Human Impact Project

Federal ICE agents pepper-sprayed and fired crowd suppression munitions at newly sworn-in Arizona Representative Adelita Grijalva during a confrontation with protesters outside a taco restaurant in Tucson. Video evidence shows agents spraying Grijalva and others with pepper spray and firing pepper balls, which the Department of Homeland Security denied occurred. The incident occurred during an operation targeting the restaurant as part of a human trafficking investigation, with heavily armed agents deploying flash-bang grenades, tear gas, and pepper-ball rounds at immigrant rights protesters.

Stephanie Velasquez, a Venezuelan woman seeking asylum, was detained by ICE on December 5th, 2025 during one of her appointments. She was married to a U.S. citizen at the time of her detention.

ICE agents arrested Julio, a man with end-stage kidney failure requiring regular dialysis, as he returned home from a medical appointment. He was held in detention facilities and denied appropriate medical care, eventually suffering a severe stroke while hospitalized under ICE surveillance. His family, all U.S. citizens including a military servicemember, advocated for his release but ICE refused despite his critical medical needs.

Federal ICE agents arrested a U.S. citizen Somali woman born in Edina near Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday. According to her cousin, agents zip-tied her, mocked her hijab, and touched her inappropriately before taking her to Sherburne County Jail in Elk River. She was released Thursday after more than 24 hours in custody once her husband provided her passport card proving her citizenship.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detained an American citizen woman during an immigration enforcement traffic stop near mile marker 103 in Key Largo on Wednesday morning. Video footage shows agents forcefully removing the woman from her vehicle, wrestling her to the ground, and handcuffing her after discovering her boyfriend was in the country illegally. The woman, who was wearing medical scrubs, was released approximately 10 minutes later after agents verified her U.S. citizenship through her driver's license. The operation resulted in 14 undocumented immigrants being arrested for deportation proceedings. The incident was recorded by a Miami Herald reporter.

Lucia Webb, a 31-year-old Minneapolis resident, followed two ICE vehicles to the park-and-ride outside the Whipple Building on December 3. Officers boxed her in, surrounded her car, and threatened to arrest her. She is a named plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit alleging ICE violated constitutional rights of observers and protesters.

A behavioral therapist for children in Key Largo, Florida, was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on December 3 while driving to work in a car registered to her partner, who is undocumented. Body camera and cellphone video, recorded in part by a Miami Herald reporter, showed agents unlocking her door, dragging her from the vehicle, taking her phone, and handcuffing her as she screamed, "I'm a U.S. citizen, please help me! This is unfair. Why are you doing this to me?" The woman, described as just under 5 feet tall and 85 pounds, said agents searched her purse without consent and that she complied by rolling down her window as instructed. She was held for about 10 minutes before being released once agents confirmed her citizenship through her driver's license. She said this was the third time she had been stopped in the same area for an immigration inspection, and that the experience left her unable to sleep, in physical pain, and emotionally traumatized. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the incident reflected a pattern of people being "racially profiled by ICE," and protesters later gathered in Islamorada to demand accountability. Her case is one of more than 500 documented by ProPublica involving U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration.

Federal immigration agents stopped a woman driving in Key Largo and forcibly removed her from her vehicle despite her stating she was a U.S. citizen. After agents pulled her from the car and handcuffed her, they found her driver's license in the vehicle and confirmed through their system that she is a U.S. citizen. She was released shortly after.

A 23-year-old U.S. citizen mother was chased by Border Patrol agents near her home in Marrero while walking from a store on Wednesday. The encounter was captured on video and occurred during an enforcement operation called "Catahoula Crunch" in the New Orleans area. The woman told agents twice that she was an American citizen before running into her parents' home, where agents stood outside for several minutes.

Associate pastor Ruzana Nehonde, 49, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in at the Burlington field office in November 2025 and transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana facing deportation to Zimbabwe. Despite having no criminal record, an adult son with U.S. citizenship, a pending green card application, and nearly three decades of residence in Massachusetts with a history of ICE compliance, she was taken into custody. Her church community in Stow has rallied to support her and is collecting donations to help cover household expenses.

Federal agents stopped a U.S. citizen, identified only as Maria, near Salem, Oregon, on Jan. 29, shattering her car window and pulling her from the vehicle despite her having a valid passport. She said agents pinned her against the van, injuring her, before finding the passport and leaving; one agent reportedly told her, in English, to renew it. Maria, a citizen for seven years, said she had been driving to pick up her paycheck, pay rent and buy a birthday cake for her grandson when she was stopped. Her child witnessed the encounter and called 911 during it.

