Human Impact Project

Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, was sentenced to time served for illegally reentering the United States after spending nearly seven months in jail since his arrest outside the Milwaukee County Courthouse. He pleaded guilty and agreed not to fight deportation in exchange for prosecutors recommending a time-served sentence. He is now awaiting deportation from a county jail.

Waukegan Alderman Juan Martinez was briefly detained by U.S. immigration enforcement agents on Baldwin Avenue while stuck in traffic on November 7, 2025. Four federal agents drew guns on Martinez while he sat in his car with his hands raised, with one agent threatening to shoot him. The agents eventually left after community members identified Martinez as a city alderman, and he filed a police report with the Waukegan Police Department.

A detainee identified as K.U. in court filings alleged he was not receiving proper medical care for numerous life-threatening health conditions while detained at Batavia. An independent physician reviewed his case and expressed extreme concern that he was not receiving the standard of appropriate medical care. A judge ordered his release in August 2025. ICE officials have not yet addressed his medical claims in court.

A Honduran man detained at Batavia was not receiving a prescribed medical cream to treat a skin condition, according to advocates with Justice for Migrant Families who documented his case in July 2025. The man also suffers from chronic pain, and ibuprofen had stopped working. Advocates demanded ICE take him to a specialist and administer different pain medication, but according to the organization's executive director, this has not happened.

Dennis Quiñonez, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested during a DHS immigration enforcement operation at a Home Depot parking lot in Cypress Park on November 4, 2025. ICE agents took his 1-year-old daughter into custody during the arrest; she was returned to her grandmother several hours later with a dirty diaper, a bruise and a rash, after the family provided a birth certificate. Quiñonez was released on bond on November 6, 2025, and reunited with his daughter and family. He has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a person previously convicted of domestic violence, and DHS said the broader operation led to the arrests of five undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala.

Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer at California State University Channel Islands, was arrested on July 10, 2025, during federal immigration enforcement raids at Glass House Farms cannabis facilities in Camarillo, Ventura County. He was charged with a felony count of assaulting an immigration agent with a deadly or dangerous weapon after allegedly throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement; some accounts indicate he was instead trying to dislodge a canister stuck under a wheelchair during the confrontation between agents and protesters. The broader raids, conducted across Southern California cannabis facilities between July 10-14, resulted in more than 360 arrests and the death of one farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof. Caravello was released on a $15,000 bond, and in November 2025 he pleaded not guilty in federal court to the charge.

Ousmane (a pseudonym), a West African man who had lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was among 19 people put on deportation flight N225AX from Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana to Ghana on November 6, 2025 — a country none of them had ties to. When he said he would not go, "I started getting beat up, having my face covered up, in front of all the other detainees, just to scare them," he said. He was reportedly placed in a full-body restraint device known as the WRAP. After landing in Accra, the deportees were held at a hotel, then taken by soldiers to the remote Bundase military camp and later to a detention facility at the airport, where they were pressured daily to contact their embassies for travel documents. Nearly a year later, the people on the flight told reporters they remain in limbo.

Sean Charles Dunn, a 37-year-old former Justice Department paralegal, was acquitted of misdemeanor assault charges for throwing a sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent on August 10 during a protest outside a club hosting Latin Night in Washington, D.C. Dunn shouted "fascists" and "racists" at the agents and threw the sandwich as what he characterized as a "harmless gesture" of political protest. The Justice Department initially sought a felony assault indictment, but a grand jury declined to sign off on the felony charge, leading prosecutors to file a misdemeanor charge instead. The two-day trial centered on whether throwing a soft object could constitute forcible assault. Dunn was dismissed from his position after the incident.

On November 5, 2025, ICE agents detained Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano, a teacher at Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center in Chicago's North Center neighborhood, during morning drop-off hours. According to DHS, officers conducted a traffic stop that led to a vehicle pursuit ending at the daycare facility. Agents entered and forcibly removed Galeano in front of children and parents, searching the facility. Galeano claimed to have work authorization and a pending asylum case, while DHS identified her as undocumented from Colombia. A federal judge subsequently ruled her mandatory detention illegal and ordered a bond hearing before an immigration judge. The incident prompted a rally of hundreds of community members and local officials demanding ICE stay out of schools and daycares.

A 32-year-old U.S. citizen was detained by federal immigration agents during a raid at a Home Depot in the Cypress Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Witnesses said agents accused him of throwing rocks at them, detained him, and then drove away in his vehicle, which still had his 1-year-old daughter inside. The child was later returned to her family with a bruised cheek but was otherwise unharmed. The father was held in custody for two days before being released.

