Human Impact Project

Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, a 20-year-old asylum seeker from Guinea and student at Brooklyn Frontiers High School, was detained by ICE on August 4, 2025, following a routine court appearance. He was transferred to a detention facility in Pennsylvania. Elected officials, immigrant advocates, and teachers rallied outside the Tweed Courthouse in Lower Manhattan in response to his detention. Diallo was held for approximately five months before being released in November 2025.

Chanthila "Shawn" Souvannarath, 44, was deported to Laos despite a federal court order issued the day before blocking his removal so he could pursue a claim of U.S. citizenship. Souvannarath was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but has lived most of his life in the United States and had been granted lawful permanent residence before his first birthday. A federal judge had directed ICE to keep him in the country while his citizenship claim was reviewed. DHS said the court order was not received until after the deportation had already taken place, according to attorneys.

Rev. James Eliud Ngahu Mwangi, an Episcopal priest originally from Kenya, was detained by ICE on October 25 despite having legal authorization to live and work in the United States and being employed as a Texas state employee. The Episcopal Diocese of Texas is calling for due process, transparency, and humane treatment for Mwangi, stating his family was unaware of his whereabouts for several days before locating him at an immigration detention center in Conroe.

Yassine Halhoul, a 21-year-old University of Arizona aerospace engineering student from Morocco, was detained by Homeland Security Investigations on October 21, 2025, due to a clerical visa issue. He spent approximately one month in ICE detention at Florence Correctional Center and Eloy Detention Center, where he reported poor conditions including inadequate food, interference with sleep, and frequent cell counts. After a GoFundMe campaign raised $18,500 for bail and legal expenses, Halhoul was released on November 13, 2025, with an ankle monitor.

Reggie Williams, a 39-year-old Black artist, was stopped by Memphis police officers while walking to a nearby store on October 15, 2025. After initial questioning, four armed federal agents in an unmarked SUV with rifles and body armor but no identifying badges descended on him and conducted an aggressive interrogation. An armed agent asked if he was from Ethiopia or Ghana. Williams said he believed he would not have made it home safely without his birth certificate and state ID. He was not arrested or ticketed but reported feeling terrorized during the encounter, which occurred as part of Trump's Memphis Safe Task Force operation.

Alandria London, a Black ride-share driver, was pulled over by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper on October 8, 2025, while taking a passenger to the airport. The officer claimed he did not see her seat belt, though she was wearing one. After the officer said he needed to "call it in," an Immigration and Customs Enforcement van pulled up behind the motorcycle. London believes she was profiled as Hispanic and stopped as a pretext for an immigration check. She was not cited or arrested but posted about the incident on Facebook with a photo showing herself wearing the seat belt.

A man was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents following a car crash on October 1 near Congress Parkway and California Avenue in East Garfield Park. Eyewitnesses recorded video showing an agent with his arms around the man's neck while he was on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back. Chicago police said a 49-year-old woman driving the other vehicle suffered injuries to her shoulder, neck, and hip and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition. The man was released at the scene after Chicago police completed an investigatory stop report. DHS disputed the chokehold allegation, stating agents believed they witnessed the theft of a $5,000 saw from a nearby construction site, the man fled in a vehicle, crashed into another motorist, and began resisting when agents attempted to render aid. Community leaders and city officials condemned the incident, questioning why Border Patrol agents were intervening in a suspected theft.

Stanley Minjale, who immigrated to the United States from Malawi in 2021 on a student visa initially valid through 2022, later received an extension through March 2027, but that status was terminated after he failed to enroll in a university as required. At the time of his detention in October 2025, he held a valid work permit and was employed full-time as a nursing assistant in Indiana. He has a nearly two-year-old U.S. citizen son, and during his nine-month detention at North Lake Processing Center he has missed several of the boy's milestones, including his second birthday. Minjale has received a deportation order but continues to appeal, describing life in detention as a difficult, repetitive routine without freedom.

Kamal Tijani, who arrived in the U.S. from Nigeria in 2017 on a valid student visa, was arrested by ICE in October 2025 for overstaying his visa and has been held for nine months at North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan. He met his wife, who is from Georgia, while attending college in Chicago, where he worked night shifts as a maintenance technician; after his arrest, she lost their apartment and has not been able to visit him. "I just got married last year," Tijani said, describing feeling abandoned and isolated during his detention. The facility, operated by GEO Group, is the largest immigrant detention center in the Midwest, holding about 1,400 people.

Abdullahi Mohamed, a Somali immigrant with 25+ years in the U.S. and valid work authorization, was detained by ICE near Portland, Maine, and held for more than seven weeks in Massachusetts before being rapidly transferred across multiple states, including Mississippi and Louisiana, in December 2025. His family lost contact with him for about five days during the transfers, piecing together his location through a lawyer's email, a call from another detainee's wife, and a brief two-minute call from Mohamed himself at an undisclosed airport, before he was deported to Somalia. According to a Marshall Project investigation, rapid transfers of detainees have become increasingly common under the Trump administration, with transfers of five or more times more than tripling and out-of-state transfers within 24 hours more than doubling since the Biden administration's final year.

