Human Impact Project

An immigration detainee who entered the United States without inspection in December 2022 was released on his own recognizance while removal proceedings were underway. On June 21, 2026, after three years of maintaining stable residence, valid employment authorization, and attempted compliance with ICE reporting requirements, he was detained without notice or process when he reported to ICE as instructed. The court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding the detention violated due process rights, and ordered his immediate release with a permanent injunction against re-detention absent constitutional protections including pre-deprivation notice and a hearing.

An immigrant who entered the United States without inspection on November 17, 2023, was initially detained and released two days later. On June 20, 2026, he was re-detained by ICE during a routine check-in appointment without explanation. The federal court granted his habeas petition, finding that his prior release created a liberty interest in continued release and that re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process. The court ordered his immediate release and enjoined ICE from re-detaining him without notice and a hearing before an immigration judge.

A Mexican national who has resided in the United States for over 30 years and is married to a U.S. citizen with four U.S. citizen children was arrested at a McDonald's in Fontana, California on June 20, 2026 pursuant to a Warrant of Arrest (I-200). He had been removed to Mexico in 2001 but reentered without authorization. ICE reinstated his prior 2001 removal order and provided him written notice on Form I-871 on the date of arrest. The court denied his emergency application for a temporary restraining order staying his removal, finding he failed to demonstrate likelihood of success on his claims that the arrest was warrantless, the removal order reinstatement was invalid, or that his detention violated due process.

Katsiaryna Bartko, a 33-year-old Belarusian thyroid cancer survivor, has been held by ICE since early June 2026, most recently at the CoreCivic-run Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, Kansas. She requires daily hormone medication and calcium supplements for permanent hypoparathyroidism and chronic hypocalcemia following cancer surgery, but her partner, Dmitry Shyshov, says she was initially denied her prescribed medications despite intake records documenting her needs. She was hospitalized three times in four days, once in acute distress requiring intravenous calcium, and lab records showed her thyroid-stimulating hormone soaring to over 31 times normal. A Harvard endocrinologist and an independent physician with Physicians for Human Rights both warned her continued detention is medically unsafe, risking organ failure, coma, or death. Bartko entered the U.S. legally on an F-1 student visa in March 2022 and filed for asylum in 2023, citing persecution over her pro-democracy activism and opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine; she was detained in Florida after local domestic battery charges against her were dropped and has never been convicted of a crime. She was placed in solitary isolation days before a federal court hearing, and a judge has ordered the government to bring her to a Kansas City courthouse to hear her petition for release.

Orolua Eluonyechie, a Nigerian national, has been held in immigration detention for over two years, initially detained in Atlanta in April 2024 and later transferred to Allen Parish in southwest Louisiana. While detained, he has been injured by guards and placed in solitary confinement. He filed a federal habeas petition seeking release or deportation but remains waiting for judicial action as federal courts in Louisiana become overwhelmed with habeas petitions from detainees held in prolonged detention.

A Mexican citizen who entered the United States in 2008 and held a valid work permit was arrested by immigration authorities on June 18, 2026, while getting into his car to go to work. He was detained at Philadelphia Federal Detention Center under the mandatory detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1225 and denied a bond hearing. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release, finding that the government's detention was unlawful because he was not "seeking admission" under the statute, as he had been in the country for 18 years.

A long-term law-abiding resident of the United States, a noncitizen, was detained at the Western Tennessee Detention Facility pending removal proceedings without receiving a bond hearing. He filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus challenging his detention as violating due process rights. The court noted that he, described as a long-term law-abiding resident of the United States, had been held in mandatory detention. Following the Sixth Circuit's decision in Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft, which established that noncitizens are entitled to a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), the respondent agreed that a custody redetermination hearing was required. The district court granted the habeas petition to the limited extent of ordering that he receive a bond hearing within ten days or be released from custody, finding that Section 1226 guarantees only a hearing opportunity, not automatic release.

