Human Impact Project

Jeury Concepcion, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from the Bronx, was tackled and handcuffed by masked ICE agents near East Gun Hill Road and Hull Avenue after being mistaken for a man with a removal order, minutes after another man was detained nearby. Cellphone video showed agents forcing him to the ground as a bystander shouted 'Why you kidnapping?!' and witnesses said he repeatedly identified himself as a U.S. citizen while being restrained and left bleeding from a head wound. "He just grabbed me and threw me on the floor," Concepcion recalled. Agents eventually checked his ID, apologized, and left him bloodied in an unfamiliar park, where his mother and grandmother, Ivelisse Garcia Santana, found him and took him for treatment; he was diagnosed with a concussion and received stitches. A DHS spokesperson claimed he was briefly detained for matching a description and refusing to identify himself, but Judge Gary R. Brown reviewed the video, called the incident 'extremely violent,' found ICE officers gave 'inconsistent, false and misleading testimony' and falsified records, and ruled the arrest illegal. The judge ordered the government to propose remedies and detail steps to ensure future arrests comply with the law; Concepcion has since been released. His case is among more than 500 U.S. citizens identified as having been detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration.

Jeyli Salguero, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was asleep at her family's Minneapolis-area home in January 2026 when armed federal agents broke through the front door searching for her brother, who did not live there. Salguero said she told agents she was a citizen with the right to record, after which they seized her phone; she and her mother were released about half an hour later. Her father, who held temporary protected status, and her undocumented sister were detained in the raid, leaving the family's door broken and exposed to winter weather. Her sister was later deported to El Salvador, while her father was eventually released from detention. Salguero is now one of several plaintiffs, represented by Protect Democracy, the ACLU of Minnesota and Dorsey & Whitney, suing the federal government over a DHS memo allowing ICE agents to enter homes using administrative rather than judicial warrants. The lawsuit is part of broader legal challenges to immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis.

Baldemar Gutierrez, a 15-year-old U.S. citizen with significant hearing loss, speech delays, and developmental disabilities, was pulled from a car and handcuffed at gunpoint by masked federal agents outside Arleta High School in Los Angeles on August 11, 2025, while his mother, Andreina Mejia, was nearby enrolling his sister in school. Agents showed a photo of a Salvadoran national suspected of gang ties, mistaking Baldemar for him, and released him only after he repeatedly stated his name and citizenship during the roughly seven-minute encounter. Mejia, a San Fernando Valley resident of more than 20 years, said she intervened to protect her son and that an agent told him the mistake would make an 'exciting story to tell' his friends; she said he has since felt harassed and unsafe. School officials said agents left bullets at the scene, prompting increased school police patrols. The family's attorneys filed a $1 million claim against DHS, CBP, Border Patrol and ICE alleging racial profiling, false arrest, false imprisonment, and assault and battery; DHS denied racial profiling, calling it a case of mistaken identity. The case has been cited as part of a broader pattern of more than 500 U.S. citizens detained by ICE, despite DHS statements that ICE does not restrain or zip-tie children.

Orville Etoria, a 62-year-old Jamaican man with legal U.S. permanent residence, was deported to Eswatini in July 2025 despite having completed his prison sentence and complied with ICE supervision requirements. After his 2021 release, he lived in New York, earned a master's degree in theology, worked at a men's shelter, and regularly reported to ICE. When ICE asked him to obtain a Jamaican passport, he complied but was instead sent to Eswatini rather than Jamaica, leaving his family without knowledge of his whereabouts for days and his attorneys unable to reach him. Jamaican officials said the country does not refuse repatriation of its nationals. In a later deposition, Etoria described being held in extreme isolation for two and a half weeks at Matsapha Correctional Complex, a maximum-security prison, barred from outside contact and confined to his cell except for meals, saying guards treated detainees 'as if we were violent, even though we had done nothing wrong.'

Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, a 22-year-old mother born in Laurel, Maryland, was detained by ICE near her Baltimore home on December 14, 2025. Her attorney described the stop as a 'Kavanaugh Stop,' linking it to a 2023 CBP encounter in Arizona where she was recorded claiming Mexican citizenship. Despite her family and attorneys presenting a Maryland birth certificate, hospital birth records, and fingerprints, DHS maintained she was not a citizen and pursued removal proceedings. A federal judge blocked her deportation days after her arrest, but she remained in custody for 25 days, transferred five times through facilities in Louisiana, Texas, and New Jersey, missing Christmas with her 5-year-old son. She was released on January 7, 2026 with an ankle monitor and reunited with her son. Her attorneys maintained the documentation clearly established her citizenship. On June 17, 2026, DHS dismissed her deportation case after confirming her birth in Maryland, and she obtained a U.S. passport. Her case was cited among more than 500 U.S. citizens reported detained by ICE nationally.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen born in Cairo, Georgia, who grew up speaking the Indigenous Maya language Tzotzil after moving to Mexico as an infant and returning to the U.S. four years ago, was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol on April 16, 2025 after being stopped for speeding while riding as a passenger with two men carrying Guatemalan IDs. He was charged under Florida's Senate Bill 4C, a state law criminalizing unauthorized entry that had been temporarily blocked by court order, despite presenting a Georgia ID. He was held at Leon County Jail on an ICE detainer without food, even after his mother, Sebastiana Gomez-Perez, and a community advocate presented his birth certificate and Social Security card. A Leon County judge confirmed his citizenship and found no probable cause for his detention but said she lacked jurisdiction to order his release because ICE had requested a 48-hour hold. After roughly 30 hours in custody, he was released and reunited with his mother amid a crowd of protesters outside the jail, following public advocacy from civil rights advocates, journalists, and elected officials. His case was later cited among more than 500 U.S. citizens reported detained by ICE.

Prudencio Rivera Rios, a farmworker who said he entered the U.S. in 2023 through a CBP One asylum appointment, was followed by vehicles with Texas license plates while driving home from a chicken ranch job near Kerman on October 8. Agents activated emergency lights, pulled him over, and told him he had a deportation order; when he refused to unlock his doors, they smashed his rear window, pulled him from the car, forced him to the ground, and handcuffed him. Rivera Rios livestreamed part of the encounter on Facebook and showed agents his work authorization card, but was placed in a van with other detained people and taken to the ICE office in downtown Fresno. After several hours, agents confirmed his paperwork was in order and he had no criminal record, and he was released without apology. His wife, Marisol Montiel, said she learned of the stop while watching his livestream and feared being left to raise their two children, ages 7 and 2, alone if he were deported. Rivera Rios said the experience left him afraid to return to work and has an asylum appointment scheduled for next year.

Jhon Maykel Correa-Sangucho, a Honduran national, was arrested by ICE agents in Harrison, New Jersey, after officers said he refused repeated commands to exit his vehicle during a traffic stop. Witness video showed two children inside the vehicle crying and clinging to him as agents carried out the arrest. The Harrison mayor and Town Council called the scene 'heartbreaking' and asked the school district to provide counseling to affected students. DHS said Correa-Sangucho remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, and said a female passenger and a bystander are under investigation for allegedly interfering with the arrest.

Christian Coronado, a father of seven, was detained by ICE agents on his property in Edinburg, Texas. His wife, Anel, told N+ Univision that three of their children witnessed the arrest and said one of the agents struck Christian in the shoulder during the detention. Their 13-year-old daughter learned of her father's detention while at school, after videos of the operation began circulating on social media. "She came home from school and said, 'Where's my dad?'" Anel recounted.

Gilbert Antonio, a 32-year-old lawful permanent resident from El Salvador who has lived in the U.S. since childhood, was stopped by immigration agents near a pharmacy in Mendota and asked to show his papers. Antonio, who makes his living harvesting cantaloupe and watermelons, said he believed he was targeted because he is Latino and avoided detention only because he was carrying his documents at the time. He described Mendota as feeling like a 'ghost town' amid an enforcement surge, saying workers are too afraid to go to their jobs or even pick up their children from school, with only those carrying documentation willing to go outside.

