Human Impact Project

Sergio Garcia Silva, a 65-year-old chef who lived in the United States for 36 years, was arrested by ICE at his food truck in Waco, Texas, and deported to Mexico on March 25, 2025. His only immigration infraction was a two-decade-old deportation order for illegal re-entry from 1989 that had never previously been enforced; he had no other criminal record. His restaurant, El Siete Mares, had once catered a breakfast for President George W. Bush's White House press corps. After deportation he was held captive by an extortion group and faced violence in Chiapas, Mexico. He was later apprehended by Border Patrol while attempting to return to the U.S., resulting in a second deportation in June 2025. The ordeal separated him from his four U.S.-born children, though his wife, Sandra, later reunited with him in her hometown of Monterrey.

Yasmir Marquez, a Venezuelan man with a pending asylum claim and work authorization, was detained by ICE agents outside the Richard C. White Federal Building in El Paso immediately after his immigration hearing on May 29, 2025. Agents presented a Department of Justice document stating his notice to appear had been "improvidently issued" and that circumstances had changed, allowing for his removal proceedings to be reinitiated. A friend who witnessed the arrest said agents initially called him by the wrong name before detaining him. Marquez is currently being held at the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico.

A person died after a human smuggling attempt ended in a vehicle chase and river crossing at the Rio Grande near Laredo. After Texas Department of Public Safety troopers attempted to stop a black Tahoe, nine people jumped into the river. One person was rescued, another drowned, and the suspected smuggler fled to Mexico.

Daniela Joly Serrano Landin, a 24-year-old Colombian asylum seeker married to an active-duty U.S. Army soldier, was arrested by ICE on May 12 after an ankle monitor malfunctioned, despite being granted parole. She was held at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia and later transferred to El Paso Processing Center. On Wednesday, she was released on a $10,000 bond after a hearing where her attorney argued her case.

Coast Guard agents rescued two migrants who were struggling to swim back to Mexico across the Rio Grande near the Texas border. The migrants had initially made landfall on the U.S. side with a group before attempting to return to Mexico. After rejecting medical assistance, they were taken to the Rio Grande Valley Central Processing Center.

Jenifer Gomez Hernandez, a 15-year-old girl from Chiapas, Mexico, was abandoned in Eagle Pass, Texas after suffering heatstroke and injuring her foot during her journey. She was last heard from on May 9, 2025, when a third person called using her phone before contact was lost. A migrant search and advocacy organization is asking the public for any information that could help locate her.

Two U.S. citizen children, ages 5 and 4, were deported to Mexico after their mother was lured to an immigration processing appointment under false pretenses. The mother, who was told she would be eligible for asylum and a work permit if she appeared for a routine check-in, was instead deported to Reynosa, Mexico along with her three children. The two youngest children are U.S. citizens who were deported without proper legal process or opportunity for informed consent from their mother.

Denisse Parra Vargas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was stopped for expired tags in North Austin on Thursday and later instructed to report to a processing center in Pflugerville on Tuesday. When she reported with her three children, ICE arrested all of them. Two of her three children are U.S. citizens. The family was deported to Mexico within 24 hours.

Cristian Ivan Ceballos Vega was arrested on felony voyeurism and misdemeanor criminal trespass charges after allegedly entering a family's property and engaging in sexually gratifying conduct while looking into their home where minors were present. ICE confirmed he is not lawfully in the United States. The arrest resulted from a joint effort by Ferris DPS, Texas DPS, U.S. Marshals Service, and ICE.

Nhon Ngoc Nguyen, a 55-year-old Vietnamese man, died on April 16, 2025, after 52 days in ICE custody at El Paso Service Processing Center in Texas. Medical reviewers attributed his death to end-stage dementia and acute-on-chronic respiratory failure. He had a Do Not Resuscitate order in place. His death was one of seven reported in ICE custody during the first three months of Trump's presidency.

A Houstonian who fled Honduras due to threats related to his sexual orientation was detained by ICE. Political groups have spoken out against the detention.

Adolfo Gutiérrez, an undocumented volunteer pastor who led the Spanish-speaking Casa Firme church in south Texas and ran a home remodeling business, was detained by ICE agents on March 18, 2025 while driving his daughters to school. His daughter Alondra said agents slammed him against his car door and took him away in a van without explanation. Gutiérrez, who had lived in Texas more than 15 years and was a father of three, was held at the El Valle Detention Facility near the border. His wife started a GoFundMe to cover attorney fees, and his church held a fundraiser for his legal expenses as family, church members, and business clients rallied support. His family said he 'pays taxes and works hard.' He was later deported, and his case was identified in a Newsweek analysis of at least 65 faith leaders detained by U.S. immigration authorities since January 2025.

