Human Impact Project

Ruperto Vicens Marquez, head chef at Emilio's Kitchen in Atlantic Highlands, was detained by ICE on October 19, 2025. According to ICE, Marquez is from Mexico and has a final removal order, though his lawyer disputes this claim and states he has a pending merits hearing scheduled for 2028. Marquez has valid work authorization through 2029 according to Atlantic Highlands Mayor Lori Hohenleitner, and his wife and three children remain in the U.S. A protest was held in support of Marquez, and a GoFundMe campaign has raised $85,000 to cover legal fees.

New video footage from May 9, 2025 reveals details surrounding the federal arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at Delaney Hall, a migrant detention center. Rep. LaMonica McIver and House colleagues had arrived for an unannounced visit when the arrest occurred. McIver was subsequently indicted for allegedly impeding the arrest and assaulting federal officers; she has pleaded not guilty.

Fanny Jakelinne Núñez, 38, is caring for her eight-year-old son, Néstor Josias, alone after her husband, Néstor Luis Rivera Chavez, was detained by ICE in October 2025 while running errands in New Brunswick. Her son is medically fragile, requiring constant monitoring of oxygen levels, feeding through a gastric tube, medication administration, and seizure management. Since her husband's detention at Delaney Hall in Newark, Núñez has lost the family's sole income and the only person physically able to help transport and care for her son. The family fled Honduras, where adequate medical care for their son's condition was unavailable, and came to the United States where the boy gained weight and began receiving necessary treatment. With her husband detained, Núñez struggles to afford rent, food, transportation, and medical visits, and fears that deportation would force them to return to Honduras and endanger her son's life.

Federal ICE agents apprehended two people in Maplewood using unmarked cars. According to local officials and advocacy groups, three masked ICE and Border Patrol agents loaded the two arrestees into unmarked, out-of-state vehicles on Prospect Street around 11 a.m. The local police department was not notified of the incident, and the township does not cooperate with ICE.

Allison Garcia, a 17-year-old U.S. citizen honors student, was left to manage her family's mortgage and finances alone after her mother Patricia Balbuena Soto was arrested by local police on a domestic dispute warrant in July 2025 and subsequently deported to Mexico by ICE in August. Garcia missed 21 school days, dropped two AP classes, and saw her 4.8 GPA decline to 3.5 while working extra shifts to cover household expenses. Her $10,000 college fund was depleted by her mother's legal defense costs.

Blerim Skoro, a 55-year-old Kosovo-born cab driver from Staten Island, New York, was detained by ICE agents on August 3 while attending a scheduled immigration appointment in Newark, New Jersey. Skoro, who has an American wife and three children, says he spent years working as a confidential informant for U.S. intelligence agencies including the CIA, FBI and DEA, infiltrating al-Qaeda training camps in Pakistan and helping secure convictions of members of al Qaeda, al Shabaab and Hezbollah after cooperating with authorities following a 2000 drug conviction. In 2022 he was granted a deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture due to the risk he would face if returned to Kosovo. His attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition on August 4 challenging his detention and seeking to halt deportation, arguing a prior ruling requires a judge's permission before removal. Skoro says he fears being killed if returned to Kosovo and remains held at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey.

Jose Chajon-Raxon, a Guatemalan man, was detained at Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, on July 18. The next day, he experienced a seizure and was taken to University Hospital. He was released from ICE custody on July 22 but subsequently died. DHS did not publicly disclose his death, citing a 2023 policy change stating that ICE is no longer responsible for monitoring or reporting deaths occurring within 30 days of someone's release from custody. U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez disclosed the death publicly and criticized the policy as creating a "loophole" that allows ICE to avoid accountability.

Gloria Barazone, a 46-year-old Colombian national married to U.S. citizen Mounque 'Monk' Barazone, was arrested by ICE on July 30 at Newark Liberty International Airport while traveling from New Jersey to Miami. She had entered the U.S. on a tourist visa and had a pending green card application, work authorization request, and Social Security number application after nearly three years navigating the immigration process with her husband, whom he described as a former airport security chief and polygraph examiner in Medellín, Colombia. ICE said she had overstayed her authorized stay, which ended July 17. She was held in New Jersey before being transferred to Louisiana and then the South Texas ICE Processing Center, with her husband saying the transfers disrupted legal efforts and increased the family's legal costs. Mounque Barazone, 77, said he is partially disabled with worsening heart problems, is postponing surgeries, and is pledging his Social Security payments toward her legal defense. He said Republican lawmakers he contacted for help told him they needed consent forms from her to intervene, and he said he does not regret voting for Trump despite his wife's detention.

Patricia Balbuena Soto, a mother of three who had lived in New Jersey for approximately 30 years since age 19, was arrested on July 24, 2025, by Atlantic City Police on charges including criminal mischief and property damage. She was transferred to ICE custody on July 25, 2025, and deported to Mexico on August 5, 2025. According to DHS, Balbuena Soto had been previously removed from the country four times and illegally reentered a fifth time, which constituted a felony. Her 17-year-old daughter told Newsweek she felt alone after the separation and was forced to navigate daily life without her parent.

