Human Impact Project

Amanda Isabel Cardoso, a 22-year-old Cuban immigrant living in Tampa who was awaiting a green card, was arrested in Orlando in August 2024 while pregnant and subsequently detained by ICE for nearly three months at Otero County Processing Center in rural New Mexico. During her detention, Cardoso received minimal prenatal care despite being in her first pregnancy—the facility lacked ultrasound machines and she was denied access to her medical records. After her release in February 2025 following legal intervention by immigration attorney Sam Badawi, Cardoso was diagnosed with preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, conditions medical experts say can be triggered by stress. Cardoso, who fled Cuba after her grandmother was killed in an act of political violence, now faces ongoing uncertainty about her immigration status and potential separation from her baby if detained again.

Four journalists and an attorney were detained by plainclothes police in Yaounde, Cameroon on February 19, 2026, while investigating Trump administration deportations of third-country immigrants to the African nation. The journalists were beaten during the detention, and their equipment was confiscated. They were attempting to interview recently deported individuals and film a facility holding deportees. All five people were later released. Press freedom groups raised alarm over the incident, which occurred as some deported immigrants were sent to Cameroon in violation of court orders protecting them from deportation to their home countries.

A noncitizen who had been previously released on bond or conditional parole was re-detained by immigration authorities on February 19, 2026, without being provided a pre-deprivation bond hearing. The court found this violated his due process rights and ordered his immediate release with the same conditions he had prior to detention. The court ruled that the government must provide at least seven days' notice and a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter if they seek to re-detain him.

A Cameroonian asylum seeker who fled persecution by the military presented himself at the U.S.-Mexico border on February 16, 2026, and was placed in immigration detention. He received a positive credible fear determination and was granted withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture, but an Immigration Judge found him inadmissible and denied asylum. After 17 months in detention and two failed removal attempts (to Canada and Equatorial Guinea), the court ordered his immediate release under supervision, finding removal no longer reasonably foreseeable.

Eight migrants from Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Ethiopia, Angola, and Zimbabwe were deported to Cameroon on February 16, 2026, as part of a secret third-country removal program. They were held in detention in Yaoundé without documentation, due process, or contact with attorneys, and faced conditions including inadequate food and coercion to 'voluntarily' return to their home countries.

An NBC News investigation found that Department of Homeland Security officers conducting Trump's immigration crackdown used less-lethal weapons including rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray on protesters. Officers shot 13 people with guns and injured hundreds more. Courts in at least four states found that force was used inappropriately and indiscriminately. The use of these weapons began in late spring and summer in California and Oregon, expanded to Chicago in the fall, and reached Minneapolis where officers shot and killed two protesters.

A man who entered the United States in July 2017 and worked in the pipeline industry for five years, and who is the father of a U.S. citizen residing in Florida, was detained by ICE on February 12, 2026. He had previously been in removal proceedings that were closed in January 2024. The federal court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release, finding that his detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1) was improper since he had been continuously present in the U.S. for more than two years.

Alejandro Villegas Angel was one of two other immigrants released by a lower court in February 2025 after the judge granted bond hearings. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Angel's habeas petition, freezing the lower court's release order and sending the case back into legal limbo pending full appeal proceedings.

A boat carrying a passenger who had been bused from the U.S. to Tapachula, Mexico, alongside Venezuelan journalist Roberto Betancourt capsized on February 10, 2026, near Gaigirgordub island in Panama's Guna Yala archipelago, killing two Venezuelan women and one Colombian man. The vessel, identified as the Maryi and based in Miramar, Colón province, was carrying 16 migrants; one Venezuelan survivor was pulled from under the overturned boat by local divers and later transferred to Panama City for medical care. Many of the Venezuelans on the late-January deportation bus had been told by immigration agents that it would take them to Mexico City to board a plane to Caracas; when the bus instead continued to Tapachula, some attempted the dangerous route south through Central America and Panama to reach Colombia's northern coast. A separate boat carrying migrants capsized in the same region hours earlier, with all aboard surviving.

