Human Impact Project

Cristofer Ortega, 21, came to the United States as a child from Honduras and was living in Plainfield, New Jersey, studying for an HVAC certification while pursuing permanent residency through Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJ). In July 2025, while visiting family in New Hampshire, federal agents in an unmarked car pulled Ortega and the driver from a vehicle at a red light at gunpoint. Despite having no criminal record and never being arrested before, Ortega was detained for over eight months at facilities in Mississippi and New Hampshire. His attorney believed the stop was racial profiling and filed a Freedom of Information Act request with ICE to determine if agents were specifically targeting Ortega; ICE claimed no records existed. Ortega filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire in November 2025 challenging his detention and removal, which included documentation of his SIJ approval. A temporary restraining order was issued in February 2026, but the case was dismissed by stipulation on April 23, 2026. Ortega was deported to Honduras on March 29, 2026, separated from his family and his future in the United States. He reported experiencing severe mental health impacts from detention, including nightmares, insomnia, and ongoing trauma related to his prior history of abandonment.

An Instagram post shows a group of people being transported by ICE in buses at what appears to be a detention facility in El Reno, Oklahoma. According to the caption, multiple women were hospitalized due to heat strokes and poor conditions during transport, and the post characterizes them as mothers forcefully separated from their families.

William Alexander Alfaro, a Honduran national with an active asylum case, was detained by ICE agents on March 18, 2026, while driving his three children to school in San Antonio, Texas. Alfaro held a valid work permit and driver's license and was in compliance with the asylum process. He was arrested at Crosspoint, an ICE check-in and processing facility in San Antonio, as he arrived for a scheduled appointment. During approximately one month in ICE detention, Alfaro was not treated for a knee tumor requiring emergency surgery. He was deported to Honduras without receiving the scheduled medical procedure, likely resulting in amputation. His wife, who witnessed the initial detention, now fears she will be targeted for deportation, which would leave their three U.S. citizen children in San Antonio without parents.

Karla Sáenz, a 26-year-old transgender woman from Venezuela and organizer with Trans Queer Pueblo, was detained by ICE on March 9 during a routine immigration check-in at a USCIS office in Phoenix. She was held for a month at Eloy Detention Center in a men's unit, where she was denied hormone therapy, unable to shower for a week, and subjected to verbal abuse and medical neglect by staff. A federal judge ordered her release in April, finding her detention arbitrary and violating her due process rights.

Hector V. was detained during an ICE raid at the Allston Car Wash in November 2025 alongside eight coworkers. Though he had legal work authorization, he remained in custody due to an outstanding removal order from a 2007 hearing he missed because he is illiterate and was given incorrect information. After spending five months in the overcrowded South Texas ICE Processing Center under harsh conditions, he elected to self-deport at the end of January and was deported to El Salvador in mid-April, 11 weeks after making that choice. His attorney filed a motion to hold the government in contempt for failing to schedule a required bond hearing and a motion to reopen his case, both of which were denied.

Kerrie, a transgender Guyanese asylum seeker, was detained following collusion between Nassau County Police and ICE. She is being held in a men's detention facility and is being denied gender-affirming care. Advocates are calling for her release and reunification with her community in New York City.

María de la Luz Loredo was detained at El Valle ICE Processing Center in Raymondville, Texas, when she learned her 17-year-old son had died in a shooting in Houston. After receiving this news, she reports being placed in solitary confinement and stripped of clothing, confined with only a blanket as punishment for crying. While detained, she was separated from her four children, including a 1-year-old still breastfeeding. Loredo states the only immigration check-in she missed was to be present at another son's deathbed during cancer treatment in 2020.

Children's entertainer Ms. Rachel appeared on MSNBC to describe conditions at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas after speaking with detained families. She reported undrinkable water, worms in the food, rotten food, and dangerously inadequate medical care for children in ICE custody.

