Human Impact Project

A woman's security camera captured federal ICE agents chasing her home in Louisiana. She says she ran away from the agents after telling them she was a US-born citizen. CNN's Victor Blackwell interviewed the woman about the incident.

Pete Sumalo Montejo, a 72-year-old Filipino man who had been a lawful permanent resident since age nine, was arrested by ICE on February 25, 2025, and held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, for 284 days. During his detention he was repeatedly hospitalized, underwent heart surgery, and required dialysis and burn care before being moved to a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility. He suffered cardiac arrest on December 5, 2025, and died after being transported to Valley Baptist Medical Center. Medical reviewers cited cardiac arrest amid multiple chronic conditions, noting that the timing and contribution of his earlier severe burns remained unclear.

State-funded Operation Prairie Thunder saturation patrols jailed 75 people across Huron, Belle Fourche, and Yankton — 42 on drug charges and 33 on non-drug charges. Twenty-five people were interviewed on behalf of ICE, with 21 held for the federal agency. The patrols, part of Gov. Larry Rhoden's two-pronged initiative announced in July, generated concern in Huron's Hispanic community, with some residents believing ICE rather than state police conducted the operations.

Jacelynn Guzman, a 23-year-old U.S.-born citizen with no criminal record, was chased by masked Border Patrol agents through her neighborhood in Marrero, Louisiana as she walked home from a corner store. Guzman said she told the agents she was a U.S. citizen, but they continued pursuing her to her property line before stopping and leaving without making an arrest. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Guzman matched the description of someone sought under a deportation order, but agents determined she was not their intended target. Guzman said she believes she was targeted because she is Hispanic, describing the agents as having pursued her for being 'brown.'

Newly sworn-in Arizona Representative Adelita Grijalva was pepper-sprayed and pushed by federal ICE agents during a confrontation outside a Tucson taco restaurant where agents were conducting a human trafficking investigation. Grijalva said she identified herself as a member of Congress and witnessed others, including press and staff, also being sprayed. Video evidence shows agents deploying pepper spray and pepper-ball rounds, along with flash-bang grenades and tear gas, against immigrant rights protesters at the scene. The Department of Homeland Security disputed the account, stating Grijalva was merely in the vicinity of another person being pepper-sprayed and denying she was directly targeted.

Nayra Guzmán, a 22-year-old immigrant from Mexico living in Cicero with a pending asylum petition and a visa application for crime victims, was detained by ICE agents 15 days after an emergency C-section, during a delivery complicated by preeclampsia. Agents arrested her, her mother and her younger brother as they drove to visit her newborn daughter, who remained on a ventilator in the NICU. She was held for about 34 hours at Broadview Processing Center, a facility criticized for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and limited medical care, where she was denied postpartum care, a breast pump, and adequate food and water while still trying to produce breast milk for her daughter. Her detention occurred amid the Trump administration's Operation Midway Blitz enforcement campaign in the Chicago area, which has expanded arrests of pregnant, nursing and postpartum immigrants previously protected under prior DHS policy.

Jose Paniagua Calderón was detained in front of a Mexican restaurant on East 4th Plain Boulevard in Vancouver, Washington. Videos on social media show him screaming in pain as a silver-colored SUV drives over his legs during the detention. ICE denies that its agents ran over Paniagua's legs, while his family alleges ICE agents denied him medical care and forced him into their vehicle. He is reportedly being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.

Don Lupe, who had lived in the U.S. for 27 years after migrating from Puebla, Mexico, was detained by ICE agents during a worksite raid in New Jersey. He described detention center conditions as isolating and abusive, designed to encourage self-deportation. His family mobilized support and with legal assistance, Don Lupe received a hearing where a judge granted bail and set bond at $7,500.

Immigration agents took a cash box from a taco stand in La Puente after arresting four people at the location, according to a witness account. The incident involved the confiscation of the business's cash box during the enforcement action.

Francisco Paredes, a 46-year-old maintenance worker at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Hopkins, Minnesota, was arrested by ICE on December 4, 2025, and deported to Mexico after living in the U.S. for 25 years. Paredes was detained for approximately one month in multiple facilities, including a Bloomington immigration office holding cell with 40 people, Crow Wing County Jail in Brainerd, and Webb County Detention Center in Texas, where he reported sleeping on floors without blankets and receiving minimal food. He spent Christmas imprisoned and was denied phone contact for several days after his arrest. Five weeks later, ICE agents surveilled St. Gabriel's Church during a Spanish-language Mass on January 4, 2026, which church leadership and local officials said violated parishioners' constitutional right to free exercise of religion. Francisco Paredes, a maintenance worker at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Hopkins, was detained by ICE agents in December 2024 after picking up coffee on his way to work. Paredes had lived in the U.S. for 25 years. He was transported to a processing facility following his detention.