A Venezuelan family who legally entered the U.S. through the CBP One program and were released on notice to appear in court chose to self-deport to Mexico after ICE arrested the husband and son. The family said ICE agents came to their home in New Mexico claiming a routine status check, detained the husband from his workplace, and took the son from a construction site. The remaining family members decided to relocate to Mexico rather than risk deportation to Venezuela.

Obeth Eduardo is currently in ICE custody. His sister is raising funds to cover attorney fees for his legal defense and case preparation. The family states this is the second time they are facing an ICE enforcement situation.

Yadira Córdoba, a member of the Asociación Madres de Abril and mother of Orlando Córdoba, a 15-year-old killed by pro-government forces near the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería during Nicaragua's May 30, 2018 protest march, fled Nicaragua in 2023 after facing persecution and threats. She was arrested by ICE in San Antonio, Texas while attending an immigration appointment and held in custody starting August 20, 2025; in November 2025 a judge denied her asylum claim and ordered her deported to Honduras, which twice refused to accept her. On February 5, 2026, she was deported to Mexico, where she remained in Tapachula under the supervision of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission while filing an asylum application with the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR).

A man was taken into custody by ICE on February 4, 2026, after being referred by the Stanislaus County Probation Department. He had previously turned himself in to ICE in June 2015 and was released on an order of recognizance with the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. He was convicted of a crime in 2022 and violated the terms of his supervision, leading to his re-detention. On March 24, 2026, an immigration court denied bond, stating it lacked jurisdiction. He filed a federal habeas corpus petition challenging his detention and seeking immediate release. On April 24, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted his petition, ordering his immediate release on the same conditions he was subject to before his February 4, 2026 re-detention, and enjoining ICE from re-detaining him without notice and a pre-detention hearing before an immigration judge.

Francisco Benjamin Sanchez Obregon was initially apprehended at the border on September 22, 2022, then paroled the next day until November 2022. Over three years later, he was arrested on February 4, 2026, and detained pending removal proceedings. The court found he had a protected liberty interest from his initial parole and ordered his immediate release due to lack of due process.

An attorney stated that ICE arrested a mother. The attorney noted that ICE enforcement priorities differ from focusing on individuals with criminal records.

A Chinese national was re-detained by ICE on February 2, 2026, after previously being released on supervised release in October 2023 following a removal order. He had complied with all terms of his supervised release. The court granted his motion for preliminary injunction and ordered his immediate release on the same conditions as his prior supervised release.

A 7-year-old girl from Venezuela was detained with her parents by immigration agents outside a Portland, Oregon hospital in January 2026 while seeking care for a persistent nosebleed. The family, who had entered the U.S. in 2024 under humanitarian parole and settled in Gresham with an active asylum case, spent 21 days in a federal detention center in Texas. They were released after a member of Congress intervened, following public advocacy campaigns, including calls for supporters to contact DHS, that had drawn attention to the case.

Diego, from Ecuador, was surrounded by three ICE agents as he sat in his vehicle in February. He cried out for help ("¡Auxilio! ¡Ayúdenme!"), which drew a neighbor to her window. The neighbor witnessed the arrest and partly captured what happened on her phone. When Diego emerged from the vehicle, his face was bloody.

Harold, a 58-year-old Cuban national, was deported to Mexico in February 2026 as part of the third-country deportation program. He finds himself unable to work due to lack of documentation, unable to afford food and rent, and without clear prospects for legal status or support.

Lázara Santana, 57, migrated to the United States from Cuba at age 11. She lost her refugee status 20 years ago for selling drugs. For two decades she checked in annually with Immigration and Customs Enforcement under parole conditions and held work permits while raising her son, a U.S. Marine who served in Afghanistan and voted for Trump. In fall 2025, ICE took her into custody at a check-in and deported her to Mexico, where she was given the choice of Congo or Mexico. She now rents a shared room with money sent by her partner and fears leaving her house.