Human Impact Project

Yannier Vazquez Hidalgo, a Cuban man working at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Central New York, was ordered deported to Ecuador by an immigration judge. Hidalgo fled Cuba and married his husband in the U.S., requesting asylum based on persecution fears as a gay man. He was detained by federal agents in October during a routine ICE appointment in Mattydale. Though he passed an immigration test demonstrating a credible threat to his life in Cuba due to his sexual orientation, the judge ordered his deportation to a country where he has no ties and where he argues he will face persecution for being gay and Cuban.

Zharick Daniela Buitrago Ortiz, a 21-year-old Colombian woman who was eight months pregnant, was deported from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport despite being in medical distress. She had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in November 2025 seeking asylum and was placed in expedited removal proceedings, during which her attorney said she was denied adequate medical care. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order enjoining ICE from deporting her, but the order came approximately three hours after her flight had already departed.

Andranik Grigoryan, a New York resident detained at Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana, suffered a severe seizure on January 22—his first in nearly a year—after correctional medical staff failed to provide his prescribed anti-seizure medication (Keppra), which he had relied on for years to control epilepsy. He hit his head during the seizure and was left lying in a pool of blood before being taken to a local hospital for treatment. Upon returning to the facility the same day, officers pepper-sprayed him through a cell port while he was still recovering from the seizure and had difficulty standing, causing intense burning and respiratory distress, then moved him to another cell without letting him wash off the spray. The ACLU of Indiana filed lawsuits on his behalf on July 27 against Centurion Health of Indiana and unidentified correctional officers, alleging 14th Amendment violations; the Indiana Department of Correction said it had no statement, and Centurion did not respond to a request for comment.

An Ecuadoran woman seeking asylum was detained at Cumberland County Jail in Portland for five months. In January, ICE transferred her to Massachusetts without court authorization and then to Louisiana via air transport, removing her epilepsy medication despite knowing of her condition. During transfer she was shackled without food or bathroom access, and suffered multiple seizures in Louisiana while receiving no medication for days. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin found ICE made false and misleading statements to the court, unlawfully detained her without a bond hearing, and deliberately disregarded her medical needs. The judge ordered her released, barred re-arrest, and ordered the government to pay her legal fees of approximately $15,000.

The Bishop Henry Whipple Building in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, which currently serves as a major immigration enforcement processing center, is located on Bdóte, a Dakota creation site that in 1862 became a concentration camp imprisoning thousands of Dakota and Ho-Chunk people during the Dakota Indian Wars. Local residents first raised concerns about the building's use for immigration detainment in 2019. In early 2026, at least three Indigenous people—Jose Ramirez (Red Lake descendant), a Dakota woman, and reportedly four Lakota men—were detained at the building, with Ramirez held for six hours following a confrontation with immigration officials.

Armande Namegni, a 30-year-old Cameroonian asylum seeker, was detained by ICE on January 22, 2026, during a routine immigration check-in in St. Louis. Officers reported finding a pending shoplifting charge on her record. Namegni stated the charge was misattributed to her and should have been cleared. Officers stated it appeared in the court system. She was transported to Phelps County jail in Rolla and remained in custody awaiting her asylum hearing. She was denied bond.

During an ICE operation in January 2026, federal agents detained dozens of Mainers, including asylum-seeker Evaristo Kalonji, a church organist from Angola with no criminal record. His pastor discovered his abandoned car and learned Kalonji had been transferred to detention centers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island while his asylum case awaits a May 2028 court date. Federal judges subsequently ordered the release of approximately 35 detainees. Many detainees spent weeks in custody, lost employment, and paid thousands in bonds before being freed.

An immigrant previously released on bond or parole was detained on January 21, 2026. The court found that the government violated his due process rights by re-detaining him without providing a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ordered his immediate release with the same conditions he had prior to detention.

Micheline Ntumba, a Portland resident and mother of four from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was detained by ICE agents on January 21, 2026, after dropping off her child at Portland High School. According to her daughter, agents followed Ntumba home to her apartment parking lot near Deering Oaks Park, took her phone and wallet, and placed her in their vehicle without asking for identification or explanation. Ntumba has been in the United States for almost 10 years, has no criminal record, and has a pending asylum application.

