Human Impact Project

Hilda Ramirez Sanan, 50, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the US for more than 20 years, was violently arrested by ICE on September 26 while accompanying a family member to a court hearing in Chelsea with her 13-year-old son in the car. According to the legal action, eight armed and masked officers surrounded her vehicle, smashed the car glass, and forcibly restrained her, kicking her and slamming her face on the ground while twisting her arms to handcuff her. Her son, who has autism, was also removed from the car and questioned by agents about his legal status while being held against a fence. When local police arrived and verified her valid green card, ICE released her, and Ramirez Sanan and her children were taken to a hospital emergency room for medical evaluation. Ramirez Sanan and her two US citizen children have now filed a lawsuit against ICE, alleging they were illegally and forcefully detained in violation of their constitutional rights.

Nicolas W., a 43-year-old father of four from Guatemala who owned a tow truck company, had a valid work permit, and had lived in the United States for 10 years, was arrested by ICE on September 26, 2025. He was walking to his truck after buying tools at Home Depot when a masked agent grabbed him by the arm, refused to let go, and told him to shut up. Agents searched him and told him he did not have the right to speak. He was taken to a station in Burlington, Massachusetts, and later transferred to Camp East Montana.

ICE enforcement actions in major U.S. cities on September 25-26, 2025 resulted in several incidents including an officer shoving a woman in a New York courthouse, tear gas used against protesters outside a Chicago detention center, and a woman injured during an arrest in the Boston area. A Guatemalan permanent resident named Hilda was forcibly detained in Chelsea, Massachusetts, sustaining injuries requiring hospitalization.

A 5-year-old U.S. citizen girl with autism was surrounded by ICE agents outside her family's home in Leominster, Massachusetts, while agents attempted to arrest her father, Edwards Hip Mejia, a Guatemalan national who had lived in the U.S. for more than two decades. Video showed the girl sitting in the driveway near an SUV as agents asked her father, who had fled into the house, to come outside. Her family and attorney said ICE used the child to pressure Hip Mejia into surrendering, while DHS said he abandoned his daughter in a car while fleeing agents after a traffic stop. Local police responded, and the girl was taken to a police station before being reunited with her grandmother after about three hours. Hip Mejia was detained by ICE two days later and is currently held at a detention center in Plymouth; his attorney said prior domestic-abuse charges cited by DHS had been dismissed, and a judge later granted him bond.

A couple expecting their third child is facing deportation. Their two other children, including a 5-month-old, have been placed with family members. LULAC has found legal representation and is seeking financial assistance to help care for their U.S. citizen children.

Sergio Ayala Mejia, a 36-year-old who arrived in the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor fleeing MS-13 gang pressure in Guatemala, was detained by ICE in September 2025 while dropping off his sister at work, separated from his newborn daughter Ailany and two other children. He was deported to Guatemala without a court hearing despite a pending appeal to reopen his case—the same day an immigration judge granted his motion to reopen and rescinded his 2007 deportation order. After four months in Guatemala, he was brought back to the U.S. on humanitarian parole in December 2025 but re-detained in New York for three additional months before being released on bond in March 2026. Ayala Mejia now fears driving and worries about the lasting impact on his children, including his 3-year-old son who developed anxiety during his absence.

A Chelsea, Massachusetts mother who is a U.S. citizen was detained by ICE in September 2025. Her 18-year-old daughter, Ana Michelle Ramirez Sanan, testified before a Senate committee about the encounter, describing finding their car with shattered windows and her mother being thrown to the ground during the incident.

Jemmy Jimenez Rosa, a 42-year-old legal permanent resident from Peru with a valid green card for over 20 years and mother of four, was detained by CBP and ICE for 10 days after returning from a family vacation in Mexico on August 11, 2025. Her detention was based on a marijuana possession conviction from over 20 years ago that had been pardoned and her record sealed. Rosa was initially held at Boston Logan International Airport for four days without proper medication or access to basic necessities, then transferred to a detention center in Maine without being informed she had legal representation despite CBP agents promising to relay that information. She experienced an anxiety attack during detention. She was not entered into any federal detainee database for three days, making it difficult for lawyers to locate her or seek a bond hearing. Her attorney challenged the detention as unconstitutional, leading to her release on August 28, 2025.

Maycon Souto Dos Reis, 54, a Brazilian national, was arrested by ICE during a targeted operation at Westborough District Court in Westborough, Massachusetts, on Aug. 3, 2025. He had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in June 2024 and was released into the country, later coming to ICE's attention after a May 2025 arrest for unlicensed driving in Southborough. ICE said he was convicted in Brazil on Sept. 14, 2024, and sentenced to over 14 years in prison, with an arrest warrant issued after he fled to the United States. His arrest came two days before Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed the state's PROTECT Act, which restricts ICE operations at courthouses, schools, child-care centers and health care facilities; he remains in ICE custody pending deportation proceedings.

