Human Impact Project

Salah Sarsour, 53, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and a lawful permanent resident for over 32 years, was detained by ICE on March 30, 2026, after being pulled over while driving in the Milwaukee area. DHS alleged he provided false information on his 1998 green card application, citing convictions from an Israeli military court when he was a minor for throwing Molotov cocktails and weapons possession. Despite having no U.S. criminal record, being married to a U.S. citizen, and having six U.S. citizen children, he was transferred to detention facilities in Chicago and Clay County jail in Indiana. Within 24 hours, the Muslim Legal Fund of America filed in federal court seeking immediate relief. His attorneys disputed the allegations and claimed he was being targeted for his Palestinian background and pro-Palestinian advocacy, noting that U.S. authorities had long known about the prior convictions.

Arpine Misakyan, a Southern California resident with a pending asylum case, was taken into custody after a domestic altercation with her husband at The Buffet at Wynn in Las Vegas. Although the Clark County District Attorney's office declined to pursue a domestic battery charge against her, ICE arrested her while she was being held at the Clark County Detention Center. She was transferred to the Henderson Detention Center and then to the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility, where she filed a lawsuit challenging her detention before ultimately withdrawing it and agreeing to voluntary departure to Armenia three months after her arrest.

According to reporting from SA Current, a pregnant woman named Juana was ordered deported by ICE when she was near her due date. Medical professionals and airlines told ICE she was too pregnant to safely fly, but ICE continued seeking officials willing to authorize her travel anyway. The case highlights failures in ICE's own policies protecting pregnant detainees.

Kaleth, a 2-year-old boy, was detained at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas after his entire family reported to a routine ICE check-in appointment in California in March 2026. The family had never missed a required immigration appointment since seeking asylum in 2024. Kaleth's father was handcuffed and transferred to an adult detention facility in California, while Kaleth and his mother Joani were transported over 1,000 miles away to Dilley. Separated from his father, Kaleth became despondent and stopped eating for 12 days; facility staff attributed his refusal to eat to depression. When his mother tried to force him to eat, he vomited and eventually stopped having bowel movements. After two weeks in detention, ICE released Kaleth and his mother in April following legal intervention, reuniting them with his father. His legal representative reported that Kaleth had not eaten solid food during his entire detention; in the car from the airport, he devoured four packets of applesauce and has since recovered.

An inspection by ICE's Office of Detention Oversight at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas found 49 deficiencies in detention standards on April 2, 2026. Violations included issues related to use of force, medical care, security, and disease prevention, with documented safety lapses including inadequate suicide prevention measures, unsecured equipment, staffing shortages, and medical negligence such as failure to isolate a detainee with tuberculosis symptoms. The facility, the nation's largest immigration detention center housing nearly 3,000 detainees daily since opening in summer 2025, has experienced at least three deaths. Despite these violations, the facility received an acceptable rating.

Douglas Dixon, a 61-year-old Canadian green card holder, was arrested by ICE on February 10, 2026, while checking in with his probation officer in Florida. Dixon had pleaded no contest to tax evasion in 2022 and owed approximately $12,000 in back taxes. He was detained for 65 days, initially at the Dade-Collier facility in the Florida Everglades and later transferred to Glades County Detention Center. An immigration judge ordered his deportation to Canada with a lifetime ban from returning to the United States, separating him from his wife, children, and grandchildren after more than two decades in the country.

On August 27, 2025, Vasquez (49) and Ramirez (40), a married couple from Mexico, were arrested by ICE during a traffic stop in Tulsa despite having pending U visa applications and federal deportation protections as crime victims who assisted law enforcement in prosecuting a serial rapist. Ramirez was held for four months at Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Texas, where she was denied access to seizure medication for her epilepsy. Vasquez was detained for over seven months at a CoreCivic facility in Cushing, Oklahoma, and attended 13 immigration court hearings before winning a habeas corpus lawsuit granting him a bond hearing. The prolonged separation and detention resulted in job loss, eviction from their home in Broken Arrow, and approximately $12,000 in accumulated legal debt. Vasquez was released in April 2026 on deferral of removal grounds, followed by Ramirez's release. Both remain without legal status and are working to recover financially while awaiting U visa hearings.

