Human Impact Project

David Huerta, president of SEIU California, was arrested while protesting a federal immigration raid at an apparel business in downtown Los Angeles. Federal agents pushed him to the ground, causing his head to hit the curb, then sprayed him with a chemical irritant, handcuffed him, and took him to a hospital before transferring him to a federal detention center. Prosecutors initially charged him with felony conspiracy to impede a federal officer. The charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor, and the case was ultimately dismissed with prejudice in July. Huerta said the 15-month legal ordeal caused him significant psychological stress, strained his marriage, and led him to begin therapy.

Eduardo Aguilar, a 23-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was federally charged for making threats against ICE agents on social media. Aguilar allegedly posted in Spanish calling for armed individuals and offering money for each ICE agent killed. He appeared before a federal judge in Dallas who ordered him held in federal custody pending trial.

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.

Cole Sheridan, a 27-year-old hospitality worker, was arrested during a pro-immigrant protest at the Broadview immigration enforcement facility on October 3 while demonstrating against a deportation blitz. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino accused Sheridan of pushing and swinging at him, resulting in federal charges for assaulting, resisting, and interfering with a federal officer. Sheridan was detained for three days at the Broadview facility and the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Downtown Chicago. After a friend discovered video footage from an October 31 news report showing Sheridan being pushed down—not in front of Bovino—prosecutors dropped all charges the next business day. Sheridan said the incident cost him four days of work and a month of anxiety over potential imprisonment.

Miramar Martinez was shot by a Border Patrol agent during a roadside confrontation in October 2025 and was subsequently charged with assault. Federal prosecutors dismissed the charges in November following the emergence of damaging text messages from the agent who shot her and other facts that undermined the government's case.

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested during a civil disobedience protest inside 26 Federal Plaza in September 2025, where ICE maintains holding cells for recently detained immigrants. Lander and 10 state lawmakers were taken into custody while demanding access to detention cells to draw attention to conditions at the facility. Federal prosecutors offered to drop obstruction charges if Lander avoided arrest in federal buildings for six months, but he rejected the plea deal while the lawmakers accepted. Lander proceeded to a bench trial, stating he took the case to trial to insist that the rule of law apply to all people facing removal proceedings. He was found not guilty of obstructing elevators and the elevator lobby at 26 Federal Plaza.

On September 4, 2025, roughly 60 armed and masked federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations, ICE, CBP and local sheriff's offices raided the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, New York. Officers broke down a locked bathroom door on female employees, herded over 100 workers into a break room, and separated them by citizenship status without individualized suspicion, questioning pregnant employees and parents worried about children waiting at home. At least 57 workers were arrested, more than 20 were separated from their children, and some were denied access to attorneys or family before being sent to out-of-state detention facilities. Pedro Rojas, a U.S. citizen who was seized and interrogated, said agents targeted him and his coworkers because they are Latino. Only five of those arrested faced criminal charges, the most serious being unlawful reentry, and two plaintiffs were deported, though one has since been allowed to reenter the country. The NYCLU and the Worker Justice Center of New York filed a class action lawsuit against DHS alleging officers exceeded their search warrants and violated workers' Fourth Amendment rights.

Daryn Herzberg, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, alleges he was assaulted by Department of Homeland Security personnel outside an ICE facility in South Portland on August 13, 2025. According to video evidence and his attorney's account, federal agents tackled him to the ground, with one officer grabbing him by the hair and slamming his face into the ground multiple times. Herzberg sustained injuries including a concussion, abrasions, bruising, chest contusions, and breathing issues. On August 27, Herzberg filed a federal lawsuit against DHS alleging battery and unconstitutional use of force. Federal authorities also charged Herzberg with obstructing the facility and throwing objects; his attorney characterizes these charges as bogus and retaliatory.

A federal judge dismissed charges against Jonathon Redondo-Rosales, a 36-year-old TikTok creator and U.S. citizen arrested at an August 2 protest against immigration enforcement, after finding the government acted in bad faith. Redondo-Rosales had spent six months in jail awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting a Federal Protective Service officer with a cloth hat. The judge noted discrepancies in the officer's statements, that video evidence contradicted the assault claim, and that prosecutors sought dismissal to avoid disclosing problematic officer records rather than address legitimate legal issues.