Don Lupe, a warehouse worker from Puebla, Mexico who had lived in the U.S. for 27 years, was the first worker arrested when ICE agents raided Alba Wines and Spirits in Edison, New Jersey on July 8. Agents handcuffed him with zip ties and transported him to Delaney Hall detention facility. His daughter, a pre-school teacher, learned of the raid mid-class when her mother called crying. The family of six children surrounded their mother, who suffers from asthma, depression, and high blood pressure, as they frantically called immigration lawyers for hours. Don Lupe had hidden his fears about the raids from his wife to protect her health, but prayed each morning before leaving for work that God would let him come home. He was eventually released after legal advocacy and reunited with his family.

Four detainees escaped from Delaney Hall, a privately-owned immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, on June 12-13, 2025, by breaking through inadequately constructed interior and exterior walls. The escape occurred amid reports of disorder at the facility, including complaints about delayed meals, poor conditions, overcrowding, and unhygienic facilities. Two of the escapees—Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez from Honduras and Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada from Colombia—were recaptured by federal authorities by June 12-13. Two others—Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon, a Colombian national—remained at large as of mid-June, with the FBI offering up to $10,000 for information leading to their arrests. All four face federal charges of escape from custody. DHS stated the escapees have criminal histories, and facility management announced plans to move detainees out over the following 24 hours.

A federal judge dismissed trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka related to a standoff at a migrant detention center. The judge stated that the 13-day process from arrest to dismissal was problematic and instructed prosecutors that their duty is to justice and not solely to securing convictions. Baraka had visited Delaney Hall, a facility housing immigrant detainees, as part of an oversight visit with members of Congress. Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted for allegedly impeding the arrest and assaulting federal officers; she has pleaded not guilty.

Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was indicted on three counts of forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers following a May 9 incident at Newark's Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. The indictment, announced June 10 by U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, carries a maximum sentence of 17 years if convicted on all counts. McIver has pleaded not guilty and stated she was conducting lawful congressional oversight duties. McIver and her attorney deny the charges and characterize the prosecution as political retaliation.

Sen Miao Lin, a 67-year-old Chinese man, was detained at Delaney Hall ICE detention center where he repeatedly asked for but never received medication for his Type 2 diabetes and hypertension for nearly a month. At one point during his detention, he collapsed, lost consciousness, and was rushed to the emergency room. His attorney filed a federal lawsuit alleging this medical neglect in May 2025. His case is one of over 70 lawsuits filed by detainees at Delaney Hall alleging medical neglect and deficiencies at the facility.

ICE transferred 20-year-old Cristofer Ortega from New Jersey to a detention center in Louisiana despite having an approved legal pathway to citizenship through Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Ortega, who arrived in the U.S. at age 9 and has no criminal record, was detained after an encounter while completing his HVAC certification. ICE is planning to deport him to Honduras before he can apply for his green card.

Jorge was detained by ICE on March 23 when he arrived for a scheduled biometrics appointment as part of his U visa application, a pathway to legal status for crime victims. According to his wife, staff delayed him, told him to wait, and then contacted immigration authorities. ICE agents entered and detained him immediately. Jorge has no criminal record and is a survivor of gun violence. He is currently held at Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention facility in Newark, and has not received an initial court date to determine if his detention is lawful.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Emine and Celal Emanet, owners of Jersey Kebab restaurant in Haddon Township, New Jersey on February 25, 2025. The couple, who came from Turkey nearly two decades ago on visas, had fallen out of legal status and were being detained by ICE. Celal Emanet was released with an ankle monitor, while his wife remains in ICE custody awaiting a bond hearing scheduled for mid-March.

During a targeted ICE enforcement operation at a worksite in Newark, immigration agents detained both undocumented migrants and U.S. citizens, according to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Among those detained was a U.S. military veteran whose military documentation was questioned during the raid. Baraka stated that ICE agents failed to produce a warrant and violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Rep. LaMonica McIver called for answers from the Department of Homeland Security about how the agency was permitted to detain citizens and a military veteran without a warrant.

D.E., a 44-year-old Mexican national, was detained by ICE without a warrant just two blocks from his home in Long Branch, NJ, interrupting chemotherapy scheduled to begin the same week for a brain tumor he has had for 12 years. He was initially held at Delaney Hall in Newark before being transferred to the California City Detention Center, where a CoreCivic guard was more than five hours late delivering his twice-daily seizure medication, Keppra, leading to a severe nighttime seizure. D.E. said he jammed his arm between his bed frame and the wall to keep himself from falling into the nearby toilet during the episode, and later filed a written medical grievance requesting a cancer specialist that went largely unaddressed. His case was cited in a broader review finding that the immigration detention grievance system, meant to allow detainees to report medical neglect and abuse, has collapsed amid the dismantling of federal oversight offices.