Human Impact Project

Malik Velimetov, 21, born in Turkmenistan but raised in Key West, was taken into custody by US Border Patrol on December 28, 2025, while traveling with his family on US 1 in Marathon. He was detained for a month at Florida's immigration detention center in the Everglades due to his pending asylum case and was released with an electronic monitor. His family, including his parents and 17-year-old sister, were also taken into custody and separated from him.

Jose Gonzalez, a 53-year-old Mexican national who worked as a maitre d' at an upscale Palm Beach restaurant for 20 years, was detained on December 10 during a traffic stop and held at Alligator Alcatraz detention facility. Gonzalez was transferred to Krome Detention Center on December 22. He had a pending asylum application and valid work permit at the time of his detention.

The Miccosukee Tribe is pursuing legal challenges against the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigrant detention facility in the Everglades, arguing that Florida's acceptance of $608 million in federal funds for the facility strengthens their case. The Tribe contends the facility was constructed unlawfully on public lands without required environmental review and poses risks to their 11 villages and the fragile ecosystem. Multiple lawsuits have been filed opposing the detention center, including claims regarding inadequate legal access for detainees and lack of federal authority for state operation.

A 20-year-old from Guatemala who received legal status in 2022 under the child separation settlement was arrested by ICE agents at a gas station in December 2025. He was detained in Florida before being transferred to Louisiana. On December 18, 2025, despite ACLU lawyers emailing Department of Justice officials to contend that an existing court order should prevent his deportation, Homeland Security placed him on a flight to Guatemala.

José Gonzalez, a 53-year-old Mexican national and well-known manager at BiCE Ristorante in Palm Beach who also operates the Tacos Agave food truck, was detained by ICE on December 10 after a Florida Highway Patrol traffic stop for dark window tint while driving his nephew's truck on a supply run. Gonzalez claims he has a valid work permit and driver's license connected to an ongoing immigration or asylum case. He was transferred between multiple detention facilities before being held at Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades. Friends and colleagues, including Table 26 owner Eddie Schmidt, described Gonzalez as someone who spent over 20 years serving the Palm Beach County restaurant community with dedication and generosity. During his 12 days in detention, Gonzalez reported cold conditions, open toilets, limited privacy, and approximately 80 people held in cramped cage-like conditions. Staff at the detention facility encouraged him to self-deport, which his 23-year-old nephew chose to do; Gonzalez refused. Community members organized vigils, rallies, and circulated petitions that gathered nearly 2,000 signatures calling for his release. U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel and Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss organized a vigil on December 21. Gonzalez was released on December 22-23, and expressed gratitude for community support. His nephew remains detained at Krome detention facility after signing expedited removal papers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with Border Patrol and Florida Highway Patrol, conducted immigration enforcement operations in central Palm Beach County on December 8, 2025, including roadblocks and an attempted raid on a residential construction site. Activists estimate at least 50 people were detained during the sweeps, with children separated from apprehended parents. A 19-year-old U.S. citizen was wrongly detained but later released. Local officials stated the operations disrupted the community and economy.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detained an American citizen woman during an immigration enforcement traffic stop near mile marker 103 in Key Largo on Wednesday morning. Video footage shows agents forcefully removing the woman from her vehicle, wrestling her to the ground, and handcuffing her after discovering her boyfriend was in the country illegally. The woman, who was wearing medical scrubs, was released approximately 10 minutes later after agents verified her U.S. citizenship through her driver's license. The operation resulted in 14 undocumented immigrants being arrested for deportation proceedings. The incident was recorded by a Miami Herald reporter.

A behavioral therapist for children in Key Largo, Florida, was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on December 3 while driving to work in a car registered to her partner, who is undocumented. Body camera and cellphone video, recorded in part by a Miami Herald reporter, showed agents unlocking her door, dragging her from the vehicle, taking her phone, and handcuffing her as she screamed, "I'm a U.S. citizen, please help me! This is unfair. Why are you doing this to me?" The woman, described as just under 5 feet tall and 85 pounds, said agents searched her purse without consent and that she complied by rolling down her window as instructed. She was held for about 10 minutes before being released once agents confirmed her citizenship through her driver's license. She said this was the third time she had been stopped in the same area for an immigration inspection, and that the experience left her unable to sleep, in physical pain, and emotionally traumatized. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the incident reflected a pattern of people being "racially profiled by ICE," and protesters later gathered in Islamorada to demand accountability. Her case is one of more than 500 documented by ProPublica involving U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration.

Federal immigration agents stopped a woman driving in Key Largo and forcibly removed her from her vehicle despite her stating she was a U.S. citizen. After agents pulled her from the car and handcuffed her, they found her driver's license in the vehicle and confirmed through their system that she is a U.S. citizen. She was released shortly after.

Josue Rodriguez Perez, a Cuban immigrant who fled Cuba with his father in 1993 and held legal U.S. residency, was detained by ICE at a federal office in Miami in July while trying to renew his work permit. He spent 40 days in the Natrona County jail in Wyoming and was later deported in September to Mexico, a country where he has no ties. Rodriguez, a commercial truck driver with a valid U.S. work permit, is now sharing an apartment in Cancun with other deported Cubans, unable to be with his wife and family or see his brother, who is battling advanced cancer. He had lost his legal residency years earlier following a felony conviction tied to a car accident and subsequent addiction, but had since married, rebuilt his life, and worked as a truck driver.

A Haitian citizen who entered the U.S. in 2023 and was paroled was arrested in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida on April 16, 2025 for battery. After conviction on November 4, 2025, he was detained by immigration agents on November 10, 2025 and transferred to Central Valley Annex in California. The court granted his habeas petition, finding he was not subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2) and ordering a bond hearing within 14 days.

