Human Impact Project

Javier, a 76-year-old Cuban man with dementia, has been detained by ICE and is being held at a GEO facility in Aurora, Colorado. His next court appearance is scheduled for mid-May, and advocates are raising funds to cover an estimated $11,000 in legal fees for his immigration case.

An immigration attorney reports that approximately 80% of his clients granted bond by a judge are held for days beyond their legal release date by ICE. The case of Deonicio Castillo, a Colorado resident detained in January 2026, exemplifies the pattern—he was held six days after a judge granted his $2,500 bond. The attorney argues the delays violate constitutional rights and represent a departure from prior practice where bond releases typically occurred within hours.

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).

Rudy Villeda Mejía, a 47-year-old Honduran roofing business owner who has lived in Washington state since 2010 after being kidnapped and held for ransom by Los Zetas cartel members, was arrested by ICE at Denver International Airport on March 30, 2025. He had attended routine immigration check-ins for years without incident and had a pending T visa application as a trafficking victim, which his attorney argued was his only lawful path to remain with his U.S. citizen wife, Mabel Shaffer, and her three children. During roughly four months in ICE custody in Aurora, Colorado, his health declined, including worsening Bell's palsy symptoms, back pain, and weight loss, while the family's roofing business lost contracts and his wife struggled to manage it alone. A federal judge initially denied his habeas petition, but later ordered his release under a court order barring detention of pending T visa applicants; ICE had already transferred him to Louisiana and released him there without his ID, passport, or work permit. His wife flew to Louisiana to drive him home, and his stepson said he immediately returned to work at the family business.

Raúl Tapia, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the United States for about 25 years, was detained by ICE agents while driving to work with his son near their home in Georgetown, Delaware. According to his family, three unmarked black trucks surrounded their van at a stop sign, and six masked agents broke the van's windows and forcibly removed Raúl without presenting a warrant. His son Dante said agents questioned him about his birthplace before releasing him and detaining his father. Delaware court records show Raúl has no criminal history, and his wife Beth said the family had recently begun working with a new attorney to resolve his immigration status. He is being held in a detention center in Philadelphia and is expected to be transferred to Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, with an immigration hearing scheduled. Community organizations including La Esperanza and the ACLU of Delaware raised concerns about the warrantless stop and tactics used.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado granted a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the case of Luis Alfredo Chavelas Rosas, a Mexican citizen detained by ICE on July 16, 2025, in Aurora, Colorado. The court ruled that the detainee was improperly detained under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A) without a bond hearing and determined that the default rule under § 1226(a) applies, requiring the government to provide a bond hearing. The court concluded that § 1225(b)(2)(A) does not authorize detention for noncitizens who have been present in the country for years and are not actively seeking admission.

An asylum seeker who entered the United States in 2023 was initially detained by ICE but released on his own recognizance under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). He obtained employment and had no criminal history. In March 2026, ICE re-detained him at an ICE check-in appointment without notice or opportunity to be heard, claiming he was subject to mandatory detention under § 1225(b). The court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding that § 1226(a) applied and that the re-detention violated both the INA and his Fifth Amendment due process rights. The court ordered his immediate release by July 25, 2026.

ICE agents conducted traffic stops in Eagle County, Colorado, detaining up to 11 people, according to Senator John Hickenlooper and other Colorado lawmakers. After the vehicles were abandoned, family members retrieved them and found ace of spades cards printed with ICE Denver Field Office contact information left inside at least two vehicles. Immigrant rights group Voices Unidas said the cards reference a Vietnam War-era racist practice, while federal officials offered an alternative explanation that the cards reference the ace of spades as the trump card in the game Spades. The Department of Homeland Security announced an internal investigation into the agents' conduct. Hickenlooper demanded a meeting with DHS after the agency failed to respond to requests for information about those detained and the status of the investigation.

A man who has lived in the United States for eighteen years was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on January 20, 2026. ICE charged him with entering the United States without inspection. He is currently detained at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado. On April 2, 2026, he filed a Verified Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, requesting a bond hearing. The central dispute was whether his detention should be governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) (which provides for bond hearings) or § 1225(b)(2)(A) (which permits mandatory detention). On April 17, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado granted his habeas petition, finding that § 1226 applies to his case based on precedent from multiple similar cases. The court ordered respondents to provide him with a bond hearing under § 1226(a) within seven days, with the government bearing the burden of proving that his continued detention is justified.

ICE agents detained a resident at a trailer park in Mancos on New Year's Eve morning, a person who had lived in Durango for 22 years. The detention prompted about a dozen protesters to gather at the ICE field office in Durango's Bodo Industrial Park, where they linked arms and sat in front of the driveway to try to block agents from leaving with the detainee. Federal agents removed the protesters using pepper spray and Tasers to clear the entrance. Durango Police Chief Brice Current said he contacted both protesters and ICE, asking demonstrators not to break the law and urging ICE to de-escalate, noting it was the first physical confrontation since October, when agents used pepper spray and rubber bullets on more than 200 protesters.

Pedro Gutierrez, 43, a Durango resident for 22 years, was arrested by ICE agents on New Year's Eve while driving home from the gym. He was pulled over blocks from his home near Needham Elementary School by agents who called him by name and forcibly removed him from his vehicle in front of his 16-year-old daughter Jazmin. He was taken into custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora. Gutierrez has no criminal record and has worked in Durango as a dishwasher, baker, and painter; he is married with two adult children and serves as music director at a local church.

Marcos Flores, bassist for local band Summer of Peril, was detained by ICE on December 23 while attempting to pick up a visitor's badge at Colorado Springs Air Force Academy. Flores, who was brought to the U.S. as a young child from Mexico, has been held at Aurora ICE Detention Center with his bond request denied despite community support and legal efforts. His case was affected by a federal policy memo reversing protections against no-bond detentions.

Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez, a 43-year-old Mexican immigrant rights activist who has lived in the U.S. since 1997 and is the mother of four daughters (three U.S. citizens), was detained by ICE in a Target parking lot on March 17, 2025, the day after she marched in a protest against federal immigration policies. In 2011 an Immigration Judge denied her cancellation of removal but granted voluntary departure; she appealed, but in 2012 traveled to Mexico to see her dying mother, which was treated as a withdrawal of her appeal. She returned to the U.S. in 2013 without inspection and was later apprehended; ICE then issued a document purporting to reinstate her prior removal order. She filed a federal habeas corpus petition on March 18, 2025, arguing the reinstatement was procedurally deficient and that no valid removal order supports her detention, and a judge barred her removal from Colorado or the U.S. while the case proceeds. After nine months in custody at the GEO Group's Aurora facility, her attorney argued before Immigration Judge Brea Burgie that she was denied a bond hearing for 180 days because of the administration's disapproval of her activism and that she is not a flight risk given her daughters, one of whom recently joined the Air Force and had sought immigration relief on her mother's behalf, which the government denied. The judge did not rule immediately. Vizguerra has previously taken sanctuary in a Denver church and been named one of Time's 100 most influential people.

A Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. through CBP One and received humanitarian parole in November 2024 was arrested by ICE in December 2025. DHS terminated his parole via email in April 2025 while he was living in Denver, working lawfully, and complying with parole conditions. The court granted a temporary restraining order preventing his removal, finding he is likely a member of a class whose parole terminations were ruled unlawful in a Massachusetts federal court case.

José Barco, a decorated U.S. Army veteran who deployed twice to Iraq and received a Purple Heart after a 2004 explosion caused traumatic brain injury, was deported to Mexico in November 2025 after struggling with untreated TBI and PTSD following his service. His 2006 citizenship application, filed while he was on active duty at Fort Carson, was lost in processing despite being complete and eligible, according to his commanding officer. After an attempted murder conviction stemming from a 2008 shooting of a pregnant woman, Barco served 15 years in prison and was paroled on January 21, 2025, at which point ICE immediately detained him. Venezuela initially was slated to receive him but refused to accept him at the Honduras border over documentation concerns, and he was ultimately deported to Mexico—a country he had never visited—on Veterans Day, also the 21st anniversary of the explosion that wounded him. His wife, Tia, said she had not been told his whereabouts, and former platoon members and his medic expressed dismay over the timing of his removal.

Fernando Jaramillo Solano, a 45-year-old Colombian national seeking asylum, and his two children, Jana Michel Jaramillo Patiño (12) and Kewin Daniel Patiño Bustamante (15), were detained by ICE agents on October 27, 2025, while being driven to school near a mobile home park in Durango, Colorado. The family had lived in Colorado for over 18 months, held valid documentation showing an active asylum process since December 2024, a pending work permit request, and no criminal record. ICE officials later stated in federal court that Jaramillo Solano was not their intended target. Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Durango ICE field office, where agents in tactical gear pepper-sprayed and fired rubber bullets at demonstrators; one protester was allegedly pushed and another, 57-year-old Franci Stagi, was knocked down and put in a chokehold, while 22-year-old Drew Collie was sprayed and struck by rubber bullets. Local police attempting a welfare check on the children were denied entry by federal agents. The father was transferred to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas, and the children were held at a facility in southern Texas before immigration officials granted the family voluntary departure, with ICE stating it would facilitate their return to Colombia. The City of Durango requested an investigation into agent conduct from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which declined the request.

An unidentified law enforcement officer placed a 57-year-old woman named Franci Stagi in a chokehold and threw her down a grassy embankment during a protest outside an ICE field office in Durango, Colorado on October 28. The incident was recorded on video. Hundreds of protesters had gathered at the location. The officer wore a black balaclava and tactical vest labeled with 'Police' or 'Police HSI' and was not identified as part of any specific law enforcement agency.

Fernando Jaramillo Solano, a Colombian asylum-seeker, was detained by ICE agents on October 27, 2025 while driving his two children—ages 11/12 and 14/15—to school near a mobile home park in Durango, Colorado. The family had lived in Colorado for more than 18 months with an active asylum case and no criminal record. Immigration officials later admitted in federal court that Jaramillo Solano was not their intended target. The father was sent to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, while the children were held separately at an ICE facility in southern Texas, apart from their mother, Estela Patiño, who remained in Durango. Local police tried multiple times to secure the children's release but were denied entry by federal agents, and Colorado Governor Jared Polis said ICE had not notified the state in advance. On October 28, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the ICE field office demanding the family's release; agents in tactical gear used pepper spray and rubber bullets, breaking through a human chain formed by demonstrators. The family was subsequently granted voluntary departure, with ICE facilitating their return to Colombia.

U.S. citizens were detained by federal agents at an Aurora school hospital. Protesters confronted the agents at the scene. The detained individuals have since spoken out about their experience.

Marina Ortiz, a fifth-grade teacher at Global Village Academy in Douglas County (Parker), Colorado, was detained by ICE along with her minor children during a routine immigration appointment at an ICE field office in Centennial on October 24. She and her family were subsequently transferred to a detention facility in Texas. School officials confirmed Ortiz held valid employment authorization through spring 2029 and said they are working with immigration attorneys to help bring the family back to Colorado. ICE said Ortiz entered the country near Yuma, Arizona, on December 2, 2022, and was later paroled. A school board member said the incident has caused fear within the school community.