Human Impact Project

Maria Rocha-Martinez, mother of U.S. Naval Academy midshipman David Garcia, was detained by ICE on Aug. 25 while attending a scheduled green card interview at a USCIS office. She had lived in the U.S. for over 35 years, paid taxes since 1992, worked in the courts, and had been granted parole in place as a military family member while pursuing legal status. She was transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas and later deported to Mexico. DHS said she had a prior removal order and had reentered the country unlawfully. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who had nominated Garcia for the Naval Academy, tried to intervene and described Rocha-Martinez as someone who was 'doing everything the right way' and had 'raised a bright young man with good character who is serving our nation.' Castro said ICE denied his office's request to visit her in custody, citing a 48-hour advance notice requirement for congressional visits.

Ya'akub Vijandre, a DACA recipient, Filipino activist, and photojournalist, was arrested at gunpoint at his home in Texas last October by federal immigration agents and has since been held at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in Georgia. His lawyers say he was targeted because of his photojournalism and social media posts critical of the Israeli genocide in Palestine and the U.S. government's treatment of prisoners held under the war on terror. A federal judge denied the Trump administration's attempt to block him from seeking release from ICE custody.

An 18-year-old Honduran student was traveling by bus from Houston to California to begin university studies on a scholarship when he was deported to Honduras instead. His mother is now searching for answers about what happened to her son during the trip.

An unnamed Cuban man detained at the GEO Group-run Montgomery ICE Processing Center near Houston, Texas, was arrested by ICE on July 22 and declared a hunger striker three days later. DHS says he entered the U.S. unlawfully in 1980, was ordered deported in 2004, and has prior convictions; he currently lacks legal representation and many of his court records are sealed. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen authorized force-feeding, first via nasogastric tube and later approving a rare, nonconsensual surgical gastrostomy (PEG) tube procedure, with the order extended into September. DHS later said the man had resumed eating and drinking and was not being force-fed, though it remains unconfirmed whether the surgical procedure was performed. ACLU of Texas attorney Savannah Kumar and civil rights attorney Eunice Cho criticized the tactics as torturous, noting the case is likely the 19th in which ICE has sought court approval for involuntary medical procedures on hunger-striking detainees since January 2025.

The Gámez-Cuéllar family—parents Luis Antonio Gámez Martínez and Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar López, and their three sons Antonio (18), Caleb (12), and Joshua (14)—were detained by ICE on February 25, 2026, during a routine immigration check-in in Edinburg, Texas. The family had legally entered the U.S. in May 2023 through the CBP One asylum app and were in active asylum proceedings with a final hearing scheduled for September. Antonio was separated from his family and shackled during transport to an adult detention facility in Raymondville, while his younger brothers and parents were held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. Two of the brothers are award-winning mariachi musicians with McAllen High School's Mariachi Oro band, which has performed at the White House and Carnegie Hall and won eight state championships. After approximately 13 days in detention, bipartisan congressional pressure from lawmakers including Rep. Monica De La Cruz and Rep. Joaquin Castro, combined with a successful parole request by their attorneys, resulted in the family's release on February 28, 2026. The parents were required to wear ankle monitors and restrict travel to 75 miles from their home.

Felipe Flores and Daniel Ramirez, a 30-year-old Texas resident raised in Brownsville, were deported together on a flight to Guatemala City as part of a broader U.S. policy that has sent at least 2,200 Mexican nationals there this year. Before the flight, Flores spent days in cramped U.S. detention facilities without being able to shower or brush his teeth, followed by a 15-hour stint in handcuffs, calling the policy "negligent." After release in Guatemala City, both men crossed back into Mexico and faced a long, costly bus journey home, with Ramirez's route leading him to Matamoros, on the border across from Brownsville. Mexico's government has told U.S. authorities it opposes sending Mexican citizens to Guatemala, saying every Mexican has the right to enter national territory directly.

Daniel Ramirez, a 30-year-old Texas resident born in Mexico's Tamaulipas state and raised in Brownsville, was detained by U.S. immigration agents near his home and held for days in detention without being able to shower or brush his teeth before being shackled for a 15-hour flight to Guatemala City under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy. He was then bused across the border into Tapachula, Mexico, more than 1,000 miles from the U.S. border, joining at least 2,200 Mexican nationals sent to Guatemala this year as part of a broader program that has deported about 22,000 people to third countries, with roughly 19,000 sent to Mexico. Ramirez, who lived in the U.S. for years without legal status, said the transfer felt like "a punishment for us so we don't go back again." He later took a multi-day bus trip to Matamoros, near Brownsville, where he found work painting cars.

Gilberto Jacobo Mata was taken into ICE custody on August 31, 2026 while on his way to work. He had lived in the United States for 14 years and was the sole income provider for his four children, ages 1 1/2 to 14. Family members describe him as a hardworking man who treated others with kindness and are raising funds to cover legal fees and support his children.

The petitioner was detained at a facility in or near Vinton, Texas, though his exact facility and immediate custodian had not been reliably confirmed to him or his supporters at the time of filing. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, along with a motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent his removal from the country and to prevent his transfer outside the Western District of Texas without advance notice. The court found it lacked jurisdiction to stay his removal because such claims are barred under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g) as directly connected to execution of a removal order. The court did find it had jurisdiction over the underlying habeas petition itself, since it was filed in the district of confinement and named the facility administrator as respondent. The court noted that its jurisdiction would not be lost even if he were transferred to another facility after filing. The motion for a temporary restraining order was denied in full.

