Human Impact Project

A Mexican asylum seeker previously placed in removal proceedings had been released by immigration authorities on his own recognizance and complied with all required immigration court hearings and check-ins. His asylum application was pretermitted and he was ordered removed in March 2026, but he timely appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals in April 2026, meaning there was no final removal order against him. Despite this, ICE re-detained him during a routine check-in in San Francisco. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and sought a temporary restraining order, arguing that his re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated his due process rights. A federal court found he raised a serious question on the merits and that the balance of hardships favored him, granting the TRO and ordering his release by 10:00 a.m. the next day while barring further detention without a hearing before a neutral decisionmaker. The government was ordered to file a status report confirming his release and to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue.

Felipe was detained by ICE and is currently in custody, according to a GoFundMe campaign started by his wife, Jarilis Quiles. Felipe is described as the main provider for his household, and his family is beginning legal proceedings to fight for his return home. The family is raising funds to cover legal expenses and Felipe's basic needs during the immigration process.

Emmanuel Nelson, 18, a senior linebacker for Port St. Lucie High School's football and wrestling teams, was pulled over for driving 45 mph in a 20 mph school zone and is still in ICE custody more than a week later. Police found he was not a U.S. citizen and contacted ICE, which placed a detainer on him; he was first held at the St. Lucie County Jail and is now at the Broward Transitional Center. ICE says Nelson entered the U.S. legally in January 2016 but violated the terms of his admission, while his family says he came through the Haitian Family Reunification Program and has a pending residency petition from a U.S. citizen step-parent, and had held a valid work permit, Social Security number and driver's license. His coach and teammates have said they hope to welcome him back to the team.

Maria Del Carmen Negrete Raya, 39, a Mexican citizen, was arrested and charged with three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer after an encounter with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers in Fort Myers, Florida. Authorities said ICE officers attempted to stop a vehicle registered to a non-U.S. citizen, and after the occupants fled, Negrete Raya confronted the officers, with one officer suffering minor injuries. Records show Negrete Raya entered the United States without inspection and filed an asylum application in 2023, and officials said she remains subject to removal proceedings. State prosecutors plan to seek reclassification of the charges as second-degree felonies based on her immigration status.

In a separate incident on Aug. 19, ICE agents pulled at least one person off a plane at Sea-Tac International Airport and arrested them at the gate, according to immigration attorney Jane O'Sullivan, who spoke with the detained person's travel companion. The detained person had overstayed a visa but had an active immigration application pending. O'Sullivan said 'a number of people' were taken off planes that day and later brought to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, though she could not specify how many were held. The arrests are part of a broader Department of Homeland Security enforcement effort targeting non-citizens with pending immigration cases at airports nationwide.

The petitioner, who was previously detained by immigration authorities and then released on his own recognizance, was later re-detained by ICE. Respondents argued he was held under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2), but acknowledged that recent Ninth Circuit precedent establishes that § 1226(a) actually governs his detention, meaning he is entitled to seek a custody redetermination. He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus and a motion for a temporary restraining order challenging his detention. The court found that his prior release created a liberty interest in continued release, and that his re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process. The court granted the habeas petition, ordering his immediate release on the same conditions as before his re-detention, and enjoined respondents from re-detaining him without first providing notice and a bond hearing before an immigration judge. The motion for a temporary restraining order was denied as moot given the grant of habeas relief.

An Uzbek asylum seeker, a citizen of Uzbekistan, entered the United States without inspection in November 2023 and was apprehended shortly after by Customs and Border Patrol, issued a Notice to Appear, and released into the country pending removal proceedings. He resided in the US for over two years and filed an asylum application in April 2024. On August 19, 2026, he was arrested at a scheduled ICE check-in and transferred to the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. He filed a habeas corpus petition the same day, arguing his mandatory detention without a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2) was unlawful. The Government argued he remained an 'applicant for admission' subject to mandatory detention. The court held that § 1225 applies only to newly arriving noncitizens, not those like him who have resided in the country for years, and that his detention was instead governed by § 1226(a). The court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release.

A 40-year-old citizen of Peru has lived in the U.S. since December 2022, residing in Oakland, California. He is married with three children ages 4, 16, and 17, whom he supports financially by sending money to Peru, and he has work authorization and is employed in construction. He is in removal proceedings and filed an asylum application in November 2023, complying with all required ICE check-ins and immigration court hearings; his only criminal history is a single 2025 wet reckless conviction with a suspended sentence. On August 19, 2026, uniformed DHS agents arrested him immediately upon arrival for his regularly scheduled check-in at the San Francisco ICE office, without identifying themselves, explaining the reason for arrest, or serving a warrant beforehand. Petitioner filed a habeas petition and TRO application arguing he is a class member under the Garro Pinchi injunction and that his re-detention violated that order and due process because DHS made no individualized finding of changed circumstances regarding flight risk or danger. The court found serious questions on the merits and ordered his immediate release, enjoined future detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing, and required return of his confiscated property.

A man believed to be Haitian, who neighbor Sara Vanhoose said regularly drove through her neighborhood obeying traffic laws, was pulled over and arrested outside her Sherman Avenue home by officers in three unmarked vehicles wearing ICE vests. When Vanhoose, a U.S. citizen, questioned the officers and told them the man was 'not doing anything wrong,' an ICE agent told her she would become their next target if she did not stop asking questions. Vanhoose said the man's vehicle was later towed and she was left upset that a neighbor she described as never having caused problems was taken away.

