Human Impact Project

Jesus Cruz was detained by ICE agents on June 9, 2025, at a Westchester car wash in Los Angeles while working polishing luxury vehicles. His wife, Noemi Ciau, could not locate him in ICE's online system or get communication for days afterward. At least 26 car wash workers were detained across the Los Angeles area during that week's immigration raids, with advocates reporting difficulty locating people held in temporary facilities. Cruz was later deported to Mexico, and in August he briefly reunited with Ciau and their four children during a visit to his hometown of Kini in the Yucatán Peninsula. Cruz said his eldest daughter stopped sleeping well and quit piano, and his youngest son began acting out since his deportation. The family, with Ciau working at LAX and the children in school in Inglewood, is weighing whether to relocate to Mexico or remain in California amid a lengthy reunification process.

Pablo Sequen filed a habeas corpus petition challenging unlawful detention by immigration authorities. The case involves a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction proceedings. A judge granted a preliminary injunction on September 16, 2025, halting the petitioner's deportation.

Sharareh Moghadam, a legal green card holder from Iran working toward U.S. citizenship, was detained by ICE on August 1, 2025, after reporting to immigration offices as instructed. She had traveled to Iran to visit family members with serious health issues and was detained upon her return to California. She is currently held in a facility in Phoenix, Arizona, with a court date scheduled for September 12.

Detainees at a South Florida immigration detention center nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz" have been on a hunger strike for ten days, protesting living conditions. One detainee, Pedro Hernández, was hospitalized during the strike but continues to refuse food, citing conditions and treatment. Civil rights groups have filed lawsuits stating detainees lack access to legal counsel, food, hygiene, and medical care.

Lam T, who is in his 50s and requested anonymity, has a removal order stemming from a fake driving license he made as a teenager. He was detained in 2003 and again in early 2026, both times later released, and has since received a gubernatorial pardon and filed a motion to reopen his removal proceedings in hopes of reinstating his green card. His wife Susan said the family, including three young children living in the Midwest, lives in constant fear of his re-detention while she supports them financially during his unemployment.

Andrew Fenton, 58, was adopted from Vietnam by an American couple in 1975 after his father falsely claimed he was an orphan, but he never obtained US citizenship because the adoption agency and his parents were not told to file the required paperwork. He accumulated minor arrests over decades, and in August 2025 immigration agents detained and deported him to Vietnam. Fenton, who has no family there and does not speak Vietnamese, initially worked 12-hour security shifts before finding better-paying work as a cook at a cafe in Vung Tau. More than a year after his deportation, he obtained a Vietnamese birth certificate listing his name as Nguyen Bao Linh and his birth date as Oct 23, 1967; it names his father, Nguyen Bao Tinh, a former South Vietnamese Air Force member who raised him at an airbase in Danang, while leaving his mother's name blank.

Mireille Desormeaux, a Haitian green card holder, became a U.S. citizen in early August after suing the federal government with Project Citizenship over delayed naturalization. USCIS had frozen naturalization proceedings for applicants from 39 countries deemed 'high risk,' including Haiti, Venezuela, and Côte d'Ivoire. Twelve of the 14 plaintiffs in the lawsuit have since become citizens after months of unexplained delays.

Daysi Munoz and her husband were arrested by Burleson, Texas police on suspicion of shoplifting while back-to-school shopping at a Walmart in August 2025, leading to their transfer into ICE custody and deportation to Honduras about 40 days later. Their two U.S. citizen daughters, 19-year-old Dulce Zepeda and 13-year-old Maria, were left on their own in Fort Worth, with Dulce cooking, driving her sister to school, working at McDonald's, and selling her mother's jewelry to cover bills. After nearly a year living alone, the emotional and financial strain became overwhelming, and Dulce sold their parents' truck to help Maria return to Honduras to reunite with their parents, while Dulce has remained in Texas.

Benjamin, 16, and his brother Dennis were stopped by Buffalo police in August 2025 during a traffic stop; DHS agents then arrested both brothers despite their possession of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Deferred Action protections from deportation. ICE officers questioned them, told them the U.S. would pay $2,000 for self-deportation, and presented them with English-language papers without explanation; Benjamin signed, believing he had no choice. Dennis, who had just turned 18, was deported to Ecuador while Benjamin was transported to a shelter in Texas, then moved to a shelter in Groton, Connecticut, where he spent two months unable to understand why he was being held despite having been previously vetted and approved for release to his father. Benjamin wrote that he felt "trapped" and "like a delinquent," confined to three rooms with no outdoor access without staff supervision. He was released 143 days after his arrest, four days after lawyers filed a lawsuit challenging his detention.