Hector Saul Iraheta-Mercado was arrested by ICE officers on July 8, 2025, based on a 17-year-old warrant for unlawful entry and now faces federal trial for allegedly assaulting officer Jaimie Waite by trapping his arm in a car window during the stop. A judge ruled inadmissible evidence showing Washington's Department of Licensing illegally shared Iraheta-Mercado's data with ICE, preventing the defense from using the unauthorized data access as impeachment evidence. The case resulted in a mistrial in March 2026 when jurors could not reach unanimity, and the trial resumed in June 2026. Court records indicate ICE officer Waite has a documented history of collaboration with Washington law enforcement and anti-immigrant social media posts.

Hector Saul Iraheta-Mercado was arrested by ICE on July 8, 2025, in East Wenatchee and charged with assaulting ICE agent Jaimie Waite. After a mistrial in March 2025, he was acquitted at a second trial in June 2025. He is now facing a federal jury trial on the same assault charge, with proceedings that began in June 2026 including video evidence of the arrest and testimony about the arresting officer's social media posts.

Adrian Martinez, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen and Walmart employee, was detained by federal agents on June 18, 2025, during an immigration enforcement operation at a Pico Rivera Walmart parking lot. When agents began detaining an elderly maintenance worker, Martinez intervened by blocking the agents' vehicle with the worker's cart in an attempt to help. Agents shoved him to the ground twice. Federal officials initially claimed Martinez punched agents, but security camera footage from the store showed no punches were thrown and that agents initiated the physical contact. Martinez was charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, a felony, rather than assault. He spent three nights in jail following his arrest. A federal judge ordered his release on a $5,000 bond.

Javier Ramirez, a U.S. citizen and father of four, was tackled and detained by masked federal immigration agents at a tow yard in Montebello on June 12, 2025. According to security camera footage, an agent allegedly told another agent to arrest Ramirez because he was Mexican. When Ramirez called 911 while handcuffed in a van, police said they could not assist because federal agents were involved. He was held in a downtown Los Angeles facility for more than four days and charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal officer. The federal case against him was dismissed without prejudice. His attorney believes the charge was fabricated to cover up racial profiling.

Christian Cerna, a 28-year-old US citizen and carpenter, was arrested by ICE on June 11, 2025, after participating in an anti-ICE protest days earlier. Officers used aggressive tactics including ramming his vehicle, detonating flash-bang grenades, and pointing assault rifles at his car while his two young children were inside. Cerna was charged with felony assault for an alleged altercation with a border patrol agent, though he and his lawyers contested the circumstances. In December 2025, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor simple assault and was sentenced in March 2026; a federal judge later criticized the case as a "vindictive effort" to impose extrajudicial punishment, and the ICE filming and social media posting of arrest footage became a subject of controversy.

A worker at Glenn Valley Foods was convicted and sentenced to 14 months in prison for wielding a box cutter while attempting to resist an immigration arrest during the June 10, 2025 ICE raid.

Following the Glenn Valley Foods raid on June 10, 2025, federal authorities charged one woman worker with identity fraud. The woman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison. Despite ICE's initial claims that the raid uncovered 'massive identity theft,' only this single worker has been charged with identity fraud crimes as of one year later.

Osmar Lorenzo-Genchi, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen and employee at Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Nebraska, was arrested during an ICE raid on June 10, 2025. After ICE officers confirmed his citizenship and released him, he joined protesters blocking law enforcement vehicles from leaving the scene. He struck a vehicle's mirror with his fists, bent a windshield wiper, and shattered a passenger-side window with a rock. He was convicted and sentenced to 22 months in prison for assaulting and impeding federal officers with a dangerous weapon. His mother, also a Glenn Valley Foods employee, was detained during the same raid and remained in custody at Lincoln County Jail. The raid resulted in the detention of 76 employees at the meatpacking plant.

A federal judge dismissed trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka related to a standoff at a migrant detention center. The judge stated that the 13-day process from arrest to dismissal was problematic and instructed prosecutors that their duty is to justice and not solely to securing convictions. Baraka had visited Delaney Hall, a facility housing immigrant detainees, as part of an oversight visit with members of Congress. Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted for allegedly impeding the arrest and assaulting federal officers; she has pleaded not guilty.

Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was indicted on three counts of forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers following a May 9 incident at Newark's Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. The indictment, announced June 10 by U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, carries a maximum sentence of 17 years if convicted on all counts. McIver has pleaded not guilty and stated she was conducting lawful congressional oversight duties. McIver and her attorney deny the charges and characterize the prosecution as political retaliation.