Human Impact Project

A 70-year-old Iranian woman who had resided peacefully in the United States for 26 years was detained by the Trump administration without valid legal justification. Federal Judge Gary Klausner expressed shock at the government's inability to provide adequate cause for her detention and ordered her release. Her case exemplifies a pattern in which the Department of Justice has failed to present valid arguments to justify detentions across numerous cases.

Gael, a nonverbal 5-year-old boy from Colombia with significant developmental delays undergoing autism evaluations, was detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas for three weeks along with his asylum-seeking parents, Leonardo and Nelsy. The family was arrested on March 3 during an immigration check-in in El Paso. During his confinement, Gael's health deteriorated severely: he struggled to eat, experienced constipation lasting over a week with visible abdominal swelling and pain, and began engaging in self-harm behavior by hitting himself as his distress increased. Before detention, Gael had been receiving therapy in El Paso while the family pursued their asylum case. His attorney, Elora Mukherjee, requested his release on medical grounds after a video call with children's entertainer Ms. Rachel, arranged by a journalist, drew public attention to his condition. The family was released days later and returned to El Paso with required ICE check-ins to continue their asylum proceedings.

A 10-year-old U.S. citizen girl recovering from brain cancer was deported to Mexico along with her undocumented parents and four American-born siblings in February 2025. The family was detained at an immigration checkpoint while traveling from Rio Grande City to Houston for the child's emergency medical checkup. The girl, who had undergone surgery to remove a brain tumor, has been unable to continue her specialized medical treatment and rehabilitation in Mexico. An 11-year-old U.S. citizen recovering from brain cancer was deported to Mexico with her family by Border Patrol agents despite her documented citizenship and need for ongoing medical treatment. The family was traveling to Houston for emergency care when agents ignored a hospital letter the family had used previously at checkpoints and detained the family, deporting them the next day. The citizen child's 18-year-old brother, Fernando Hernández García, was not detained and remained in the U.S. to earn money and send medicine to his sister. The family's lawyers report they have been unable to access proper medical care in Mexico and have applied for humanitarian parole.

A Honduran national who had been living in the U.S. for over a decade with protection under the Convention Against Torture was detained by ICE during a routine check-in on March 23, 2026. He had been living free under an Order of Supervision for 14 years without any violations. The court granted his temporary restraining order and ordered his immediate release, finding that ICE violated his due process rights by detaining him without proper notice or hearing.

Heidy Sánchez, a 44-year-old Cuban immigrant and home health aide who arrived in the U.S. in 2019, was detained by ICE on April 22, 2025, during what she believed was a routine check-in appointment at the Tampa office while nursing her one-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen born prematurely with seizures. She was handcuffed and separated from her child as her husband, Carlos Yuniel Valle, a U.S. citizen who owns a landscaping company, heard her screaming. Two days later, Sánchez was deported to Cuba on a flight with 81 other migrants, arriving without a passport, identification, or documentation explaining her removal. She had no criminal record, held a social security card and driver's license, paid taxes, and was complying with her ICE supervision order. Her daughter, distressed by the separation, refused to eat. From Cuba, Sánchez has recorded tearful video pleas to President Trump and searches for internet access up to ten times daily to video call her daughter. U.S. Representatives María Elvira Salazar and Kathy Castor have called for her reunification, with Castor filing a humanitarian parole request. DHS disputed her account, claiming she was offered the choice to take her child or place her with a relative. Eight months later, Sánchez remains separated from her daughter and husband.

Doris Flores and her husband were taken into immigration detention from their trailer home in Lakeland, Florida, one night in January, leaving their 4-month-old daughter Briany, a U.S. citizen, and her 8-year-old half-sister Briana without a caregiver. Flores turned to the family's pastor, the Rev. Israel Vázquez, and his wife, also a pastor at their Pentecostal church, who took in the girls rather than see them placed in foster care. A ProPublica analysis found the Trump administration has detained the parents of more than 11,000 U.S. citizen children and has deported mothers of U.S. citizens at four times the rate of the previous administration.

