Human Impact Project

A Mexican national who entered the United States without inspection in 1998 and has lived in the country for approximately 28 years was arrested on January 28, 2026, in St. Joseph County on drunken driving charges. ICE issued a detainer and an administrative warrant commanding his detention pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226. He was taken into ICE custody on February 24, 2026, and removal proceedings were initiated. On March 11, an immigration judge denied his request for release on bond, finding she lacked jurisdiction. He remained detained at the Clay County Jail without a bond hearing. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the lawfulness of his continued detention. On April 23, 2026, a federal district court granted his petition, finding that his detention without a bond hearing violates the Immigration and Nationality Act. The court ordered respondents to either afford him a bond hearing before an immigration judge consistent with 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) and pertinent regulations, or release him from detention within seven days.

Wilson Andres Hernandez De Leon, a noncitizen, was detained on January 28, 2026, after previously being released on bond or conditional parole. The petitioner challenged his re-detention through a habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, arguing that the government violated his due process rights by failing to provide a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter before re-detaining him. The Eastern District of California found that the Due Process Clause requires the government to provide such a hearing before re-detaining a noncitizen who was previously released on bond, conditional parole, or humanitarian parole. The court granted the petitioner's motion for temporary restraining order and petition for writ of habeas corpus, ordering his immediate release with the same conditions he was subject to prior to his January 28, 2026 detention. The court also ordered that if the government seeks to re-detain the petitioner in the future, it must provide at least seven days' notice and hold a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter.

Multiple protesters were detained and injured during an anti-ICE demonstration at the Eugene Federal Building on January 27, 2026. Federal officers deployed tear gas, pepper balls, and flash-bangs, detaining at least nine demonstrators. Several protesters reported injuries including bruises, hyperextended limbs, and eye injuries sustained during the law enforcement response.

Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian man, died in December 2025 at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, less than a day after being detained. ICE initially said he experienced an unexplained "medical emergency" and attributed his death to "natural causes," but a medical examiner later determined he died from a pulmonary embolism. An ambulance transporting him to University Hospital was delayed by five minutes as officials prioritized allowing a van of new detainees into the facility. His death came amid widespread complaints from detainees at Delaney Hall about contaminated water, spoiled food, and inadequate medical care, and was one of at least two deaths at the facility and one of 23 deaths in ICE custody during the year.

A video shared on Instagram shows a man in New Prague, Minnesota arguing with suspected federal agents who questioned him about his citizenship status. The post's caption characterizes the interaction as racial profiling and harassment.

On January 28, 2026, ICE agents conducted an early morning immigration enforcement operation at the intersection of Salinas and Carpinteria Streets in Santa Barbara's Eastside neighborhood, near Franklin Elementary School. A masked ICE officer pepper-sprayed and physically pushed community members who had gathered to document the activity, including Beth Goodman, who was distributing ICE resource information at the time. At least one woman was sprayed while recording the operation, and a man in a yellow sweatshirt evaded arrest. Santa Barbara Police Department and firefighters responded to the scene to provide medical assistance and help de-escalate the confrontation. At least one person was detained by ICE, reportedly unrelated to the pepper-spray incident, and no arrests were made by local police.

Two former detainees at the Everglades immigration detention center in Florida testified in federal court that they faced retaliation for trying to access legal representation while in custody. They described monitored phone calls being dropped when attorneys were mentioned and being denied access to pen and paper to communicate with lawyers. One detainee, from Haiti, alleged he was forced to sign self-deportation papers he did not understand without being allowed to consult an attorney beforehand. Civil rights attorneys cited these accounts as part of a push for a temporary injunction requiring the facility to provide detainees the same legal access afforded to those held in federally-run facilities.

Darwin Maldonado left Honduras at eight years old to join his mother in the United States, where he raised four daughters in Southern California. In late January 2026 he was forced onto a bus at the Nogales port of entry alongside about 40 other detainees, many of whom had been held for nearly a week in overcrowded hangars at Arizona's Mesa Gateway airport without being allowed to shower. After two nights and three days on the road, the bus arrived at Tapachula's Siglo XXI migration center on January 28, where deportees were handed a document giving them ten days to seek refugee status or leave Mexico, then told to "figure it out." Maldonado and Venezuelan journalist Roberto Betancourt, who had sat beside him on the bus sharing stories about their children, split the cost of a cheap hotel room.

