Human Impact Project

Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez, a Mexican migrant who had been ordered deported to Mexico by an immigration judge in 2005, was instead placed on a deportation flight to South Sudan in July 2025 as part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Immigration officials said he had recently been identified as a member of a criminal organization. He was one of eight men deported to South Sudan on July 5 after a legal battle, and a federal judge ruled the flight violated a court order requiring migrants be given a meaningful opportunity to object to their removal. Mexico later accepted his return after receiving assurances he would not face torture or inhumane treatment, and he was repatriated to Mexico.

Hilda Gloria Yanez-Zavala, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador three years ago and was granted asylum, was detained during an immigration raid at a factory in Cato where she worked legally. She was separated from her two sons and held in detention for a month before deciding to self-deport. Her two sons remained in America.

Jorge, an Ecuadorian national, was detained by ICE agents at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan on September 6, 2025, while his eight-month pregnant wife Jessica waited outside. Three days later, their daughter was born, and Jorge was deported to Ecuador without meeting her. Jorge had fled Ecuador after his brother was killed by gang members and faced continued danger there. He was attempting to resolve his immigration status after marrying Jessica, a U.S. citizen who had become a citizen in 2023, and was wearing an ankle monitor when arrested during a required court appearance. Jessica, now caring for their newborn daughter Maite Cristina, their 9-year-old son Dylan from her previous marriage, and Jorge's daughters from a prior relationship, faces financial hardship and fears for Jorge's safety in Ecuador. They are waiting for an I-130 family petition to be approved to reunite.

Orville Etoria, a 62-year-old Jamaican man with legal permanent residence in the U.S., was deported to Eswatini in July 2025 despite serving his sentence and complying with ICE supervision orders. After his release from prison in 2021, he lived in New York, obtained a master's degree in theology, and worked at a men's shelter while reporting regularly to ICE. When ICE requested he obtain a Jamaican passport earlier in 2025, he complied, but was instead sent to Eswatini rather than Jamaica. His family did not know his whereabouts for several days, and his attorneys report they have been unable to contact him and fear for his safety. Jamaican officials stated their country does not refuse repatriation of its nationals.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducted a raid at a construction site near CIA headquarters in Virginia. Construction workers fleeing the raid attempted to scale fences surrounding the CIA complex during the morning commute. ICE did not notify the CIA in advance of the operation. No workers breached security or posed a threat to the facility.

Eight migrants from Burma, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, Mexico, and South Sudan were detained in a converted shipping container at a U.S. military base in Djibouti for more than six weeks while awaiting appeals filed by their lawyers. On July 5, 2025, they were deported to South Sudan. ICE agents transporting them described the living conditions as 'outrageous.' Mexican citizen Jesús Muñoz was subsequently repatriated to Mexico in early September, and South Sudanese citizen Peter Domach was released. Six other deportees' whereabouts remain unknown, with lawyers suggesting they may be imprisoned at the Blue House, South Sudan's National Security Services headquarters. The South Sudan government stated it would guarantee their safety but refused to disclose their location or eventual fate.

Federal ICE agents raided Nutrition Bar Confectioners, a family-owned nutrition bar manufacturer in Cato, New York, on September 4, 2025, detaining 57 workers. The raid separated nursing mothers from infants under one year old and affected elementary school-aged children whose parents were detained. Five of the 57 detainees were criminally charged with unauthorized re-entry after prior deportation, while the remaining 52 faced deportation proceedings. Governor Kathy Hochul visited the facility and expressed concern that detaining parents put at least a dozen children at risk of returning from school to an empty house.

Three individuals—an immigrant detained by ICE in the Northern District of California, a second immigrant detained by ICE in the same district, and a third immigrant detained by ICE in the same district—were detained by ICE in the Northern District of California. The court granted a preliminary injunction on November 5, 2025, prohibiting respondents from detaining the petitioners without a pre-detention hearing before a neutral decisionmaker and preventing their transfer out of the district without court approval. The court found the petitioners raised serious legal questions regarding the legality of their detention under the circumstances presented.

Darian Maldonado Medina, a Venezuelan with Temporary Protected Status, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in in Tampa on September 5, 2025, and deported to Venezuela three weeks later. He had valid TPS status at the time of detention, a pending family petition through his U.S. citizen mother, and a 15-month-old U.S. citizen son and partner remaining in Florida. A federal court order had extended TPS protections prior to his deportation. Lawyers have argued that the deportation violated federal law and court orders.

On September 4, 2025, 14 people were deported from U.S. detention to Ghana on military aircraft as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign to African countries. Four detainees were placed in straitjackets when they refused to board without speaking to their lawyers. The group landed in Accra after 16 hours with no explanation provided and no documentation given. According to lawyers, the actual group consisted of 11 detainees (four Nigerians, three Togolese, two Malians, one Liberian, and one Gambian), who were held at Bundase Military Camp with irregular food and water supply. On September 23, eight were deported by Ghana to Togo and given approximately $100 each, with two reportedly taken to Mali and one remaining in Ghana.

K.S., a Gambian citizen and LGBTQ+ community member who had obtained humanitarian parole to remain in the U.S., was removed from a Louisiana detention center without explanation on September 4, 2025, chained and placed on a military aircraft. He was deported to Ghana as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign to African countries. K.S. had fled Gambia where LGBTQ+ status is punishable by up to life in prison, and expressed his fear of returning to his homeland to Ghanaian officials, but immigration authorities proceeded with the deportation anyway. He is currently in hiding.

