Human Impact Project

Jesus Ramirez Ramos was detained by ICE at North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, for nine months. Upon release, he had no way to return to his home in Salina, Kansas, and ICE had lost his cellphone and his clothes remained unwashed in storage. Delight Lester, a 66-year-old volunteer with Hope for Neighbors advocacy group, picked him up and drove him more than 900 miles home in her Toyota Prius, providing him with fresh clothes, snacks, and a phone for the journey.

Karliana Yosdeylin Perdomo-Gotopo, a 20-year-old women's soccer player and business major at Cleary University in Michigan, was detained by ICE on May 26, 2026, during a traffic stop in Lincoln Park. Perdomo entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in September 2022 at age 15, fleeing political persecution in Venezuela, and graduated high school with honors in Detroit in 2023. She had a pending asylum application and her mother believed she held valid Temporary Protected Status documentation through October 2026, though the Trump administration had previously ended TPS protections for Venezuelan nationals. A witness reported the stop appeared targeted based on her Latina appearance. Perdomo was transferred to North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan.

Gabriel Leiva was detained at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan. He fought with staff who removed him from his pod and requested to be killed while handcuffed and shackled. After being placed in solitary confinement, he covered his cell window, kicked the door, and displayed suicidal behavior. When police responded to a 911 call, he expressed confusion about being in solitary confinement.

John Doe 5, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in his country of origin, had stable mental health while living with family before detention. After being detained at North Lake Processing Center, his mental health sharply declined—a change noted even by the immigration judge assigned to his case. By December 2025, eight months into his detention, he became non-verbal and unresponsive to his surroundings. He was subsequently moved to a dedicated medical facility for additional care, confirming that North Lake was not equipped to handle his needs.

Jane Doe, who has had high blood pressure for 10 years, experienced a medical emergency consistent with a hypertensive crisis after being denied her prescribed blood pressure medication at North Lake Processing Center. When she signaled distress to staff, they mocked her by making hand gestures rather than providing aid. Her blood pressure reached 229/134, well beyond the threshold of a hypertensive emergency, and she was transported to the hospital in shackles. The ACLU of Michigan and Michigan Immigrant Rights Center documented her case as part of a broader investigation into dangerous medical neglect at the facility.

Yerlys Moreno López, a Venezuelan asylum seeker who entered the United States legally in 2024, was injured during an ICE enforcement encounter on May 19 after agents attempted to pull her over near her home on Detroit's eastside. According to her sworn statement and medical records, after crashing her SUV, she exited the vehicle and was tackled to the ground by ICE agents, sustaining a fractured kneecap, lacerations, head trauma, and injuries requiring emergency surgery. Medical records indicate she told hospital staff her injuries occurred after exiting the vehicle, contradicting ICE's account that she was injured in the crash itself. She was transferred to North Lake detention center despite doctors' recommendation for transfer to a Cincinnati ICE facility better equipped to meet her medical needs. Her attorneys filed a federal habeas corpus petition seeking her immediate release, citing inadequate medical care at the facility.

Sanan Atou, 43, who lived in metro Detroit for more than 30 years and is not an Iraqi citizen, does not speak Arabic, and has not been in Iraq since childhood, was deported to Baghdad on Feb. 22, days after telling U.S. Reps. Hillary Scholten and Haley Stevens about conditions at the North Lake Processing Center. His attorney says the timing suggests the removal was retaliation for speaking out, though ICE says the deportation was scheduled before the visit. An Iraqi federal court has ruled Atou is not considered an Iraqi national by lineage or law, and his brother has called the deportation a "death sentence."

A woman was released from ICE custody in March 2026 by a federal court in Arizona, but was re-detained by ICE on April 27, 2026 when she reported to the Detroit ICE field office for a routine check-in. She was subsequently transferred to facilities in Louisiana and Texas without explanation or allegation of any violation of her supervision terms. The court granted emergency relief ordering her immediate release.

Approximately 200 to 1,400 detainees at North Lake Processing Facility, a 1,800-bed ICE detention center in Baldwin, Michigan, began a hunger and labor strike on Monday, April 21, 2026, to protest conditions including medical neglect, slow ICE communication, and prolonged confinement. The facility, operated by private prison company GEO Group, holds detainees with average stays of 49 days, though some have been held for nearly six months. By Wednesday morning, detainees in at least one unit had stopped the strike.

