Human Impact Project

A stateless man born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents entered the United States on September 5, 1982 with an F-1 student visa. He was ordered removed on July 18, 2007, with his removal order becoming final on December 12, 2007 when the Board of Immigration Appeals denied his appeal. He was designated for removal to Kuwait with Egypt as an alternative destination. After being released from ICE detention on July 3, 2008, he was re-detained on July 7, 2025 at a routine ICE check-in without notice or opportunity to contest the revocation of his release. Over nine months of continued detention, ICE made only one documented effort to secure travel documents—a letter sent to Egypt in January 2026, six months after his re-detention, with no response received. The court found no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future and granted his habeas corpus petition, ordering his immediate release on the same conditions as before his re-detention, with protections against re-detention without a pre-detention hearing and restrictions on removal to a third country without due process.

Deivi Jose Molina-Pena, a 33-year-old Venezuelan on Temporary Protected Status, was arrested by ICE agents at a Walmart on July 7, 2025, while working as a delivery driver for Walmart's Spark service. Video captured agents using a Taser to subdue him as he fell and struck his head. Molina-Pena remained in ICE custody in El Paso with reported head pain and no medical evaluation. His arrest followed tensions between American-born and immigrant delivery drivers, with American drivers reportedly calling ICE hotlines to report immigrants' locations.

Joel Gutierrez, a longtime Arizona resident who rebuilds homes, was detained by ICE agents on the morning of July 6 while on his way to drop off his 7-year-old daughter before work. His daughter witnessed the detention and called her mother crying to report that ICE agents had taken her father. According to the mother's account, ICE agents told her that Gutierrez attempted to run but was caught and detained. The family's daughter, Denise Gutierrez, has spoken out about the incident and the impact on her younger sister, saying the child has been deeply affected by the separation and frequently asks when she will see her father again.

An immigration attorney who is a U.S. citizen was denied reentry to the country after traveling abroad and was flagged by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The attorney shared her experience on social media to help others understand what to expect when reentering the U.S. after travel, particularly for those with removal of condition cases, green card holders, or recently naturalized citizens.

Anastasio Sanchez, a 51-year-old man who had operated a taco truck in East L.A. for five years and lived in the U.S. for over 20 years with a work permit, was detained by federal agents on July 6, 2025, near Whittier and Atlantic boulevards. He had paused his business due to ICE raids in the area but reopened out of financial necessity to support his wife and five children. He was held at Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A., where his daughter visited and brought him diabetes medication, before being transferred to Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County.

Nine anti-ICE protesters were tried for their roles in a July 4, 2025 demonstration outside an ICE detention facility in Prairieland, Texas. Eight defendants were convicted of material support for terrorism charges, with prosecutors arguing that wearing black bloc clothing assisted in the shooting of a police officer by protester Benjamin Song. Song was convicted of attempted murder for shooting the officer in the neck and faces up to life in prison, while other defendants face up to 15 years on the terrorism charges.

Alexis, a 15-year-old from Chiapas, Mexico, was detained on July 1 when Florida Highway Patrol stopped a vehicle he was traveling in with friends and handed him over to federal authorities. He had no criminal record but initially misrepresented his age, fearing separation from his group. He was held for three days at Alligator Alcatraz, a temporary detention facility of tents and chain-link pens in the Florida Everglades designed for adults, where he was housed with adults and handcuffed during transfer. His father Ignacio, who fled Chiapas in 2018 due to violence, learned of his son's detention only after three days when one of Alexis's friends called from the facility. After Ignacio sent a photo of Alexis's birth certificate and authorities confirmed his age, the boy was transferred to a federal shelter for migrant children on July 4. State and federal officials initially did not acknowledge a minor had been held at the facility, later confirming it after media inquiries, though officials maintain minors are not held there despite a draft operational plan including provisions for supervising minors if present.

Juan Antonio, who had lived in the United States for 36 years, was detained by ICE on July 4th while on his way to work. He is the father of three adult children, grandfather of two, and husband to his wife—all U.S. citizens. His daughter Denise describes him as "the heart of our family" who "always put our family first, working tirelessly" to care for them. His detention and threatened deportation have left his family facing financial instability and deep concern for his health while detained. The family is working with lawyers to secure his immediate release.

N.M.Z., a 6-year-old Honduran boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was arrested by ICE agents along with his mother and 9-year-old sister outside a Los Angeles immigration courtroom on May 29, 2025, following an asylum hearing. He missed a scheduled medical appointment for worsening leukemia symptoms and was transported with his family to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where he developed easy bruising, bone pain, and loss of appetite during roughly a month in custody. Attorneys from Columbia Law School and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a lawsuit arguing the arrests violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. ICE released the family without a court order, transferring them to a South Texas shelter before flying them to Los Angeles on July 2, 2025, where they reunited with relatives. The Department of Homeland Security said the boy had been examined multiple times in custody and denied medical neglect, while attorneys said public pressure contributed to the release; after returning home, the child showed severe trauma symptoms, including hiding from strangers and fear of anyone in uniform.