Justo Betancourt, detained by ICE for six months starting October 2025, was released in May 2026 after a federal judge granted his habeas corpus petition. He lost 22 kilograms during detention, suffered strokes and a diabetic coma due to withheld insulin, and experienced neurological damage including tremors and mobility impairment. A federal judge found his arrest wrongful.

Multiple Haitian nationals deported from the United States described arriving in Haiti with little money and missing property. Reginald Dorvilma, 36, arrested in Orlando after a fight with his roommate, said a friend disappeared with his banking password and money, leaving him with less than $40 and no way to pay for a dangerous trip home through gang-controlled territory. Dikenson Gerard, 29, said his hometown of Gressier had become so dangerous his family fled, and he feared being killed trying to reach them. Natacha Antoine, 42, a former nurse's aide who lived in Indianapolis for four years and cared for 10 patients, was deported after being accused of a sham marriage, which she denies, and said she was shackled during the flight and never had her $600 passport returned. Ribeneks Dorvil, 29, detained at a Marion County immigration court hearing after five years in Indianapolis, said his iPhone worth up to $2,000 went missing from his returned property. Bruno Chery, 34, arrested at a Massachusetts court hearing while carrying more than $6,000, said authorities never gave him access to the money after moving him between detention facilities, saying, 'I lost everything.' A Human Rights Watch report released in September, based on interviews with 44 deportees, found the U.S. has deported more than 470 people to Haiti since July, with flights landing in Cap-Haitien because the Port-au-Prince airport is considered too dangerous; the city's population has tripled to more than 1 million as it absorbs new arrivals. Interviewees said they went hours without food or water and days without bathing while in U.S. detention, and that documents and money were not returned upon arrival. One 38-year-old man interviewed for the report had lived in Florida since 2019 working at the same hotel for six years before being deported, leaving behind his wife and 5-year-old U.S.-citizen son.

A father from Guatemala, separated from his daughter at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2017, was returned to Guatemala under the first Trump administration but came back to Florida in 2021 to reunite with his children under the Ms. L settlement agreement. He was re-separated from his children in October 2025 after being stopped in West Palm Beach while performing landscaping work near Mar-a-Lago. He was detained first at Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades, then transferred to Camp East Montana in Texas, where he reported being fed moldy food with worms and berated by guards; he also learned that a fellow detainee died from mistreatment. The ACLU filed a motion on behalf of detained Ms. L parents, and he was released in April 2026. Though reunited with his children, he continues to feel tracked through ankle monitoring and required bi-weekly ICE check-ins, and his children worry he will not be present when they leave school.

Garcia's husband was arrested by a Manatee County sheriff's deputy on a DUI charge last October and transferred to ICE custody. He is being held at a detention center in California. Garcia, a mother of three, works as a cleaner and party venue staff member while applying for a T visa (trafficking victim relief) for both herself and her husband at a cost of approximately $15,000. She disclosed that at age sixteen, smugglers brought her into the U.S. and held her against her will for years in what she describes as kidnapping; her husband faced labor abuse as an H-2A visa migrant farmworker before overstaying. Since his arrest, Garcia has taken only one day off for an immigration appointment. Most of her earnings go toward legal fees and her husband's detention account so he can purchase food and make phone calls home. With limited funds remaining, she struggles to feed her children and has had to forgo celebrating family birthdays and holidays.

Amanda Ungaro, a 41-year-old Brazilian former model who lived in the U.S. for over 20 years, was arrested in June 2025 on fraud charges related to unlicensed cosmetic procedures at a wellness center in Florida. She was detained for approximately three and a half months at ICE facilities in Miami and Louisiana before being deported to Brazil in October 2025. Ungaro alleges that her ex-partner Paolo Zampolli, a Trump special envoy and father of their teenage son, contacted senior ICE officials to ensure her detention and deportation amid an ongoing child custody dispute. Zampolli and the Department of Homeland Security denied the allegations, with DHS stating the removal was based on visa overstay and fraud charges. The case remains open with an arrest warrant issued should she return to the United States.

A father from an unnamed country who was separated from his daughter at the US-Mexico border in 2017 and reunited with his children in Florida in 2021 was detained by ICE in October 2025 at Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades and transferred to Camp East Montana in Texas. While detained, he experienced poor conditions including mouldy food with worms and witnessed a fellow detainee's death from asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. The ACLU filed a motion and he was released in April 2026, but remains subject to ankle monitoring and bi-weekly ICE check-ins.

Marcos Antonio De Oliveira Barros, 57, has been held at Broward Transitional Center in Florida for nearly six months since his September 2025 ICE detention for overstaying his tourist visa. His daughter Daianne, an American citizen, filed an I-130 petition to initiate his green card process and launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal costs, citing financial hardship as the detention has impacted her family's income from their construction business.

Denny Lener Abad, a Venezuelan actor and singer known on social media as Lener Abad, was detained by ICE agents on September 18 while traveling from Miami to Orlando for work commitments. He has lived in the U.S. for more than four years, has a pending immigration case, and holds a valid work permit and driver's license, according to people close to him. He is currently being held at the Indian River County Jail in Vero Beach, Florida. Abad is known for appearing in the Puerto Rican reality show "PR La Casa del Campo," and family and friends say he has no criminal record and are requesting help spreading information about his case.

Costa Rican content creator Julián Valverde, known online as Julián Valjota, has been released after being detained by the Polk County Sheriff's Office for driving with an expired license, an incident that led to him being turned over to ICE. A Florida state judge set bail at $250, and Valverde confirmed he regained his freedom and will be able to remain in the United States for now. In an emotional video posted to social media, he thanked family, friends and strangers who supported him during his detention, including reuniting with his sister, and said the experience taught him a lesson about responsibility.