An immigrant named Javier experienced severe mobility issues while in ICE detention due to medical neglect. Advocates have called for an end to medical neglect of immigrant detainees.

ICE agents pointed rifles at bystanders and attempted to break down doors while conducting an enforcement action at Salem Walk apartments in unincorporated Northbrook on November 5, 2025. The operation, which lasted approximately 50 minutes and involved over a dozen agents and an armored vehicle, resulted in the arrest of Alan Eduardo Garcia, who had a history of violent convictions. Residents and community members confronted agents and filmed the incident.

Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva, a 39-year-old Salvadoran immigrant and mother of four U.S. citizen children, was arrested by ICE upon arriving at Salt Lake City International Airport. She held a valid work permit approved in 2024 and said she was unaware of a 2020 deportation order, as the court notice had reportedly been sent to an address where she no longer lived. Her attorney says she was detained for nearly four months despite having an active appeal pending, during which she was transferred through multiple facilities, including jails in Salt Lake and Tooele counties, a Texas facility, two Arizona detention centers, and finally a Louisiana facility she described as having the worst conditions, with overcrowding, wet bedding, and untreated illness among detainees. She said she was cuffed at the hands, waist, and feet during every transfer, including her deportation flight, and repeatedly told agents she had lawful status. She was ultimately deported to El Salvador, leaving her four children behind.

ICE conducted arrests at multiple locations in Redmond, Washington, including at Bear Creek Village shopping center, detaining seven people in total. One incident involved a man being detained outside a Panera Bread, with witnesses reporting that ICE agents broke a truck window and dragged out the occupant without showing a warrant. The Redmond Police Department confirmed it was not informed in advance of the operations and stated it does not participate in immigration enforcement. At least three of the arrests occurred less than a mile from the city's Flock Safety surveillance cameras, prompting Redmond police to suspend officers' access to the camera system amid concerns the data could be sought by federal agencies.

According to an Instagram post by L.A. TACO, a Border Patrol agent hit a child in the face with a ball during a raid. The child was subsequently driven away from the scene by Border Patrol but was later reunited with their mother in the afternoon.

Daniel Angel Meléndez, an immigrant from El Salvador, was detained by ICE agents on November 4 during a yearly check-in in Cedar Rapids. His wife María Lozano, a U.S. citizen, and family members appealed to U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks at a town hall on November 10 to prevent his deportation. Meléndez has a U.S.-born child and has been in the country since 2017, having applied for asylum based on gang violence threats.

Julio Vargas, a 66-year-old Guatemalan, was detained by U.S. Border Patrol during an immigration raid at El Corredor Salvadoreño in Los Angeles on Sunday. He is being held at Adelanto Detention Center and has reported breathing problems and cramps due to cold conditions, worsened by his existing health conditions and lack of medication. His family is seeking legal assistance but faces financial and resource barriers.

Cole Sheridan, a 27-year-old hospitality worker, was arrested during an October 3 pro-immigrant protest at the Broadview, Illinois immigration enforcement facility after U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino accused him of pushing and swinging at him. Sheridan faced federal charges of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer, spent three days in custody, and said the ordeal cost him four days of work and a month of anxiety over potential imprisonment. An investigator noted Bovino took two weeks of leave citing a groin injury he claimed to have sustained in the encounter. After a friend located video footage from an October 31 news report showing Sheridan being pushed down and not near Bovino, prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges on November 3, though they could still refile. Sheridan said the footage proved there was no altercation as described in the criminal complaint, adding Bovino's account 'means nothing.' Other cases against Chicago-area protesters and immigrants involving similar discrepancies in Bovino's accounts have also been dismissed.

Nazario Radilla Valdovinos, a Mexican citizen, was taken into ICE custody on November 3, 2025 and detained at Adelanto ICE Detention Center pending removal proceedings. ICE issued a custody determination continuing his detention without providing an opportunity for bond or release. The court granted his habeas petition in part, ordering that he receive a bond hearing within seven days under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a).

Berenice Garcia-Hernandez, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE for approximately seven hours after photographing unmarked ICE vehicles near a Chick-fil-A in Gresham. She was documenting the agents' presence to warn her community after seeing a Facebook alert. ICE agents broke her car window and removed her from the vehicle, though no criminal charges had been filed as of the article's publication.