Sophie Watso, a Dakota woman, was detained for more than 48 hours at Fort Snelling after encountering ICE officers while driving in Minneapolis. When she blew a whistle to alert others to federal presence, officers accused her of interference, broke her car window, and forcibly removed her from the vehicle. Fort Snelling is the same site where Dakota ancestors were imprisoned after the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War.

ICE agents arrested Julio, a man with end-stage kidney failure requiring regular dialysis, as he returned home from a medical appointment. He was held in detention facilities and denied appropriate medical care, eventually suffering a severe stroke while hospitalized under ICE surveillance. His family, all U.S. citizens including a military servicemember, advocated for his release but ICE refused despite his critical medical needs.

ICE detained a critically ill man who was traveling to receive medical treatment. Williams Javier Toro Enamorado, a 27-year-old Honduran man with end-stage kidney disease, was detained by ICE agents on November 19 while traveling to a dialysis appointment during an operation called "Charlotte's Web." He claims he was denied dialysis treatment and pressured to sign a voluntary deportation order, with officers allegedly telling him "If you want to leave, sign. If not, you're going to die here." He is being held at an ICE detention center in Folkston, Georgia, over 360 miles from his family in North Carolina.

Victor Peralta Perez, a Venezuelan electrician with a pending asylum case and no criminal record, was detained by ICE on December 4, 2025, during a mandatory annual immigration check-in in Dallas. He was held for more than 100 days, transferred among facilities including Bluebonnet, Eden, Fort Bliss, and Florence, where he reported mold, contaminated food and water, and inadequate medical care. His wife, Madison Crider, said neither of them was ever given a clear explanation for his detention, and the couple's U.S.-citizen twin infants have not seen their father in the six months since. He was granted voluntary departure by an immigration judge on February 12, 2026, and left the United States on February 28, 2026 (according to DHS) or March 3, 2026 (according to his wife), citing the detention conditions and uncertain timeline.

Federal ICE agents arrested a U.S. citizen Somali woman born in Edina near Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday. According to her cousin, agents zip-tied her, mocked her hijab, and touched her inappropriately before taking her to Sherburne County Jail in Elk River. She was released Thursday after more than 24 hours in custody once her husband provided her passport card proving her citizenship.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detained an American citizen woman during an immigration enforcement traffic stop near mile marker 103 in Key Largo on Wednesday morning. Video footage shows agents forcefully removing the woman from her vehicle, wrestling her to the ground, and handcuffing her after discovering her boyfriend was in the country illegally. The woman, who was wearing medical scrubs, was released approximately 10 minutes later after agents verified her U.S. citizenship through her driver's license. The operation resulted in 14 undocumented immigrants being arrested for deportation proceedings. The incident was recorded by a Miami Herald reporter.

Lucia Webb, a 31-year-old Minneapolis resident, followed two ICE vehicles to the park-and-ride outside the Whipple Building on December 3. Officers boxed her in, surrounded her car, and threatened to arrest her. She is a named plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit alleging ICE violated constitutional rights of observers and protesters.

An asylum seeker from Ecuador who fled extortion and death threats was detained by ICE on December 3, 2025 during a routine check-in at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. Despite having no criminal record and consistently appearing for immigration hearings, ICE alleged she missed a July 23, 2025 check-in that was not visible on her application. The court granted a temporary restraining order requiring her immediate release and prohibiting re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing.

Francisco Gaspar Cristóbal Andrés, 48, died on December 3, 2025, after 93 days in ICE detention, becoming the first known detainee death at the Camp East Montana facility in El Paso, the nation's largest immigration detention center. He had worked in the U.S. for 20 years and was married to Lucía Pedro Juan for 25 years, with five children. Guards separated the couple during processing and ordered them not to touch, and weeks later Pedro Juan was deported to Guatemala despite pleading to see her husband, who was hospitalized in grave condition with liver and kidney complications; she learned of his death after returning to her hometown of Santa Eulalia. Detainees at the facility reported verbal abuse by guards, including derogatory remarks and claims they were served dog food.

A behavioral therapist for children in Key Largo, Florida, was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on December 3 while driving to work in a car registered to her partner, who is undocumented. Body camera and cellphone video, recorded in part by a Miami Herald reporter, showed agents unlocking her door, dragging her from the vehicle, taking her phone, and handcuffing her as she screamed, "I'm a U.S. citizen, please help me! This is unfair. Why are you doing this to me?" The woman, described as just under 5 feet tall and 85 pounds, said agents searched her purse without consent and that she complied by rolling down her window as instructed. She was held for about 10 minutes before being released once agents confirmed her citizenship through her driver's license. She said this was the third time she had been stopped in the same area for an immigration inspection, and that the experience left her unable to sleep, in physical pain, and emotionally traumatized. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the incident reflected a pattern of people being "racially profiled by ICE," and protesters later gathered in Islamorada to demand accountability. Her case is one of more than 500 documented by ProPublica involving U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration.