Human Impact Project

Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana received its first 15 ICE detainees as part of the "Speedway Slammer" agreement, a two-year contract to house up to 1,000 immigrant detainees. The facility, which sits on a former air force base near Kokomo, has a history of violence and understaffing, with over 400 violent incidents logged annually in 2019-2021 and custody staff declining from 367 in 2015 to 288 as of 2025. Indiana has spent at least $12.5 million on the arrangement but received less than $5.1 million in federal reimbursement.

U.S. Rep. André Carson visited Miami Correctional Facility and spoke with detainees who reported systemic issues including a nonfunctioning intercom system, delayed medical care, inadequate healthcare, barriers to legal services, and lack of access to basic necessities. Two detainees, Lorth Sim and Tuan Van Bui, died in custody in February and April 2026. Carson is calling for a full investigation into both deaths and for the closure of the ICE detention center.

A citizen of Kyrgyzstan entered the United States without inspection on April 17, 2023, and has lived in the U.S. interior for nearly three years. DHS initiated removal proceedings and released him on an Order of Release on Recognizance (OREC) in April 2023. On February 20, 2024, he filed a pending asylum application. On March 12, 2026, Indiana State Police encountered him during a traffic stop, after which DHS revoked his OREC and ICE arrested him under an administrative warrant pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226. He has been detained at Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana since March 12, 2026. He is charged with inadmissibility as a noncitizen present in the United States without being admitted or paroled. The federal court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding that his detention without a bond hearing violates immigration law. The court ordered that by April 7, 2026, respondents must either provide him with an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge or release him under reasonable conditions of supervision.

Lorth Sim, a 59-year-old Cambodian national who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1983 and became a lawful permanent resident in 1986, died in ICE custody at Miami Correctional Facility in Miami County, Indiana on February 16, 2026. He had been arrested by ICE in Boston on December 30, 2025, and was transferred to Indiana to await deportation after an immigration judge ordered his removal to Cambodia. Sim was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead at 7:10 a.m.; the cause of death remains under investigation. His death was the seventh in federal immigration custody nationally in 2026. U.S. Congressman André Carson and other lawmakers have sought answers, and multifaith leaders held a seventh monthly vigil at Southside Christian Church in Kokomo calling for a thorough investigation and better treatment of detainees, citing concerns about medical neglect at the facility.

Jonathan Enrique Meza Ruiz, an Indiana man who came to the United States as an unauthorized minor nearly two decades ago, was ordered released by federal judge Matthew P. Brookman or granted a bond hearing by ICE. The ruling is part of a nationwide legal battle over whether the Trump administration can detain people in non-border areas for immigration violations and hold them without bond under a border-related legal provision.

A 22-year-old native of Peru fled to the United States with her family in September 2022 to escape death threats. She was paroled into the US after brief detention at the border due to facility overcrowding. While living in Illinois, she updated her address with ICE, filed an asylum application in July 2023, and married a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 2024. ICE issued her a Notice to Appear on May 2, 2024, but served it at an outdated Florida address, so she was unaware of removal proceedings held in her absence on October 2, 2025. At a virtual check-in appointment on February 5, 2026, ICE arrested her despite no warning in the appointment confirmation. She was held at Clinton County Jail in Frankfort, Indiana (later transferred to Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville). She sought to reopen her removal proceedings, which was granted on February 20, 2026. She filed Form I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) and Form I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence) with USCIS. She petitioned for habeas corpus relief, arguing her detention without a bond hearing violates federal law. The court granted her petition, ordering the government to provide her an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) by 5:00 p.m. on May 26, 2026, or release her under reasonable conditions of supervision.

A Mexican national who entered the United States without inspection in 1998 and has lived in the country for approximately 28 years was arrested on January 28, 2026, in St. Joseph County on drunken driving charges. ICE issued a detainer and an administrative warrant commanding his detention pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226. He was taken into ICE custody on February 24, 2026, and removal proceedings were initiated. On March 11, an immigration judge denied his request for release on bond, finding she lacked jurisdiction. He remained detained at the Clay County Jail without a bond hearing. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the lawfulness of his continued detention. On April 23, 2026, a federal district court granted his petition, finding that his detention without a bond hearing violates the Immigration and Nationality Act. The court ordered respondents to either afford him a bond hearing before an immigration judge consistent with 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) and pertinent regulations, or release him from detention within seven days.

