Human Impact Project

A 62-year-old Somali elder was detained by ICE agents at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis on December 31 without a warrant. ICE officers remained at the patient's bedside for approximately 28 hours while she received medical care. During her detention, the patient was allegedly shackled to her hospital bed and denied family visits. She was subsequently transported to the ICU where she remains unresponsive.

A federal judge ordered the release of Garrison Gibson, a 37-year-old Liberian man, four days after heavily armed immigration agents broke into his Minneapolis home using a battering ram and arrested him. The judge ruled that the agents violated Gibson's Fourth Amendment rights by entering his home without his consent and without a judicial warrant. Gibson had been living legally in the U.S. under an order of supervision and had checked in with immigration authorities days before his arrest.

ICE arrested 19-year-old Willmar High School student Suban Noor on January 12. She was reportedly held in custody for several days before being released.

A 26-year-old woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a court-granted protection order preventing deportation was removed to Cameroon in mid-January 2026 after spending a year in ICE detention. She had fled her country after being raped by police and mistaken for a Rwandan during armed conflict.

A man from Angola who had lived in the United States for 30 years and is stateless (not recognized by Angola) was deported to Cameroon in mid-January 2026. He held legal asylum protections but was removed without notice or due process.

A nurse from Zimbabwe who had lived in the United States for 15 years and held legal asylum protections was deported to Cameroon in mid-January 2026 without notice. She was held in detention in Yaoundé under poor conditions with inadequate food and no legal documentation.

A 20-year-old student from Ghana with legal asylum protections was deported to Cameroon in mid-January 2026 as part of a secret third-country removal program. She was transferred in handcuffs and shackles and held in detention in Yaoundé without documentation or due process.

Farah, a 21-year-old Moroccan woman granted protection from removal by an immigration judge in August 2025, was deported by U.S. authorities to Cameroon in January 2026 without due process. Three days before a scheduled hearing on her release, ICE agents detained her and placed her on a flight to Cameroon; after she refused to remain there, she was flown to Morocco despite facing persecution for her sexual orientation. She is among dozens of migrants deported to third countries despite holding legal protections from immigration judges, part of a broader policy to encourage voluntary departure.

A 21-year-old Moroccan woman with a U.S. immigration judge's ruling prohibiting her return to Morocco was deported to Cameroon in mid-January 2026 as part of a secret third-country removal program. Without due process or legal counsel, she was subsequently returned to Morocco, where she faced persecution for her sexual orientation. She is now in hiding.

A Liberian man was arrested after armed immigration agents used a battering ram to enter his Minneapolis home. According to his attorney, the man had been checking in with federal authorities for years prior to the raid.

ICE agents surrounded a family's home with weapons drawn and pointed guns at an unarmed mother and her children. Agents briefly detained a U.S. citizen teenager without a warrant before releasing him after realizing they lacked authority to arrest him. The incident involved armed agents at an unarmed family inside their own home.

Hani Duglof, a 32-year-old with a rare genetic disorder (RDEB) that causes skin blistering, was detained by ICE after agents ran his license plate while he was driving. He was transferred to M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital after requesting medical attention, where he remains in ICE custody. His family and attorney are seeking his release, citing his severe medical condition and his pending asylum application that has been ongoing for over 10 years.

Nimco Omar, a Somali-American U.S. citizen, was stopped by multiple masked ICE officers while walking in her Minneapolis neighborhood. The officers demanded identification and proof of citizenship status. Omar refused to provide ID and asserted she was a U.S. citizen, but an officer threatened to place her in a vehicle and warned of federal charges if she was lying. Omar recorded the encounter on her phone out of fear. Legal experts noted that U.S. citizens have no legal obligation to provide identification while walking or standing in public. The encounter occurred as part of ICE's expanded enforcement operations in Minneapolis.

Garrison Gibson, a Liberian national in his late 30s living in north Minneapolis, was arrested by ICE agents on January 11, 2026, when they used a battering ram to break down his door. Gibson had been regularly checking in with immigration authorities. According to Gibson's account, the agents took trophy photos during the arrest and held him in an overcrowded cell. The agents were armed with an administrative warrant rather than a judicial search warrant.

