Human Impact Project

Carlos Arreaga, a Syracuse resident and active community member for eight years, was taken into ICE custody on the morning of June 26 while on his way to work, without a warrant, according to his family's GoFundMe page. He had filed for asylum in the U.S. and was held at the federal detention facility in Batavia, which has faced criticism for overcrowding and poor conditions. Despite a federal judge's order that he receive a bond hearing, Arreaga was repeatedly denied bond. His wife, Amelia, launched a fundraiser to cover legal fees and living expenses after his detention left the family without its sole breadwinner, and about 70 community members gathered at a vigil in Syracuse calling for his release. After roughly three months in detention, Arreaga was released and reunited with his family.

Leonardo 'Leo' Garcia Venegas, a 25-year-old U.S.-born citizen of Mexican descent working construction in Baldwin County, Alabama, was detained by immigration agents multiple times beginning in May 2025 despite presenting a valid Alabama REAL ID. In the first incident, armed agents raided a Foley construction site, tackled his undocumented brother, and held Garcia Venegas handcuffed for over an hour after he began filming and asserted his citizenship; his brother was later deported. Weeks later, agents detained him again at another job site, again dismissing his ID as fake despite him also providing his Social Security card. In a third encounter, officers followed him home, pulled him from his vehicle, tackled him, and shackled him. Never charged with a crime, Garcia Venegas testified before Congress saying 'I don't feel free,' and filed a federal lawsuit with the Institute for Justice against DHS officials, including Tom Homan and Kristi Noem, alleging Fourth Amendment violations, assault, battery, and false arrest. A federal judge in the Southern District of Alabama denied the government's motion to dismiss and temporarily halted warrantless construction-site raids, a ruling Garcia Venegas called 'a huge blow to lawless enforcement practices.'

A Senegalese woman deported to Ghana under a third-country removal arrangement was sent, along with other detainees, to a remote military camp with little electricity or outside contact after Ghanaian officials reacted angrily to viral video of another deportee being forcibly removed. Fearing she would be returned to Senegal, she attempted suicide by drinking bleach and was hospitalized before being deported back to Senegal anyway.

Gisèle, who fled fighting between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, was deported by US authorities to Cameroon under a third-country removal agreement. Suffering from a thyroid condition, she was never able to obtain her medication at the Yaoundé migrant shelter despite repeated requests, and after five months there she abandoned plans to seek asylum in Cameroon and agreed to be sent back to the DR Congo out of concern her health would worsen.

Isatou, a pseudonym for a woman from Guinea who migrated to the U.S. to escape a forced marriage, was removed to Ghana as a third-country destination and subsequently sent back to Guinea, her country of origin. Months after her removal, she said she has had to hide out of fear of encountering her family. "I don’t go out anymore, I’m scared of coming across my family," she said. "They ruined my life."

José Serrano, a former Ecuadorian interior minister under President Rafael Correa, was deported from the United States last month after U.S. immigration appeals judges abruptly reversed a ruling that had blocked his removal over fears he would be tortured if sent back to Ecuador. Serrano had sought political asylum in the U.S. and spent months fighting deportation from detention, eventually persuading an immigration judge he faced torture at home. Within a day of being briefed on the case, three Trump-appointed appeals judges overturned that decision, and Serrano was deported within hours. He is now held in a maximum-security prison in Ecuador, where his lawyers say he was told footage of him stripped naked would be shared with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, a political rival of his former boss.

Kevin was detained and later transferred to ICE detention in Virginia, according to a GoFundMe campaign organized by his friend Dani Lagraba. His family and friends have been navigating legal and immigration challenges connected to his case and upcoming court proceedings. The fundraiser aims to help cover legal representation, attorney fees, and other case-related expenses as his family supports him through the process.

A crowd gathered at the scene of the ICE shooting in Austin throughout the afternoon, and officers fired pepper ball-like projectiles at the crowd after some demonstrators threw rocks and water bottles at law enforcement while people were leaving the area. A 14-year-old boy was among those affected by the chemical agent, according to his father, who spoke to Austin police. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson called for an independent investigation into the earlier shooting, citing the chaos it caused in the city.

Javier Rueda, a Venezuelan immigrant, has been held in ICE custody in Oklahoma for approximately seven months. His family says an immigration judge approved his asylum request after a nine-hour hearing, but the government has appealed the decision, keeping him detained. A bond of $20,000 has been set, and his family is seeking donations to pay it within a required deadline, warning that without the funds he could remain detained for several more months awaiting the appeal.

Ahmed Soliman, a gay man in his early 30s who fled Egypt as a child and grew up in Phoenix and Tucson, had won a judge's ruling protecting him from deportation to Egypt over fears of persecution based on his sexuality and family history. Despite this ruling and a pending habeas petition, ICE transferred him from Arizona to Louisiana and deported him in April 2026 to a decommissioned hotel in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, under a $7.5 million third-country removal deal that has sent at least 66 people there since November 2025. After guards confiscated detainees' phones, police pointed rifles at Soliman and forced him to his knees when he tried to film officers and the forced removal of other detainees to Ethiopia. Amnesty International reported he was bound and beaten by police upon arrival. After speaking to journalists, including the American Prospect, about conditions at the facility, he was arrested on accusations of damaging property, then blindfolded, beaten, and pushed down a staircase before being transferred to a prison in Malabo. He and another detainee from Eritrea have since been missing for more than a week, with his attorneys unable to confirm charges against him or his location and fearing for his life, believing the arrest was retaliation for speaking to the media.