Andranik Grigoryan, a New York resident detained at Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana, suffered a severe seizure on January 22—his first in nearly a year—after correctional medical staff failed to provide his prescribed anti-seizure medication (Keppra), which he had relied on for years to control epilepsy. He hit his head during the seizure and was left lying in a pool of blood before being taken to a local hospital for treatment. Upon returning to the facility the same day, officers pepper-sprayed him through a cell port while he was still recovering from the seizure and had difficulty standing, causing intense burning and respiratory distress, then moved him to another cell without letting him wash off the spray. The ACLU of Indiana filed lawsuits on his behalf on July 27 against Centurion Health of Indiana and unidentified correctional officers, alleging 14th Amendment violations; the Indiana Department of Correction said it had no statement, and Centurion did not respond to a request for comment.

Federal agents from ICE and U.S. Marshals Service raided a home in Gary, Indiana on October 23, 2025, taking an entire family into custody. The 26-year-old son reported being punched in the eye and choked during the arrest, while his parents—who lack legal immigration status—remain in custody. The two adult U.S. citizen children were released, but the family now faces four separate court cases and legal expenses.

Paramjit Singh, a lawful permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years and runs a business in Fort Wayne, was detained by ICE and DHS at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on July 30, 2025. He was held incommunicado for five days before being hospitalized, and his family only learned of his whereabouts when a hospital bill arrived. DHS has cited a 25-year-old infraction related to a payphone and an alleged 2008 forgery conviction that reportedly does not exist as grounds for his detention and removal. An immigration judge ordered his release on a $10,000 bond in August, but DHS filed an automatic stay to keep him detained. Singh, who suffers from a progressive brain tumor causing vision loss, remains held at the Boone County Jail in Kentucky, with removal proceedings scheduled for September 29.

ICE officers arrested Helda Araceli Mendez-Merida, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, during a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Indianapolis on September 3. DHS said Mendez-Merida had voted unlawfully in a past national election. She entered the United States through Arizona in September 2015, was apprehended by Border Patrol, and was released into the country under the Obama Administration; a DOJ immigration judge issued her a final order of removal on September 3, 2019.

Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw, who came to the United States from the Democratic Republic of Congo at age 9, was detained by ICE during her final green card interview on Aug. 12. She had married U.S. citizen Terrance Bradshaw, whom she met online in 2022, after her family's asylum case was denied, and her marriage-based petition had been approved by USCIS. The couple had held a traditional Congolese engagement ceremony blessed by both families in May 2025 and attended premarital counseling through their church. Officers separated her from her husband and 19-month-old son in the interview lobby, placed her in handcuffs, and she has no criminal history, leaving Terrance to care for their child while Armelle remains detained in an Indiana jail.

Leyla Navarrete, a Nicaraguan asylum seeker who has lived in Indiana for about three years and holds a work permit and Social Security number, was detained by ICE on August 7, 2025, during a scheduled check-in in Indianapolis, which triggered an expedited removal order. After a credible-fear interview found no credible fear and an immigration judge ruled he lacked jurisdiction over her bond request—though he said he would have set it at the lowest statutory amount—she remained held at the Grayson County Detention Center while eight months pregnant. On November 26, 2025, a federal judge in the Western District of Kentucky granted her habeas corpus petition, rejected the government's jurisdictional objections, and ordered her immediate release.

Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year-old Philadelphia man who arrived in the U.S. in 1990 through the Amerasian Homecoming Act, suffered a stroke and collapsed on April 1 at Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana, after being detained during a routine ICE check-in in Philadelphia the previous August and spending months at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. Fellow detainees said it took about 15 minutes for a guard to respond and 10 more minutes for medical staff to arrive, while an Iraqi detainee performed CPR; ICE said Bui had a history of asthma and hypertension and received appropriate medication, and the local coroner attributed his death to natural causes related to cardiovascular disease, though the exact cause remains under investigation. His family is asking that his body be returned to Philadelphia for burial and is calling for an independent investigation, noting that his wife suffered a stroke after he was detained. His death is among 50 in ICE detention since Trump took office in January 2025, a rate more than double the 2009-2024 average.

Domingo Juan Juan, a 49-year-old immigrant from Guatemala living in the U.S. without legal status, was detained by ICE on Feb. 12, 2025, in connection with a March 2024 crash near Seymour, Indiana that killed 27-year-old Brad Castner of Holton. Jackson County Prosecutor Jeffrey Chalfant said he contacted ICE to request Juan's detention, and deportation proceedings have since been initiated. Juan, who had never obtained a driver's license, was charged only with driving without a license; his detention was carried out under the Laken Riley Act, which mandates ICE custody for individuals facing charges tied to crimes resulting in serious injury or death. Castner's family attended a news conference on the case but did not speak.