Adrian Gil Rojas, a Venezuelan national, holds Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and has been detained at El Valle Detention Center for more than two months. He has a two-year-old son in the United States whose mother witnessed ICE officers illegally arrest Mr. Gil Rojas approximately two months ago, leaving their young son alone and traumatized. Mr. Gil Rojas also served as a trial witness in a murder case in Clinton County, New York, where he testified despite fears of retaliation and helped secure a conviction. He is challenging his detention through a habeas corpus petition, arguing that 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(d)(4) explicitly prohibits detention of individuals with TPS status on the basis of immigration status. The government claims it can detain him based on speculative predictions that his TPS may expire on April 2, 2025, and that a pending motion to reopen his removal case may be denied, but the petition argues this violates the TPS statute's unambiguous prohibition and that his removal is automatically stayed while the motion remains pending.

On April 1, state and federal police raided a party at an Airbnb in an Austin suburb, arresting nearly 50 people including nine children. The FBI, ICE, Texas Department of Public Safety, and Hays County Sheriff's Office claimed they targeted individuals connected to a Venezuelan gang, but offered no substantiating evidence; ICE arrested 35 individuals on unauthorized entry charges, with many subsequently deported through civil immigration proceedings rather than criminal prosecution. Among those detained were three siblings, including a 16-year-old boy, whose mother holds Temporary Protected Status and says her children have no gang ties or tattoos, noting they attended the party because her daughter's boyfriend, a DJ, had been hired to perform. The mother and her attorney said the siblings were separated into different detention facilities, and that Austin police and the Hays County Sheriff's Office initially denied involvement when contacted about the children's whereabouts. Protesters later gathered outside a federal building in Austin in an attempt to block vans transporting detainees, including the 16-year-old, from leaving the facility.

Jeankey Jhonayker Castro Bravo, a 24-year-old barber from Caracas, Venezuela, was stopped while driving for DoorDash in the Austin area on April 1. After showing his Venezuelan passport, a DPS trooper called in ICE. DPS accused him of gang affiliation based on his tattoos and arrested him for drug possession. He was held in jail for six months before the felony ketamine charge was dropped in October. He was subsequently deported to Venezuela.

Antonio Vizcaino González, a dual Venezuelan-Spanish citizen, was stopped by Texas Department of Public Safety for ignoring a stop sign while driving near an Airbnb in an Austin suburb on April 1. ICE agents arrived and found narcotics in his inner waistband, leading to a ketamine possession charge. He bonded out into ICE custody but was deported to Spain in May. The drug charge was later dropped by prosecutors due to lack of cooperation from federal law enforcement.

Jose Alexis Baeza-Combaluzier, a 26-year-old Mexican national, was driving a Ford Explorer suspected of human smuggling when U.S. Border Patrol agents attempted to stop him in McAllen, Texas. He fled and drove the vehicle into a canal about a half-mile away, where it became submerged. Agents rescued five occupants, including Baeza-Combaluzier, but a woman and a 13-year-old boy drowned; the woman's body was recovered on March 28, and the boy's body was found in the vehicle the following day. Autopsies determined both deaths were caused by drowning. Baeza-Combaluzier has been charged in connection with the smuggling deaths and faces up to life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.

Vicente Garcia Jr., 18, of Roma, Texas, was arrested after allegedly driving a vehicle involved in human smuggling operations in McAllen on March 28. According to federal prosecutors, Garcia was transporting a smuggled person to another smuggler, Jose Alexis Baeza-Combaluzier, who was driving a vehicle with four additional smuggled passengers. When law enforcement observed the suspected smuggling operation and attempted to approach, Baeza-Combaluzier drove through a flooded road and crashed his vehicle into a canal, resulting in the deaths of a woman and a 14-year-old child. Garcia faces up to life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.

Maria's father, an undocumented immigrant from Durango, Mexico, is currently in ICE custody facing deportation. He came to the United States with Maria's mother decades ago but was unable to obtain legal residency. After Maria's mother passed away in 2018, he attempted to legalize his status based on a new law but was ultimately denied and ordered to return to Mexico for 1–10 years. Maria and her grandmother, who are dependent on him, face financial hardship and loss of transportation as a result of his detention.

Jaime Cabriales-Carlos, a graduate student at UTSA, was detained by ICE on March 28th following a traffic stop in San Antonio and taken to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center. He came to the United States at age three, earned his undergraduate degree from UT Rio Grande Valley, and was pursuing a scholarship-funded master's degree at UTSA when detained. He is the oldest of four siblings, one of whom serves in the U.S. Army, and has an immigration court hearing scheduled for the coming week.