Human Impact Project

Eight people from various African countries were deported from the United States to Uganda on April 3, 2026, marking the first deportation under a Safe Third Country agreement signed between the two nations in July 2025. The deportees were individuals of African origin who were denied asylum in the US and could not be returned to their home countries. A US judge approved their cases before the transfer. Uganda's Foreign Ministry confirmed accepting the deportees, though they were neither Ugandan nor US citizens. The Uganda Law Society and East Africa Law Society condemned the deportations as illegal, undignified, and dehumanizing, citing lack of proper procedures and engagement of state institutions, and announced plans to challenge the process in court.

Valley View Elementary School in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, where two-thirds of students are Latino, was heavily impacted by ICE enforcement operations in early 2026. At least 30 parents and four students were detained. School staff provided support to affected students through counseling and joy-focused activities. The detentions caused widespread fear and disruption in the school community.

A Russian citizen arrived in the United States on April 6, 2023, at San Luis, Arizona, without inspection. He was released into the interior and served with a Notice to Appear charging him as inadmissible. He filed for asylum with the Immigration Court, and his application remains pending. On April 4, 2026, he was detained by police for driving with a suspended driver's license. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers assumed custody and transferred him to the West Tennessee Detention Facility. He filed a habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging his detention without an individualized bond hearing and sought a temporary restraining order to stay his removal from the United States. The federal court denied both the petition and the motion, finding that he remains an "applicant for admission" subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2), that he failed to exhaust administrative remedies, and that neither statute nor the Constitution provides him a right to a bond hearing.

Elmer Flores, a 27-year-old from Honduras who has lived in the U.S. for over three years, was detained by ICE agents on March 9 outside the Mecklenburg County Health Department while dropping off his pregnant wife and children for a nutrition and prenatal care appointment. Flores has no criminal record. His wife is five months pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy, and the couple has two other children. Flores is being held at a detention facility in Georgia while his family remains in North Carolina. Advocacy group Siembra NC and other community organizations have responded by alerting the public about safety concerns at public service locations.

Approximately 6,000 Cuban nationals have been deported from the United States to Mexico under an agreement between the Trump and Sheinbaum administrations. Most deportees arrive in Mexican cities including Tapachula and Villahermosa with no advance notice or state support. Many are elderly individuals who spent decades building lives in the U.S. and are unable to return to Cuba or re-enter the United States. The deportees face extreme poverty and homelessness while attempting to survive on the streets and seeking humanitarian visas to remain in Mexico.

Hillsdale police officers operating under a 287(g) agreement with ICE visited Ritenour Middle School on April 4, 2026, inquiring about three students. The officers appeared in the school parking lot in tactical gear but did not enter the building due to lacking a warrant. School administrators redirected the officers to district headquarters where they asked about the students' status. The incident raised community concerns about the expansion of 287(g) partnerships in the region.

Jesús Carpio, a Venezuelan living in Orlando who held TPS status and had a pending asylum application, was deported after being arrested during a traffic stop and held by ICE for a month. Days after returning to Venezuela, two armed men on a motorcycle entered his family's home in Tucupido and opened fire, reportedly demanding an extortion payment; Carpio died at a local hospital and his father was wounded. His wife said that despite posting bail set by a Florida judge, he was turned over to federal immigration authorities and deported.

A man who had lived in the United States for 25 years was detained by ICE at the Aurora ICE Processing Center. He has five siblings and one daughter who are U.S. citizens and worked as the primary breadwinner for his family in construction. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release, finding he was improperly subjected to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2).

A Guatemalan citizen married to a lawful permanent resident was taken into custody by ICE while her appeal was pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. She had missed her March 2020 immigration hearing due to attorney error, resulting in a removal order in absentia. The court denied her request for emergency relief to delay removal and release from detention.

A man detained under immigration law filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his detention. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted his petition on April 7, 2026. The court ordered respondents to immediately release him from custody and return all personal belongings and identification documents confiscated during his detention. The court enjoined respondents from detaining him for seven days following his release based on 8 U.S.C. §§ 1225 or 1226. If the government seeks to detain him after seven days, it must provide a bond hearing within 48 hours or his remedy will recur. The petitioner may submit a motion for attorney fees within 60 days of the order.

A Cuban citizen who entered the United States from Mexico on March 24, 2022, was issued a Notice to Appear for removability under immigration law. She was released on her own recognizance and complied with all conditions of her release. She filed applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture; an immigration judge denied her asylum application, and her appeal remains pending. On April 3, 2026, local police in Odessa, Texas arrested her for an alleged local ordinance violation, and ICE took her into custody on April 6, 2026, transferring her to the Otero County Processing Center. The petitioner, who is approximately ten weeks pregnant and has been diagnosed with diabetes during detention, filed a habeas corpus petition challenging her continued detention without a bond hearing. The U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico granted her petition, finding that 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) governs her detention and that continued detention without a bond hearing violates her Fifth Amendment due process rights. The court ordered her immediate release and prohibited re-detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral Immigration Judge.