Roberto Betancourt, a Venezuelan journalist who fled to Miami with his wife in 2014 after years of armed attacks and death threats from pro-government colectivos over his political reporting, produced political analysis of Latin America in the U.S. alongside exiled journalist Patricia Poleo. An immigration judge granted him deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture in 2024, barring his return to Venezuela. Under a February 2025 DHS directive to re-detain people with CAT protections for third-country removal, ICE took him into custody on July 14, 2025, and over six months transferred him between 12 detention facilities, holding him in shackles for up to 25 hours and in rooms so cramped detainees took turns lying down. Agents tried to push him across the border at Tijuana in December 2025, then tried to force him onto a plane to Venezuela at Arizona's Mesa Gateway airport until a U.S. Marshal intervened. On January 26, 2026, four armed agents at the Nogales port of entry told him "they'll deport you with punches if it's necessary"; he refused to sign the removal notice but was forced onto a Mexican bus and arrived at Tapachula's Siglo XXI migration center on January 28, where deportees were given ten days to seek refugee status or leave Mexico. He later won permission to travel to Mexico City, where he applied for refugee status and launched a sports journalism platform while his wife, seven-year-old son, and ten-year-old daughter remain in Miami. As of September 2026, he remains in Mexico still awaiting resolution of his case, which is among roughly 20,000 third-country removals to Mexico carried out under the policy. "I need to find a way to guarantee stability for my family, for my kids," he said.

Javier Gimenez Rivero is a high school student from Venezuela living in Orange County with a pending asylum claim and valid U.S. Employment Authorization. He was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol and held in Orange County Jail for 18 days without criminal charges, a notice to appear, a warrant, a hearing, or written notice of the basis for his detention, according to a federal judge's order. His attorneys, Phillip and Josephine Arroyo, say Rivero is devastated and traumatized. A federal judge ordered his release, stating "In this country, we don't enforce the law by breaking the law," and found numerous constitutional violations in his detention. Rivero now has a hearing scheduled for 2028 to review his asylum claim.

Carlos, a Venezuelan national with withholding of removal and work authorization, was detained on January 28, 2026, during a routine monthly check-in at the Kansas City ICE office where he was required to report under the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. Despite his judge-approved protection, valid work authorization, clean six-year record, and pending permanent legal status applications with his wife, ICE detained him. After a chaotic series of transfers across Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Arizona—during which he was held in overcrowded conditions—Carlos was deported to Mexico on a tarmac in Arizona, where he remains separated from his wife and children.

A viral video shows dozens of detainees held in overcrowded conditions at ICE's Baltimore Field Office without adequate beds, bathrooms, or hygiene products, with individuals held for up to 10 days in a short-term processing facility. Maryland lawmakers, including U.S. Senators and Representatives, have been denied or are awaiting permission to visit the facility to observe conditions firsthand. Detainees have reported allegations of beatings and inadequate food and medical care, and the footage has reignited concerns about detention conditions amid an ongoing federal lawsuit alleging constitutional violations.

Federal prosecutors charged 14 people with crimes related to alleged assaults on immigration agents during Trump's immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota. The charges include spitting, throwing objects, blocking vehicles, and resisting arrest during confrontations at Roosevelt High School, the Whipple Federal Building, and other locations. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted defendants' names and photos on social media before charges were unsealed, prompting concern from a federal judge who noted defendants are presumed innocent.

Anderson Tumin-Rivas, a 24-year-old Guatemalan national living in southern Arkansas, was detained by ICE after showing up for a scheduled immigration check-in appointment in Little Rock on January 22, 2026. He is now held in Winn Parish, Louisiana, awaiting deportation to Guatemala. Tumin-Rivas had been living in the U.S. under the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program and was married with a young son.

A 40-year-old man was arrested by federal agents in the lobby of the Bolingbrook Police Department on January 28, 2026, after being approached by agents conducting an immigration enforcement action at his home. The man fled the scene, allegedly ramming an agent's vehicle, and then drove to the police station to report the encounter before being arrested by federal agents in the lobby.

Hagop Chirinian, a non-citizen surfer, was released after being detained for four months following an accidental trespass onto Camp Pendleton beach. A federal judge ordered ICE to release him, ruling the agency violated its own protocols by detaining him despite knowing he could not be deported, as Lebanon refused to accept him. Chirinian had been living under an order of supervision with a work permit for nearly 30 years without additional convictions.

Rosa Barrera, an 18-year-old, began caring for her three younger siblings after ICE detained her parents at their workplace. She is fundraising for legal representation to help reunite with her parents, while also managing household bills and caring for her sister who has autism and requires medical support.

ICE agents approached and questioned a woman in a Walmart parking lot, asking if she was born in the United States, in an incident captured on video that circulated online. A Native American legal rights group alleged that the individual involved, identified as Jose Roberto Ramirez, was being retaliated against by ICE.

A man who entered the United States around 2010 was detained by ICE on January 27, 2026, without any warning, paperwork, or legitimate reason according to his petition. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his immigration detention. The federal court granted his petition and ordered his immediate release, also restraining authorities from re-detaining him without proper notice and a pre-detention hearing.

Federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations raided multiple Zipps Sports Grill locations across Phoenix on January 27, 2026. As agents departed the 32nd Street and Shea Boulevard location, an agent pepper-sprayed approximately 50 protesters who were standing on the sidewalk and not impeding the vehicles. The protesters, including at least one person who fell to the ground in pain, had not been blocking the agents' departure.