Miguel Rosas Ruiz, a 50-year-old widowed father of four U.S. citizen children in Michigan who has run Rosas Painting in Ypsilanti since 2003, was detained by ICE on March 10, 2026, after being intercepted near Carpenter Road while on his way to work. He was held at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, while his oldest daughter, Morelia Rosas Martinez, 22, postponed her college plans to care for her three younger siblings and raised over $20,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. Rosas Ruiz challenged his detention in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, which conditionally ruled on April 9 that his detention violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights; he was granted bond at an April 15 hearing and reunited with his family the next day. His case is one of more than 100 identified by CNN involving U.S. citizen children separated from parents through ICE enforcement actions in 2025.

ICE agents conducted a high-risk traffic stop around 9 a.m. on April 14, 2026, near Beakes Street and North Fifth Avenue outside a children's daycare in downtown Ann Arbor, taking the driver into custody. Agents surrounded the vehicle with multiple cars, approached with guns drawn, and left the scene before local police arrived, abandoning the suspect's vehicle in a bike lane. Ann Arbor's mayor and police chief say the arrest occurred without their knowledge or participation, with the mayor criticizing the tactics as designed to intimidate the community. Mayor Christopher Taylor also said ICE was acting indiscriminately and questioned the agency's legitimacy.

Miguel Rosas Ruiz, a Mexican-born business owner and father of four from Ypsilanti, was detained by ICE on March 10, 2026, while driving to work on Carpenter Road and held at the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin. His daughter, Morelia Rosas Martinez, spoke publicly about the emotional impact of his detention, and the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor City Councils passed resolutions advocating for his release. On April 16, 2026, Rosas Ruiz was released and reunited with his family, with Rosas Martinez describing a sense of relief at his return home.

Civil rights groups including the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and ACLU of Michigan say ICE enforcement activity has increased at or near Michigan hospitals and clinics following federal withdrawal of guidelines that previously restricted law enforcement in health care settings. Health care providers report a rise in ICE encounters and worry about increased fear among patients and staff.

ICE officers abducted a mother dropping her child off at Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Arnoldo Jose Marquez-Pulido, 33, was arrested on March 4, 2026, outside a Sam's Club in Utica after resisting federal agents conducting surveillance based on reports of undocumented immigrants working as delivery drivers. During the altercation, Marquez-Pulido grabbed a Homeland Security agent's firearm and injured two investigators before being tackled. He faces federal charges of assaulting and resisting an officer and illegal firearm possession, with a potential sentence of up to 20 years if convicted.

An ACLU legal fellow visited the North Lake Processing Center in Michigan to meet with a detained Venezuelan woman seeking asylum. The author describes arbitrary security screening practices, including being required to remove her underwire bra, and documents severe detention conditions including inadequate food, limited outdoor access, medication costs passed to detainees, and a recent death at the facility. The detained woman, who entered the U.S. legally through CBP One screening and a port of entry, was separated from her 3-month-old infant after a false accusation by an abusive ex-partner and faces an impossible choice between deportation to Venezuela or relocation to Ecuador without her child.

Nenko Gantchev, a 56-year-old Bulgarian national who lived in Chicago for 30 years, died on December 16, 2025, while in ICE custody at North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, operated by GEO Group. He had been arrested in September 2025 during an immigration enforcement operation. Gantchev had type 2 diabetes and deteriorating health conditions that advocates say went untreated. His death prompted calls from his family and U.S. Representatives Haley Stevens and Hillary Scholten for an immediate investigation. The lawmakers toured the facility and expressed frustration that the Department of Homeland Security has not responded to their inquiries about his death, which ICE attributed to natural causes. Immigrant rights advocates, including the ACLU of Michigan and Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, documented that multiple detainees at the facility have been denied emergency and routine medical care, prescription medications, and follow-up care after hospitalization. Gantchev's family has sought a private autopsy.

A dog was left alone and frightened after his adopter was encountered by federal immigration officers and hospitalized, then prevented from contacting anyone. A hospital social worker alerted the Humane Society of Huron Valley, which rescued the dog. The adopter's current immigration status and whereabouts remain unknown.

Osmary Garcia, who entered the U.S. legally through the CBP One app during the Biden administration, was detained by immigration officers in February 2026 after dropping her children off at school, and held for three months before agreeing to voluntary departure. After the Trump administration revoked legal status for CBP One entrants and ended the asylum program under which the family had been admitted, her husband Hector Marin and their six children, who had not lived in Venezuela in nine years, joined her there with help from Detroit Public Schools staffer Kristen Plonsky. Two weeks after the family reunited, two major earthquakes devastated the region, leaving the children traumatized by the destruction.

ICE agents detained multiple parents near a school bus drop-off spot in Ypsilanti while students were arriving or departing for school. Local school officials and the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office confirmed the detentions occurred near bus stops, though not on school property itself. The superintendent stated the school district does not voluntarily cooperate with ICE and described the circumstances as distressing.