Human Impact Project

Luis Fernando Cabrera, an 18-year-old senior at Northeast Early College High School in Austin, was released from ICE custody on May 20, 2026, after being detained on May 1 while driving home from his job at Popeyes. A federal judge ordered his release and barred the Department of Homeland Security from deporting him while his ongoing asylum case is processed. Cabrera will be able to attend his high school graduation.

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.

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; federal court records suggest these were not prosecuted as criminal charges but rather processed through civil immigration detention, with many subsequently deported.

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.

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.

On March 28, 2025, Border Patrol agents observed a Ford Explorer suspected of human smuggling in McAllen, Texas. When agents activated emergency equipment and approached the vehicle, it fled and drove into a canal approximately one-half mile away, becoming submerged. Five occupants were rescued from the canal, but two individuals remained unaccounted for. A female was recovered deceased on March 28, and a juvenile male was found deceased in the vehicle on March 29. Autopsies determined both deaths were caused by drowning.

Jose Alexis Baeza-Combaluzier, a 26-year-old Mexican national, was driving a Ford Explorer involved in alleged human smuggling when U.S. Border Patrol agents approached the vehicle during severe flooding in McAllen, Texas. Baeza-Combaluzier fled and drove into a canal; agents rescued him and four migrants, but a woman and 13-year-old boy drowned in the incident. He has been charged in connection with the smuggling deaths and faces up to life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.

Jaime Cabriales-Carlos, a graduate student at UTSA, was detained by ICE on March 28th and taken to Karnes Country Immigration Processing Center. The post calls for an end to detention of students, professors, and staff.

A 53-year-old woman was detained by ICE while obtaining meat for a stew. Her 21-year-old daughter Samantha describes the incident. The woman is a long-term undocumented resident who has lived in the United States for three decades.

Sergio Garcia Silva, a 65-year-old chef who lived in the United States for 36 years, was deported to Mexico by ICE on March 25, 2025. He had no criminal record and owned a Mexican restaurant business in Waco. Garcia had entered the U.S. in 1989 and spent 25 years attempting to become a U.S. citizen before being arrested at his food truck and deported within one day. The deportation was based on a two-decade-old deportation order for illegal re-entry that had never been previously enforced. After deportation, Garcia was held captive by an extortion group in Mexico and was apprehended by Border Patrol when attempting to return, resulting in a second deportation in June 2025. The deportations separated him from his family, including four children, who remained in the United States.

Asad Esmaeily, a 35-year-old Iranian political activist, was detained and tortured by Iranian authorities for organizing protests and distributing materials opposing the regime—officials fractured the bone above his eyebrow and subjected him to waterboarding. He fled Iran with his pregnant wife, Farzaneh Nazi, traveling through South and Central America and arriving at the U.S. border on March 20, 2025. Nazi was released on parole due to her pregnancy, but Esmaeily remained in ICE detention. His asylum claim was denied, and his case is being appealed through an immigration court system that has denied relief to hundreds of others.

A Cameron County grand jury issued a 'no bill' on March 15, 2025, in the death of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez, who was shot by a Homeland Security Investigations agent on South Padre Island. Federal officials claimed Martinez attempted to run over an ICE agent, but a passenger's statement indicated the car was moving slowly and the agent fired without warning. Martinez's family requested a federal investigation and release of records.

Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during a traffic stop in South Padre Island, Texas on March 15, 2025. Martinez was traveling from San Antonio with his best friend to celebrate his 23rd birthday when law enforcement attempted to stop him at the scene of a road accident. Federal officials claimed Martinez refused orders to exit the vehicle and intentionally ran over an agent, prompting the officer to open fire through the driver's side window. However, body camera footage released nearly a year later—following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by American Oversight—contradicted the official account. Martinez's family members said he had been attempting to comply with police instructions when shot, and Texas Rangers investigators told his mother that video evidence contradicted the federal agents' account, though authorities declined to comment on the alleged discrepancies.

Andry Omar Blanco Bonilla, a 40-year-old food delivery driver and mechanic from Venezuela, was detained at an ICE office in Dallas in February 2024 after notifying them of an address change and being asked about his tattoos—which he said represented his family, not gang affiliation. Released pending deportation when Venezuela would not accept deportees, he was detained again after Trump's inauguration and deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison on March 15, 2025. He endured four months of beatings and humiliation before being returned to Venezuela on July 18, 2025. He had no criminal record in the U.S. and came to the country to support his seven children.

A grand jury issued a 'no bill' in the March 2025 shooting death of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez by a Homeland Security Investigations agent at South Padre Island, Texas. DHS stated Martinez attempted to run over a federal agent, but a witness affidavit indicated the vehicle was moving slowly and the agent fired without warning. The shooting was not publicly disclosed until February 2026.

Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent on South Padre Island, Texas in March 2025 during an immigration enforcement operation. According to ICE's internal report, the agent fired at Martinez after he allegedly accelerated his vehicle and struck another HSI agent. The involvement of ICE in the incident was not publicly disclosed until nearly a year later when news outlets reported details based on internal incident reports.

Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel, a 27-year-old Venezuelan national, was detained by ICE on March 13, 2025, in Irving, Texas, based on suspected gang affiliation determined by his tattoos. His case record disappeared from ICE's online tracking system two days later. Authorities told his girlfriend he was deported, but he has not been located in Venezuela or on any public list of deportees sent to El Salvador.

Shirly Guardado, a Honduran immigrant married to Army Sgt. Ayssac Correa, was arrested by ICE agents in a parking lot on March 13 after being lured out under false pretenses by plainclothes officers claiming to be Department of Public Safety. Despite having a work permit and clean check-in record with immigration officials, and despite her husband's military service and pending sponsorship for her green card, Guardado was detained for nearly three months. The couple had also applied for military parole in place, but USCIS denied the application citing her expedited deportation order, and her subsequent ICE request sat unprocessed for over a year. On May 30—her 28th birthday—she was deported to Honduras, separated from her 10-month-old son and active-duty military husband.

Diover Millan, 24, a construction worker, was arrested by immigration agents in the Atlanta suburbs on March 12 and transferred to Bluebonnet detention center in Texas. DHS classified him as a member of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without providing evidence. Millan faces potential deportation to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison under the Alien Enemies Act, though the Supreme Court temporarily blocked his deportation. He has a pending asylum case with a hearing scheduled for May 1.

Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Olivares, a 24-year-old Venezuelan migrant, drowned in the Rio Grande near the U.S.-Mexico border and was buried in Eagle Pass, Texas. His parents in Venezuela watched the funeral service via livestream. The burial was the first funeral service organized by Border Vigil, a human rights organization, for a migrant who died crossing the border.

The Trump Administration has reopened family detention centers in Texas and is detaining immigrant families, including some who have been living in the United States for years. Legal advocates report that children in these facilities are experiencing hunger, sleep deprivation, and psychological distress. The government is potentially planning to detain thousands more at military bases like Fort Bliss.

Jonathan, an Australian who had lived on the US east coast for nearly a decade with a valid work visa, was detained at Houston border control in March while returning from Australia after attending his sister's memorial service. Border officials accused him of carrying drugs and possessing two phones despite his denials, demanded his phone passcode, and when he asked to speak to a lawyer, told him he had no rights. During the encounter, an officer called him "retarded" and later stated "Trump is back in town; we're doing things the way we should have always been doing them." Officials claimed his statement that he lived in the US indicated intent to stay permanently and thus invalidated his visa, despite his having left and re-entered the country approximately 20 times previously on the same visa class. After being held for over 36 hours with minimal communication, his visa was cancelled, he was banned from entering the US for five years, and he was deported to Australia. His American partner, apartment, work studio, and clients remain in the US, and he is now couch surfing in Australia.

Margarita Avila, a 50-year-old mother of five, has been held in an immigrant detention center since March 2025 as the Trump administration prepares to deport her to Belize, a country she left two decades ago due to threats to her family. Her two youngest sons, Isaac, 12, and Jeremiah, 10, attended a Mother's Day service at a Pentecostal church where children were called forward to greet their mothers—but no one came for Isaac and Jeremiah. Her husband, José Avila, wept during the service as he watched his sons struggle with their mother's prolonged detention. Margarita is among tens of thousands of immigrants targeted for deportation under the Trump administration's stated goal of deporting 1 million immigrants annually.

Sergio Garcia, a Mexican chef, was deported by ICE in March 2025 after 36 years living in the United States. Garcia had no criminal record besides a two-decade-old deportation order for illegal re-entry from 1989. He was apprehended while loading his food truck. His deportation separated him from his four U.S.-born adult children and wife. After deportation, he was held captive in Mexico and faced violence in Chiapas.

A 33-year-old Guatemalan man was returned to the United States in June 2025 after a federal judge ordered his reinstatement following an unlawful deportation. Despite an immigration judge's February 2025 order barring his removal, ICE deported him to Mexico two days later, violating due process protections. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy criticized the action as "blatant lawlessness" and ordered his return. He was granted withholding of removal after demonstrating he would face serious harm in Guatemala.

Mayfreed Durán Arapé, a Venezuelan barber, was detained in July 2023 on his third border crossing attempt and convicted in August 2023 of assaulting a federal officer during a riot at an El Paso immigration detention center. On February 8, 2025, he was transferred without explanation to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base along with more than 170 other Venezuelan men. During his two-week detention at Guantanamo, Durán Arapé alleges he was beaten by guards, denied access to attorneys and family calls, provided inadequate food and water, and stripped of bedding as punishment. He attempted suicide twice and provided photos of bruising and self-harm scars. On February 20, 2025, he was deported to Venezuela. The Trump administration claimed the detainees were members of Tren de Aragua, though court documents show nearly 30% had no criminal records and the government provided no evidence against Durán Arapé.