The Trump Administration opened Camp East Montana, the largest immigrant detention facility in the country, at Fort Bliss military base in West Texas in August 2025. Detainees initially arrived at an active construction site with non-functioning toilets, sporadic running water, and no outdoor recreation, and ICE withheld facility location information from families and lawyers. In May 2026, the ACLU, ACLU of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project and a law firm sued ICE, citing at least three detainee deaths including a homicide, a nearly monthlong measles outbreak, and nearly 50 detention standards violations found by ICE's own inspectors. The groups also allege medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse by officers, and denial of meaningful attorney access; ICE replaced the facility's prime contractor in March 2026, but advocates say conditions have continued to deteriorate, while DHS has called the allegations categorically false.

In August 2025, a 6-year-old New York City public school student and her mother, an Ecuadorian family who had sought asylum, were deported after being detained during an ICE check-in on August 12 and removed on August 19. The family's asylum application had been denied with a deportation order issued in June 2024. The student's older sibling, age 16, remains in the United States. New York officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, condemned the deportation.

Yury Saaryan, a Russian national who overstayed his tourist visa, went to an ICE office in August 2025 seeking help returning to Russia but was detained instead. An immigration judge granted him voluntary departure in November 2025, but ICE has not arranged his removal despite his repeated requests and three hunger strikes, citing delays obtaining travel documents from Russia. Saaryan has now been held for about 11 months and filed a federal habeas corpus petition seeking his release, which a U.S. District Court in Washington denied without prejudice in July 2026.

Juan José Estrada Lopez, a 42-year-old Nicaraguan national working on a Kona coffee farm, was detained by ICE agents in August 2025 during a green card interview and held at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu for over five months without charges or bond. He had entered the U.S. in 2022 and was married to a U.S. citizen, Emily Estrada, who sought assistance from the ACLU of Hawaii after private attorneys quoted expensive fees. Lopez was released on January 27, 2026, after an immigration court granted him a green card and lawful permanent resident status, with the government waiving its right to appeal.

Alma Bella Bowman, a Georgia resident and immigrants' rights activist, was released from Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, after ICE agreed to her release following eight months in custody. Bowman was detained on March 26, 2025, during a routine check-in at the ICE Atlanta Field Office and continues to press the U.S. government to recognize her as a citizen based on her father's Navy service. She previously exposed non-consensual gynecological procedures at Irwin County Detention Center from 2017 to 2020.

The NYCLU, ACLU, and other legal organizations filed a federal lawsuit challenging ICE's policy of arresting immigrants who attend mandatory immigration court hearings. The lawsuit claims the Trump administration's practice violates the Administrative Procedure Act and due process rights, as people are being arrested when complying with legal obligations to appear in court and then fast-tracked for deportation.

Ted Jones, a 24-year-old British man, was deported from the United States to Britain in August 2025 after ICE identified a 2022 drink-driving conviction and visa irregularities. Jones moved to the US as a child and was removed during the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations. According to ICE data, 212 people were deported from the US to the UK between Trump's inauguration and October 2025, compared to the same period under the Biden administration.

A Chinese national was scheduled for detention at an ICE appointment on July 31, 2025 in San Francisco. The federal court granted a temporary restraining order to prevent his arrest and detention, then converted it to a preliminary injunction. The court ruled that he cannot be detained without a pre-detention hearing before a neutral decisionmaker, citing Fifth Amendment due process protections.

Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen was arrested by ICE agents as she was leaving San Francisco immigration court on July 31, 2025, and detained at ICE's San Francisco field office. She filed a habeas corpus petition the next day seeking her immediate release and a permanent injunction prohibiting ICE from re-detaining her without prior notice and a hearing before a neutral arbiter. After the court granted preliminary injunctive relief, she amended her petition to add three additional plaintiffs—Ligia Garcia, Yulisa Alvarado Ambrocio, and Martin Hernandez Torres—who also sought individual habeas relief. The amended complaint added seven class action claims seeking to vacate certain ICE and EOIR policies under the Administrative Procedure Act and to enjoin allegedly unconstitutional conditions of confinement at ICE's San Francisco field office. The government moved to sever the individual habeas claims from each other and from the class claims. The court granted the motion to sever but denied the government's request to randomly reassign the severed cases to other judges.

The Washington Post interviewed 16 former detainees of El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) to document conditions inside the megaprison where the U.S. has deported migrants. Detainees reported beatings, isolation, sexual assault, and other forms of mistreatment within the facility.

An anonymous woman who says she is a U.S. citizen reported that ICE agents mistreated her and her husband near FM 495 and Stewart Road in Mission, Texas. She said agents had their feet near or on her husband's head while restraining him, and that she stepped in because she feared for his safety. She alleges the agents then struck her and continued treating her aggressively. The account has not been independently verified.