Carlos Rodelo, a 43-year-old from Barranquilla, Colombia, fled his home country after being repeatedly extorted and entered the U.S. through the Mexican border, where a federal judge granted him protection under the Convention Against Torture, barring his return to Colombia but not to a third country. Detained since August, Rodelo was held at the Alexandria, Louisiana airport and shackled without food by ICE agents despite his objections and a pending habeas corpus challenge, then flown via Dakar and Accra to the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a Trump Administration third-country deportation agreement covering the first group of 15 Latin Americans. Rodelo, who has diabetes and other medical conditions, described feeling like a prisoner in Congo despite being told he was free, and stayed in a Kinshasa hotel hoping to be repatriated. The Department of Homeland Security asserted he had violated the terms of his parole. Rodelo later returned to Colombia through the International Organization for Migration's Assisted Voluntary Return program.

Nearly 100 detainees at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County launched a hunger strike between April 16-19, 2026, to protest detention conditions and medical care. The strike began after a detainee became ill with influenza on April 16, with 50-70 detainees in the same housing pod initially refusing an evening meal due to food contamination concerns. Advocacy groups reported that detainees were protesting unsafe living conditions, including contaminated food, inadequate medical care, and staff indifference to medical emergencies, with reports of a recent medical emergency in which a detainee lost consciousness without receiving proper care. Advocacy group Frontline DIGNITY called for the facility's shutdown and independent investigation. Clearfield County commissioners met with GEO Group leadership, the facility operator, to address the incident.

Rogelio Bolufé Izquierdo, a 44-year-old Cuban national detained at Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico, organized approximately 200 detainees into a group called the Union of Those Kidnapped by ICE to document poor conditions including inadequate water access, spoiled food, insufficient medical care, and unsanitary sewage leaks. Izquierdo, who entered legally in 2020 but overstayed his visa, has filed multiple habeas corpus petitions challenging his indefinite civil detention without bail, while his fiancée documents his case and advocacy efforts.

Sundas Naqvi, a 28-year-old U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE agents at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on March 5, 2026, after returning from Turkey. She claimed a 43-hour ordeal involving transfer to Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin and was released early Saturday morning with a dead phone. Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt denied having any record of her at the facility, while DHS disputed her account by releasing surveillance footage showing secondary screening lasted less than an hour. In April 2026, Sheriff Schmidt filed a million-dollar defamation lawsuit against Naqvi, characterizing her detention claims as false and part of a "romantic scam" with her boyfriend. Naqvi's attorney provided location data and requested release of additional surveillance footage.

Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, from Valle de Santiago, Guanajuato, Mexico, had lived in the United States for about 25 years and was married to a U.S. citizen, though he had not obtained legal residency. He was arrested by ICE on January 8, 2026, in Tennessee and transferred over five days through facilities in Tennessee and Alabama before arriving at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana on January 13. During roughly three months in custody he was treated for high blood pressure, fever, and back and throat pain, receiving medication according to ICE. On April 11, 2026, he was found unresponsive with facial paralysis and cyanosis during a security check; resuscitation attempts failed and he was pronounced dead at Winn Parish Medical Center. The coroner attributed his death to natural causes from cardiovascular disease. Guanajuato's Human Rights Secretariat located his sister in Atlanta and offered funeral assistance and possible repatriation. His death was one of several ICE custody deaths reported in early 2026.

Marie-Thérèse Ross, an 86-year-old French citizen and widow, was arrested by ICE agents on April 1, 2026, at her home in Anniston, Alabama, for overstaying her 90-day tourist visa. Ross had entered the U.S. in June 2025 on a Visa Waiver Program to marry William Ross, a retired U.S. military veteran whom she had known since the 1950s after meeting him while he was stationed at a NATO base in France. After her husband died unexpectedly in January 2026, she fell out of legal status and became involved in a contested probate dispute with her late husband's stepsons over his estate. She was handcuffed at her home and transferred to an immigration detention facility in Basile, Louisiana, where she was held for 16 days in dormitory conditions with approximately 58-70 other women. Despite suffering from pre-existing heart and back problems, she experienced deteriorating health during detention and reported post-traumatic stress symptoms. An Alabama judge noted that her stepson, a former state trooper and federal employee, may have used his position to prompt her detention. Following intervention by the French foreign minister and the French Consul General, who visited her twice and coordinated with U.S. officials, Ross was released and returned to France.

