Human Impact Project

Leonardo Pinzon Fernandez, a native and citizen of Colombia, entered the United States with his wife and stepdaughter in December 2022 and was released on humanitarian parole. He had a pending asylum application, valid employment authorization, and had lived for over three years with a fixed residence and steady employment. On June 27, 2026, ICE detained him at his home in Los Angeles without notice, days after briefly detaining and releasing him at a construction site. A federal judge granted his habeas corpus petition, finding his detention unlawful and ordering his immediate release from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.

Baldemar Gutierrez, a 15-year-old U.S. citizen with significant hearing loss and speech delays, was pulled from a car and handcuffed at gunpoint by masked federal agents outside Arleta High School in Los Angeles while his mother, Andreina Mejia, was nearby enrolling his sister. Agents showed a photo of a Salvadoran national suspected of gang ties and mistook Baldemar for him, releasing him only after he repeatedly stated his name and citizenship; the encounter lasted about seven minutes. His mother said an agent told him the mistake would make an 'exciting story to tell' his friends, and said her son 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 mistaken identity. The case has since 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.

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.

Immigration attorneys and court observers say the closure of San Francisco's immigration court has overwhelmed the Concord court with new 'mega-master hearings' and scheduling changes that threaten due process. Devony Hodson, a migrant from Nicaragua, said her final hearing was abruptly moved from 2027 to this past July, giving her little time to prepare, though she has since received extensions to December 2028. The Executive Office for Immigration Review said scheduling changes are meant to prevent cases from languishing, while advocates and a local congressman question the rationale behind the court closure.

ICE agents reportedly detained a vanload of farm workers in California's Central Valley on Tuesday morning, part of a series of recent enforcement actions carried out across multiple cities.

A whistleblower complaint from former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Jill Fields alleges that Donald Trump directed the FBI to investigate protesters demonstrating against ICE operations in Los Angeles in February 2025. The complaint claims a dedicated 10-agent squad was formed to investigate protesters even after agents determined their activities were constitutionally protected. Fields says she was later removed from oversight roles and resigned, believing it was retaliation for objecting to the investigations.

In the unincorporated West Park community near Fresno, ICE agents detained several people, including a man taken into custody outside Saber's Mart/Market at Prospect and Jensen avenues, and a group of people—described as a man and woman by one source and four men and a woman by another—detained outside a home on Prospect Avenue as they arrived home from work. Resident Rose Arellano said she watched agents take the individuals without asking about immigration status, saying, "Nobody should have to go through our city in fear of randomly being taken simply because of the color of their skin." Resident Selina Castillo recorded cellphone video of the detentions near her mother's house. The West Park School District sent a notice to families stating it would not share immigration status information with authorities and asked parents to meet children at bus stops. Volunteers with the Valley Watch Network said they regularly assist families of detained individuals and people released from the Fresno ICE facility, amid a broader surge of ICE activity across Fresno and Madera counties.

A van transporting farmworkers from Selma to their jobs in Bakersfield was stopped by ICE agents on Tuesday morning, and everyone aboard was taken into custody, according to the Valley Watch Network, a rapid response group that tracks ICE arrests and assists detained individuals' families. The stop was part of a reported surge of roughly two dozen ICE arrests across Fresno and Madera counties that week, which advocates said involved roving patrols and traffic stops at places frequented by farmworkers and landscapers.

A man was detained by ICE agents in a parking lot at Allan Hancock College's Santa Maria campus around 9:45 a.m. on October 5, shortly after dropping off his daughter, a student there. She said she noticed a vehicle following them near South Bradley Road before an agent knocked on their car window, asked for identification, and took her father into custody. "My dad was kidnapped by ICE today," she said at a press conference hosted by Santa Maria City Councilmember Gloria Soto, adding she did not know why he had been detained; a vigil was later held for him. College Superintendent-President Kevin Walthers said the administration had no advance notice of or role in the action and said the college "strongly condemns immigration enforcement actions that create fear and uncertainty for our students and their families," while ICE said it had no record of activity at the college. The detention occurred amid a broader ICE operation across Santa Maria and Guadalupe that day, in which at least 17 people, mostly men commuting to or from work, were arrested at locations including a jail, a DMV office, a health center, and a market. State Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limon said a family had been "torn apart," and local officials condemned the operation; the Santa Maria City Council canceled its next meeting due to lack of quorum. The incident may be the first known case of ICE targeting a California community college campus.

A viral cellphone video shows a woman being surrounded by plainclothes, masked men and placed into an unmarked white van with DHS markings outside Los Angeles International Airport before dawn. In the footage she repeatedly pleads for bystanders to call 911, insists 'I'm not doing anything wrong,' and only gives her name after being pressed, while one man confirms he is an ICE agent citing an 'immigration violation' without further explanation. Social media users identified her as Jing Zhao, an Irvine, California special education teacher with an MBA who provided early childhood intervention and speech support to children with developmental needs. A parent of a child she once tutored described her as a patient, dedicated teacher who 'walked into our family and helped my child, little by little,' and expressed hope she would receive legal help and a fair process. Detention records later showed she was transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County, though ICE has not issued a public statement confirming her identity or the specific violation alleged. Airport officials said federal agencies conduct independent investigations and that airport operations continued as normal.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who has lived in Maryland for years with his U.S. citizen wife and young son, who has autism, was arrested in Baltimore in March 2025 and mistakenly deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison despite a 2019 court order protecting him, an error ICE later admitted. Following public pressure and a Supreme Court order, he was returned to the U.S. in June 2025, after which federal prosecutors indicted him on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Costa Rica offered him refugee status in August 2025, but the administration instead pursued deporting him to Liberia. A judge ordered his release from ICE custody in December 2025 after finding government lawyers misled the court, and later blocked his re-detention and deportation to Liberia. A federal judge dismissed the smuggling charges in May 2026, finding them a vindictive response to his legal challenges, a ruling the government is appealing to the Sixth Circuit. A federal court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, meant to determine whether he would be deported to Liberia was abruptly canceled, as his legal team seeks a permanent injunction and argues he should instead be sent to Costa Rica.

