Human Impact Project

Meenu Batra, a certified court interpreter fluent in Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu who has lived in the U.S. since fleeing India about 35 years ago after her parents were killed in religious violence connected to their Sikh faith, was detained by ICE agents on March 17, 2026, at Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas while traveling for a court assignment in Milwaukee. An immigration judge had granted her withholding of removal status in 2000, and she has held valid work authorization for years, working in immigration courts for over two decades. Batra is a single mother of four U.S. citizen children, including her youngest son Jasper, who joined the U.S. Army shortly before her arrest. She was held for 45 days at El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, where she alleged she was denied food, water, and medication. On April 30, 2026, federal judge Rolando Olvera issued a temporary restraining order for her release, finding the government lacked proper justification and had violated due process protections. Her attorney noted she has had only one speeding ticket in 30 years. Since her release, Batra has described feeling dehumanized by her detention and fears being re-arrested.

A Peruvian asylum seeker was paroled into the United States on March 12, 2022 to pursue asylum. He has complied with all immigration procedures and court orders, has no criminal history, and has established ties to the community. After an immigration judge issued a removal order, he timely appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals and requested a custody redetermination. On April 23, 2026, the immigration court denied his bond request, finding the immigration judge lacked jurisdiction. He was detained at Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California. On May 13, 2026, the federal district court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding that his continued detention violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights because he had a liberty interest in his prior conditional release status and was denied procedural safeguards before re-detention. The court ordered his immediate release subject to former conditions, prohibited future re-detention without notice and a pre-deprivation hearing, and ordered return of confiscated property.

A man who entered the U.S. as a 10-year-old unaccompanied minor in 2018 and was paroled into the country was arrested in February 2026 during a Border Patrol roving patrol stop while driving. He has been detained ever since and has no criminal history. The court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release, finding his detention without pre-deprivation process violated his constitutional due process rights. A woman who entered the United States without inspection in 2023 with a valid I-94 and California driver's license was served with a Notice to Appear in April 2023 for removal proceedings. She was taken into custody by immigration officials on December 13, 2026, and detained at the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center. The court granted her habeas petition and ordered her immediate release, finding her detention violated due process rights.

Ricky Chandee, a 52-year-old engineering technician for the city of Minneapolis and a Laotian refugee, was detained by ICE agents at his home in Brooklyn Park on January 24 amid a surge of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota. Chandee, who fled Laos after the Vietnam War and never naturalized as a U.S. citizen, was targeted over a drive-by shooting conviction from more than three decades earlier. He was transported to a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, where he faced possible deportation to Laos. His case was reported alongside other Laotian refugees in Minnesota being deported at high rates under the Trump administration's mass deportation push, despite decades spent building lives and careers in the state. On May 4, 2026, the Minnesota Board of Pardons unanimously granted Chandee a pardon, one day before his scheduled deportation, potentially eliminating the legal basis for his removal.

A Cambodian refugee who entered the US as a child in 1982 was detained by ICE on May 4, 2026, after 25 years on supervised release. He had been living in the US under Orders of Supervision since 1999 following a 1997 drug conviction, but Cambodia has consistently refused to issue travel documents for his removal. The court granted a temporary restraining order requiring his immediate release, finding that ICE violated its own regulations by having an unauthorized officer revoke his supervision.

Manuela Hernandez, an asylum seeker from Colombia, was detained at California City's detention center for five months after her electronic monitoring device broke during a household accident in December 2025. She reported severe medical decline in custody, including fainting spells and a bacterial infection, while ICE pursued federal charges for property destruction. After her legal team filed a habeas corpus petition arguing the break was unintentional, she was released on May 4, 2026, and has reunited with her family while continuing her asylum case.

Diana Marquez Ruiz initially planned to self-deport with her two children on May 4, 2026, after her husband was removed from Aurora detention center. However, on the drive to the ICE field office, she became emotional and decided to turn back, unable to abandon her family dog in the United States. She and Cecilia had lived together and supported each other after their husbands' arrests.

Federal Magistrate Judge Joel Richlin ordered the release of Darwin Ortega Montufar from ICE custody on April 24, 2026, finding his arrest and detention violated his constitutional due process rights. Montufar was arrested on April 4 while going to work in Riverside County, held incommunicado for three days, and denied a bond hearing despite being compliant with ICE reporting obligations and having no criminal record.

