Human Impact Project

A 27-year-old Filipino housekeeping attendant identified as C was removed from a Carnival cruise ship docked in Baltimore by CBP agents who questioned him about child sexual abuse material. Agents examined his phone but found no evidence of illegal content. C denied all allegations and was never shown evidence or charged with any crime. His visa was revoked and marked cancelled without prejudice, and he was deported to the Philippines, ending his maritime career.

A 37-year-old Guatemalan woman, identified in court papers as D.N.N., was arrested by masked ICE agents at a routine immigration check-in in Baltimore on May 7, 2025. She had previously been granted withholding of removal in 2012 after an immigration judge found she would likely face torture or persecution if returned to Guatemala, but ICE sought to deport her to Mexico as a third country. She was transferred from New Jersey to a tent facility in Texas and then to New Mexico, losing contact with her husband, young daughter, and lawyer along the way.

19-year-old Javier Salazar, a Venezuelan who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2022, was arrested in Maryland and detained by ICE on suspicion of gang membership based on a photo showing what may have been a toy water pistol. A Supreme Court intervention blocked his deportation to El Salvador hours before he was to be removed. His legal battle continues as the Trump administration seeks to expedite his removal.

An undocumented Maryland mother whose teenage son died of cancer while she was in ICE custody has requested deportation to Mexico. Officials did not release Martinez-Carrada in time to see her son before his death in late January, though she was permitted to attend his funeral.

Eliezar was detained by ICE on March 13 while returning home from work. After being held in an ICE detention center for weeks, he decided to self-deport to Guatemala. His wife Josselin and three children (ages 11, 6, and 16 months) were left without their sole income provider.

In Maryland, a federal agent sitting outside a church, waiting for the target of his operation to leave his house, acknowledged to journalists that they could never have conducted such an operation before the sensitive locations policy was rescinded.

Jorge Reyes Medina, a Mexican father of four, was arrested in Baltimore in March 2025 and held at the George H. Fallon Federal Building before being transferred to Arizona and then California. After a federal judge ordered ICE to return him to Maryland for a bond hearing as part of a habeas corpus petition, he was moved through Louisiana, Pennsylvania, back to Baltimore, then Louisiana and Texas again. He was denied bond, and a judge ordered his deportation on June 23, 2025; no appeal was filed.

Val, a Mexican national, was apprehended during a Department of Homeland Security check-in in March and deported under expedited removal, leaving behind his 7-year-old son Alex and partner Renee in Baltimore. The deportation is one of thousands of ICE enforcement actions in Maryland under the Trump administration—arrests surged 165% compared with 2024—causing widespread anxiety and stress among immigrant families in the region.

Elmerson Campos, a 45-year-old from Guatemala who has lived in Easton for 24 years, was arrested by ICE on February 5 and transferred through multiple detention facilities, eventually being held in California. His truck was later found at a local car wash, and he told family by phone that he felt very sick and had not eaten in over a day. A federal judge ordered ICE to release him on bond or schedule a bond hearing by February 23. Campos, who owns a construction business and has no criminal record beyond a 2007 traffic citation, has not received his medication for diabetes and a back injury while detained; a friend started a GoFundMe that has raised over $3,100 to help cover the family's legal and living expenses.

In Maryland, ICE agents arrested a transgender woman married to a U.S. citizen after she appeared for a routine probation check-in. She was then transferred to an all-male detention facility in Miami even though her lawyers said they had provided a passport listing her gender as female. When her attorney objected to her being held with men, ICE responded in writing that "as per executive order, your client's immutable, biological, classification is that of a male." The White House later posted about her case on social media, and her lawyers say they no longer know her current location.

Eduardo was detained by ICE in January while driving home from work with a coworker. He was deported to Honduras within a week, leaving his wife Jennifer to care for their five children alone, ranging in age from 18 months to 12 years old. The family now faces financial crisis as Jennifer struggles to provide food, housing, utilities, and basic necessities on her own.