Human Impact Project

Indoniel Lázaro Barrio, a 15-year-old Cuban boy, was deported from the United States to Guyana with his father. After his father's sudden death, the boy was left alone in Guyana. His mother, Indala Saura, a legal resident in Miami, is seeking urgent help to bring her son back to Florida, where he had lived and studied for the past four years.

The United States has deported hundreds of unaccompanied Mexican children on flights to southern Mexico cities including Tapachula, Villahermosa, and Mérida, where human rights organizations confirm more than 350 cases. Many children lack resources to return home safely and have become stranded in unfamiliar cities with inadequate local support services. Some children have disappeared from shelters, and human rights advocates have received information suggesting possible deaths of at least three children attempting to return to their home communities. The policy, discovered in December 2024, represents a shift from prior practice of rapid deportations at the land border where children received care through Mexico's child welfare system.

An estimated 71 Nigerian, African, and other foreign nationals were expelled from the United States on a 26-hour ICE deportation flight on July 31, routing through Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, and Ghana. Passengers, including Mohamed Barry, said GEO Group-contracted guards subjected them to verbal and physical abuse, bound at least two detainees in full-body straitjackets, and refused to let them use the lavatory. Barry said he witnessed an ICE agent instruct a foreign official to return detainees to their home countries despite protection orders barring such removal, a practice known as chain refoulement that violates U.S. and international law.

Sebastian Ralios Tino, a Guatemalan landscaper with no known criminal record, was detained in summer 2025 after nearly two decades in the U.S. without legal status. His son, Army Spc. Romero Ralios, spent nine months in 2024 deployed to the Southern Border Joint Task Force supporting Customs and Border Protection, and has since struggled with sleep and expressed remorse over families separated during his deployment. His commanding officer, Capt. Mohamed Elmaola, publicly criticized ICE for detaining Ralios' father, telling the AP that his father deserves due process and that it is difficult to lead when subordinates lack support. An AP investigation found more than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since the start of the Trump administration, with at least six deported and eight still in custody; DHS said military service does not exempt individuals from immigration law.

Luis (Kike) Espinoza, an Executive Chef who has lived legally in the United States since 2022 with a valid work permit, was detained by ICE during what was supposed to be a routine monthly immigration court hearing in Texas. Espinoza, who formerly worked as head chef at El Secreto de Rosita restaurant, moved to Texas to build a life and support his two children in Peru. His sister, who works as a chef at Nabiha restaurant, is organizing a GoFundMe campaign to help cover legal costs as the family works with an attorney to seek his release. The community has described Espinoza as a beloved member who has given much to the people around him.

Ángel Muñoz, known on social media as Ángel Muñeco, was detained by ICE on August 6. His wife Blondi, a content creator known for her height, confirmed the detention, saying she did not want to make a video about it but did so for his fans. The couple went viral roughly a year earlier after his marriage proposal, and their wedding was celebrated by thousands of followers online. Blondi says Ángel is legally in the United States and that their marriage is valid, but he now faces an administrative process that could result in deportation.

Brayan Omar Sánchez, a 26-year-old Honduran truck driver and owner of a pressure-washing and painting business who had lived in South Florida for nearly a decade after fleeing gang violence that killed his father and other family members, was detained by ICE agents on May 13 while heading to a job site. He was transferred through detention centers in Colorado, Arizona, California and Texas before being flown roughly 21 hours to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, on July 30 along with five other men — Cuban nationals Omar Rodríguez, Arístides Fernández, Yasmany Moreno and Daniel Lázaro Fuente, and Ecuadorian Mauricio Alvarado. Sánchez said he never signed deportation paperwork, believed he had asylum protection and a court order preventing removal, and said an ICE officer threatened the group with violence the night before if they refused to board the plane. He described arriving with only $20, which was confiscated by customs, and said he and the others are being held at a hotel in Bangui fearing for their safety. Sánchez is asking the Honduran government and members of Congress to help secure his return to the United States.

Soraya, a Ghanaian woman who fled to the US in 2024 after her family discovered her sexual orientation and sought to harm her, had been granted US withholding of removal to prevent her return to a country where she would face persecution. Despite this protection, she was deported to Cameroon on January 15, 2026, alongside two other Ghanaian LGBTQ+ women, as part of a group of 36 migrants sent under the Trump administration's third-country deportation agreements. The women described being shackled during the journey, with one saying, "I felt like a terrorist because what on earth did I do to be shackled like that." They were held for about two months in a government compound in Yaounde and were released only after staging a hunger strike. They must now return to the compound each night by sundown and are barred from working while their asylum claims in Cameroon remain pending. Their lawyer, Fru Joseph, has raised concerns that the women face heightened risk of persecution in a country they have no ties to.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested multiple undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes including murder, sexual assault of children, kidnapping, and robbery across the United States. The arrests included individuals from El Salvador, Honduras, Burma, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Laos, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Belize, Guyana, Peru, and Costa Rica. The DHS spokesperson stated that these enforcement actions removed dangerous criminals from communities.