A 38-year-old Mexican national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2003 was detained by immigration authorities during a traffic stop in Fountain Valley, California on March 23, 2026. He has been held at Adelanto detention facility without a bond hearing despite having a pending asylum application, being married to a U.S. citizen, and having an American citizen son. The court granted a temporary restraining order requiring immigration authorities to provide him with an individualized bond hearing within 14 days.

Following President Trump's mass deportation campaign, federal agents have conducted large-scale immigration enforcement crackdowns across multiple U.S. cities, including a five-week operation in New Orleans, resulting in hundreds of thousands of arrests and deportations. Companion animals including dogs, cats, bunnies, and chickens have been left behind by deported families, overwhelming pet rescue organizations and animal control agencies. In New Orleans East, residents Luis and Nivia Burke have taken in a growing number of stray and abandoned pets, including a dog named Rocky whose owner left him behind when he returned to Honduras after growing fearful of detention. The Louisiana SPCA, which handles animal control for the city, reported the number of surrendered animals in 2025 was nearly double that of previous years, a rise attributed to both immigration arrests and families sheltering in place out of fear of deportation.

An undocumented individual with a felony conviction has been sentenced to more than 15 years. No additional details about the nature of the conviction, jurisdiction, or circumstances are provided in the available text.

Anabell, a 35-year-old Nicaraguan asylum seeker with three children who came to the U.S. in 2022 and worked in food service in Milwaukee, was detained by ICE during a mandated check-in and held at Campbell County Detention Center in Kentucky. She learned she was pregnant during intake but says she received no prenatal vitamins, blood test, ultrasound, or doctor visit, and was also required to carry heavy items. In late March, after experiencing heavy vaginal bleeding, severe abdominal pain, cramping and numbness, she submitted a written plea for help and was hospitalized for a suspected miscarriage, but was later told she was not pregnant and that her hormone levels did not support that conclusion, leaving her unclear on what happened to her pregnancy. She has continued to experience pain, vomiting and hair loss without follow-up care. Democratic Reps. Delia Ramirez and Gwen Moore visited her at the detention center and, along with her attorney, have been unable to obtain her medical records despite repeated requests, and are pushing for her release. DHS has reported nearly 500 pregnant, nursing or postpartum detainees between January 2025 and mid-February 2026, including 16 reported miscarriages, a count that would not include Anabell's case.

A man who had been granted parole on August 15, 2024, was re-detained by ICE on March 22, 2026, without notice or an opportunity to be heard. Respondents stated he was re-detained after violations of his conditions of release. The court granted his habeas petition, ordered his immediate release on the same conditions as before his re-detention, and enjoined respondents from re-detaining him without providing notice and a pre-detention hearing.

ICE raided a South Burlington, Vermont home on March 11, 2026, searching for Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez after a car chase, but instead arrested three residents: Ecuadorian sisters Jisella Johana Patin Patin and Daysi Camila Patin Patin, and Honduran national Christian Humberto Jerez Andrade. The operation sparked a daylong standoff as hundreds of protesters surrounded the building and federal agents used flash bangs and tear gas to clear the crowd, prompting friction between ICE and local police. Judges later ordered the release of all three, finding their detentions unlawful, and their attorneys say ICE violated their civil rights. In a revised court filing, ICE now says it no longer believes Corona-Sanchez was driving the car during the chase, after Jerez Andrade told the FBI he was the driver and that his 18-year-old nephew was a passenger.

A Venezuelan citizen entered the U.S. on June 21, 2022, was initially detained by immigration authorities, then released on his own recognizance on June 24, 2022. He was re-detained by ICE on March 22, 2026, without notice of the reason for his re-detention or opportunity to contest it. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release, finding that his re-detention without notice and hearing violated due process.

