and cover the mortgage and other household expenses; the family has withheld their last name for fear of further immigration action. Ruperto cannot reapply for reentry for 10 years.

ICE agents detained Willian Gimenez in Little Village on September 12 while he entered a barbershop with his wife. ICE refused to disclose his location and denied his attorneys access to him. Gimenez is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Home Depot and off-duty Chicago police for targeting immigrant day laborers.

Denis Omar Rivera Martinez, a 42-year-old parent from Honduras, was arrested by ICE agents outside Gerald E. Talbot Community School on September 11 and deported to Honduras on October 8. An immigration judge ordered his removal before Rivera Martinez could appear in court for a pending domestic violence charge, preventing him from responding to the allegations. The District Attorney stated ICE did not notify her office of his deportation status, and a scheduled court hearing on Thursday found neither prosecutors nor the judge aware of his whereabouts.

Cary López Alvarado, a U.S. citizen, was arrested by ICE while nine months pregnant after exiting immigration court in New York City alongside her husband, a Guatemalan immigrant. ICE detained her overnight but released her after discovering her citizenship status. She experienced sharp stomach pains immediately after release and gave birth days later. She has filed a claim against the federal government seeking $1 million, citing unlawful arrest and unconstitutional conduct. Her husband has since been deported, leaving her without income and uncertain about childcare arrangements.

Satvir Singh, an Indian national from Punjab who lived in New Jersey and worked as an interstate truck driver, was arrested by ICE's Boston field office on September 11 at a commercial-vehicle inspection station in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. According to ICE, Singh legally entered the United States in 2017 but later remained beyond the period authorized by his admission, living and working in the country for over eight years. The agency did not allege any criminal charges or traffic offenses against him. He remains in immigration custody pending removal proceedings.

Two 17-year-old U.S. citizens, including Luis Ochoa, were detained by ICE agents in Alamo, Texas, after stopping to record an immigration enforcement operation on their way to a Marine Corps recruitment office. Video showed an agent repeatedly hitting one teen and agents using pepper spray while pulling him from his car and handcuffing him; Ochoa said his wrist was broken and that an agent told him, after he identified himself as a citizen, "I don't give a damn. Your parents can't help you now." The teens were held for eight hours before being released, and DHS described them as "anti-ICE agitators" who obstructed and assaulted officers. Ten days later, Luis's mother, Teresa de Jesus Ochoa Briseño, was arrested outside the Alamo restaurant where she worked as a cook, denied the chance to sign voluntary departure papers, issued a final removal order, and sent to Reynosa, Mexico the same day without Luis or her attorney being allowed to see her beforehand; Luis said agents told the family the arrest was connected to their Facebook posts and pending lawsuits over his detention.

A young man was pulled from a vehicle, thrown to the ground, and punched in the face by ICE agents on a frontage road in Alamo, Texas, according to video shared by the group Stop ICE. The driver of the vehicle was also taken into custody during the incident, which occurred in the middle of the road as bystanders in traffic recorded and tried to alert others nearby. The group reports that ICE and Border Patrol activity has been increasing in the area, with drivers targeted in stops based on vehicle registration information.

As ICE increases patrols in Washington, D.C., immigrant neighborhoods have organized "walking school buses" where groups of parents escort children to school. The initiative was established in response to Trump administration immigration enforcement targeting residents who entered the country illegally.

In December, a Salvadoran day laborer named Josué was detained by masked agents outside a Home Depot in Signal Hill. The incident was captured on video by a Long Beach Rapid Response patroller. Josué has since spent months in the Adelanto Detention Center, while his partner Maria and her daughter Sara seek answers and legal representation for his case.

Mariela, a mother of three, was denied proper medical care while in immigration detention and is now facing a possible cancer diagnosis. She is seeking urgent medical care, housing, and legal support to address her health condition and provide stability for her children.