Human Impact Project

Rozenna Nazia Ali, from Fiji, was detained by ICE on June 17, 2026, after agents visited her residence and located her at a motel in Allison, Iowa. Ali was a former international student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and worked at Allison Bible Church in Butler County on a student visa. According to her family, she came to the United States in 2017 to pursue higher education as part of a missionary family and has no criminal record. Her sister stated Ali aspires to become a mental health counselor. The detention is part of a broader wave of ICE enforcement actions targeting immigrants with community ties.

The Tohono O'odham Nation filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to block construction of 62 miles of border wall across its tribal lands. Tribal leaders argue the project unlawfully takes tribal land, damages sacred cultural sites, and interferes with religious practices. The federal government planned to award construction contracts in June 2026.

On June 17, 2026, ICE agents stopped a vehicle on Highway 59 near Mobile, Alabama, and detained Alejandro Alvarado Ramírez, leaving his 5-year-old son Ericson/Erikson alone in the car at a church parking lot. An ICE agent provided the child with his father's phone to contact his mother. The child's mother called a babysitter, and when the babysitter's 20-year-old twins arrived at the parking lot to retrieve the child, ICE agents approached them, requested identification, and photographed their licenses before departing. Advocates raised concerns about the safety risks posed by leaving a young child unattended during the detention.

Michel Manuel Garcia Rojas, a 39-year-old Nicaraguan national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2023, was arrested on March 5, 2025, when Homeland Security Investigations agents attempted to detain him for deportation. During the arrest, Garcia Rojas resisted and assaulted a federal agent, striking him in the face and throwing him repeatedly into a door, causing injuries including jaw bruising and a back injury. It took six officers and a Taser to subdue him. Garcia Rojas pleaded guilty on February 9, 2026, to resisting, impeding, and assaulting a federal officer and inflicting bodily injury. He was sentenced on June 17, 2026, to 51 months in federal prison, after which he will face deportation to Nicaragua.

Fidel Ramos, 52, a previously deported registered sex offender, was captured during a forced-entry tactical raid at a residence in Grimes County, Texas on June 17, 2026, after allegedly refusing to come out, and was initially charged with failing to register as a sex offender. An active federal immigration detainer was placed on him the following day. On June 26, 2026, a Grimes County Grand Jury indicted Ramos on five additional felony charges, including three counts of sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child by contact. Jamie Ramos was also arrested on July 10, 2026, on a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse in connection with the same investigation.

ICE arrests have increased 136% in Wyoming and 924% in Idaho since Trump returned to office in January 2025. From March to early July, ICE picked up 51 people from Teton County jail after the sheriff began honoring federal detainer requests. About three-quarters of those arrested in 2025 have no serious criminal convictions, according to analysis.

Diego Armando Escalona Polanco, a 19-year-old Chipotle cook in Orlando, was detained by ICE agents following a Florida Highway Patrol traffic stop for a vehicle registration issue. Unable to afford legal representation and facing unfavorable odds in his case, Escalona signed paperwork to self-deport. He spent 42 days at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami before being transported through four states in shackles and flown to Venezuela, where he reunited with family in Maracaibo after 11 years living in the United States.

A 19-year-old Russian citizen lawfully entered the United States on a visa in 2022 at age 16 with his parents and younger sister. His father filed an asylum application listing him as a derivative beneficiary before his visa expired in September 2022. USCIS granted him work authorization in July 2024 while his asylum application remained pending. He graduated from high school, worked lawfully at two jobs, obtained a Florida driver's license, and has no criminal history. On June 16, 2026, Border Patrol agents stopped him while he was driving to work without a traffic violation, arrested him for visa overstay despite his pending asylum application, and transported him to Golden State Annex Detention Facility in McFarland, California. After being detained for over 40 days with his bond hearing postponed to August 5, 2026, he filed a habeas corpus petition. The federal court granted the petition and ordered his immediate release, ruling that due process required a pre-deprivation bond hearing before detention given his four years of government-sanctioned liberty while his asylum case proceeded.

A noncitizen subject to an order of supervision under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b) since 2013 was informed by an ICE officer at a routine check-in on June 16, 2026, that ICE planned to remove him to a third country and instructed him to return with a plane ticket for El Salvador, Guatemala, or Mexico, with threats of deportation to Africa if he did not cooperate. An Immigration Judge had previously granted him withholding of removal in 2022, finding he would likely face persecution in Honduras based on his sexual orientation. The court is examining whether he received proper notice and due process protections regarding the threatened removal and whether a bond hearing is required before any detention.

Cal Robinet, a 37-year-old union electrician, and 14 others were arrested by federal agents in the Twin Cities on June 16 and charged with conspiracy to impede or injure immigration enforcement officers during Operation Metro Surge. The defendants include teachers, union organizers, and transgender rights activists who opposed the massive immigration enforcement operation. The Justice Department has characterized them as members of Antifa, while legal observers have questioned whether the prosecution focuses on crimes or ideology.

