Human Impact Project

Laurie Eckman, 84, and her husband Richard Eckman, 84, a Vietnam war veteran, say they were knocked to the ground and struck with a projectile by federal agents on October 5, 2025, while peacefully protesting outside an ICE building in South Portland. The couple, who live nearby and walk past the building daily, joined the protest spontaneously after seeing it from their kitchen window. Laurie Eckman said the officers charged at them with "no warning" and "no apparent reason," knocking Richard down despite his use of a walker. Eye-witnesses confirmed their account to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against Dana Briggs, a 70-year-old Air Force veteran, who was arrested during a September protest outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Briggs was accused of assaulting a federal officer after being pushed to the ground during a scuffle, but prosecutors determined the charges should be dropped. Briggs had no prior criminal history.

A video circulating on social media shows DHS agents arresting a woman outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on October 4, 2025. The woman was arrested after she allegedly blocked a federal facility entrance and refused to comply with officers' orders. The woman's clothing became disheveled during the arrest. A witness account suggested the woman had pulled over to ask for directions.

New video footage from May 9, 2025 reveals details surrounding the federal arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at Delaney Hall, a migrant detention center. Rep. LaMonica McIver and House colleagues had arrived for an unannounced visit when the arrest occurred. McIver was subsequently indicted for allegedly impeding the arrest and assaulting federal officers; she has pleaded not guilty.

Spanish-language journalist Mario Guevara was arrested by police on June 14, 2025, while covering a protest in DeKalb County, Georgia, and charged with obstructing police, unlawful assembly, and improperly entering a roadway. After a judge granted him bond, ICE placed a 48-hour hold on him despite his work authorization and pending green card application. Guevara spent 110 days in ICE custody, including 22 hours daily in solitary confinement, before being deported to El Salvador. A federal judge questioned the legality of his detention. His attorneys argued it violated his constitutional rights to free speech and due process. The government claimed broad discretion to detain him as a deportable immigrant. Guevara stated he was targeted for his journalistic work documenting immigration raids rather than for any criminal activity.

Mario Guevara, an Emmy-award-winning Salvadoran journalist who lived in Atlanta for nearly 22 years and held a valid work permit, was arrested by ICE on June 14, 2025, while live-streaming a 'No Kings' protest in Doraville. He spent more than three months in immigration detention, much of it in isolation, separated from his wife and children who remained in the US. A Georgia immigration judge ordered his release on bond in July, and the ACLU filed legal challenges on his behalf, but the Bureau of Immigration Appeals closed his case and ordered his removal on September 19. DHS denied targeting him for his journalism, stating he was arrested for obstruction and deported due to a decade-old removal order. He was deported to El Salvador on October 3, 2025, and continued working as a journalist afterward, reporting from Central America and speaking at international press freedom conferences.

Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Munoz was arrested outside the Broadview ICE facility on October 3, 2025, while protesting in a designated protest-free zone, and detained for about eight hours without being told why or what he was accused of. He testified on January 22, 2026, before the HART Truth-Telling Commission that then-Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino tackled him to the ground, that he was questioned by FBI agents without an attorney present, and that detainees had to share shoes taken from them during processing because conditions inside were unsanitary. Munoz said he was used as a backdrop for an interview Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem gave to a social media influencer, calling it propaganda, and said tactics he has observed used recently in Minnesota are likely a preview of what could come to Illinois. He is pursuing legal action over his treatment, which prompted a joint press conference from Oak Park's elected bodies denouncing his arrest.

Cole Sheridan, a 27-year-old hospitality worker, was arrested during an Oct. 3 pro-immigrant protest at the Broadview immigration enforcement facility after Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino accused him of pushing and swinging at him, leading to federal charges of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer. An investigator said Bovino took two weeks of leave from the Chicago operation due to a groin injury he claimed to have sustained in the encounter. After a friend found video from an Oct. 31 news report showing Sheridan being pushed down—not near Bovino—prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges on Nov. 3, though they could still refile in another form. Sheridan said the ordeal cost him four days of work and a month of anxiety over potential imprisonment.

Kyle Frankovich, a protester, was arrested outside the Broadview ICE facility on October 3 while demonstrating in a designated protest zone. Federal agents grabbed and threw him to the ground, zip-tied him, and detained him for approximately eight hours without explanation or charges, making him stand along a guardrail for 40 minutes as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem walked past with cameras and photographers. He was later released without documentation or charges, and the following week his fiancée Leigh Kunkle was shot in the face with pepper balls by federal agents during another protest at the same site; the couple's attorney has filed federal claims alleging wrongful detention and violation of rights. On the same day Frankovich was detained, federal agents took multiple other protesters into custody as a crowd grew outside the facility amid newly installed barricades, with Illinois State Police also deployed in riot gear; at least five protesters have since faced federal charges from clashes at the site, where agents have repeatedly used tear gas and pepper balls against demonstrators.