Usiel Sanchez Romero, an Omaha contracting business owner who came to the United States without authorization in 2013, was detained by ICE during a traffic stop on March 21, 2026. Romero, who has no criminal record and is married with an 8-year-old son, has operated his contracting business for seven years. Following his detention, he was taken to Pottawattamie County Jail and held without a bond hearing. Romero is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Pottawattamie County, seeking either his release from custody or a bond hearing in immigration court.

Jose Leal, a Venezuelan-born artist living in Three Rivers, Texas, was detained by ICE following a traffic stop despite having an active asylum case, a valid work permit valid through 2027, and no criminal record. Leal arrived in the U.S. in 2022 and has been compliant with all immigration requirements, including monthly check-ins. His wife, Francis Campos, expressed concern about his detention and said he came to the U.S. fleeing violence. Family and friends continue working to secure his release.

Women detained at Baker County Detention Center in Florida have shared a video describing poor living conditions while awaiting immigration processing. They allege inadequate access to hygiene supplies, broken clothing, moldy food, and substandard bedding including mattresses made of insulation. One woman claims to have been transferred through over 30 facilities in a month and often slept on floors.

An activist Instagram post calls for the release of Ender Cardenas Chacon and other people granted asylum from Karnes ICE detention center. The post urges followers to contact the Department of Homeland Security and Congress to demand their release.

A citizen of India who entered the U.S. in 2019 and was released on bond with supervision was arrested by ICE officers on March 20, 2026, while waiting in line to enter the Fresno Superior Courthouse. He had been charged with removability and placed in expedited removal in 2019, and was recently arrested for driving on a suspended license and carrying a concealed firearm. The court granted a preliminary injunction ordering the government to provide him with a bond hearing within 14 days or immediately release him from detention.

Andrei Bankevich, a Belarusian asylum seeker who had been granted relief from deportation to Belarus under the Convention Against Torture, was arrested on a drunken driving charge in Minnesota in February 2025 and transferred into ICE custody. After ICE detention facilities filled during Operation Metro Surge, he was moved to the Muscatine County Jail in Iowa in December 2025, where he was held for more than a year despite officials lacking legal authority to continue detaining him. ICE claimed it had been pursuing potential third-country removal options since September 2025 but provided no documentation to support this. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger ruled that ICE had detained Bankevich beyond the six-month legal limit, violating federal law and his due process rights, calling the detention "prolonged and seemingly interminable" and "untenable," and ordered his immediate release.

Pastor Steven Tendo, a Pentecostal minister and asylum seeker from Uganda who worked as a licensed nursing assistant at the University of Vermont Medical Center and a long-term care facility, was detained by ICE agents on February 4, 2026 as he left work at a Shelburne, Vermont assisted living facility. He said officers surrounded his car at gunpoint, pulled him out, slammed him on icy ground, and cuffed him as patients watched. Tendo was held for 16 days at the Strafford County Jail in Dover, New Hampshire, where he said he was initially denied diabetes, cholesterol, and allergy medications and described conditions including 40 men sharing one bathroom; a federal judge ordered his release on February 20 after ruling ICE had violated its own regulations by failing to provide an individualized basis for re-detaining him. Tendo fled Uganda in 2018 after he said government-aligned forces tortured him, cut off two of his fingers, and killed his brother and uncle over his political and voter-education work; his asylum claim was later denied, and he previously spent about three years in ICE detention in Texas, where he said he was denied insulin and later sued DHS, whose own investigators acknowledged wrongdoing. Colleagues and the Vermont AFL-CIO said he had complied with all required ICE check-ins, and Vermont's congressional delegation, including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint, called for him to be returned and afforded due process. Supporters raised more than $35,000 through a GoFundMe campaign for his legal bills and lost wages, and on March 20 about 200 supporters rallied outside the ICE office in St. Albans as he reported for a scheduled check-in, which passed without incident though he was ordered to check in again a month later.