S.M.H., a 16-year-old Los Angeles high school student and aspiring tennis player whose parents are college psychology professors, was arrested by ICE in April 2026 along with his family after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards based on foreign policy concerns. S.M.H. and his mother have been held at the Dilley family detention center for 123 days—more than six times the federally-mandated 20-day limit—in conditions he described in a sworn affidavit as infested with cockroaches, spiders, and mosquitoes. He reports staff yell at children, deny food requests, serve unhealthy meals, and provide inadequate education compared to his California school. S.M.H., who considers himself an "average American kid" and has never been charged with a crime, has lost 10 pounds and says the experience is "terrifying." His father is detained separately at another Texas facility, and the family is allowed to speak for only 10 minutes every two weeks under supervision. The family's lawyers argue the prolonged detention violates the Flores settlement, a federal court agreement limiting child detention to 20 days.

Everlee Wihongi, a New Zealand citizen and long-term U.S. resident with a green card, was detained by ICE in early April after returning from New Zealand. She was held for more than 70 days because of a 2016 cannabis conviction that was later thrown out by the courts in June. During her detention at facilities in California, Arizona, and Texas, Wihongi described dehumanizing conditions including being referred to by her bunk-bed number rather than her name, extremely early meal times (3:45 a.m. in Arizona), shackling during transit, and witnessing children and pregnant women being shackled and moved between facilities. She has since been released and returned to Wisconsin with her family.

Daniela, originally from Colombia, came to the United States on a work permit and is married to a U.S. citizen with a pending green card application. For months, she cooperated with a detective from the Florida Department of Financial Services, answering dozens of questions and providing documentation about insurance fraud committed by her former employer. When the detective asked her to meet in April to discuss the case, Daniela was instead detained, handcuffed, and arrested. She has no criminal record. She was taken to the Palm Beach County jail and then transferred in chains to ICE facilities in two different states before being released on bond in May. Her arrest reflects the expansion of the 287(g) Task Force program, which deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws.

Dy, a Vietnamese refugee with an order of supervision, was arrested by ICE in November 2017 during a home visit and detained for five months and twenty-one days before being released following public attention and a habeas corpus petition. In fall 2025, during Trump's second term, Dy was arrested again after attending an ICE check-in appointment at the Atlanta field office, where he was sent on what he describes as a trap involving confusing directions between floors. He was transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, where he remained in detention as of April 2026. Dy is a former incarcerated person who turned his life around, became a Christian, married Tammy, and together they own a home and are raising three children with a fourth on the way. His wife and community have organized to support him, including celebrating a gender reveal party during his detention via video call with commissary materials.

Ali and Adel, an Iranian gay couple in their late 30s and early 40s, fled Iran in 2021 after being arrested by Iran's morality police for their relationship. They entered the United States at the El Paso, Texas border in early 2025 seeking asylum, but their claims were denied. The men are now separated in ICE detention facilities—Ali in Arizona and Adel near El Paso—facing deportation under a Trump administration policy reversing decades of allowing Iranians fleeing persecution to remain in the country. Adel has suffered severe organ damage and medical deterioration in detention, including significant weight loss and fainting episodes. Court orders have so far prevented their deportation, though both men have been moved to deportation staging facilities multiple times, and the Trump administration has not clarified whether deportation flights to Iran will resume.

A Guatemalan national who entered the United States in 2008 at age 15 was taken into immigration custody on March 31, 2026. An immigration judge entered an Order of Removal on May 18, 2026, which he appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his continued detention as unlawful and unconstitutional, alleging inadequate medical care for cervical and lumbar spinal injuries, due process violations, and that less restrictive alternatives exist. The court denied his emergency motion for a temporary restraining order prohibiting removal but ordered respondents to file a sealed medical status report within 14 days.