A California State University Channel Islands professor was charged with throwing a tear gas canister during an incident. In a separate immigration enforcement action in Southern California, a legal green card holder who was working toward U.S. citizenship was detained by ICE. The woman's husband expressed concern following her detention.

New Jersey's attorney general is reviewing reports that ICE is conducting operations at a Roxbury warehouse in violation of a federal court order barring its conversion into a detention facility. A May court ruling required ICE to halt conversion plans and limit activity at the site to maintenance, but a July 10 DHS filing indicated the agency intends to move forward with retrofitting the warehouse for detention use. The community group Sussex Visibility Brigade has reported increased ICE activity at the site, and the AG's office says it will take steps to address any non-compliance. The warehouse, purchased by DHS for nearly $130 million to become a 1,500-person detention center, has drawn bipartisan opposition, including a lawsuit from the state and Roxbury township.

Iara do Carmo Santana, a 29-year-old Brazilian woman recovering from a miscarriage, surgery and subsequent infection, was arrested by Malden police after her fiancé, Gabriel Lemos, called 911 out of concern for her mental health; she was charged with domestic violence. After being released from police custody, she was detained by ICE agents waiting outside and taken to an ICE field office in Burlington, where she said she was denied a medical assessment, a Portuguese interpreter, and consistent antibiotics and pain medication for roughly four days as her infection worsened. Her lawyers filed a habeas petition alleging ICE violated her due process rights given her recent surgery, and U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her release, calling the lack of medical care 'a serious issue' and the Burlington facility's conditions 'troubling as a systemic matter.' Santana had applied for asylum and held employment authorization working as a house cleaner; she is engaged to Lemos, a lawful permanent resident, and has since been reunited with him and her six-year-old son, though her domestic violence case remains pending and she still faces possible deportation.

More than 300 South Korean workers among 475 people detained in a September 4, 2025 immigration raid at the Hyundai-LG battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia have begun filing administrative claims against nine federal agencies, the first step toward a federal lawsuit. The claims note that the search warrant used to enter the plant named only four targets, who court records describe as Hispanic, not Korean. Workers, including a lead organizer identified only as Kim, allege they were shackled, denied interpreters, pressured to sign documents they could not read, and held for about a week in overcrowded, cold cells with limited food and sanitation at a detention facility in Folkston, Georgia. One worker, Ryu, said he lost nearly 10 pounds in custody, while another, Choi, said he has since returned to work at the same plant but wants a government apology; Hyundai and LG have publicly distanced themselves from the litigation.

M., who prefers to use only her first initial, was forcibly separated from her two-year-old U.S.-citizen child during a raid at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners factory. Despite showing agents her work permit, Social Security documentation, and evidence of a pending asylum appeal, she was sent to a detention facility in Texas and then deported to Guatemala. She is now a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the ICE and CBP agents involved in the raid.

Eddie, a worker at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners factory who had lived in the U.S. for twenty years and held a work permit, was arrested during a federal raid and deported to Guatemala within 72 hours. His wife is now struggling to care for their two boys alone while working overtime and coping with depression over the sudden separation. He is a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to allow him to return to the U.S. and reunite with his family.

Pedro Rojas, a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico, was working at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners factory in Cato, New York, when armed federal agents raided the site on Sept. 4, 2025. After identifying himself as a citizen, he was still required to show identification and provide contact information before being allowed to leave. Newly released body camera footage, cited in a lawsuit filed Sept. 10, 2026 alleging investigators overstepped their search warrants, shows the hours-long raid in which 57 people were arrested and employees were separated into groups based on citizenship status. Rojas remains a plaintiff in the suit, which alleges the raid targeted Latino workers based on ethnicity.

On September 4, 2025, roughly 60 armed and masked federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations, ICE, CBP and local sheriff's offices raided the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, New York, a town of 2,500 people east of Syracuse. Officers broke down a locked bathroom door on female employees, herded over 100 workers into a break room, and separated them by citizenship status without individualized suspicion, questioning pregnant employees and parents worried about children waiting at home. Investigators also interviewed the plant's general manager about hiring practices and potential fraudulent documents, while officers searched offices, storage rooms and hallways for anyone in hiding and debated which company files to seize. At least 57 workers were arrested, more than 20 were separated from their children, and some were denied access to attorneys or family before being sent to out-of-state detention facilities. Pedro Rojas, a U.S. citizen who was seized and interrogated, said agents targeted him and his coworkers because they are Latino. Only five of those arrested faced criminal charges, the most serious being unlawful reentry, and two plaintiffs were deported, though one has since been allowed to reenter the country. The NYCLU and the Worker Justice Center of New York filed a class action lawsuit against DHS alleging officers exceeded their search warrants and violated workers' Fourth Amendment rights, and body camera footage reviewed by the Associated Press as part of that lawsuit has now become public.

Federal agents raided the Hyundai Motor Group electric vehicle megasite in Bryan County, Georgia, arresting about 475 workers in what Homeland Security Investigations called the largest single-site immigration enforcement action in its history. Search warrants indicated investigators were probing a conspiracy to harbor undocumented workers and other illegal employment practices, and agents seized employment verification documents, computers, and storage drives. About 300 of those detained were South Korean nationals, and the South Korean government negotiated their return home, while other workers were processed through the immigration system without diplomatic intervention. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung condemned the raid, warning it could deter future Korean investment in the United States. One year later, the Department of Justice confirmed no criminal charges have been filed and the federal court case is closed, with no consequences for the companies that hired the workers.