Erik Davis, a 53-year-old Buddhist studies scholar at Macalester College and father of two, was arrested on June 16, 2026, when federal agents stopped his car en route to a medical appointment and placed him in a belly chain. He is among 15 defendants, including members of Direct Action Minnesota, indicted on federal conspiracy charges accusing them of using force, intimidation, and threats to impede ICE officers, with prosecutors citing alleged ties to antifa but not alleging specific injuries to officers. Davis has called the case "petty revenge" meant to criminalize community organizing, and civil rights advocates say the prosecution is designed to chill protest activity following large demonstrations against a federal immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities earlier this year.

Three foreign nationals were arrested during an ICE targeted enforcement operation in Danbury on June 16-17, 2026. Edwin Palacios-Rivera, a Peruvian national, was arrested and has previous arrests for domestic violence, criminal mischief, possession of burglar tools, violations of a protective order, criminal trespass, and interfering with police. Jose Espinoza-Ceraquive, an Ecuadorian national, was arrested and has pending charges for operating a motor vehicle under the influence and third-degree criminal mischief; he is subject to a final removal order issued in 2024. Jorge Tamay-Angulo, also an Ecuadorian national, was arrested during the operation, though ICE provided no additional details regarding his case.

Hanne Engan, a 24-year-old Norwegian citizen applying for a green card through her U.S. citizen husband, was arrested by ICE agents on November 17, 2025, during a green card interview at a San Diego facility and held at Otay Mesa Detention Center for eight to nine days. Despite her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis, ICE confiscated her insulin and continuous glucose monitor, misclassified her condition in detention records, and denied her mealtime insulin despite repeated requests, resulting in dangerously elevated blood sugar levels (508 mg/dL), weight loss, infections, and suicidal ideation. She was placed in solitary confinement for five days. A federal judge found no flight risk, ordered her release on a $1,500 bond after nine days, and later terminated her deportation case after ruling ICE lacked jurisdiction to detain her.

Kyon Shakeel Swaso, a 35-year-old Belizean immigrant detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California, organized a hunger strike to protest conditions at the facility. After speaking with members of Congress about inhumane conditions at Adelanto, Swaso was transferred to facilities in Texas and Louisiana without notice, then deported to Belize. Immigrant rights groups and advocates alleged the deportation was retaliatory action by the Department of Homeland Security in response to his activism and congressional testimony.

A woman was detained by ICE agents in an incident captured on video near a Hudson County school, separating her from her young children. Local officials condemned the enforcement action and noted that the agents wore masks in violation of a state law signed by Gov. Mikie Sherrill in March.

During a raid on a horse racing venue in Wilder, Idaho, law enforcement officers detained 105 undocumented immigrants. A 14-year-old U.S. citizen, SueHey, was zip-tied and confined during the operation. The ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging mistreatment of families, including the use of force against children and destruction of property, with eyewitness accounts contradicting government denials of the zip-tie allegations.

Miguel Gorasieta Jaimes, a Mexican national, and Santos Ruben Gutierrez, an El Salvadoran national, were arrested by ICE during a nationwide weekend enforcement operation targeting individuals with prior criminal convictions. Jaimes was arrested in Harris County and had a prior conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child. Gutierrez was arrested in Lewisville and had a prior conviction for indecency with a child. Both men were in the country illegally at the time of their arrests. The operation targeted 15 individuals across at least nine states.

Scarleth, 10 years old, called out in distress—'Why are you taking my papa from me? He's the only one I have'—as ICE agents arrested her father outside a New York immigration court. Photographer Carol Guzy documented the incident as part of her year-long coverage of families affected by immigration enforcement. The image, titled 'Separated by Ice,' later won the World Press Photo Contest, marking Guzy's ninth win, and was displayed at the World Press Photo and Doc Edge Immersive Exhibition in Auckland.

ICE arrested Jose Jairo Rivas-Santiago, 32, a Honduran national, on June 15 after he was released from a Virginia correctional facility where he was serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder and armed robbery. In 2019, ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents had arrested him on armed robbery and conspiracy charges and turned him over to the Richmond City Police Department for prosecution, leading to his 2021 conviction. ICE had lodged an immigration detainer with Coffeewood Correctional Center following that conviction. Rivas-Santiago is now in ICE custody awaiting removal to Honduras under a previously issued final order of removal.

Between June 15 and July 3, 2026, ICE carried out intensified enforcement operations across the Kansas City metropolitan area during the World Cup, detaining at least 30 people according to the KC Community Defense Coalition. Enforcement concentrated in Wyandotte County and Johnson County—including Kansas City, Kansas, Olathe, and Northeast Kansas City—areas with significant Hispanic and Latino populations. Among those detained was a Northeast Kansas City father of four, a stay-at-home dad whose wife works evening shifts in healthcare; five masked ICE agents detained him in his front yard while mowing his lawn, leaving his young children to wake and find him gone. Separately, federal authorities arrested at least six people at La Fontanella Foods, a food manufacturing warehouse in Northeast Kansas City, on July 9, 2026. The surge reflects national ICE directives to increase arrests to 2,000 per day and deploy 80% of officers to arrest operations, part of the Trump administration's intensified immigration enforcement push.