Khadra Muse Mohamed, a 25-year-old Somali refugee and single mother, was pulled over by undercover ICE agents on January 10, 2026, one day after Operation PARRIS began. She had legally arrived in the U.S. in April 2024, passed security screenings, and was living in St. Cloud with her 7-year-old son and extended family including her disabled stepfather. After her arrest, she was transferred to a detention facility in Texas before her family could secure legal representation, separating her from her young son and elderly relatives who depend on her care. She was released on January 19 after nine days in detention.

An Eritrean single mother of three with a pending green card application was detained during Operation PARRIS operations beginning January 9, 2026. During a five-hour interview with USCIS officers, she was questioned about her application materials and reasons for fleeing her country. Her attorney reported that the USCIS officer conducting the interview stated he had no knowledge of why she was detained or authority regarding her detention. She was released a few days after arrest and returned to Minnesota, and her green card application was approved while she was in detention.

Ahmed Bin Hassan, a Somali American Uber driver and U.S. citizen, was accosted by over a dozen Border Patrol and ICE agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The agents approached him citing his accent, which Bin Hassan later characterized as evidence of racial profiling. During the viral confrontation, Bin Hassan remained defiant, refusing to provide identification and questioning the agents' authority, before they ultimately walked away.

Ngwu Onyekachi Kingsley, a Nigerian national who had been released on recognizance and participating in an Alternative to Detention program for over two years, was arrested by ICE agents during a routine ATD appointment on January 7, 2026. He had no criminal history and had attended all required check-ins, with a pending asylum application. The court granted a preliminary injunction ordering his immediate release, finding his re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process.

ICE agents arrested Mubashir Hussen, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Somali descent, in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood during Operation Metro Surge in December 2025. Video footage documented agents slamming him against a door, placing him in a chokehold, and handcuffing him despite his repeated statements and multiple displays of his U.S. passport and identification. He was released after approximately two hours once agents confirmed his citizenship status. Hussen subsequently became the lead plaintiff in a class-action ACLU lawsuit, Hussen v. Noem, which documents a broader pattern of ICE and CBP detaining U.S. citizens, legal residents, and individuals with pending legal status across Minnesota. The lawsuit, supported by 29 sworn declarations, found that 100% of documented cases involved individuals with legal status, with Somali and Latino communities apparently systematically targeted based on appearance during Operation Metro Surge.

Ken Ofori-Atta was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on April 8, 2026, following a judicial order. His detention originated from administrative compliance flags linked to investigations by Ghana's Office of the Special Prosecutor into allegations of corruption during his tenure as Finance Minister. Ofori-Atta had entered the United States legally and his legal team argued the detention resulted from a procedural misunderstanding rather than criminal violations. He has reunited with his family in the United States.

A 31-year-old Cuban man, identified as Ricardo H., reported being beaten by approximately 15 guards at Camp East Montana detention center at Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas, after spending more than 20 hours without food and banging on a metal door to request meals. According to his account documented in a Human Rights Watch and ACLU report, six agents held him down face-first, stomped on his neck, and caused injuries to his ear and collarbone. The 84-page report, based on interviews with 80 people detained at the facility between October 2025 and June 2026, documents a pattern of alleged abuses including raids by masked agents without visible identification, unsanitary conditions, and cases of people detained despite documentation of legal status. The report also documents the death of another Cuban detainee, Gerardo Lunas Campos, 55, on January 3, 2026, whose autopsy determined the cause of death was asphyxiation due to compression of the neck and torso, classified as homicide.

Adayomi Ademuyiwa, a Dallas resident, was deported to Nigeria by ICE in January 2026 despite a federal judge having released him on conditions months earlier. His deportation prevented him from standing trial on federal fraud and identity theft charges and blocked potential restitution to alleged victims.