Adriana Ruiz, 43, was detained by ICE agents in Santa Fe while getting into a car with her daughter-in-law, Yajaira Gutierrez, on the way to a medical appointment for Gutierrez's 2-month-old baby, who was on an oxygen machine. Gutierrez said agents refused to show paperwork and gave false information about the vehicle they were seeking before Ruiz agreed to be arrested to protect her family. Gutierrez said Ruiz has health problems and that relatives have not been told where she was taken or whether she is receiving medical care.

ICE took custody of Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Urmana, 46, a Salvadoran man who was operating a boat that capsized near the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 8, killing a 27-year-old woman and her five-month-old daughter; the Coast Guard rescued 12 others from the water. He faces pending federal charges in the Southern District of New York for misconduct and negligence by a ship officer resulting in death, in addition to earlier state charges. After New York City police arrested him Aug. 9 and a federal court released him to U.S. Marshals custody on bond the following day, ICE's detainer did not transfer with him; ICE Newark then arrested him Aug. 11 in Manville, New Jersey, for immigration violations. He remains in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings.

Daniel Roque Olivares was driving to work on U.S. Highway 81 in Oklahoma when a state trooper pulled him over and detained him for violating federal immigration laws. The stop is part of a broader crackdown enabled by training all 700 Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers in immigration enforcement, an effort led by former Highway Patrol major Lance Schroyer, Trump's nominee to head ICE, who was himself deputized to make arrests after a 40-hour training course. State officials say local agencies like the Highway Patrol are essential to the administration's deportation efforts. Schroyer's nomination has yet to receive a Senate confirmation hearing amid reported friction between Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, to whom he is close, and the Trump administration.

Macedonia Merino Maldonado, 19, and Jero Jimenez Garcia, 29, both kitchen staff at Raymond's restaurant in Montclair, were detained by ICE agents on Bloomfield Avenue while on their way to work. A federal detainee locator confirmed both men, originally from Mexico, are being held at the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark. Co-workers said the men lived in Montclair, and a local advocate said as many as five Montclair residents may have been arrested that day, though those additional details could not be confirmed. A server at the restaurant said colleagues were devastated by the arrests, and local officials, including the deputy mayor, called the detentions "extremely concerning."

Chantal Alejandra Morales Rojas, 27, an Ecuadorian woman who entered the U.S. on a J-1 au pair visa, was detained by ICE at Denver International Airport on July 20 while preparing to board a flight back to Oakland, where she had been working as a nanny. After a federal judge ordered her release following six weeks in detention, ICE required her to wear an ankle monitor; her attorneys have filed an amended habeas corpus petition arguing the agency lacked authority to impose that condition after an immigration judge ordered her release without added restrictions. Her case prompted a GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than $137,000, and her attorney separately represents three other immigrants arrested by ICE at the Denver airport.

According to an airline gate manager, two men in plain clothes identified themselves only as federal officers and asked staff to summon a passenger to the gate. When the manager asked for identification, the men revealed previously hidden badges and said they were ICE agents; after the passenger approached, they took her into custody. The manager asked to see a warrant, and the officers presented an administrative warrant rather than a judicial warrant before handcuffing the woman and driving away in an unmarked vehicle.

An airline gate manager known by the pseudonym Laurie learned that ICE agents had returned to her airport looking for a specific passenger and called the woman directly to warn her before she reached the gate. The passenger, who was traveling with a family member and said she did not understand why ICE was looking for her despite having "all my papers," decided not to board her flight after speaking privately with Laurie. She left the airport with her family member, and no arrest was made at the gate that day.

Jun Qiu, a Chinese national who runs Fantasy Nails on Low Street in Newburyport, was detained by ICE agents who entered the salon "with guns drawn," according to Mayor Sean Reardon. Eyewitnesses reported the operation left customers shaken, and the mayor called it "incredibly frightening and traumatic," adding that the city does not condone the manner in which the operation was carried out. DHS said Qiu is in ICE custody pending removal proceedings; he had been arrested days earlier by local police on misdemeanor harassment and threat charges and had pleaded not guilty. The city said it did not participate in or receive advance notice of the ICE operation, and Reardon said officials are continuing to gather information from those involved or who witnessed the incident.

Ari Ladino, owner of Luana Rose Modestly, a bridal and special occasion dress shop in Teaneck, New Jersey, was detained by ICE along with his mother, who worked alongside him at the store. Ladino and his mother are originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and had run the shop since it opened in 2024, becoming known for custom gowns popular among local Orthodox Jewish women. Their landlord, Elie Y. Katz, helped retrieve dresses for clients whose weddings and events were imminent after the pair went missing, and later learned Ladino's mother had been sent to a different detention center. Ladino asked a business partner to prepare the store for a sale of the gowns to help raise money for his legal defense.

A leaked video shared via TikTok account @Injusticias.de.ICE shows a woman detained at an ICE facility operated by CoreCivic describing conditions inside, stating 'almost all of us here have vaginal infections.' The video was shared by NowThis Impact as testimony about health and sanitation conditions faced by detained women at a CoreCivic-run facility.

Rigo Mendoza's wife was detained by ICE agents, and the following day his 15-year-old son Kevin, who had been diagnosed with cancer in November, died. Mendoza recalled his son's final words expressing worry for his father's safety rather than his own illness. Following his wife's detention and his son's death, Mendoza decided to self-deport to Mexico with his family.