Human Impact Project

Rubén González, a Venezuelan national with pending asylum who entered the U.S. in 2022, was detained by ICE on March 22 following a traffic accident in Clermont, Florida. González had valid temporary documentation, work authorization, and regular legal status at the time of the incident. After police reviewed his documents at the accident scene, he was transferred to ICE custody and taken to an immigration detention facility in Jacksonville. Human rights organizations and immigration attorneys have since questioned the legality of detaining someone with active protected status immediately following a traffic accident.

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.

Three migrants died in two separate incidents in the Otay Mesa/Otay Mountain Wilderness area near San Diego on March 14, 2025, during a winter storm with near-freezing temperatures. In the first incident, Border Patrol agents found one deceased woman near Cuchama Truck Trail and rescued an adult female who had called for help. In the second incident occurring less than an hour later, agents discovered two deceased men and rescued a 16-year-old girl who was the daughter of one of the deceased men. All individuals who crossed the border became lost and experienced hypothermia symptoms in the severe weather conditions.

A Venezuelan couple were arrested by federal immigration agents and charged with misdemeanor unauthorized entry more than two years after crossing the southern U.S. border in October 2022. Despite having been granted Temporary Protected Status and pending asylum claims, they were arrested while returning home from work in Washington, D.C.

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.

A family of four—two parents and children ages 1 and 2—were found huddled under a tree after spending many hours lost in woods while attempting to cross from New York into Quebec in March 2025. Unprepared for winter conditions, the parents lost their shoes and hiked barefoot in snow while their children lacked cold-weather gear. The mother called 911 after several hours in freezing conditions, and the family was rescued by local authorities at approximately 4:15 a.m. All four were treated for hypothermia at a hospital and have since requested refugee status with Canadian authorities.

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.

Wendy Brito, an asylum-seeker from El Salvador and mother of three living in the New Orleans area, was detained after attending a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She has been in the U.S. for 15 years and volunteers at a local elementary school. Her partner Kremly Marrero said officials told the family she was taken because of "new regulations under the new administration." Brito is now held in Basile, Louisiana, nearly 200 miles away from her home and children.

Margarita Avila, a 50-year-old Houston mother, has been held in immigrant detention since March 2025 as the Trump administration seeks to deport her to Belize, a country she fled two decades ago due to threats against her family. She requested asylum more than a decade ago, and her case has remained pending since then. Her husband, José Avila, and their young sons, including 12-year-old Isaac and 10-year-old Jeremiah, have struggled with her absence, including during a Mother's Day church service where the boys had no mother to greet. José said, "It's really hard to see everything my wife is going through. It hurts not being able to be with my wife — and seeing my kids sad — because their mother is always around." Margarita is among tens of thousands of immigrants targeted for deportation under the Trump administration's stated goal of deporting 1 million immigrants annually.

A.G., a Venezuelan national with Temporary Protected Status and a pending asylum application, was detained by ICE agents during a traffic stop in Orange County while driving to work. Despite holding a valid driver's license, work permit, and Social Security card, he was handcuffed and held in ICE custody for several days. During detention, ICE repeatedly pressured him to self-deport. He was released on his own recognizance with assistance from Rep. Anna Eskamani and legal advocates.

Tarlis Marcone De Barros Gonçalves, a transgender asylum seeker from Brazil, entered the U.S. on February 15, 2025 fleeing threats to her life, but was detained at the Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico and then flown to a U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In a federal court declaration, she said she was held with five men, forced to shower and use the toilet without privacy, given little food, and repeatedly denied contact with her attorney or family despite fearing for her life if deported. She was later transferred to an ICE facility in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, where agents shackled her so tightly during the flight that she was in pain for days afterward.

Maria Gonzalez, a 32-year-old Venezuelan mother, and her two children (ages 7 and 9) were deported to Mexico within hours of being stopped for a traffic violation in Tucson, Arizona on February 15, 2025. Tucson Police conducted an SB-1070 immigration check during the routine traffic stop, leading to expedited deportation by U.S. Border Patrol without court hearings or opportunity to seek asylum.

Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old stateless Palestinian woman, was detained by ICE for 141 days after being flagged at an airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands upon returning from her honeymoon, despite having legal authorization to remain in the U.S. under an order of supervision. She has since been released. Sakeik has described conditions in ICE facilities as including overcrowding and inadequate food.

Mariano, a Venezuelan migrant, fled Border Patrol in Tucson after his wife Yesenia was stopped by police while selling arepas. He hid under a car and was separated from his wife and two children for days. The article chronicles his journey from Venezuela through the Darién Gap and Mexico to the U.S., where he was detained in immigration facilities before facing deportation from Arizona.

Adelso Bravo, a 39-year-old painter from Guatemala who had lived in Syracuse for over 20 years, was detained by ICE on February 10, 2025, after entering the country without authorization decades earlier. With support from family, advocates, and lawyers using a habeas corpus petition strategy, Bravo secured a bond hearing and was released after 21 days with a $5,000 bond and ankle monitor. The habeas corpus petition strategy has been used across the country in response to Trump administration detention policies requiring mandatory detention for immigrants who entered without permission.

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.