Jose Daniel Simancas, a 30-year-old Venezuelan construction worker, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in May 2024 with his wife and cousin and was detained in El Paso while awaiting deportation. On February 4, 2025, he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base along with nine other migrants, despite having no criminal history except unauthorized entry. The Department of Homeland Security identified him as a member of Tren de Aragua based on his birthplace and tattoos, which he denied. During his 15 days at Guantanamo, Simancas reported inhumane conditions including minimal food, isolation, and only two showers. He was deported to Honduras on February 20, 2025, along with 176 other Venezuelan nationals. His family was denied information about his whereabouts throughout his nine-month detention.

Families filed an ACLU lawsuit against the Trump administration after their relatives were transferred to a newly established 30,000-bed immigrant detention camp at Guantanamo Bay without attorney access or communication with the outside world. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of holding civil immigration detainees at the offshore facility and argues they are being denied due process rights. At least seven military flights from El Paso have transported detainees to Guantanamo, including individuals such as 25-year-old Yoiker David Sequera who have no criminal records beyond immigration violations.

Colombian migrants deported from the United States under President Trump's administration reported experiencing degrading treatment in detention centers, including cramped conditions, sleep deprivation, and mistreatment during transport. Daniel Vasquez, a 40-year-old migrant, reported being detained for over a week across multiple facilities in San Diego and Texas, transported in chains and handcuffs. The Colombian and Brazilian governments complained of treatment on deportation flights, including denied bathroom breaks. Some migrants reported willingness to attempt returning to the United States.

Yoiker Sequera, a 25-year-old Venezuelan barber, was transferred to Guantanamo Bay after being held in detention in El Paso for five months. He turned himself in to Border Patrol in Presidio in September 2024 and was detained awaiting asylum processing. His mother Angela Sequera said he wanted to join family in California and had worked as a barber in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and inside the detention center. She last spoke with him on a day before his transfer and said he told her he was exhausted and that his continued detention was unfair. He is among the three Venezuelans named in the ACLU lawsuit challenging the Guantanamo detentions.

Jose Alvaro, an undocumented immigrant from Central America applying for a green card, was detained by ICE after a Lubbock police officer pulled him over for a license plate issue and called federal immigration authorities. The traffic stop has left his U.S. citizen wife Ashley and their three U.S.-born children facing deportation proceedings. Advocates have noted that routine police interactions can lead to deportations.

Andrei Barrientos, 36, was deported from El Paso to Bogota on January 28, 2025, as part of the group of approximately 200 Colombian migrants whose deportation sparked a diplomatic dispute between Presidents Trump and Petro. This was Barrientos's second deportation from the United States. He was initially placed on a military flight on Sunday that was turned around when Colombian authorities blocked its landing, then spent a night in El Paso before being repatriated on a civilian aircraft organized by the Colombian government.

Pavlo Mykolayovych Zinkevych, a 37-year-old Ukrainian man with lawful status under the Uniting for Ukraine program, was arrested by Frisco Police on January 26, 2025, for a minor traffic violation and suspected DWI. Despite holding valid legal status, a valid I-94, and a pending Temporary Protected Status application, ICE detained him for over three months and threatened deportation to war-torn Ukraine. An immigration judge stated she believed Zinkevych should not be detained, but lacks jurisdiction to order his release, while DHS maintains authority over his case and has remained unresponsive to legal requests.

ProPublica received letters from children detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, where over 750 families and 370 single adult women were being held in early February. The children, including a 9-year-old from Venezuela and a 14-year-old from Honduras, describe missing school and friends, lacking reliable medical care, and feeling scared and depressed. Since the Trump administration took office, the number of children in ICE detention has increased sixfold.

Giovanni Cuellar Roca, a noncitizen who had resided in the United States for over four years, was apprehended by ICE at his routine check-in appointment in January 2025 and held at Webb County Detention Center under mandatory detention provisions. An Immigration Judge ordered his removal to Ecuador and denied his asylum application. Cuellar Roca challenged his detention as violating Fifth Amendment due process rights. The district court granted his petition for habeas corpus, finding that noncitizens with established U.S. presence are entitled to individualized assessment of flight risk and dangerousness before detention, and ordered his immediate release with safeguards against redetention.

Victor Diaz, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan restaurant worker, died by suicide in January 2025 while in ICE custody at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas. Diaz was initially detained by ICE in Minnesota and transferred to the crowded El Paso facility, where he lost contact with relatives. After reporting harassment from fellow detainees, he was placed in isolation, where he subsequently died by suicide.

Jeferson Escalona, 19, a former Venezuelan police officer, was arrested by local Texas police in January 2025 for evading arrest in a vehicle and detained by ICE. He was transferred through Guantanamo Bay before arriving at Bluebonnet detention center. DHS claimed he was a self-admitted gang member based on hand gesture photos without providing evidence. Escalona denies gang ties and has requested voluntary return to Venezuela but was denied, fearing for his life.

Immigration agents raided a family home in rural Donna, Texas, in January, arresting Julio Orosco and Lucero Garza, who had been living in the country without authorization. Garza was deported to Mexico while Orosco remains in custody. Their children, ages 11 through 22, have had to assume caretaking responsibilities and have become withdrawn and isolated.