Human Impact Project

Jose Angel Rodriguez Loa was detained by ICE on August 4, 2025, after a traffic stop on I-10 and Culebra in San Antonio. He was placed in an unmarked black SUV and transferred to an immigration detention facility. His family hired an immigration attorney and is fundraising to cover legal fees, with hopes he may be allowed to stay.

The Trump Administration opened Camp East Montana, the largest immigrant detention facility in the country, at Fort Bliss military base in West Texas in August 2025. Detainees initially arrived at an active construction site with non-functioning toilets, sporadic running water, and no outdoor recreation, and ICE withheld facility location information from families and lawyers. In May 2026, the ACLU, ACLU of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project and a law firm sued ICE, citing at least three detainee deaths including a homicide, a nearly monthlong measles outbreak, and nearly 50 detention standards violations found by ICE's own inspectors. The groups also allege medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse by officers, and denial of meaningful attorney access; ICE replaced the facility's prime contractor in March 2026, but advocates say conditions have continued to deteriorate, while DHS has called the allegations categorically false.

An anonymous woman who says she is a U.S. citizen reported that ICE agents mistreated her and her husband near FM 495 and Stewart Road in Mission, Texas. She said agents had their feet near or on her husband's head while restraining him, and that she stepped in because she feared for his safety. She alleges the agents then struck her and continued treating her aggressively. The account has not been independently verified.

Miguel Angel Ponce Jr., a U.S. citizen from Texas, was detained by ICE agents who mistakenly identified him as a wanted violent offender. He was handcuffed and held for approximately 90 minutes to two hours before agents compared his tattoos to a photograph and realized their error. After his release, agents allegedly suggested he shave his beard to avoid future confusion, a request Ponce found disrespectful and said he would never comply with. Miguel Angel Torres, a 14-year resident of Austin who worked as a cook, was detained by ICE on February 12, 2017, after dropping off their three daughters at school in Pflugerville. His wife, Irma Perez, says ICE officers in an unmarked van mistakenly sought to arrest her brother, Jose Manuel Perez, but detained Torres instead when he said he was not her brother. The family, including Torres's undocumented wife and three U.S. citizen daughters, abandoned their home and dreams of opening a food truck after the detention.

K.N., a minor U.S. citizen, was arrested along with his sisters while approaching a construction site raid. Federal agents drove K.N. to his mother's home and held him outside the fence while asking him if his mother was "illegal," then threatened to take him into federal custody while demanding his mother produce identification. According to MALDEF's Federal Tort Claims Act claim, agents used K.N. as "bait" in an attempt to lure his mother, a lawful permanent resident, into the street to investigate her immigration status. MALDEF seeks $2.5 million in damages for personal injury and emotional distress.

Hector González, a 38-year-old construction worker, was crushed to death by falling building materials on July 21, 2025, during construction of Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss. OSHA cited three subcontractors in January for safety violations involving powered industrial trucks, while declining to cite prime contractor Acquisition Logistics; one of the cited subcontractors, Base International, is owned by Nathan Albers, a Trump campaign donor whose companies had prior infractions including employing undocumented workers and violating wage laws. A report released by the watchdog group Public Citizen detailed the violations and noted the camp has since been linked to the deaths of three detainees in December and January amid allegations of inhumane conditions. ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics with Amentum Services as the facility's prime contractor last month.

U.S. Border Patrol agents raided Don Chilaquiles food stand in La Puente on December 3, 2025, detaining three workers. Video footage shows agents seizing a cash box from the stand and placing it in an unmarked vehicle. One worker fled to a nearby firetruck during the operation, and an accident occurred between an agent's vehicle and another car at the scene.

Nicolle Orozco Forero, her husband Juan Sebastian Moreno Acosta, and their two sons were detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas in June 2025 after arriving for a routine ICE check-in appointment. The family, who had been living in Seattle for two years, were separated by gender during their three-week detention. Their son Juan David, who had a serious kidney condition requiring medical treatment including a recommended biopsy, was denied adequate medical care by ICE officials. Despite legal efforts and community mobilization including support from U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro, the family was eventually deported.

Nine anti-ICE protesters were tried for their roles in a July 4, 2025 demonstration outside an ICE detention facility in Prairieland, Texas. Eight defendants were convicted of material support for terrorism charges, with prosecutors arguing that wearing black bloc clothing assisted in the shooting of a police officer by protester Benjamin Song. Song was convicted of attempted murder for shooting the officer in the neck and faces up to life in prison, while other defendants face up to 15 years on the terrorism charges.

