Human Impact Project

Brazilian migrants deported from the United States arrived at Belo Horizonte International Airport on January 25, 2025, reporting abuse, threats, and degrading treatment by U.S. immigration agents during their deportation flight. The deportees reported they were handcuffed for 50 hours without air conditioning, subjected to poor conditions, and opened an emergency door to alert Brazilian authorities. The Brazilian government requested explanations from the Trump administration regarding the treatment of the passengers.

Minneapolis rapper Nur-D was arrested by federal agents on January 24 while participating in protests. The arrest occurred following the shooting death of Alex Pretti by U.S. Border Patrol agents. Nur-D says he was hit by a projectile, thrown to the ground, and arrested for allegedly assaulting a federal officer. He is pursuing legal action against the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and U.S. Border Patrol.

ICE agents raided Ocean Seafood Depot at Adams and Delancey streets in Newark, New Jersey, on January 23, 2025, detaining both undocumented workers and U.S. citizens. The business owner said about a dozen agents entered without a warrant or court order around 11 a.m., demanded employee identification, and took three people into custody. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said one detainee was a U.S. military veteran whose military documentation was questioned by agents, and he denounced the raid as a violation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Rep. LaMonica McIver called for answers from the Department of Homeland Security about how the agency detained citizens and a veteran without a warrant. ICE confirmed the operation occurred and acknowledged U.S. citizens may have been detained during the enforcement action.

On January 23, 2025, ICE agents detained Giovanni Duran, 42, during a traffic stop in Echo Park, Los Angeles, while his wife Loreal and their children were present. Duran came to California from El Salvador at age 2, brought by his family, and had lived in the U.S. for nearly four decades, working as a busser in a Los Angeles sushi restaurant. He has prior convictions from 2012 and 2014 and a 2014 deportation order, and is now held at the Adelanto detention facility awaiting deportation. His 7-year-old son has required counseling after witnessing the arrest.

Luis Fernando Chulca Chiluisa, Maria Velasco Hurtado, and their two children were detained by ICE agents on January 22, 2025. Velasco was detained on her way to work; Chiluisa and the children were detained at their home afterward. All four had active asylum applications and no known criminal records. A habeas petition was filed the same morning, and a judge ordered the government to show cause for detention by January 26. Despite a court order keeping the family in Minnesota, they were initially sent to Texas. Following a contempt motion filed by their attorneys, the family was returned to Minnesota.

Marlon Parris, 45, an Iraq War veteran who came to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago in 1997 as a child brought by his father, a naturalized U.S. citizen, has been held at Florence Correctional Center since his January 22 ICE detention, two days after President Trump's inauguration. He had held a green card for nearly 30 years, renewed in 2007 and 2017, and received a no-interest letter from ICE in 2016 stating he would not be deported after serving time for a drug-related conviction; in 2023, U.S. Customs revoked his green card upon his return from a vacation abroad with his wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris. On May 9, Judge Frank Travieso of Florence Immigration Court said he was sympathetic to Parris's case but ruled the government had presented sufficient evidence to proceed with deportation; his attorney, Douglas Kouffie, has filed motions challenging that evidence and raised an equitable estoppel argument.

Daniel Oquendo, 33, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on January 20, 2025, and was apprehended in San Diego. He was placed on a U.S. military C-130 flight with handcuffs as part of a planned deportation to Colombia, but Colombian President Gustavo Petro blocked the landing of two military flights carrying about 200 deportees in early January, objecting to their treatment and the use of military aircraft. After being turned around mid-flight and spending a night in El Paso, Oquendo was finally repatriated to Colombia on a civilian aircraft sent by the Colombian government on January 28.

On January 20, 2025, armed men impersonating ICE agents broke into a home in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they assaulted a Mexican immigrant family at gunpoint. A hooded assailant kicked down the victim's bedroom door shouting "ICE! ICE!" before the perpetrators struck one family member's forehead with a gun butt and demanded cash while threatening a baby. The victim realized the intrusion was a robbery rather than an actual federal enforcement action. The case remains unsolved. This incident exemplifies a documented surge in ICE impersonation crimes, with at least 31 cases reported in 2025 alone—nearly six times the decade-long annual average—with 38 percent involving physical violence including armed robbery, assault, and kidnapping.

An Iranian national entered the United States on January 19, 2025, seeking asylum based on political and religious persecution. After an immigration judge denied his asylum application on May 6, 2025, he was granted withholding of removal and placed in mandatory post-final-removal-order detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1231. After 431 days in federal immigration custody, he filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the lawfulness of his prolonged detention, arguing removal was not significantly likely in the foreseeable future. On July 30, 2026, he voluntarily dismissed his petition after his asylum application was granted upon reconsideration by the immigration court.