Sunday Goshit, a University of Iowa adjunct assistant professor and Nigerian immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in 2000, was approved for naturalization in October 2025 after passing his citizenship interview. His naturalization ceremony scheduled for January 16, 2026 was canceled without explanation less than a month before the date. Goshit and his wife filed a lawsuit against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in federal court challenging the halting of their naturalization application.

John Bol Ajak, a 26-year-old former Syracuse University basketball player, was taken into ICE custody in early March 2026 following his arrest in Syracuse on charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. His student visa had expired in 2023 after his graduation. He was held at Buffalo Federal Detention Facility and Moshannon Valley Processing Center for over a month. During a virtual hearing with Elizabeth Immigration Court in New Jersey on April 2-3, 2026, an immigration judge found that Ajak had overstayed his visa. Ajak agreed to voluntary deportation to South Sudan and was scheduled for removal within 60 days.

Two more immigrant truck drivers detained by Iowa State Patrol and ICE along Interstate 80 have filed federal lawsuits, joining earlier cases from the same enforcement effort known as 'Operation ICE Wall.' One driver, from Pakistan, was stopped in Dallas County in March 2026 after a coworker failed to stop at a weigh station; he was not driving but was detained anyway and transferred to the Polk County Jail despite having work authorization and a pending asylum case, with an immigration court hearing set for April 9. The other driver, from India, was stopped near Mitchellville in February 2026 after allegedly bypassing a weigh station; he had previously been released on a $25,000 bond, obtained work authorization, and also has a pending asylum application. Both men's attorneys argue federal officials violated their due process rights by detaining them without notice, a hearing, or individualized justification.

An undocumented immigrant entered the United States without authorization in 2020 and was recently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending removal proceedings. He is currently held at the Florida Soft Side Detention Facility in Ochopee, Florida. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2), which mandates detention without a bond hearing, arguing he should instead be subject to § 1226(a)'s discretionary detention scheme where he could be eligible for release. The court agreed with his statutory interpretation argument, finding that § 1226(a) applies to noncitizens already present in the United States, not § 1225(b)(2). The court granted his petition in part and ordered the government to provide him with a bond hearing as required under § 1226(a), but denied his request for immediate release.

Jose Espinoza Hernandez was arrested and detained by ICE outside his home in the early morning of April 2, 2026, when he was leaving for work. He is currently in removal proceedings and has a pending U-Visa application. The court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release, finding his detention violated due process. Jose Espinoza was detained by ICE on April 2nd in the morning just outside his home as he was heading to work. His family launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to support his case and bring him home.

A Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. on a B-2 visa in 2016 and filed for asylum within one year was detained by ICE on April 2, 2026 when she appeared for her scheduled asylum interview at the Los Angeles Asylum Office in Tustin, California. Despite maintaining lawful employment and having no criminal history over nine years, the interview was not conducted and she was instead transported to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. The court granted her temporary restraining order application, ordering that she receive an individualized bond hearing within three days.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston ruled that Border Patrol and CBP agents violated a preliminary injunction during a July 2025 enforcement operation at a Sacramento Home Depot parking lot, where day laborers were detained without reasonable suspicion. Agents relied on broad assumptions about workers based on their appearance rather than individualized evidence of immigration violations, and submitted virtually identical detention forms for 11 people. The ruling came in response to a motion filed by the United Farm Workers to enforce the existing injunction. Thurston's order requires agents to document specific facts and reasoning for future detentions and prohibits warrantless arrests without assessing flight risk.

Omar Salazar, an SMU graduate and Dallas community leader, was detained by ICE for seven months after a traffic stop in Lubbock in August 2025, where he presented a Mexican ID and lacked a valid U.S. driver's license. Salazar was brought to the U.S. as a minor at age 11, did not qualify for asylum, and missed DACA eligibility by a few months. He was held at ICE's Bluebonnet Detention Facility while his case proceeded, and ultimately lost his immigration case, resulting in a deportation order with 60 days to voluntarily depart to Mexico. His legal team said an appeal could extend his detention another 8-12 months, and he would likely face a 3-6 year wait before reentry despite being married to a U.S. citizen.

ICE agents detained six Guatemalan workers, ages 18-40, while they were doing roofing and remodeling work at a home in Cambridge, Maryland, after traveling from Glen Burnie for the job. Coworker Bryan Polanco, a Dominican national with permanent residency who was not detained, livestreamed the arrest, accusing the homeowner of calling ICE and handing agents a ladder to reach the workers, and telling the homeowner, a self-described retired Marine, "You don't have to have hate in your heart... Live for them. Spread love." The wife of one detained worker, five months pregnant and caring for two children, said, "I feel so sad, desperate for my husband... we are here to move forward, not to do harm." Online claims alleged homeowner Karen Trevino called ICE to avoid paying roughly $10,000 owed for the job and threatened to call ICE again if the men returned, and that she was later arrested and charged, but Maryland court records showed no evidence of arrest or charges against her or her father, and both ICE and Trevino denied anyone at the property contacted immigration authorities; Trevino said she received threats afterward, and Cambridge police said they would maintain increased presence near the home. ICE said the arrests resulted from a targeted enforcement operation rather than a tip, claiming several of the men had prior removal orders and one had a prior reentry conviction, and that the workers resisted and attempted to flee before being detained. No charges have been filed in connection with the incident.