Jacelynn Guzman, 22, was chased by masked federal agents through her Marrero, Louisiana neighborhood as she walked home from a corner store, even after telling them she was a U.S. citizen. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said she matched the description of someone sought under a deportation order, but that agents determined she was not their target and left without making an arrest. Guzman, who has no criminal record, said she believes she was targeted because she is Hispanic.

Elias Perez-Zuazo, a Panamanian national, was detained by ICE in December 2025 during a scheduled check-in appointment at a Chantilly, Virginia office that he had previously attended without incident. Perez-Zuazo entered the U.S. in November 2021, was processed at the southern border, and married his U.S. citizen husband Jonathan Blanco Gallegos in February 2024. They had begun applying for a green card when Perez-Zuazo was taken into custody without warning. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia has issued an order barring ICE from removing him from the judicial district while the court reviews the legality of his detention, which his attorney is challenging via habeas corpus petition.

Elías Pérez-Zuazo, a Panamanian national, was detained by ICE on December 10, 2024, during a scheduled appointment at an ICE office in Chantilly, Virginia, where he had checked in without incident in prior years. He and his husband, U.S. citizen Jonathan Blanco Gallegos, met in 2023 and married in Washington, D.C., on February 27, 2024; the couple had an approved I-130 family petition pending for his green card. ICE claimed a prior deportation order existed from November 2021, but his attorney contested this, questioning the legality of the detention. Pérez-Zuazo was held at Farmville Detention Center in Virginia, and a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia barred ICE from removing him from the judicial district while reviewing a habeas corpus petition; Blanco Gallegos has described the toll of the detention, saying his life has been paused and that he has a broken heart.

Mubashir Khalif Hussen, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was stopped and arrested by multiple masked ICE agents in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis while walking to lunch in December 2025. Despite repeatedly telling agents "I'm a citizen" and attempting to show his driver's license and passport card—which his employer also tried to show through the vehicle's windshield—agents refused to examine his identification. He was held for several hours and shackled in a detention center before being released after showing a photo of his passport. Federal Judge Eric Tostrud found in March 2026 that Hussen was detained based solely on his race or ethnicity in violation of the Fourth Amendment, in a case brought by the ACLU of Minnesota against ICE and Border Patrol during Operation Metro Surge.

U.S. citizens testified before Congress about violent encounters with federal immigration agents. Daniel Rascon, a 23-year-old from San Bernardino, California, described agents pointing rifles at him and shooting at his car during an August 16, 2025 stop. He said agents later conducted two home invasions targeting his family, during which his father-in-law, Francisco Longoria, was detained and held in jail for three months.

Alma Bowman, a 59-year-old Macon resident, was detained by ICE on March 26, 2025, during a routine check-in and held at Stewart Detention Center for 243 days until her release in late November 2025. Bowman claims U.S. citizenship as the daughter of an American Navy serviceman and was born in the Philippines. ICE asserted she was in the country illegally. This was her second detention; she had previously been held for three years (2017-2020) at Irwin County Detention Center following criminal convictions deemed deportable offenses. During her detention, Bowman reported inadequate medical care and overcrowded conditions. Her attorney argued the prolonged detainment violated her constitutional rights, and her citizenship status remained legally disputed throughout her custody.

A person warned their community that ICE agents were staging outside houses and then parked at a trolley station to observe. When ICE agents returned to the station, they attempted to detain the person, who fled because the agents were masked and refused to identify themselves. The person claims to be an American citizen and states that other people were also detained at the scene.

Leticia Jacobo, a 24-year-old Native American woman, was jailed in Iowa for a traffic infraction and faced potential transfer to an ICE Detention Center for deportation. Indigenous rights groups intervened to prevent her deportation.

Christian Jimenez, 17, a U.S. citizen and high school senior in Oregon, was stopped and detained by ICE officers on November 21, 2025, during his lunch break while driving his father's car. Officers broke the driver's side window despite Jimenez telling them he was a U.S. citizen. He was held at ICE's Portland facility for nearly seven hours before being released and now faces charges of interference or obstruction of investigation. DHS claimed the teenager violently attacked officers with his vehicle, but his family and immigrant-justice groups disputed this account. Jimenez was one of four U.S. citizens detained by ICE in the Portland area that week, prompting a 300-student walkout and community protests over ICE enforcement tactics near schools.