ICE agents detained three men outside a courthouse in Southern California, raising concerns among local immigration advocates about enforcement activities near judicial proceedings. The detentions highlight ongoing worries about ICE operations in sensitive locations such as courthouses, where immigrants may be seeking legal assistance or appearing for hearings.

An opinion piece argues that ICE detention facilities function as camps rather than mere detention centers, citing over 65,000 people currently confined and at least 52 deaths in ICE custody since the second Trump administration began. It highlights a woman in Arizona detained for 16 months without adequate treatment for her leukemia, who has lost more than 70 pounds and regularly vomits blood, and describes a now-closed Florida facility where detainees were allegedly held in a two-by-two-foot outdoor punishment cage.

A citizen of Armenia was admitted to the United States in February 2013 and has lived in the U.S. for over 13 years. He was placed into removal proceedings in 2023 and found removable by an immigration judge in September 2023. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed this determination in January 2024. In April 2024, an immigration judge released him from custody on a $20,000 bond with an order of supervision, which he complied with for over two years. On July 30, 2026, he was unexpectedly detained by ICE during a routine check-in. He is married to a United States citizen, and his wife is due to give birth to their first child on August 17, 2026. On August 4, 2026, a federal judge granted his motion for a preliminary injunction, ordering his immediate release based on a violation of his due process rights, as he was re-detained without a pre-deprivation hearing before a neutral decision-maker.

A Laotian refugee admitted to the U.S. in 1983 and lawful permanent resident since 1986 was detained by ICE on July 30, 2026, during a routine check-in without prior notice or opportunity to be heard. ICE officers informed him they had obtained travel documents for his deportation to Laos and cancelled his 26-year order of supervision, placing him into custody despite his attorney's notice of intent to file a motion to reopen immigration proceedings. The court granted a temporary restraining order requiring his immediate release and prohibiting his re-detention without notice and a pre-deprivation hearing before a neutral decisionmaker.

A man whose daughter was killed has been detained by ICE while fighting to remain in the United States. He has been actively involved in investigating his daughter's death and pursuing justice in her case. Despite progress in his legal efforts to stay in the country, he remains in ICE custody as his case continues.

A family was detained by ICE less than two days after a federal court ordered their release, violating the court's directive. The family had been in immigration proceedings when the court issued an order for their freedom, but ICE apprehended them again shortly after, defying the judicial decision.

The petitioner was detained by immigration authorities and, according to the government's return, was arrested on July 29, 2026 pursuant to a Warrant of Removal (Form I-205). He filed a pro se habeas corpus petition arguing that his detention is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), that he was not shown a warrant bearing his name at the time of arrest, and that his continued detention without an individualized bond hearing violates due process. He sought immediate release or, alternatively, a bond hearing. The government acknowledged he is subject to detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). The court declined to order immediate release but found a bond hearing to be the appropriate remedy. The court granted the petition and ordered respondents to arrange a bond hearing before an immigration court within seven days, and denied his motion for a temporary restraining order as moot.

Cristobal S. was forcefully detained by ICE agents on November 10, 2024, at 7 a.m. when agents smashed the window of his truck and cut him while removing him from the vehicle. He is the sole breadwinner for his family, leaving behind three children and his mother. His family is seeking financial assistance through a GoFundMe campaign to cover bills, legal fees, food, and other basic needs during his detention.

An unnamed detained immigrant who began a hunger strike between October and December 2025 was subjected to forcible medical treatment in ICE custody, including force feeding, forced hydration, forced urinary catheterization, and involuntary blood draws, according to an ICE Health Service Corps document reviewed by the Guardian. The document confirms the Trump administration's use of forced medical treatment on hunger strikers since Trump began his second term. Healthcare associations and international human rights groups have described such practices as torture. An ICE Health Service Corps budget forecast noted at least seven detained people were on hunger strike in February 2026.

The petitioner, who had previously been released on parole in 2023 and again possibly in March 2026, was re-detained by immigration authorities on July 27, 2026. He is currently held at the Central Valley Annex Detention Facility. Government attorneys gave shifting and inconsistent explanations for the legal basis of his detention, first claiming he was subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1), then changing position to argue he was held under the discretionary detention statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). He filed a pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus and a motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing that his re-detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing violated his due process rights. The court agreed, finding the case indistinguishable from its prior rulings requiring a neutral-arbiter bond hearing before re-detaining someone previously released on parole or bond. The court ordered his immediate release under the same conditions that applied before his July 2026 detention, without additional restrictions like electronic monitoring, and ruled that any future re-detention requires seven days' notice and a pre-deprivation bond hearing.

ICE officers placed a Nigerian man and other detainees in full-body WRAP restraint devices during a September deportation flight to Ghana, despite the detainees being shackled and asking to speak with attorneys. The AP documented at least 12 cases in the past decade where local law enforcement's use of the WRAP contributed to deaths, and identified ICE's use of the device in multiple deportations since 2020. A 2023 DHS civil rights report raised internal concerns about the device's use, citing reports of deaths, yet ICE continues deploying it despite the manufacturer's guidance for lower-threshold situations.