Doris Flores, a Honduran immigrant who entered the U.S. in 2023 and applied for asylum after being threatened in Honduras, was arrested by Polk County Sheriff's deputies in late January 2025 after they responded to a school threat report involving her 8-year-old daughter Briana. During the investigation, deputies discovered Flores and her fiancé had deportation orders and contacted ICE. Flores was detained, and her 4-month-old baby Briany was placed in the care of her pastor and his wife to avoid foster care. Flores had a deportation order issued in May 2025 for a missed asylum hearing that she said was due to computer issues.

ProPublica previously received letters from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, where over 750 families and 370 single adult women were being held in early February, describing missing school and friends, lacking reliable medical care, and feeling scared and depressed. Since then, former detainees, lawyers and advocates report that guards have begun confiscating crayons, drawing paper and children's artwork during room searches, and that detainees have lost access to Gmail and other communication tools in the facility's library. Those interviewed said the restrictions intensified after the Jan. 22 arrival of a 5-year-old detainee sparked protests and congressional visits, and after children's and parents' letters and video calls drew public attention to conditions at the facility. One 7-year-old detainee wrote that he had been held 23 days with his mother and young sister, saying, "I cry a lot I want to get out of here go back to my school."

U.S. Border Patrol agents conducted raids around Bakersfield in Kern County in January 2025, stopping and arresting 78 people, predominantly Latinos and farmworkers, often without reasonable suspicion. Video circulated showing agents slashing the tires of a U.S. citizen gardener on his way to work during the operation. In April 2025, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston issued an 88-page order finding the agents likely violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure, and ordered them to halt such stops and warrantless arrests in California's Eastern District, but Border Patrol continued operations in Los Angeles and Sacramento despite the court order.

A volunteer with Carpinteria Sin Fronteras was pepper-sprayed by an ICE agent on January 14 while observing and recording ICE vehicle stops from a public sidewalk. Video footage shows the agent deploying spray toward the volunteer, who was filming the encounter. The confrontation included a heated verbal exchange in which the agent stated that interfering with enforcement is a felony. No arrest was made, though the agent threatened federal charges against the volunteer.

A 46-year-old woman from Mexico was found dead by humanitarian volunteers near the border wall east of Sásabe, Arizona on Monday morning. Her 15-year-old son ran to volunteers for help, saying his mother had stopped breathing while in a vehicle that had been speeding toward the wall from Mexico. A volunteer who examined her found no visible injuries and said she did not appear to have died from exposure, despite overnight lows of 19 degrees in the area. She remains unidentified, though she was carrying documents indicating she was from Mexico, and the cause of death may take weeks to determine.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducted a multi-day enforcement operation in Kern County that resulted in 78 arrests, including farmworkers in the Central Valley. The operation, called Operation Return to Sender, resulted in widespread fear among immigrant families and workers, with many staying home from work and struggling to locate detained relatives. Border Patrol officials stated the operation targeted transnational criminal organizations. Community advocates and elected officials raised concerns about potential racial profiling and the impact on the agricultural industry.

Erika was arrested by ICE agents on January 10 during a traffic stop on County Road 42 in Burnsville, Minnesota, as part of Operation Metro Surge. She was transferred to federal immigration detention in El Paso, Texas. She had no prior removal order and only misdemeanor traffic infractions. She filed for cancellation of removal and is awaiting a second immigration court hearing, remaining detained over five months after her arrest.

Alvaro Arias was detained by ICE on January 10, 2025, while working on a home near the Imperial and Garfield area in Southgate, California. His family is raising funds to cover legal representation and associated case expenses.

Minnesota resident Nicole Cleland, who was observing ICE and CBP activity as a legal observer, was stopped by federal agents on January 10 after following their vehicle. An agent told her they used facial recognition technology to identify her. Three days later, her Global Entry and TSA PreCheck privileges were revoked, which Cleland believes was retaliation for her observation activities.

Lila Romero, 47, a Venezuelan psychologist living in Dallas, Texas, arrived in the U.S. in 2024 on a tourist visa and began applying for asylum. She was arrested during a traffic stop on January 9 after driving a family business vehicle without proper license plates, and was held for about three and a half months at the Bluebonnet detention center in Anson, Texas. While detained, she informally provided therapy to other women, diagnosing high levels of anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and stress-related physical symptoms such as nervous hives, and she coped with her own confinement by treating the experience as a job. She now works helping immigrants and families affected by detentions and deportations, and has an immigration hearing scheduled for late September.

Federal immigration officers detained a contractor in a parking lot at General Mills' Chanhassen facility in mid-January, an incident captured in a video shared on social media. General Mills said it asked agents for identification and followed its safety protocols, while the Carver County sheriff's office said it had no record of the arrest. The Department of Homeland Security later said officers pulled over and arrested an individual in the lot who had entered the country in 2023. The incident occurred amid increased ICE activity across Minnesota, with companies including Target and Caribou Coffee also affected and state officials warning of strain on businesses' payrolls.