Victor Salgado Araujo, 44, was detained by ICE on July 7, 2026, after witnessing an ICE agent fatally shoot his brother, Houston homebuilder Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, while the two drove their construction crew to a job site. He was held for 54 days at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center, where he missed his brother's funeral. The three detained witnesses filed habeas petitions and sought U visas, and reported pressure from ICE to self-deport while in custody. Victor was released in late August 2026, the last of the three witnesses freed, and reunited with his family. His attorney said he is expected to testify before the Harris County grand jury investigating the shooting while pursuing a U visa and facing separate removal proceedings.

A Venezuelan family, including a father, a mother who was seven months pregnant, and their 7-year-old son, was arrested by ICE during an interview for DHS's self-deportation program, according to Fwd.us president Todd Schulte. Rather than assisting the family in leaving the country as promised, DHS incarcerated them, and the mother has reportedly not received proper medical care while detained at the Dilley family detention facility.

Luis Hernández, a 38-year-old Nicaraguan migrant who marched in Nicaragua's 2018 pro-democracy protests, had been denied asylum but granted protection from deportation under the Convention Against Torture. He was detained at a routine immigration check-in in February and taken to a Texas tarmac on Aug. 28, where he says he was struck twice in the back and once in the knee with pepper-spray canisters and was never notified he would be sent to Africa. He told the Los Angeles Times he went days without eating or sleeping after arriving in Bangui, where he was housed in a complex monitored by armed guards.

A relative of Brenda Dumas who holds a valid work permit was detained by ICE in Port Isabel and, after being held, was released with an ankle monitor, becoming one of more than 50,000 people the agency is tracking with the devices. The family member requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the federal government. Dumas said she now uses a phone app to track family members' locations and stays in constant communication with them out of safety concerns.

Jesús Bracho, a San Antonio father, and his 9-year-old daughter Katherine, a student at Bonnie Ellison Elementary School, were detained near Loop 410 and U.S. Highway 90 in San Antonio. Bracho said ICE agents arrested him during a traffic stop, then released him and forced him to lure Katherine out of their home so agents could detain her as well. The two were held together for more than a month at the South Texas Immigrant Processing Center in Dilley. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro visited the family and said Bracho was moved to tears with guilt, believing he was responsible for his daughter's detention. Their case drew concern from family members, activists, and Katherine's classmates before the two were released together from Dilley.

A 51-year-old native of Mexico who entered the U.S. lawfully in 1993 and remained for 33 years while raising a family was detained on May 29, 2026, during a routine traffic stop after local law enforcement learned of his immigration status. He had been cooperating with immigration authorities, submitting applications for lawful permanent residency that were approved by USCIS and appearing for required biometrics appointments. The court granted his preliminary injunction petition, finding he possessed a constitutionally protected liberty interest and was entitled to pre-deprivation process before detention, ordering his immediate release.

Maria Betania Uzcategui Castillo, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker with valid work authorization through 2030, was detained by ICE agents along with her two children, 11-year-old Victor Uzcategui-Labrador Jr. and 8-year-old Monserrat Uzcategui-Labrador, at a school bus stop in Alamo Heights, Texas. The family had arrived at the border in 2021 seeking asylum, complied with prior immigration requirements, and had a future court date scheduled for 2027. Both children attended Cambridge Elementary in the Alamo Heights Independent School District and were reported as deeply traumatized by the arrest. They were held for 17 days at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, the nation's largest family detention facility, while community members organized a rally and raised more than $28,000 for legal fees. Her husband, Victor, and attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch worked toward their release, and U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ultimately ordered the family freed pending future immigration hearings. The case has been cited as part of a broader pattern of ICE arrests occurring near school bus stops nationally.

Ana Kikabidze, a green card holder from the country of Georgia, was detained with her children, 11-year-old Lizi and 14-year-old Nikoloz, for 58 days at the Dilley immigration detention facility in South Texas. An immigration judge ordered the family's deportation, warning that appealing the decision could mean months more in detention, so Kikabidze abandoned her fight to end her children's confinement. "It felt as though the decision to deny us had already been made in advance," she said, "and that nothing I said would have changed the outcome." Her case is one of more than 66,000 parents and children detained and deported since the Trump administration began requiring immigrants to remain locked up while their cases are decided, according to an analysis by Relevant Research. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee found the administration had repeatedly violated the Flores Settlement, citing prolonged detention and inadequate medical care at Dilley, and appointed an independent monitor to oversee conditions for detained children there and at other facilities.

Daniel Tirado Pantoja, 43, a construction worker who had lived in the U.S. for roughly 30 years and was applying for a green card, was detained by ICE on July 7, 2026, after witnessing the fatal shooting of his employer, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, during a Houston traffic stop. Tirado Pantoja, who has a U.S. citizen son and stepdaughters and is in a common-law marriage with a legal permanent resident, disputed ICE's account of the shooting, saying agents were never in front of the van when they opened fire. Held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, he lost 20 to 30 pounds and suffered depression linked to the trauma of the shooting and detention conditions, according to advocates supporting his family. U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett ruled his detention violated due process and ordered his release, and he was reunited with his wife outside the detention center on August 26, 2026.

ICE agents wearing masks boarded a Houston METRO bus to carry out arrests, prompting outrage among local residents. The incident drew public reaction over safety concerns for people using public transit in the city.

The petitioner is currently detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas. He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging his immigration detention. The court ordered federal respondents to file a response within 7 days addressing the date he entered the United States, whether he was previously apprehended and released by immigration authorities, and the current status of his immigration or removal proceedings. The petitioner was granted the opportunity to file a reply within 7 days after the response is filed. The document does not provide further details regarding his nationality, family circumstances, or the specifics of his apprehension.