Franco Jose Caraballo Tiapa, a 26-year-old barber from Venezuela, migrated to the United States in 2023 with his wife seeking asylum due to political persecution and had no criminal history. He presented himself to ICE for a routine check-in in early February 2025 and was detained without being informed of the reason, though he reported being questioned about his tattoos. Without notifying his attorneys or family, he was deported to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison under a Trump executive order allowing ICE to send noncitizens to third countries willing to accept them. His family learned of his deportation only after seeing videos of his arrival on social media, having expected him to be sent to Venezuela instead. His attorneys provided documentation proving his clean background and pending asylum claim.

A Venezuelan asylum seeker in Arizona, who had arrived through CBP One and held humanitarian parole, was detained while waiting in a Walmart parking lot for a delivery order after federal agents knocked on his car window. He showed agents a valid work permit and driver's license, but they detained him anyway.

Bayartulga Avirmed, a deaf Mongolian who fled persecution and entered the U.S. in February, was detained by ICE and subjected to deportation proceedings, mental health evaluations, and expedited removal without access to a Mongolian Sign Language interpreter despite communicating only in MSL. The government initially provided only an American Sign Language interpreter who could not understand him. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ruled that the government must provide an MSL interpreter, redo Avirmed's hearings and evaluations, and allow three hours of video communication with his attorney instead of CoreCivic's one-hour policy to accommodate interpretation time. Avirmed claims he faced beatings and discrimination in Mongolia due to his deafness, suffering a traumatic brain injury in 2020.

F.A. and her two minor children fled Turkey after her husband was targeted for membership in the Gülen movement. After entering the U.S. in early February 2025 and repeatedly telling officials they came to seek asylum, they were expelled after nine days in detention on a military plane to Panama. Panamanian officials told them they could go to a detention camp in the jungle or return to Turkey. Fearing they would not survive, F.A. accepted return to Turkey, where the family now lives in hiding.

Juan Carlos Barreto, a Venezuelan college professor, was arrested by ICE at his Shakopee apartment in January while claiming to have followed all legal asylum procedures. He has been released but is monitored with an ankle monitor.

Flora, a Venezuelan trafficking survivor with an active asylum claim and pending T visa application, was detained by ICE on January 30, 2025, at a routine check-in appointment after reporting her alleged trafficker to federal authorities. She was transported 1,200 miles to a detention center in Louisiana and separated from her 4-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter for two months. Flora had fled her alleged abuser in early 2025 with help from a local nonprofit and was in the process of obtaining a T visa for trafficking survivors when ICE detained her. She was released on April 2, 2025, hours before a court hearing on her habeas corpus petition, but the detention caused significant retraumatization to her and her children.

ICE agents arrested Wilson Rogelio Velasquez Cruz outside Iglesia Fuente de Vida church in Tucker on Sunday while he was attending service with his family. Velasquez Cruz, who had a valid five-year work permit and was employed at a tire shop, had been wearing an immigration GPS ankle monitor since seeking asylum from Honduras two years ago. His wife expressed concern about the family's future and reported that her husband will be transferred to Stewart Detention Center and deported without the ability to appeal to a judge.

Wilson Velásquez, a Honduran asylum seeker, was detained by ICE agents in the parking lot of Iglesia Fuente de Vida in Norcross, Georgia, while attending Sunday service with his wife, Kenia Colindres, and their three children. Velásquez had fled gang violence in Honduras with his family in 2022, was awaiting a future asylum court date, held a work permit, and worked six days a week at a tire shop. He wore a GPS ankle monitor that began buzzing as ICE agents called his phone before agents apprehended him and placed him in a law enforcement vehicle in front of his wife.

Luis Fernando Chulca Chiluisa, Maria Velasco Hurtado, and their two children were detained by ICE agents on January 22, 2025. Velasco was detained on her way to work; Chiluisa and the children were detained at their home afterward. All four had active asylum applications and no known criminal records. A habeas petition was filed the same morning, and a judge ordered the government to show cause for detention by January 26. Despite a court order keeping the family in Minnesota, they were initially sent to Texas. Following a contempt motion filed by their attorneys, the family was returned to Minnesota.

An Iranian national entered the United States on January 19, 2025, seeking asylum based on political and religious persecution. After an immigration judge denied his asylum application on May 6, 2025, he was granted withholding of removal and placed in mandatory post-final-removal-order detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1231. After 431 days in federal immigration custody, he filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the lawfulness of his prolonged detention, arguing removal was not significantly likely in the foreseeable future. On July 30, 2026, he voluntarily dismissed his petition after his asylum application was granted upon reconsideration by the immigration court.

A 46-year-old woman from Mexico was found dead by humanitarian volunteers near the border wall east of Sásabe, Arizona on Monday morning. Her 15-year-old son sought help from volunteers, saying his mother had stopped breathing while in a vehicle in Mexico. The cause of death is under investigation and may take weeks to determine.

Lila Romero, 47, a Venezuelan psychologist living in Dallas, Texas, arrived in the U.S. in 2024 on a tourist visa and began applying for asylum. She was arrested during a traffic stop on January 9 after driving a family business vehicle without proper license plates, and was held for three and a half months at the Bluebonnet detention center in Anson, Texas. While detained, she informally supported other women experiencing anxiety, insomnia, and high stress levels. She now works helping immigrants and families affected by detentions and deportations, and has an immigration hearing scheduled for late September.

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. He 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.

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.