Khadija (also referred to by the pseudonym Abina), a bisexual woman from Ghana, fled her country fearing for her life after she and her family were persecuted because of her sexual orientation. She crossed the U.S. border in December 2024 to seek asylum and was detained at the Eloy detention center in Arizona. Denied eligibility for asylum only because of the "circumvention of lawful pathways" regulation, she proved to an immigration judge that she was a refugee and was granted withholding of removal in July 2025. Instead of releasing her, ICE continued to detain her and told her she would be sent to Cameroon — a country she had never been to and where homosexuality is also criminalized. When she requested a fear interview and refused to sign voluntary deportation papers, an ICE officer told her to "get the fuck out of my face." In January 2026 she was placed on a flight in shackles around her wrists, ankles, and waist, with stopovers in Louisiana and Senegal, and deported to Cameroon. There she lives in a crowded room with about ten other women and other third-country nationals, lacking clothing, sanitary pads, and basic hygiene products, and was told she has temporary authorization to remain for only two months. As of July 2026, she remains in limbo, afraid to go outside the building where she is housed and unable to return to Ghana, where she fears persecution.

Rev. James Eliud Ngahu Mwangi, a Kenyan priest and assistant rector in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, was arrested by ICE on October 24-25, 2025, while returning home from his job as a correctional officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, Texas. Despite holding a valid work permit verified through E-Verify and lawful employment status, ICE detained him at a facility in Conroe, alleging he had overstayed his B1 visa. The Episcopal Diocese of Texas disputed ICE's claims and coordinated legal counsel to document his employment and immigration records. After months in detention, described as punitive and emotionally draining, and facing denial of bond despite his pending asylum application, Rev. Mwangi chose to voluntarily depart to Kenya in early January 2026. His attorney indicated the voluntary departure was a strategic decision to preserve his future eligibility to legally re-enter the United States.

Abdulkadir Sharif Abdi, a Somali refugee who became an addiction recovery leader, was arrested in December 2025 and transferred to Lincoln County Detention Center in North Platte, Nebraska. ICE described him as an active gang member, though community members contested this characterization. Abdi filed a habeas petition on December 9 claiming his detention was unlawful, and Judge Susan Bazis ordered his interim release on December 23 after the government did not contest the petition. Abdi was released on Christmas Eve with assistance from HOPE-Esperanza, a nonprofit serving North Platte's minority community, which helped him contact his family and book a flight home to Minneapolis.

Izzy Aly, a legal immigrant with an active green card application, was arrested on December 23, 2025, at Philadelphia International Airport upon returning from an approved USCIS visit to Egypt to handle his deceased father's estate. He was held for six months at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, where he was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure three months into detention. Aly reports receiving inadequate medical care, including only two visits with a nephrologist despite his serious condition, threats of solitary confinement when reporting COVID concerns, and widespread viral infections in crowded detention pods. He was released on June 19, 2026, after advocacy efforts by civil rights groups, members of Congress, and public figures brought attention to his case. Aly now suffers from trauma, lacks health insurance, and is working to recover while advocating for closure of the detention facility.

A federal judge in Charlotte ruled that ICE violated a man's due process rights by unlawfully detaining Mostafa Said, an Egyptian asylum seeker, during a routine check-in. The judge ordered immigration officials to hold a bond hearing for Said within 48 hours. Said had been released on humanitarian parole after entering through the U.S.-Mexico border and was arrested in Charlotte and transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia.

Abdikadir Abdi Noor, a 43-year-old Somali-American citizen from Fridley, was pulled over and arrested by ICE on December 15 outside Karmel Mall in Minneapolis. He is a named plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit alleging ICE violated constitutional rights of observers and protesters during the agency's ramped-up raids in Minnesota targeting the state's Somali community.

A confrontation occurred in south Minneapolis when dozens of residents gathered as ICE agents operated near Lake Street and Pillsbury Avenue. During the incident, federal agents used pepper spray and at least one Taser on observers as the crowd attempted to prevent the arrest of a woman reported to be pregnant. Local law enforcement responded to assist ICE agents in leaving the scene.

