Human Impact Project

A Mexican national who entered the U.S. as a child in 1989 was arrested by ICE on April 9, 2026, after reporting to the Santa Ana Enforcement and Removal Operations office. He is married with six U.S. citizen children and has a pending application for adjustment of status. The court granted his request for an individualized bond hearing while denying his request for immediate release.

A Chinese woman, a petitioner detained at Desert View Annex Detention Facility following a routine immigration check, filed for immediate release from custody through a habeas corpus petition. She argued her ongoing detention constitutes constitutional deprivation and feared potential transfer to another facility would impair her access to counsel. The court denied her emergency application for temporary restraining order but ordered the government to show cause why habeas relief should not be granted under an expedited briefing schedule.

A Guatemalan national was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and held at Mesa Verde Detention Center. Government alleged he ran upon seeing officers and resisted arrest, and had no pending applications for relief with immigration authorities. The Eastern District of California granted his motion for preliminary injunction and ordered respondents to provide him with a bond hearing before a neutral arbiter within seven days.

A Chinese national, detained at Imperial Regional Detention Facility, filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his prolonged immigration detention without a bond hearing as a due process violation. The government conceded and the court ordered a bond hearing within seven days where the government must prove by clear and convincing evidence that he poses a danger or flight risk. The court declined to order immediate release.

An immigration detainee held in ICE custody at the Adelanto Detention Facility in California filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 on April 1, 2026, challenging the lawfulness of his detention. He argued that his continued detention violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process. On April 3, 2026, the respondents (represented by Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche) filed a response expressly stating they did not oppose his motion for a temporary restraining order. United States Magistrate Judge Alka Sagar found the requested restraining order was warranted based on the motion and record. The court granted his motion and ordered his immediate release from immigration detention.

Bernadette Gamez, 36, of Modesto, and Wendy Villagran, 22, of Stockton, were arrested Tuesday evening after police said they painted 'ICE OUT' on a public roadway during a demonstration near Doctors Medical Center. Both were booked on suspicion of felony vandalism and conspiracy to commit a crime. The protest was organized in response to an ICE shooting incident in nearby Patterson. The city's Public Works Department is working to remove the graffiti.

Tucker Collins, an 18-year-old USC freshman, lost his right eye after a Department of Homeland Security officer fired a less-lethal projectile at him during a "No Kings" rally near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Collins was attending the protest to take photos when he was struck directly in the eye, destroying his eyeball and fracturing bones in his eye socket. He is preparing to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against DHS, alleging the officer violated a federal injunction.

Efrain C.G., a Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. in 1993 and has been working since arrival, was arrested by ICE on April 7, 2026, at the Fresno County Superior Courthouse while inquiring about charges from a December 2025 domestic violence incident. He had no prior criminal history except traffic violations and no prior immigration history. The court ordered he receive a bond hearing within 14 days or be immediately released.

Lydia Rabara Swinburne, a 39-year-old Filipino national, was detained by ICE on April 7, 2026, during a green card interview after local authorities arrested her on domestic violence charges that were later dropped. On May 2, while in custody at the California City ICE facility, she suffered a medical emergency after being given unrecognized medication; her husband alleges a medication error occurred. A federal judge ordered her release on May 18 after her family filed a habeas corpus petition challenging her detention.

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.

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.

Jose Espinoza Hernandez was arrested and detained by ICE outside his home in the early morning of April 2, 2026, when he was leaving for work. He is currently in removal proceedings and has a pending U-Visa application. The court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release, finding his detention violated due process. Jose Espinoza was detained by ICE on April 2nd in the morning just outside his home as he was heading to work. His family launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to support his case and bring him home.

A Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. on a B-2 visa in 2016 and filed for asylum within one year was detained by ICE on April 2, 2026 when she appeared for her scheduled asylum interview at the Los Angeles Asylum Office in Tustin, California. Despite maintaining lawful employment and having no criminal history over nine years, the interview was not conducted and she was instead transported to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. The court granted her temporary restraining order application, ordering that she receive an individualized bond hearing within three days.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston ruled that Border Patrol and CBP agents violated a preliminary injunction during a July 2025 enforcement operation at a Sacramento Home Depot parking lot, where day laborers were detained without reasonable suspicion. Agents relied on broad assumptions about workers based on their appearance rather than individualized evidence of immigration violations, and submitted virtually identical detention forms for 11 people. The ruling came in response to a motion filed by the United Farm Workers to enforce the existing injunction. Thurston's order requires agents to document specific facts and reasoning for future detentions and prohibits warrantless arrests without assessing flight risk.

A Cuban national with a final removal order from November 1987 was re-detained by ICE on April 2, 2026, after not being in immigration custody since that time. ICE sought to hold him under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(6) and evaluate him for third-country removal to Mexico without his consent. The court found ICE failed to demonstrate changed circumstances justifying revocation of his release and did not comply with procedural requirements. The court ordered his immediate release to the conditions he was subject to prior to detention.

California House members Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs conducted an unannounced oversight visit to the Otay Mesa ICE detention facility in San Diego on May 11, 2026, following a federal court ruling that struck down a Trump administration policy requiring seven days' notice for congressional visits. During their visit, ICE handed Levin a letter outlining a new policy requiring two days' advance notice and written consent from detainees before members of Congress can speak with them. Levin criticized the new restrictions as an attempt to obstruct congressional oversight, stating that advance notice allows the facility time to prepare and conceal actual conditions.

ICE agents in San Diego arrested David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, who is wanted in El Salvador for murder and had previously been arrested in Monterey, California in 2023 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly swinging a machete at a man, then released under California's sanctuary law. El Salvador had sentenced Perez to 20 years in prison for a 2014 gang killing. He is being held pending removal to El Salvador.

A noncitizen who had lived in the United States for an extended period without having been admitted was detained by U.S. immigration authorities during removal proceedings at the California City Detention Facility. A federal court found he was entitled to a pre-deprivation bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) and ordered his immediate release. The court ruled that if the government seeks to re-detain him, they must provide a proper bond hearing where he can contest flight risk and community safety concerns.

Everlee Wihongi, a New Zealand citizen and long-term U.S. resident with a green card, was detained by ICE in early April after returning from New Zealand. She was held for more than 70 days because of a 2016 cannabis conviction that was later thrown out by the courts in June. During her detention at facilities in California, Arizona, and Texas, Wihongi described dehumanizing conditions including being referred to by her bunk-bed number rather than her name, extremely early meal times (3:45 a.m. in Arizona), shackling during transit, and witnessing children and pregnant women being shackled and moved between facilities. She has since been released and returned to Wisconsin with her family.

A 53-year-old professional mariner identified as F was deported from San Diego port after CBP agents accused him of accessing a website containing child sexual exploitation material during 2017-2018. F denied the allegations and was never charged with any crime. His visa was revoked within 24 hours and he was deported to the Philippines.