Jessica Trevino, a 34-year-old DACA recipient who arrived in the U.S. from Mexico at age six or seven and has lived in Texas her entire life, was arrested by ICE agents on December 28, 2025, as she left church with her family in the Rio Grande Valley. Agents rammed the family's vehicle in a Home Depot parking lot, struck her husband Juan with a baton, and shoved her 14-year-old daughter Sarah against the car hard enough to bruise her. Trevino's DACA status was valid and not set to expire until spring 2027. She worked in an elementary school cafeteria and had no criminal record. After nearly 90 days in ICE custody, an immigration judge granted voluntary departure; Trevino claims she did not consent to this order and did not sign the forms. Despite federal law protecting active DACA recipients from removal and the errors in the judge's statement regarding her DACA expiration date, Trevino was deported to Matamoros, Mexico on March 25, 2026. Her three U.S. citizen children—ages 16, 14, and 13—remained in Texas in the care of relatives. After deportation, USCIS notified her of intent to revoke her DACA status and work permit. Her family has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the deportation as unlawful and seeking her return and restoration of DACA status.

A Mexican national who fled Mexico in 2024 due to extortion threats and entered the U.S. without inspection was detained by ICE on June 18, 2026, pursuant to a warrant issued June 8, 2026. He had arranged for his young son to join him in the U.S., and the son was detained by immigration authorities upon entry in January 2026 before being released to his father's care as ORR sponsor. During the June 18 detention, approximately five vehicles surrounded the father and his son as they left their home; agents pointed guns and arrested him while his son remained in the vehicle. The court granted his emergency motion for temporary restraining order, ordering his immediate release and prohibiting re-detention without notice and a pre-deprivation hearing before a neutral decisionmaker.

Daniel, a man with severe intellectual disabilities (IQ of 47) and limited English proficiency, was arrested by ICE agents on June 17, 2025, while collecting recyclables in his east Los Angeles neighborhood. Under the conservatorship of his siblings for decades, Daniel understood Spanish but struggled with English and could not cope with loud noises or routine disruptions. Despite his inability to understand removal proceedings or consent documents presented in English, and without involvement of his conservator or judicial review, he was deported to Mexico under claimed voluntary departure. His nephew Christopher, a U.S. citizen, launched an extensive search using ICE's online tracker and contacted federal authorities, eventually working with legal aid group ImmDef to locate Daniel at Adelanto detention center. Daniel ended up in a hospital in Tijuana with no awareness his family was searching for him. After more than nine months, lawyers secured his parole and return to the U.S. A federal judge subsequently issued a temporary restraining order blocking ICE from detaining him if he returns, ruling that his deportation raised serious due process concerns.

Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident and president of Wisconsin's largest mosque, was detained by ICE on March 30, 2026, after being pulled over by armed plainclothes agents in unmarked vehicles. He was held for 80 days in Clay County Jail in Indiana on an administrative warrant. During detention, his unmonitored diabetes caused significant health deterioration, he faced religious liberty restrictions and inadequate medical treatment, and he lost over 30 pounds, describing the experience as dehumanizing. On June 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon ordered Sarsour's immediate release, finding he had raised a substantial First Amendment claim and that ICE detained him in retaliation for his public advocacy for Palestinian rights. The judge rejected government arguments about foreign policy and national security threats, noting that immigration officials had been aware of his prior convictions from the 1990s for 25 years and had previously approved his legal permanent residency application. The Trump administration continues to seek his deportation, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio citing his activism as grounds for removal.

Polina (born 2002) and Alexandra (born 2005), sisters from Belarus, have been detained at the California border for over 9 months. Their initial lawyer failed to properly defend them in court and stopped cooperating with the family. The sisters were denied habeas corpus twice due to legal errors and now face deportation to Belarus while awaiting a new asylum application. They have documented health issues and are seeking legal and financial support to continue their case.

Carol Black, a Jamaican-born lawful permanent resident who moved to New York in 1983, was detained by ICE in 2019 for seven months without a bond hearing following a 2000 sex abuse conviction for which he had completed probation. Unable to obtain a hearing to post bond while deportation proceedings continued, Black filed a federal habeas petition arguing the detention violated his constitutional due process rights. During the proceedings, Black sold his home and business and voluntarily left the United States after 40 years of residency. His case is now before the Supreme Court, which will decide whether ICE can hold lawful permanent residents indefinitely without bond hearings.

Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, a 22-year-old mother born in Laurel, Maryland, was detained by ICE near her Baltimore home on December 14, 2025, stemming from a 2023 CBP encounter in Arizona where she was recorded claiming Mexican citizenship. Despite her family and attorneys presenting a Maryland birth certificate, hospital birth records, and fingerprints, DHS maintained she was not a citizen and pursued removal proceedings against her. A federal judge blocked her deportation days after her arrest, but she remained in custody for 25 days, transferred five times through facilities in Louisiana, Texas, and New Jersey, spending Christmas away from her young son. She was released on January 7, 2026, with an ankle monitor and reunited with her 5-year-old son. Her attorneys maintained the documentation clearly established her citizenship. On June 17, 2026, DHS dismissed her deportation case after confirming her birth in Maryland, and she obtained a U.S. passport.

Keisy G.M., a lawful permanent resident from the Dominican Republic who has lived in New York City since 2011, was detained by ICE for 21 months without receiving a bond hearing. G.M. was arrested in October 2020 after being charged with assault following a fight and served a two-year sentence. Throughout his detention, the government sought to deport him without providing an individualized bond hearing to determine whether continued detention was justified. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2024 that his prolonged detention violated due process, and G.M. was ultimately released following a court order. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Genalo v. Black, which will determine whether the Constitution requires the government to provide bond hearings for lawful permanent residents in deportation proceedings and whether due process requires the government to justify continued detention by clear and convincing evidence.

A 19-year-old Russian citizen lawfully entered the United States on a visa in 2022 at age 16 with his parents and younger sister. His father filed an asylum application listing him as a derivative beneficiary before his visa expired in September 2022. USCIS granted him work authorization in July 2024 while his asylum application remained pending. He graduated from high school, worked lawfully at two jobs, obtained a Florida driver's license, and has no criminal history. On June 16, 2026, Border Patrol agents stopped him while he was driving to work without a traffic violation, arrested him for visa overstay despite his pending asylum application, and transported him to Golden State Annex Detention Facility in McFarland, California. After being detained for over 40 days with his bond hearing postponed to August 5, 2026, he filed a habeas corpus petition. The federal court granted the petition and ordered his immediate release, ruling that due process required a pre-deprivation bond hearing before detention given his four years of government-sanctioned liberty while his asylum case proceeded.

A noncitizen subject to an order of supervision under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b) since 2013 was informed by an ICE officer at a routine check-in on June 16, 2026, that ICE planned to remove him to a third country and instructed him to return with a plane ticket for El Salvador, Guatemala, or Mexico, with threats of deportation to Africa if he did not cooperate. An Immigration Judge had previously granted him withholding of removal in 2022, finding he would likely face persecution in Honduras based on his sexual orientation. The court is examining whether he received proper notice and due process protections regarding the threatened removal and whether a bond hearing is required before any detention.

Adriana Quiroz Zapata, a 53-year-old Colombian national and torture survivor with New Jersey ties, was detained by ICE in August 2024 after re-entering the United States despite a prior removal order. In February 2025, she passed a Reasonable Fear Interview and received withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Despite these protections, ICE deported her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on April 16, 2026—a country where she has no ties and where she cannot receive adequate medical care for her chronic conditions. On May 14, 2026, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return her, ruling the deportation likely illegal. However, on June 15, 2026, the judge reversed that order after the administration produced evidence claiming the DRC had agreed to accept her, leaving Zapata in the DRC.

An immigration detainee held at California City Corrections facility is the subject of a habeas corpus petition. The court granted his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, ordering respondents to provide him with a bond hearing before a neutral arbiter pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) within ten days of the order dated June 18, 2026. Respondents must provide him with 48 hours' written notice before the hearing, or release him if the hearing is not provided within the ten-day deadline.

A Nicaraguan citizen who had resided continuously in the United States since December 2022 was taken into ICE custody on June 13, 2026, and detained at the West Tennessee Detention Facility without an individualized bond hearing. He had strong family and community ties, a fiancée, other relatives, lawful employment history, and no criminal record. The court ordered ICE to respond within two business days and prohibited his transfer during the litigation, citing the Sixth Circuit's Lopez-Campos decision requiring bond hearings for noncitizens with significant interior U.S. presence.