A federal court judge ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to explain why it detained Yanick Joao Carneiro, an Angolan man, during a routine immigration check-in at an office in Scarborough. Carneiro is undocumented but filed for asylum within his first year in the U.S. His lawyer stated he has no criminal record. He was granted a temporary 72-hour order preventing his removal while the court determines why he was detained.

Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen born in Minnesota, was detained by ICE agents on January 15, 2026, after being caught in a parking lot during agents' pursuit of two other men. She says agents handcuffed her and forced her to the ground, causing cuts, bruises, and a head injury that led to a concussion. While held at Sherburne County Jail, Ahmed had a seizure and was taken to a hospital in shackles for an MRI. She says an officer used a racial slur against her during the encounter. Ahmed was released after two days without being charged. Minnesota Rep. Samakab Hussein held a press conference where Ahmed shared her account of the detention.

ICE enforcement operations, including Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, have created widespread fear in immigrant communities, with documented impacts on children's mental health, school engagement, and family stability. Testimony before the Illinois Accountability Commission described children avoiding school activities, families considering guardianship transfers, and reduced use of healthcare and educational institutions due to enforcement actions.

A five-year-old U.S. citizen named Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos disappeared after being transferred to ICE custody following her mother's arrest on Monday morning. The child does not appear in ICE, ORR, CPS, or any Central Texas immigration detention facility databases. Family members are calling on the San Antonio ICE field office to locate the child so custody arrangements can be made while her mother remains detained.

Elinor Hilton, a 23-year-old Portland resident, was recording federal agents during a Department of Homeland Security operation called "Catch of the Day" at a Home Depot when agents told her she was being placed on a watchlist and threatened to come to her house that night. The incident occurred two weeks after Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, and Hilton has said she has since struggled to sleep and remains fearful of idling cars near her home. Hilton and fellow observer Colleen Fagan, who said agents told her she was being placed in "a nice little database," appeared in court as plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit Hilton v. Noem et al., in which attorneys from Protect Democracy and the law firms Dunn Isaacson Rhee and Drummond Woodsum argue that the surveillance violated observers' First Amendment rights.

A man who has lived in the United States since 1987 was detained by ICE in Minnesota on January 21, 2026, and is currently held in El Paso, Texas. He was pressured into signing a voluntary removal document while detained and without legal counsel, facing deportation to Vietnam despite not having lived there since the 1980s and lacking citizenship there. He had been complying with immigration supervision for years without missing check-ins.

A leaked ICE memorandum reveals that federal immigration agents are entering private residences without judicial warrants, using administrative orders to detain people with final deportation orders. The memo, signed by interim ICE director Todd Lyons on May 12, 2025, authorizes use of force to enter homes based only on administrative orders, which immigration advocates argue violates Fourth Amendment protections. The disclosure comes amid reports of ICE operations in Austin involving minors and allegations of abuse, as well as an incident in St. Paul, Minnesota where ICE agents forcibly entered a U.S. citizen's home without a warrant.

Department of Homeland Security agents were involved in a shooting during an immigration enforcement operation in Los Angeles County's Willowbrook area on Wednesday morning around 7:20 a.m. Agents were pursuing a vehicle that crashed, and shots were fired when agents approached to detain suspects. No one was struck by gunfire and all suspects were taken into custody.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a gardener in Clovis on Monday morning at the intersection of Willow and Shepherd avenues on his way to work. According to community organization Faith in the Valley, the man was detained by two DEA agents and one federal agent. Clovis Police confirmed receiving notification from ICE before 7 a.m. but stated no assistance was requested.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers handcuffed and detained two teenagers in south Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon. One teenager was detained on Blaisdell Avenue while their passenger, who witnessed the incident, was left crying in their vehicle.

ICE agents detained two gardeners in Long Beach's University Park Estates neighborhood on January 21, 2026. One of the detained men claimed to be a dual citizen and told agents he was born in Memorial Hospital in Long Beach. Mayor Rex Richardson criticized the operation as an "abduction," expressing concern that a U.S. citizen may have been detained without prior notice to city officials.