Maria, a 38-year-old thyroid cancer survivor from Brazil, was detained at Delaney Hall ICE detention center for roughly two weeks where medical staff did not provide her prescribed daily hormone supplements and also provided incorrect medication, leaving her unable to urinate for at least four days. Her attorney filed an emergency letter to a federal judge on March 31, 2026, raising concerns about the possibility of irreparable harm including organ failure or sepsis. The judge ordered her release the next day, in part due to these medical concerns. Her case is among over 70 lawsuits filed by Delaney Hall detainees alleging medical neglect.

Rudy Villeda Mejía, a 47-year-old Honduran roofing business owner who has lived in Washington state since 2010 after being kidnapped and held for ransom by Los Zetas cartel members, was arrested by ICE at Denver International Airport on March 30, 2025. He had attended routine immigration check-ins for years without incident and had a pending T visa application as a trafficking victim, which his attorney argued was his only lawful path to remain with his U.S. citizen wife, Mabel Shaffer, and her three children. During roughly four months in ICE custody in Aurora, Colorado, his health declined, including worsening Bell's palsy symptoms, back pain, and weight loss, while the family's roofing business lost contracts and his wife struggled to manage it alone. A federal judge initially denied his habeas petition, but later ordered his release under a court order barring detention of pending T visa applicants; ICE had already transferred him to Louisiana and released him there without his ID, passport, or work permit. His wife flew to Louisiana to drive him home, and his stepson said he immediately returned to work at the family business.

A Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. without inspection in 2009 and lived there for over 17 years was stopped while driving in Florida for allegedly having over-tinted windows and subsequently taken into ICE custody. He was transferred to several detention facilities and is now held at Golden State Annex in California. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered a bond hearing within seven days.

A two-year-old boy named Kaleth has been held at the Dilley family detention center in Texas since March 19, 2026, and is refusing to eat while experiencing a fever. When his mother requested medical assistance, staff reportedly dismissed her concerns as "mental." The facility, run by CoreCivic for ICE, has faced repeated criticism for contaminated food, inadequate medical care, and poor conditions including water shortages. Rep. Joaquin Castro is calling for Kaleth's immediate release and medical care, and has renewed demands to close the facility.

On March 28, 2026, a charter deportation flight carrying several dozen Russian citizens departed from Alexandria, Louisiana, and arrived in Moscow on March 29 via Newark and Cairo. The deportees were gathered from five or six immigration detention centers across the United States. Human rights advocates reported harsh transfer conditions including shackles and extended periods without seating. Some deportees faced FSB questioning upon arrival, and human rights organizations noted concerns about potential Kremlin reprisals against returnees, including those who had opposed the invasion of Ukraine.

A Trump-appointed federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against ICE for grave violations of detainees' Fifth Amendment rights during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. The court found that ICE isolated thousands of people at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building without access to attorneys and ordered the agency to provide legal aid contacts, interpreters, and free phone access within one hour of detention, as well as ban rapid out-of-state transfers within 72 hours.

Patience Gore, a 44-year-old Zimbabwean national who has lived in the U.S. for about 24 years, was seized by undercover plainclothes ICE agents at a United Airlines gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after a gate agent repeatedly called her name over the loudspeaker. Gore, who held a withholding of removal order, has sole custody of her 11-year-old U.S. citizen daughter and is married to U.S. citizen Olaoluwa Omotosho; she had been traveling home to Maryland with her partner after attending a friend's wedding. She was held for nearly two weeks across three Arizona detention facilities in what her lawsuit describes as degrading, squalid conditions, including sleeping on a mattress on the floor, being denied a change of clothes, and being denied sunglasses despite light sensitivity. The detention disrupted a time-sensitive IVF cycle, and a subsequent replacement cycle did not result in pregnancy. A federal judge granted her habeas petition and ordered her release on March 27, and she and her husband are now suing United Airlines, alleging it colluded with ICE to lure her to the gate.