Benny, a 30-year-old musician from Guinea who arrived in the U.S. in 2011 on an H1B visa as a dance instructor, was detained by ICE on December 15, 2025, after going to a police station in Vineland, NJ to file a harassment report. An ICE agent at the station gave him a deportation form while falsely claiming it was a harassment report; Benny, who did not understand the legal language, signed it and was taken into custody. Over the past 12 years, Benny has built a life in the U.S., working in restaurants, getting married, renovating a house in Queens, and starting a farm in New Jersey where he raises goats. He has a 1-year-old daughter and has collaborated with an audio engineer to record over 100 songs together, becoming fluent in nine languages. As of the fundraiser, Benny has been incarcerated for 225 days at Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center, has lost over 50 pounds, and his next hearing is scheduled for September 1, 2026. Despite his own food insecurity, he has shared his meals with other detainees.

Jose Roberto Ramirez, a U.S. citizen and Red Lake Nation descendant, was detained by ICE officers at a Robbinsdale Hy-Vee on January 8 and later released from federal custody. A family member's video of the encounter was shared on social media, prompting local lawmakers and the legislature's Native American Caucus to condemn the arrest as racial profiling and a violation of Indigenous sovereignty. Robbinsdale police stated they did not participate in the federal operation and were not notified in advance.

A Homeland Security agent confronting a man about his visa status was briefly taken in an SUV against his will on Wednesday in Plymouth, Minnesota. Two people were charged in federal court with interfering with DHS agents: Oluwadamilola Bamigboye, 24, a Nigerian national who overstayed his student visa, and Rekeya Frazier, 26. The incident began when agents approached Bamigboye outside an apartment complex, leading him to jump into Frazier's SUV and demand she drive away, resulting in a brief pursuit that ended near a New Hope police station.

Mubashir, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Somali descent, was arrested by ICE agents on December 9, 2025, in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of south Minneapolis. According to Mubashir and community organization CAIR-MN, ICE agents tackled him during the arrest despite his repeated statements that he was a U.S. citizen and his display of his passport. He was detained at Fort Snelling federal building after agents allegedly failed to identify themselves. DHS disputed accounts of the incident, claiming officers were investigating criminal immigration violations and that Mubashir resisted arrest. According to CAIR-MN, the arrests were part of a pattern targeting Somali neighborhoods and included multiple U.S. citizens.

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used chemical irritant to disperse a crowd in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis during identification checks. The incident occurred on Tuesday. Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman, a Somali American, was present during the confrontation.

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.

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.

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.

Izzy Aly, a 40-year-old Egyptian national, has been detained by ICE at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania since December 2025. A DHS medical exam in January found stage 3 kidney disease, but Aly was not informed until March. Advocates allege ICE has denied his requests for treatment, and he recently reported seeing blood in his urine. Immigrant rights groups are calling for his release to receive proper medical care.

Joel Andre and his family were detained by ICE and held in a detention facility in Texas. The community is calling for legal assistance and urging elected officials Collins, King, and Pingree to help prevent his deportation.

Mor Ba, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from Senegal, was detained by ICE on the morning before Thanksgiving while entering his car to go to work. Ba, who had no criminal record and was months away from his asylum hearing, was taken to the North Lake Processing Center in northwest Michigan. His aunt, Seydi Sarr, a Detroit-based immigrant rights advocate, learned of his detention when he called her from the ICE office and eventually posted a $10,000 bond for his release in January.

Manuel Ndongala, an asylum seeker from Angola, was detained by ICE on November 18, 2025, during what he expected to be a routine check-in at the Scarborough, Maine ICE office. His car was left in the office parking lot and was towed under Maine's abandoned vehicle law while he was detained for over 80 days. The incident prompted Maine's Secretary of State to temporarily adjust the state's process for transferring ownership of abandoned vehicles to better protect detained immigrants.