Argam Nazarian, a 27-year-old Iranian Christian who fled religious persecution and arrived in the U.S. as a refugee in 2008, was arrested by ICE on June 23, 2025, while heading to work in Los Angeles. He had lived legally in Los Angeles for four years, working as a delivery driver and in air conditioning while supporting his wife and serving as a caretaker for his mother, who has chronic health conditions. An immigration judge ordered his release on bond in August 2025, finding he posed neither a flight risk nor danger to the community, but the federal government refused to release him, arguing his classification as an "applicant for admission" requires mandatory detention. Nazarian was held in ICE detention in El Paso and later transferred to Cibola County Detention Center in New Mexico, where his knee injury requiring ACL reconstruction remained untreated. The Texas Civil Rights Project challenged his detention through habeas corpus petitions. After nearly 10 months in custody, a federal judge ruled on April 17, 2026, that his detention violated his Fifth Amendment rights, and Nazarian was released. War between the U.S., Israel, and Iran beginning February 28, 2026, had disrupted ICE's deportation plans, with charter flights to Iran temporarily ceased.

Octavio Daniel Cabrera Valdez, a 36-year-old Mexican immigrant who fled cartel violence in Monclova, Mexico, was detained by ICE while at work in April 2026. He had a valid work permit and had applied for a green card through his U.S. citizen mother. A Stockdale Marshal's Office officer asked him and his coworkers for papers before turning him over to ICE. He was the sole provider for his partner and two children, ages 8 and 4, and had also cared for his U.S. citizen parents. He has been held at the Karnes City detention facility, where he reports scarce food, an untreated rash he attributes to insect-infested bedding, and delayed medical care. His family sold their belongings, was forced from their apartment, and moved to another part of Texas, where they now avoid going out for fear of arrest. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro has called for his release.

Willian Yacelga Benalcazar fled criminal gang threats in Ecuador and sought asylum in the U.S. after crossing the border in August 2023. He was detained for five months across multiple ICE facilities, where he reported catching a virus, poor conditions including contaminated water, and difficulty accessing food. Under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy, he faced deportation to Honduras rather than Ecuador. After learning he could face three to four additional months in detention, he abandoned his asylum case and agreed to voluntary departure to Ecuador on April 16, 2026.

A former international student from Bangladesh self-deported from the United States after spending months in immigration detention, which he described as inhumane conditions.

A lawyer for two detainees at a Florida immigration detention facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz" reported that guards allegedly beat and pepper-sprayed several detainees who had complained about lack of phone access needed to contact family and attorneys. The incident follows a pattern of reports documenting inhumane conditions at the facility.

A native and citizen of El Salvador who entered the United States in 2019 after fleeing persecution and torture. He was apprehended near the San Ysidro Port of Entry and expressed immediate fear of return. In August 2019, an Immigration Judge granted him withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), finding he faced torture if returned to El Salvador due to false gang affiliation accusations by Salvadoran authorities. He was released on an Order of Supervision and faithfully complied with all conditions for nearly seven years, attending every ICE check-in, obtaining continuous employment authorization, working legally since 2021, and living in California with his partner and their seven-year-old daughter. On April 14, 2026, he voluntarily appeared for his routine ICE check-in in Los Angeles but was re-detained without any pre-deprivation notice, hearing, or explanation of the basis for detention. He was transferred to Adelanto ICE Processing Center and then moved out of jurisdiction to El Paso, Texas without required notice. DHS issued notice of intent to remove him to Mexico, a third country not designated in his original removal order. On May 7, 2026, the federal court granted his temporary restraining order (TRO), ordering his immediate release under previous supervision conditions and enjoining his removal to any third country without notice and opportunity to be heard on fear-based claims.