On October 3, 2025, federal agents conducting an immigration enforcement operation in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood deployed tear gas near Funston Elementary School, traumatizing hundreds of children and families in the area. Children playing on school grounds, eating at a nearby café, and walking home from school were exposed to the gas, including toddlers as young as 14 months old at Luna y Cielo Play Cafe, where nannies rushed children to a back room as the gas spread. Teachers, including Liza Oliva-Perez, were also tear-gassed while attempting to protect students, and parents like Molly Kucich abandoned errands to reach their children amid the chaos. The incident left children experiencing anxiety, nightmares, and fear of separation from family members, with some now asking teachers and dolls whether ICE will come for them, while others have grown fearful of sirens and worried about the safety of caregivers, including nannies who are citizens or legally authorized to work in the U.S. The operation, dubbed "Operation Midway Blitz," has involved masked armed agents in unmarked vehicles patrolling neighborhoods, with residents reporting multiple incidents including helicopter raids, detention of U.S. citizens, and deployment of pepper munitions against protesters.

Leilani Payne was pepper-sprayed at point-blank range by a Federal Protection Service officer on October 2, 2025, while protesting outside the Portland ICE facility. She was 19 at the time of the incident. Video footage captured the officer spraying her in the face, and witnesses reported her screaming in agony and struggling to breathe. A nearby Portland Police officer was so concerned for her well-being that he called for an ambulance. Payne, now 20, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Protection Service seeking at least $350,000 in damages. The DHS stated that protesters had been given lawful verbal commands to back away and refused to comply.

A federal agent sprayed mace at a woman protester standing in front of him outside the Portland ICE facility. The incident was captured on video and occurred amid ongoing demonstrations against federal immigration enforcement. Portland Police liaisons were seen collecting video from witnesses, though the PPB stated they lack authority to investigate federal officers operating within the scope of their employment.

In Chicago, a federal agent grabbed a protester on a public sidewalk by the throat and body-slammed him to the ground. The agent's weapon dangled behind his back during the encounter, creating an additional public safety danger.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal investigation into a CBP officer after he grabbed a protester by the hair, put her in a chokehold, and threw her down a grassy embankment outside an ICE facility in Durango. In April 2026, state prosecutors filed third-degree assault and criminal mischief charges against the officer.

L. Vural Elibol, a photojournalist working for Turkish news agency Anadolu Ajansi, was violently shoved to the ground by federal officers outside an immigration court in lower Manhattan on October 1, 2025. The incident occurred as officers were detaining a person from Peru at the courthouse. Elibol was injured and hospitalized, spending 35 to 40 minutes semiconscious on the ground before being transported by ambulance to New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he was treated and discharged the same day. Fellow photographers Dean Moses and Olga Fedorova were also pushed by federal agents during the incident.

Catalina 'Xóchitl' Santiago, a 28-year-old DACA recipient and community organizer from El Paso, was detained by Border Patrol agents on August 3, 2025, at El Paso International Airport while traveling for work with her wife, Desiree Miller, a U.S. citizen whom Santiago married earlier in 2025. Despite holding valid DACA status since 2012—renewed seven times with her current renewal expiring in April 2026—Santiago was subjected to deportation proceedings. Originally from Mexico, Santiago has lived in the U.S. since age 8. On October 1, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that Santiago's arrest and detention violated her Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and ordered her release from the ICE El Paso Service Processing Center. Judge Cardone found that the government presented no evidence that Santiago endangered anyone during her twenty years at liberty, including her thirteen years under DACA, and failed to articulate any individualized reason for her detention. Santiago's brother Jose said the family was deeply affected by her detention and expressed relief at her release.

Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills announced three criminal investigations into ICE operations at a detention facility in his village, citing repeated exposure of his officers to tear gas deployed by federal agents. Mills and Mayor Katrina Thompson criticized ICE's use of tear gas, pepper spray, and mace during protests at the Broadview Processing Center, stating the chemicals created dangerous conditions for residents and first responders exercising their First Amendment rights.

L. Vural Elibol, a chief cameraman and videographer for Turkey's Anadolu Agency, was seriously injured when an ICE agent shoved him to the floor in a hallway outside immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan while he was documenting enforcement activity. Elibol hit his head on the floor near an elevator bank and remained unconscious for 35 to 40 minutes. Paramedics placed a neck brace on him and transported him by stretcher to a hospital, where he was treated for a possible concussion and kept for observation. Two other journalists—Dean Moses, a police bureau chief for amNewYork, and freelance photographer Olga Fedorova—were also grabbed and shoved by agents during the same incident but were not seriously injured. Eyewitnesses reported that ICE agents had been pursuing an immigrant into an elevator when Elibol was attacked while attempting to film the confrontation.

On September 30, 2025, at least three journalists were physically assaulted by masked ICE agents at 26 Federal Plaza while documenting an apparent arrest on the 12th floor. Dean Moses, police bureau chief for amNewYork, entered a public elevator to photograph ICE agents apprehending a woman when the agents grabbed him by his arms and shoved him out of the elevator. During the same incident, freelance journalist Olga Fedorova of the Associated Press was shoved to the floor by another ICE agent, and L. Vural Elibol of the Anadolu Agency was knocked down hard, striking his head and sustaining serious injuries that required hospitalization and a neck brace. Moses suffered minor pain in his underarms and shoulder but said he remains determined to continue covering proceedings at the courthouse.

ICE agents, along with CBP, FBI, and ATF personnel, conducted an overnight raid on a South Shore apartment building on September 30, 2025, targeting individuals allegedly associated with Tren de Aragua and involved in drug trafficking, weapons crimes, and immigration violations. The operation resulted in 37 arrests and drew criticism from residents and advocates over tactics that included use of flash bangs, property destruction, and separation of parents from children.