A 36-year-old Salvadoran mother was detained by ICE agents on July 3 outside her home in Sherman Oaks and hospitalized at Glendale Memorial Hospital after a medical emergency during her arrest. Her family said ICE did not identify themselves or present a warrant, and she said officers twisted her arms, threw her to the ground and mocked her as she vomited. Detention officers have since maintained a presence in the hospital's lobby, prompting a July 7 community press conference attended by elected officials, hospital workers and advocates who called the presence intimidating. State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, who met with the family and the hospital's CEO, announced she is co-authoring Senate Bill 81, which would require a judicial warrant before immigration officials can access nonpublic areas of medical facilities.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell issued guidance on June 27 requiring officers responding to suspected federal immigration enforcement to request a supervisor, verify the credentials of the lead agent, and record the verification on body-worn camera. Officers may detain or arrest anyone found to be impersonating a federal agent, a policy shift discussed after the arrest of a man in Huntington Park accused of posing as an immigration agent. LAPD said it has fielded at least seven 911 calls reporting kidnappings that turned out to be ICE operations, and McDonnell emphasized that LAPD does not participate in immigration enforcement under state law. State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez has separately introduced the “No Vigilantes Act” to bar bounty hunters from immigration enforcement and require visible identification by agents.

Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old stateless Palestinian woman who has lived in the U.S. since age 8 and is married to a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE in February 2025 upon returning from her honeymoon at St. Thomas Airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She was under an order of supervision and had a pending green card application at the time of her arrest. During her roughly five months in custody, the government attempted to deport her twice, including once despite a federal court order blocking her removal. Sakeik described conditions in ICE facilities as overcrowded with inadequate food. She was released from ICE custody on July 2, 2025, and has since advocated for other detainees.

Text messages obtained by the ACLU show ICE agents in Long Beach, California discussing efforts to identify a woman using facial-recognition technology after she allegedly commented on TikTok admitting she was undocumented. One agent asked a colleague to run facial recognition off the woman's profile picture, questioning whether it was "good enough to facial rec," while sharing that she had described herself as "not a criminal and just hard working." The second agent replied there was "No match," though the exchange included the first agent mocking the woman's post and using an anti-Latino slur. Immigration attorney Víctor Nieblas has since publicly confirmed that immigration authorities are using facial recognition applications to investigate people, saying the agency is deploying significant resources toward such technology.

In North Palm Beach, Florida, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen pulled over in a traffic stop was told by an officer: 'You don't have any rights here. You are a Migo, brother.' He was taken into custody despite his mother, who was also a passenger, reportedly telling officers that he was a U.S. citizen and showing them a picture of his Social Security card. Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents had stopped a van with him, his mother, and two other workers, one of whom was tased and each put in a chokehold.

Outside San Francisco's immigration court, federal agents drove a vehicle through a crowd of protesters, with one protester clinging to the car before being flung into the street and nearly run over. Video also shows agents in body armor clashing with demonstrators and using pepper spray before the vehicle left the scene. One protester, who gave her first name as Sorin, said she was cut and bleeding after falling from the vehicle's hood.

A man fluent only in Mam, a Mayan language, muttered to himself and could not answer basic questions, including his home address, during his hearing before Immigration Judge Patrick O'Brien in San Francisco. O'Brien denied a Department of Homeland Security attorney's request to dismiss the case, which could have led to expedited removal, and instead granted a continuance so the man could find a lawyer. Within minutes of leaving the courtroom, he was arrested by ICE agents. His arrest was one of at least three that morning and part of more than 30 arrests by ICE at or near San Francisco's immigration court in recent weeks, including cases where judges had not approved dismissal or removal.

Two Southeast Asian migrants, clients of attorney Tin Thanh Nguyen, were deported to Eswatini in July 2025 and have been held in isolation without legal representation or explanation of charges. Neither the Vietnamese nor Laotian governments have publicly declined repatriation, and the governments have not had direct access to the men. The attorney states his clients wish to return to their home countries. The Trump administration has not explained why they were not repatriated to Vietnam or Laos, claiming such deportations are reserved for individuals their own countries will not accept—a claim the deportees' legal representatives dispute. A human rights lawyer in Eswatini sued authorities alleging the men were being denied legal representation while held in a maximum-security prison.

Alfredo Fuentes and Luz Mary Vasquez Cruz, relatives of a man targeted by ICE, were arrested after ICE agents entered their home without a judicial warrant. The agents threatened to break down the door and pointed guns at the family members, who told agents they had no warrant. Fuentes and Cruz were charged with forcibly assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal officer.

A Cuban citizen who had been under ICE supervision since 2006 was detained by ICE in July 2025. He was held at Camp 57 in Angola, Louisiana, then transferred to Arizona where he was scheduled for deportation to Mexico. The court granted a temporary restraining order blocking his removal, finding he was denied proper notice and hearing before being deported to a third-party country where he has no connections.

Carmen, a woman who fled domestic violence and obtained a restraining order against her abusive husband, applied for a U-Visa in March 2025 after he was deported. Despite having a pending U-Visa application and valid work authorization, she was detained during a June 2025 immigration check-in and deported in July 2025 along with her 8-year-old son. Upon arrival in her home country, her husband was waiting for her at the airport. She is now controlled by him—he confiscates her passports and phone, forbids her from leaving the house without permission, and she lives in constant fear.