Isaac Gallegos, a 2024 graduate of Orange High School in Orange County, N.C. who came to the U.S. from Honduras with his mother in 2016 after gang members killed relatives there, was detained by ICE agents on October 7, 2026 during what his family described as a routine, annual check-in tied to his pending asylum case in Charlotte. His parents, who were waiting outside, said he never returned and was later transported to a detention facility in Georgia. Gallegos played varsity soccer at Orange High, has no criminal record, has paid taxes, and had worked since age 16, taking on extra hours to support his mother and younger sibling after his father was seriously injured in a car accident. DHS confirmed his arrest and said he will remain in custody pending immigration proceedings. His sister launched a GoFundMe for legal expenses that has raised over $14,000 as the family seeks his release.

Javier Ramirez, who became a U.S. citizen 30 years ago, said he was racially profiled by an ICE agent last year at a Home Depot in Baldwin Park, California. Ramirez works as a street vendor at the site, where he also helps connect day laborers with work trucks and watches out for them amid ongoing immigration enforcement activity. He said his citizenship did not make him feel untouchable, but years of navigating harassment from law enforcement as a street vendor kept him from being afraid during the encounter. Javier said conditions have grown increasingly difficult due to combined pressure from ICE presence and extreme heat, which has reduced pay and worsened conditions for laborers and hurt his own business.

A Border Patrol tactical unit confronted protesters blocking construction activity at the Arizona border wall. A protester described agents as wearing gas masks and wielding pepper spray, saying they were assaulting demonstrators rather than communicating with them. The confrontation highlights ongoing tensions between border communities and militarized enforcement at wall construction sites.

A resident of Kerman was detained by ICE agents on Thursday morning while stopping to buy a pastry and coffee, according to local officials who informed California Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria. Soria said she was "deeply disturbed" by the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations and reports of racial profiling in the community, saying "no one should be targeted because of their color of their skin, the language they speak, their accent, or their last name."

An unnamed man was arrested by ICE agents in Mendota on Thursday morning without being asked any questions, according to Linda Martinez, an organizing coordinator with the United Farm Worker Foundation. He was released from ICE's downtown Fresno office later that afternoon after agents found his work permit in his wallet. The arrest occurred amid a broader ICE enforcement surge that advocates say has involved racial profiling of immigrant workers in the Fresno area this week.

An Angolan asylum seeker living in Maine was taken into ICE custody after negotiating a swap with immigration agents who had first detained his wife. The couple arranged the exchange so their 10-year-old son would not be left without a parent at home. Court records describe the arrangement as part of a broader pattern of federal agents tracking down immigrants with legal status at homes and workplaces in Maine, with lawyers noting Maine has stood out among New England states for this type of enforcement activity.

On October 19, 2025, more than 200 officers from roughly 14 federal and local agencies raided La Catedral Arena, a horse track in Wilder, Idaho, under a warrant covering only five gambling suspects. About 400 attendees, including children as young as 7, were zip-tied and detained for hours; 105 people were taken into ICE custody and five were arrested on gambling charges. Lead plaintiff Juana Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen, said she was restrained for nearly four hours while holding her 3-year-old son. Anabel Romero said her children, among more than a dozen American minors detained, remain deeply shaken, with her 7-year-old son later warning his older sister ahead of another race, 'Watch out for ICE, make sure you have your phone to film — I'll come save you.' A lawsuit alleges officers used racial epithets and denied food, water, and medical care; four protesters were also arrested, with most charges later dropped. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered 15-16 detainees released, ruling mandatory detention violated due process, and awarded about $87,000 in attorneys' fees.

In January, hours after Renee Good's killing, immigration agents tackled and handcuffed a school staff member in Minneapolis. "I feel lucky to be alive," he recalled, describing the encounter as terrifying.

In November, immigration agents took an 18-year-old U.S. citizen off the street and eventually left him in the woods.

During a Sept. 4 ICE raid in Dover, N.J., a Honduran man was picked up on his way to work, loaded into a van, and taken with nine other detained men to a warehouse in nearby Roxbury, where they were handcuffed and held in a parking lot for hours. Frightened, he signed deportation papers and said he regretted it the next morning; NPR later located him in Honduras, where he had been deported, and he requested anonymity out of fear for loved ones still in the U.S. During the same raid, a 59-year-old worker was cornered against a wall by two masked ICE agents in footage that later circulated on social media. His daughter recognized him in the video and received a disoriented call from him afterward saying he was handcuffed somewhere she believed was the Roxbury warehouse; she has not been able to reach him since and asked not to be named for fear of being targeted.