Human Impact Project

Miguel Angel Lopez Luvian (also referred to as Miguel Angel López), a Livermore welder who lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years, was detained by ICE during a routine immigration check-in in San Francisco and deported to Mexico on June 7, 2025, just hours before a court order might have allowed him to stay. His wife, Rosa Lopez, says the deportation was wrongful given his decades-long legal battle and prior green card grant, and she has become the family's sole provider while fighting for his return. In April 2026, a federal court ruled against the family on a statute of limitations technicality. With support from U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, the family is now appealing to the Ninth Circuit Court in a final effort to bring López home.

Arpine Misakyan, a Southern California resident with a pending asylum case, was taken into custody after a domestic altercation with her husband at The Buffet at Wynn in Las Vegas. Although the Clark County District Attorney's office declined to pursue a domestic battery charge against her, ICE arrested her while she was being held at the Clark County Detention Center. She was transferred to the Henderson Detention Center and then to the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility, where she filed a lawsuit challenging her detention before ultimately withdrawing it and agreeing to voluntary departure to Armenia three months after her arrest.

Dr. Ezequiel Veliz, a Venezuelan-born family-medicine resident physician at Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco who had lived in the U.S. lawfully for about nine years, was detained by Customs and Border Protection agents at the Sarita Border Patrol checkpoint while driving with his husband, Joseph Williams, from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston. Veliz had lost his work permit in late 2025 when the Trump administration terminated Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans and was pursuing a green card based on his marriage to Williams, a U.S. citizen. Agents transported him to a detention facility in McAllen, and CBP said his pending green card application did not qualify as a valid visa. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro criticized the detention, noting Veliz served a medically underserved region. Veliz was released on an $8,000 bond on April 16, 2026, after ten days in ICE custody in Laredo, and has an immigration court hearing scheduled in July in Houston.

Steven Davis, an observer with Tucson Rapid Response, was pepper-sprayed by a masked, plain-clothed ICE officer while documenting an immigration enforcement operation at a Walgreens in South Tucson on April 6. Davis said he was non-violently exercising his rights to record and observe when he was sprayed without warning or identification from the officer, causing him to fall to the ground. ICE stated officers deployed pepper spray because protesters were impeding their exit from the parking lot, though Davis said he had been following officers' instructions about where to move and film. On May 19, the South Tucson City Council, with support from the Pima County Attorney, unanimously voted to investigate the incident, with Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela saying the officer must be held accountable.

Cristina Mejia, 21, has assumed responsibility for her household in Waco, Texas, after her mother Elizabeth was detained by ICE on January 5, 2026, following an altercation. She now manages bills and cares for her two younger brothers, ages 16 and 5, while her mother awaits case updates at a detention facility in Houston. Mejia has limited contact with her mother through three daily phone calls and started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover family expenses during the separation.

Juan Chavez Velasco, a 35-year-old DACA recipient who arrived in the U.S. from Colombia at age 8, was detained by ICE agents on February 18, 2026, while driving to deliver breast milk to his premature daughter in a hospital NICU in Weslaco, Texas. Chavez Velasco holds two bachelor's degrees and works as a medical laboratory scientist with no criminal history. He is married to Stephanie Villarreal, a U.S. citizen, and has three U.S. citizen children. His DACA renewal application, submitted in November 2025, remained unanswered and his status expired on March 10, 2026, while he was in custody. DHS cited a 2005 removal order issued before his DACA approval in 2012, arguing that DACA does not confer legal status. He is detained at Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, Texas.

Ever Alvarenga-Rios, a 32-year-old Honduran immigrant who has lived in the Baltimore area and run his own flooring business, was injured during an ICE enforcement action on April 2, 2026 while driving to work. Accounts of the incident differ: ICE said Alvarenga drove recklessly, causing a multi-car pileup before fleeing on foot, while his attorney and family said an ICE vehicle rear-ended his van. He suffered a concussion, an arm injury requiring a cast, and injuries to his head, chest, back, and hands, and was hospitalized at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; two ICE officers were also injured and hospitalized. His wife, Lurbin Vasquez, said he has no criminal record and had not been able to speak with him since the incident. His attorney, Adam Crandell, who has represented Alvarenga for eight years in his bid for citizenship, said he was repeatedly denied access to his client while hospitalized and in custody. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Senator Chris Van Hollen both publicly criticized the incident, which came days after a separate ICE-involved crash in Annapolis.

Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old Ecuadorean boy, and his father Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias were detained by ICE agents in the driveway of their Columbia Heights, Minnesota home on January 20, 2026, after Liam returned from preschool, and flown the next day to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered their release on January 31, criticizing the administration's pursuit of deportation quotas as 'ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented,' and Rep. Joaquin Castro personally escorted the pair home to Minneapolis on February 1, where Liam was reunited with his mother, Erika Ramos. Days later, DHS filed a motion to expedite the family's deportation, which their lawyer, Danielle Molliver, called 'retaliatory' and 'extraordinary'; the family's asylum hearing was moved up, and an immigration judge granted a continuance. On March 19, an immigration judge denied the family's asylum claim and ordered them deported to Ecuador, a ruling Molliver called 'misguided' and said the family plans to appeal. By April, Liam's parents said he continued seeing a psychologist, avoided classmates and certain activities, and grew fearful at the sight of police, telling his mother 'It's ICE, Mommy.' His father said he still does not understand why the family was targeted, calling it 'an injustice.'

Abel, an undocumented immigrant who has lived in Minnesota for 29 years and raised four U.S.-born children, was detained by ICE agents in January 2026 while delivering groceries to neighbors in Burnsville as part of a church-coordinated effort to assist families in hiding. The detention occurred during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's expanded enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Abel was later released from immigration detention, but the incident left his sons traumatized after witnessing federal agents detain their father during a routine community service activity.

Michel Proenza Martínez, an undocumented Cuban citizen with a final deportation order, was apprehended by ICE in Newark immediately after his release from federal prison. He has a criminal record including burglary, vehicle theft, drug-related offenses, and federal robbery under the Hobbs Act. Proenza Martínez is being processed for removal from the United States as part of intensified ICE enforcement targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds.

According to reporting from SA Current, a pregnant woman named Juana was ordered deported by ICE when she was near her due date. Medical professionals and airlines told ICE she was too pregnant to safely fly, but ICE continued seeking officials willing to authorize her travel anyway. The case highlights failures in ICE's own policies protecting pregnant detainees.

A Long Beach volunteer group is fundraising for Eduardo Ochoa, who is detained at Adelanto detention center. His trial is scheduled for about one week from the post date. The fundraiser aims to cover legal representation costs, citing concerns about predatory attorneys and inadequate legal services.

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).