A mechanic and grandfather from Mendota was detained by ICE officers in downtown Fresno on Monday while he was picking up auto parts for a car he was repairing. His granddaughter, Jade Torres, said he had lived in Mendota for years and owned his own mechanic shop. Following his detention, he was transferred to a facility in McFarland, which houses two ICE detention centers, and his family said he could be moved further, potentially out of state. Mendota Mayor Victor Martinez said he had received reports of immigration operations in the area and believed they were primarily targeting people with criminal records, though he noted others without records could also be detained. Martinez said, "It seems very unfair to me, very unfair, that we're finishing harvest season in the fields, and now they're starting raids."

A man waiting on a sidewalk next to a parked car for a ride to work was detained by ICE agents in Santa Maria on Monday, after video showed an agent's government vehicle roll forward and crash head-on into the parked car during the arrest. The agent had stepped out of the vehicle without shifting it into park before it struck the car, and a second agent in the passenger seat got out as the driver reversed and repositioned it. 805 UndocuFund organizer Claudia Gonzalez, who said her group was in contact with the detainee's family, described the incident as an example of ICE agents' "aggressiveness" and "incompetence."

Federal agents used high-flying drones to track Abel Ávila Martínez, 48, of Buena Park, California, as he left his home before dawn Thursday, then surrounded his vehicle with about 20 Homeland Security Investigations agents in tactical gear as he prepared to drive away. Ávila Martínez, a Mexican national previously removed from the U.S. in 1999, surrendered with his hands raised after agents blasted him with searchlights and pointed weapons at him. He is charged with using fake Social Security numbers to fraudulently obtain credit, racking up at least $15,964 in debt, including a purchase at Guitar Center, and had filed for bankruptcy last year in an attempt to discharge the debt. He was one of at least four people arrested in a wider operation targeting alleged Social Security fraud schemes totaling over $140,000, which also included Walter Anastacio Castellanos-Pérez, José Alfredo Chávez-Cabello, and Verónica Espinosa-Cortés; a fifth suspect evaded capture and remains at large.

Michael "Sandy" Sims, 42, a Philadelphia lighting technician born in Ireland and raised in London, was detained by ICE agents at the San Jose airport on September 2 as he returned from a business trip. Sims, married to U.S. citizen Jennifer Sims since 2017 and the subject of an approved I-130 family petition toward a green card, had worked in entertainment lighting since 2002, including tours for Metallica, Usher, and Florence + the Machine. He was held at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield. DHS claimed Sims faced a domestic battery charge in Nevada, but his wife, his immigration lawyer, and a search of Nevada court records found no record of any such case. Sims was deported to the United Kingdom days before an October 8 bond hearing he and his wife had hoped would lead to his release. Friends and family started a GoFundMe campaign that had raised nearly $21,000 toward legal expenses.

Kwadwo, a 57-year-old respiratory therapist who has lived in Daly City for eight years, was arrested by a plainclothes ICE agent at his gate at San Francisco International Airport while waiting to board a domestic flight to visit his cousin in Dallas, who was recovering from a stroke. After clearing security, he was surrounded by officers who chained his feet, waist, and hands in the arrivals area near baggage claim in front of other travelers, before he was taken to a federal immigration building downtown and then transported through Stockton to the Golden State Annex detention center outside Bakersfield, where he has been held for more than two months. Kwadwo fled religious persecution as a Christian in Ghana at age 28, was granted asylum in South Africa, later earned a master's degree in respiratory care in the U.S., and was earning more than $166,000 a year supporting his family, including his son's graduate studies. His detention stems from an expired student visa; his green card application was rejected in June 2024, his first appeal was denied, and a second appeal filed in May 2025 remains pending. He filed a habeas corpus petition on his own behalf, but a judge denied his bond citing flight risk, and he is appealing while continuing to challenge his detention in immigration court. His son said the arrest has been a major financial and emotional stressor for the family, noting, "It feels like they're just trying to find people to fill up prisons."

A 40-year-old Filipino man, the son of a slain Filipino radio broadcaster, was detained by US immigration authorities on September 21 after returning to Los Angeles from a music performance in Chicago. He is being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and is scheduled for a hearing on the eve of the fourth anniversary of his father's 2022 killing. He arrived in the US in February 2023, holds work authorization, and had sought asylum after receiving death threats following his father's murder. The Philippine consulate in Los Angeles has conducted a welfare visit, and Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said the consulate is coordinating with the family's lawyers.

Nguyen Phuong Anh To, known as "Toph," was detained by ICE agents at Los Angeles International Airport around 9 a.m. on September 25 while getting coffee before boarding a flight to Miami for a conference. She is a UC Irvine student in the U.S. on a student visa and a beloved member of the Midwest, New York, and Los Angeles dance communities, including the Essence dance community. Friends describe her as "an utter light to anyone who crosses her path." She is being held at a detention center about two hours from Los Angeles, and friends, including Iman Brooks, have organized a GoFundMe to cover legal fees, filing fees, bond, and commissary funds, with support from legal services and consent from To's parents in Vietnam.

A woman was detained by ICE agents outside her daughter's home while on her way to work, surrounded by three ICE vehicles with no warrant. She has lived in the United States for over 18 years and is described by her family as a hardworking mother who ensures her children are fed and attend school. She is currently held at a detention center in Otay, California, and her family is raising funds for legal fees.