Kenia Perez, who had lived and worked in Texas for 10 years, was deported to Honduras by ICE after her arrest, leaving her three children without a caregiver. Her 14-year-old son, Isaac, could not immediately join her because he lacked a passport, so he later traveled to Honduras on his own about a month after her deportation. Her two younger children, both US citizens, eventually obtained passports and also joined their mother in Honduras.

Svetlana Romanova, a 59-year-old Russian woman who fled to the U.S. after protesting Russia's war in Ukraine, has spent approximately eight months detained at the CoreCivic Houston Processing Center despite her deteriorating mental and physical health. Islam Musaev, a 28-year-old Kyrgyzstani man who was granted asylum by an immigration judge in March, remains detained after the Department of Homeland Security appealed his case. Data shows detainees at Houston-area facilities are being held significantly longer since the start of Trump's second term, with average stays more than doubling at some facilities.

Svetlana Romanova, a 59-year-old Russian who fled to protest the Ukraine war, has been detained for approximately eight months at CoreCivic Houston Processing Center. She reports inadequate medical care, significant weight loss, and suicidal ideation that was dismissed by staff. An immigration judge ruled against her asylum claim in April; she has appealed, citing risk to her life if returned to Russia.

On June 27, 2025, a Border Patrol agent initiated a vehicle stop on a white Chevy Tahoe near the Rio Grande. The driver failed to yield and drove the vehicle into the Rio Grande River. The driver was observed struggling in the water but subsequently lost sight. A body was recovered from the river approximately seven miles downstream later that morning and identified as the vehicle driver.

A video circulating online allegedly shows ICE agents in Harlingen, Texas following a family in an unmarked vehicle, making contact with their car, pulling the father out, and striking him while his children were present. The incident was posted on Instagram with hashtags related to ICE and immigration enforcement.

Pedro Luis Salazar-Cuervo, a 28-year-old Venezuelan migrant with no criminal record, was accused by Texas DPS of being a Tren de Aragua gang member based on a photo showing him with a tattooed man. He was deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador in March 2025. A Texas judge ordered the state to request his return to face trespassing charges in August.

Jose Francisco Orellana-Rivera, who arrived from Honduras at age 4 and was paroled into the community in 2001, was detained by ICE in June 2025 after 24 years of living freely in the United States. He is married to a U.S. citizen with two citizen children and was previously granted DACA. The court ordered his immediate release, finding his detention without a pre-detention hearing violated due process rights.

A 41-year-old man from Guatemala drowned in the American Canal near El Paso after crossing the border fence without authorization with two other individuals in June 2025. Border Patrol agents and Department of Defense personnel observed the three individuals enter the canal and rescued two of them. The third man was found unresponsive approximately two-tenths of a mile away. Despite CPR efforts by Border Patrol and fire department personnel, he was pronounced dead at University Medical Center.

Douglas Menjivar, a 50-year-old Salvadoran immigrant and activist who exposed sexual assault in immigration detention, was arrested by ICE in June 2025 during a routine check-in despite being married to a U.S. citizen and having a reopened legal case. After being detained at Montgomery County ICE facility and struggling with mental health issues, Menjivar and his wife decided he would voluntarily depart to Spain rather than face deportation, leaving behind his wife who had lived in the U.S. her entire life.

ICE agents detained three people outside immigration court in Harlingen, Texas, on June 10 after a judge dismissed their immigration cases during scheduled hearings. The detentions follow a January policy change by the Trump administration that rolled back restrictions on ICE arrests at courthouses, schools, and churches. Local immigration attorneys, including Carlos Garcia, met to discuss how to advise clients navigating the risk of detention while still being required to attend court.

ICE agents arrested multiple immigrants at the San Antonio Immigration Court on May 29, 2025, as they appeared for scheduled court hearings. At least one individual, possibly a minor, was detained using a zip tie. The arrests included a family with four children and were witnessed by staff from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained several migrants outside San Antonio Immigration Court on Thursday, including at least three families with seven people arrested in less than an hour. Activists confirmed that a 3-year-old child was loaded onto a bus with his mother and taken away by ICE. The detentions occurred as families appeared for court hearings.