Carine Balenda Mbizi, a Congolese mother, was detained by Customs and Border Protection on November 12, 2025, at the Champlain Port of Entry in New York after attempting to seek asylum in Canada with her three teenage children. The family had entered the U.S. without authorization in 2022 and was transferred to the Dilley family detention facility in Texas. An immigration judge issued a deportation order in February 2025, and her appeal was dismissed in October. Online immigration court records show she remains in the facility while her case is pending.

Joel Andre, a 16-year-old Deering High School student from Congo, was detained by Customs and Border Protection on November 12, 2025, at the Champlain Port of Entry in New York after his family attempted to seek asylum in Canada. The family had entered the U.S. without authorization in 2022 and was transferred to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas. An immigration judge issued a deportation order for the family in February 2025, and their appeal was dismissed in October. Joel is a well-known member of Portland's Kennedy Park pickup soccer community, and his detention prompted his school district and congregation to mobilize support.

The Andre family—Carine, an activist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and her three children Estafania, Olivia, and Joel—fled persecution and were initially vetted and released in 2022 to await asylum hearings. After deportation and denied entry to Canada, they were returned to the U.S. and detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley beginning in November 2025, violating the Flores Settlement requiring prompt release of children. Carine and Joel (17) were released in March 2026 after nearly four months in detention; Olivia (19) was released in June 2026 after over five months. Detainees reported inadequate conditions including contaminated food and water, mold, and sleep disruption.

Rev. James Eliud Ngahu Mwangi, an Episcopal priest originally from Kenya, was detained by ICE on October 25 despite having legal authorization to live and work in the United States and being employed as a Texas state employee. The Episcopal Diocese of Texas is calling for due process, transparency, and humane treatment for Mwangi, stating his family was unaware of his whereabouts for several days before locating him at an immigration detention center in Conroe.

Yassine Halhoul, a 21-year-old University of Arizona aerospace engineering student from Morocco, was detained by Homeland Security Investigations on October 21, 2025, due to a clerical visa issue. He spent approximately one month in ICE detention at Florence Correctional Center and Eloy Detention Center, where he reported poor conditions including inadequate food, interference with sleep, and frequent cell counts. After a GoFundMe campaign raised $18,500 for bail and legal expenses, Halhoul was released on November 13, 2025, with an ankle monitor.

Reggie Williams, a 39-year-old Black artist, was stopped by Memphis police officers while walking to a nearby store on October 15, 2025. After initial questioning, four armed federal agents in an unmarked SUV with rifles and body armor but no identifying badges descended on him and conducted an aggressive interrogation. An armed agent asked if he was from Ethiopia or Ghana. Williams said he believed he would not have made it home safely without his birth certificate and state ID. He was not arrested or ticketed but reported feeling terrorized during the encounter, which occurred as part of Trump's Memphis Safe Task Force operation.

Alandria London, a Black ride-share driver, was pulled over by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper on October 8, 2025, while taking a passenger to the airport. The officer claimed he did not see her seat belt, though she was wearing one. After the officer said he needed to "call it in," an Immigration and Customs Enforcement van pulled up behind the motorcycle. London believes she was profiled as Hispanic and stopped as a pretext for an immigration check. She was not cited or arrested but posted about the incident on Facebook with a photo showing herself wearing the seat belt.

A man was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents following a car accident on October 1 at the 2800 block of West Congress Parkway in Garfield Park. Eyewitnesses recorded video showing an agent with his arms around the man's neck while he was on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back. The man was released at the scene. DHS disputed the chokehold allegation, stating agents believed they witnessed a theft in progress, the man fled in a vehicle, crashed into another motorist, and began resisting when agents attempted to render aid. Community leaders and city officials condemned the incident, questioning why Border Patrol agents were intervening in a suspected theft.

Stanley Minjale, who immigrated to the United States from Malawi in 2021 on a student visa, was detained in October 2025 after his visa status was terminated for failing to enroll in a university as required. At the time of detention, he held a valid work permit and was employed full-time as a nursing assistant. He has a nearly two-year-old U.S. citizen son whom he has not seen during his nine-month detention at North Lake Processing Center. Minjale has received a deportation order but continues to appeal.