A Senegalese national who entered the US in 2006 and applied for asylum in 2007 was detained without bond on September 17, 2025 for removal after an immigration judge denied his asylum claim in 2012. ICE initially planned to remove him to Gabon, but when that country refused travel documents, they arranged for his removal to Ghana without allowing him to assert fear-based claims about that country. The court granted a temporary restraining order preventing his removal until he receives a fair hearing.

K.S., a Gambian citizen and LGBTQ+ community member who had obtained humanitarian parole to remain in the U.S., was removed from a Louisiana detention center without explanation on September 4, 2025, chained and placed on a military aircraft. He was deported to Ghana as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign to African countries. K.S. had fled Gambia where LGBTQ+ status is punishable by up to life in prison, and expressed his fear of returning to his homeland to Ghanaian officials, but immigration authorities proceeded with the deportation anyway. He is currently in hiding.

Y.A. fled Somalia after being subjected to female genital mutilation and narrowly escaping forced marriage and attempted rape. After entering the U.S. in October 2024, she applied for asylum. On September 4, 2025, an immigration judge pretermitted her applications and ordered her removed to Honduras or Uganda under Asylum Cooperative Agreements. She remains detained with her appeal pending, fearing severe harm in both countries as a Black, Muslim woman.

Ernesto Diaz, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was walking down Archer Avenue on Chicago's Southwest Side in late September when masked federal agents grabbed him, slammed him against a vehicle, and handcuffed him. Agents ripped out his earbuds and threatened to tase him when he moved. After about five minutes of questioning and inspecting his ID and Social Security card, agents threw his wallet on the ground and drove away. Diaz believes he was targeted based on his race and ethnicity during Operation Midway Blitz.

D.A., a political activist who was violently attacked in Nigeria and is married to a U.S. citizen, was granted protection from removal to Nigeria in June after a judge found he faced persecution there. He says ICE agents beat him when he refused to board a military cargo plane bound for Ghana, where he was flown with a dozen other West African men and women. After more than two weeks in Ghana's Dema Camp, where deportees faced heat, mosquitoes and unsanitary conditions, he was sent to Togo without travel documents and is now staying in a hotel room with other deportees, relying on money sent by his family in the United States.

Robert Sidhe, a 43-year-old Kenyan physician working as a patient care technician at UW Medical Center, was detained by ICE agents while driving home from the gym in Lynnwood, Washington. While in custody, he suffered a medical crisis with dangerously high blood pressure and stroke-like symptoms and was hospitalized, though imaging showed no stroke had occurred. Sidhe entered the U.S. legally on multiple visas and has a pending asylum application filed in 2023. A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order for his release, citing the risk of a future stroke and noting he serves as the primary caretaker for his fiancée, a disabled U.S. citizen who uses a wheelchair. Colleagues described him as a respected leader in his union, church, and community.

Gilbert Joubert Adrien, a 41-year-old Haitian pastor described as "beloved" by his Springfield, Ohio community, was detained by ICE agents on the morning of August 20 at a Sunoco gas station on South Limestone Street. Victor Yonel, another Haitian man, was detained alongside him after ICE released Yonel's wife, who had been in the car with them. Fellow pastor Carl Ruby said Adrien left Haiti because his life was in danger and had faithfully served Christ and his congregation, calling the arrest an example of ICE's willingness to "incite panic among people who came here peacefully" and urging his immediate release. Vilés Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Support Center, said he speaks with Adrien regularly and that the two work together distributing items to people in Springfield as pastors and community leaders, warning that if Adrien is deported his congregation "will be here terrified and without their leader." Advocates with Springfield G92 called the detention "a profound wound" to the Haitian community, with member Marjory Wentworth adding it left people "deeply saddened" and "feeling even more vulnerable." A second pastor from the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield was also detained while traveling in Northwest Ohio; Ruby said he may already have been deported. Adrien's detention came amid a broader ICE crackdown that has detained more than 40 Haitian residents following the July 27 end of Temporary Protected Status, with community members also being required to wear ankle monitors and report to ICE offices.

Gagne Diagne, a Senegalese immigrant and DoorDash delivery worker, was arrested by masked federal agents outside his Bronx home on August 14 while his wife and infant were upstairs. He was detained for six days and nearly deported to Senegal before a judge granted his habeas petition and reopened his asylum case, leading to his release. The Amadou Ly Foundation, which supports West African immigrants, helped secure his release through legal advocacy.

Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw, who came to the United States from the Democratic Republic of Congo at age 9, was detained by ICE during her final green card interview on Aug. 12. She had married U.S. citizen Terrance Bradshaw, whom she met online in 2022, after her family's asylum case was denied, and her marriage-based petition had been approved by USCIS. The couple had held a traditional Congolese engagement ceremony blessed by both families in May 2025 and attended premarital counseling through their church. Officers separated her from her husband and 19-month-old son in the interview lobby, placed her in handcuffs, and she has no criminal history, leaving Terrance to care for their child while Armelle remains detained in an Indiana jail.

Sheikh Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, a 46-year-old green card holder and Imam from Eritrea, died at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center on December 14, 2025, after spending 215 days in ICE custody. The Council on American Islamic Relations stated his death was related to detention system issues regarding medical care, transparency, and conditions.