Yasmani Noel Moreno de Armas, a 31-year-old Cuban whose parents live in Hialeah, was detained without explanation by ICE officers on May 11, 2025 while spending the day in West Palm Beach, Florida. He believed he would be deported to Cuba but only learned he was headed to Africa more than two hours into a 22-hour flight that landed in Bangui, Central African Republic, on August 1. He is now confined at the Maison Confort lodging in Bangui alongside migrants from Afghanistan, Vietnam and Russia, suffering stomach problems and allergies without identification documents or legal status. He pays hotel security guards two or three dollars to leave the building, and local police have told him and others they can no longer walk the streets. A representative of the Cuban embassy told him Cuba would not take him back because he left the country as a 'rafter' migrant. 'They brought us here illegally,' he said; his parents 'went crazy, crying and yelling' when he called to tell them where he was.

Roberto Mosquera del Peral, a 59-year-old Cuban immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a child during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and worked as a plumber while raising four daughters, was detained by ICE at a routine immigration appointment and held at the Krome detention center in Florida. He was later flown from Texas and deported without his consent to Eswatini in southern Africa under the Trump administration's third-country deportation program, since Cuba has refused to accept his return for nearly three decades. He has been held in a maximum-security cell at Matsapha Correctional Complex without being charged with any offense or given access to legal counsel. His lawyer said he staged a 30-day hunger strike, at one point raising serious health concerns, to win small concessions such as wearing his own clothes and having a cellphone to speak with family. Civic groups in Eswatini have filed court cases challenging the legality of detaining him and other deportees without charge.

ICE agents detained a man who was resisting arrest inside Bravo Supermarket in West Park, Florida. A witness recorded video showing multiple agents attempting to subdue the man on the floor of the store as customers looked on. The arrest was part of a larger multi-agency operation, Operation Sandhill Sentinel 9.0, involving ICE, Border Patrol, HSI, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Broward Sheriff's Office, which has reportedly resulted in about 250 immigration arrests in South Florida.

Jose Gregorio "Grego" Pena Pacheco, a 51-year-old Venezuelan man living in Davenport, Florida, was detained by ICE on September 17, 2026 while driving a short distance from his home to take out the trash, still in his pajamas without shoes. He has a pending asylum case, is authorized to work in the U.S., and has no known criminal history, but has a chronic illness requiring daily medication that he did not have with him at the time of detention. His sister Eliana received one brief call from him on September 18 during which he could not identify his location, and family and friends have since been unable to confirm his whereabouts or whether he received his medication. He reportedly told his sister he was given three documents in English, a language he does not speak fluently, asking him to choose between leaving the U.S., paying for release, or remaining detained while fighting his case. His family has retained an immigration attorney and is asking the community for help locating him and information about his case.

Leonardo Sánchez, a Cuban migrant with a large abdominal hernia and a pending operation, was deported to Equatorial Guinea and is being held at the Hotel Bamy in Malabo. His mother, Caridad, said from Miami that she has not heard from him in a week because authorities took away detainees' phones to prevent them from speaking with the press. "What they're doing is criminal; the treatment is unfair," she said.

Carlos Rodríguez, a Cuban migrant, was one of five deportees who refused to leave the ICE deportation plane upon landing, saying they did not feel safe; he says officers carried him off the aircraft and beat him while he was handcuffed. He and three other Cubans, along with a Brazilian, had been told by authorities that if they stayed calm they would be returned to the United States, but the plane instead delivered them to Equatorial Guinea. "This is human trafficking, they trafficked us on a plane," he told EL PAÍS.

Demonstrators have repeatedly clashed with federal agents outside the ICE detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, over several consecutive weeks, protesting detention conditions and showing support for detainees. On September 19, 2025, protesters blocking the facility's driveway were pepper-sprayed, including directly in the face, and an ICE vehicle struck at least one protester who sustained minor injuries; a witnessing attorney described agents as pushing protesters in an 'aggressive and violent manner.' On September 26, agents used pepper balls, tear gas, and baton rounds against more than 100 protesters, taking 11 into custody, with five later facing federal charges. On October 4, agents again deployed tear gas, pepper balls, and other chemical munitions against protesters, journalists, and legal observers, with chemical agents also affecting nearby residents; congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss were arrested. Broadview's mayor sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security citing dangers to residents from chemical agents and blocked emergency access, while lawsuits were filed alleging excessive force and First Amendment violations.

A 34-year-old Venezuelan man known only as JCCV, who lives in The Dalles, Oregon with his family and had a pending immigration application, testified he was detained by ICE agents who mistakenly believed he was his brother and never checked his identification. He was transported to a detention facility in Portland and held for multiple days, during which agents pressured him to sign a voluntary self-deportation document written in English, a language he cannot read, without explaining what it meant. His testimony was part of a federal court hearing examining whether ICE has continued making warrantless arrests in Oregon despite a February injunction requiring warrants and flight-risk assessments before arrests.

ICE officers arrested Zokhid Zakhidov, 37, a Uzbek national and commercial truck driver, during a targeted enforcement action at a travel stop in Woodbridge, New Jersey. He held a New York commercial learner's permit and had a May 15 conviction for driving while intoxicated, along with pending charges for assault and harassment. Cranbury, New Jersey, police had previously arrested him in April as a fugitive from justice. He remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

Vianney, who has lived in the United States for 28 years, was detained by ICE in the Tacoma-Seattle area on September 18 and is now being held pending deportation. He is described as deeply rooted in his community both socially and professionally. His wife Edith and their three children, ages 20, 18, and 16, are seeking legal help to understand their options and pursue possible action to halt his deportation.