Mireille Desormeaux, a Haitian green card holder, became a U.S. citizen in early August after suing the federal government with Project Citizenship over delayed naturalization. USCIS had frozen naturalization proceedings for applicants from 39 countries deemed 'high risk,' including Haiti, Venezuela, and Côte d'Ivoire. Twelve of the 14 plaintiffs in the lawsuit have since become citizens after months of unexplained delays.

Dong Van Nguyen, a 64-year-old Vietnamese refugee who fled to the U.S. in 1980, was detained by ICE on May 21, 2025 during a scheduled check-in appointment at the Burlington ICE office. He was enrolled in the alternatives to detention program. Greater Boston Legal Services filed a habeas corpus motion to challenge his detention. Nguyen now faces deportation to Vietnam after 45 years in the United States.

ICE conducted a series of raids in Waltham, Massachusetts in May 2025, resulting in at least 40 detentions. The operations sparked widespread fear in the community, with business districts becoming deserted and families worried about loved ones. Community groups launched neighborhood patrols and residents gathered for protests demanding limits on ICE actions and greater protections for immigrants.

Two men were detained by ICE agents in Waltham after one agent broke a van window during the encounter on Tuesday. A 16-year-old witness recorded the incident and informed the men of their rights. It remains unclear what charges the men face or the reasons for their arrest.

ICE agents surrounded a family's vehicle on Mother's Day, smashed the passenger window, and detained Daniel Flores-Martinez in front of his wife and three children as they drove to church. The agents used unmarked vehicles, some wore vests labeled "police" while others were unmarked, and did not provide a warrant or explain why Flores-Martinez was being arrested. The family filed a complaint seeking $1 million in damages, alleging violations of Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and that the agents deliberately chose to arrest Flores-Martinez while he was with his family. ICE agents conducted a vehicle stop in Chelsea on Friday morning to detain Jose Ramírez-Perez, who was in the country illegally and facing felony charges. During the stop, agents forcefully detained multiple family members including Hilda Ramírez, a legal permanent resident and mother of a 13-year-old U.S. citizen with autism. Video footage shows agents pressing and dragging Ramírez to the ground, breaking car windows, and temporarily detaining her son, resulting in hospitalization for both mother and child.

Police in Worcester, Massachusetts restrained a 16-year-old girl on May 9, 2025 while ICE agents detained her mother. Video footage documents the incident. The girl was charged with reckless endangerment, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

Daniel Flores Martinez was detained by ICE agents on Mother's Day 2025 after federal officers in unmarked cars surrounded his vehicle as he, his wife Kenia Guerrero, their three children (ages 3, 12 and 14) and his mother-in-law drove to church. Agents, who never identified themselves or their agency, broke the car window, dragged Flores Martinez out, and slammed him to the ground while his children screamed; Guerrero, who along with her children is a U.S. citizen, was restrained against the vehicle when she tried to intervene. Flores Martinez and Guerrero have since filed a federal lawsuit against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, alleging the agents used illegal "smash and grab" tactics in violation of constitutional protections.

Loic Adandedjan, manager of Dottie's Coffee Lounge in Pittsfield, decided to self-deport to Benin in late April after living in the U.S. for a decade without permanent legal status. His decision was prompted by intensified anxiety over ICE enforcement, particularly after his coworker was detained by ICE on April 22. Adandedjan had initially come to the U.S. on a tourist visa for medical treatment and was working toward a green card when he chose to leave.

Juan Francisco Mendez, a 29-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, was released from the Strafford County Jail on May 15, 2025, after being detained for 30 days following his April 14 arrest in New Bedford. An immigration judge set his bail at $1,500, the lowest amount possible, and Mendez was released wearing an ankle monitor. ICE agents had smashed his car window with an ax during the initial traffic stop while Mendez and his wife waited for their lawyer. Mendez is now working toward reunification with his wife and 9-year-old son.

Fabian Schmidt, a German-born electrical engineer and green card holder who was detained by CBP officers at Boston Logan Airport on March 7, 2025, and interrogated for days before being transferred to ICE custody at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Rhode Island, was held for a total of two months before his release. He now lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he has married his partner, Bhavani Hodgkins, with whom he has an 8-year-old daughter. Schmidt is paying roughly $60,000 in legal fees and related costs stemming from his detention, and says he is pursuing U.S. citizenship and writing a book about his experience. The German embassy had previously confirmed it was in close contact with U.S. authorities and the family during his detention.

E.F.D., an Ecuadorian immigrant and resident of Milford, Massachusetts, was granted protection from deportation to Ecuador in 2018 under the UN Convention Against Torture after fleeing threats and a robbery tied to his refusal to transport drugs for Ecuadorian police. In March 2025, ICE detained him and his coworkers during an unsuccessful search for another individual, holding him at the Plymouth, Massachusetts ICE detention facility. He was released after the D.V.D. v. DHS lawsuit challenging third-country deportations was filed, in which he is a named plaintiff.