Federal Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents, assisted by Texas Department of Public Safety, conducted an operation at a residence on Smith Avenue in a central Laredo neighborhood. Over 20 undocumented people were removed from the home. The condition of those found inside remained unknown.

Hana Francis, 26, was arrested at a sit-in demonstration in a hotel lobby on Southwest 2nd Avenue in Portland during May Day protests. She was charged with second-degree criminal trespass.

ICE Seattle took six people into custody who have serious criminal histories and are in the country without authorization, pending their removal. Those arrested include Miguel Salamanca-Alverez from Mexico with a felony conviction for five counts of assault; Angel Negrete-Villalobos with a felony conviction for first-degree assault and protective order violations; Alfredo Gallegos-Guillen with a history of assault arrests; Karla Daniela Gallegos-Holguin with a 2025 felony conviction for bringing methamphetamine into the country; and Bounlay Siackasorn from Laos with felony convictions for dealing meth, burglary, and theft.

A father named Marcus and his daughter are seeking community support and fundraising assistance following ICE enforcement activity under Operation Metro Surge. The family appears to be displaced and living in a campsite, with urgent appeals for donations to prevent the father's deportation.

Axel Gerardo Archaga Rios, an 18-year-old junior at Dunwoody High School who arrived in the U.S. at age 4 with his mother seeking asylum, was arrested by Dunwoody Police on March 27, 2026, for running a stop sign and driving without a valid license. He was booked into DeKalb County Jail under the 287(g) program, posted bond, and was released into ICE custody on March 29. Rios was transferred to Folkston ICE Processing Center near Brunswick, Georgia. His attorney filed a stay of removal and a motion to reopen his 2015 removal order to pursue asylum relief, but both requests were denied. Rios was deported to Honduras, where he subsequently adjusted to life with his grandmother.

A woman detained at Adelanto ICE Processing Center filed a pro se habeas corpus petition and emergency motion to prevent her removal from the United States. The federal court granted a temporary restraining order enjoining ICE from transferring or removing her from the Central District of California pending a preliminary injunction hearing. The court ordered ICE to ensure her appearance at the May 8, 2026 hearing.

Thousands of Portlanders took part in peaceful May Day demonstrations on May 2, 2026, marking International Workers' Day and linking labor rights with immigrant rights. By evening, hundreds marched to the ICE facility in South Portland, where five people were arrested after police said protesters threw rocks and water bottles at officers; one officer was hospitalized after being struck by a large rock, and another was treated at the scene. Seven additional arrests were made during a hotel sit-in on Southwest 2nd Avenue. The march came two days after a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel stayed earlier federal court orders limiting agents' use of crowd control munitions, and police said the Portland Police Bureau has made 94 arrests tied to ICE protest activity since June 2025.

Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen, Fulbright scholar, and Columbia doctoral student in urban planning, had her visa revoked by DHS without explanation. ICE agents visited her building three times, twice without a warrant. She fled to the United States and remains in Canada.

Juan Gaspar, from a village near Quetzaltenango, was deported and signed a voluntary departure agreement. He reported that officers only collected a phone number but he received no message with stipend collection details a week after his expulsion.

Several hundred protesters gathered at Portland's ICE facility on May Day, with some marching onto the facility's driveway and rattling its gate before Portland police and Oregon State Police moved in to clear the area and make arrests. Officers said protesters threw rocks and water bottles, injuring an officer, while ICE agents remained inside the building throughout the confrontation. Police had made arrests earlier in the day, including nine people during a hotel sit-in demonstration, with additional arrests made near the ICE facility as the evening protest intensified. A police spokesperson said officers' intervention was prompted when demonstration activity "turned criminal."

A detained immigrant identified as Han filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus seeking immediate release and asking the court to prohibit his transfer or deportation without a hearing before a neutral decisionmaker. On May 1, 2026, the court issued a temporary order barring the government from deporting him until it rules on his custody status. A hearing was scheduled for May 4, 2026, and the government was ordered to respond by May 1, 2026.

A noncitizen is detained at ICE's Denver Contract Detention Facility despite an immigration judge ordering his release on an $8,000 bond. ICE invoked an automatic stay regulation to prevent his release while appealing the bond determination. The immigration judge later reconsidered and held that the petitioner's detention is mandatory under federal law.