Human Impact Project

Gedion Masunsu, 42, a Waltham resident who spent 16 years seeking political asylum after working for American military contractors in Iraq and completing the Waltham Police Department's Citizens Academy, was deported to Uganda on September 30, 2026, after 19 months in ICE detention, most of it at the Strafford County jail in Dover, NH. He had been arrested on assault charges involving his now-wife that were dismissed by a Massachusetts judge within three months, but his paralegal, Rosette Serwanga, said the charges were not promptly removed from his record and likely influenced his case; an immigration judge denied him bond twice even after he was granted withholding of removal. A federal judge denied his habeas corpus petition challenging his detention without prejudice in December 2025. After the government appealed his withholding of removal, the judge issued a removal order and the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his case on September 15, 2026, reportedly because his former attorney filed the appeal late. Masunsu said ICE removed him within hours of an inquiry from an aide to Sen. Edward Markey, despite telling officials at a Burlington, MA holding facility that he still had 15 days to appeal. He suffered an untreated rotator cuff injury during an ICE transport van ride, married his partner, Sylvia Mamutabi Mugisha, while detained, and her daughter Paris Kirunda wrote that he 'embraced my siblings and me with genuine love, kindness, and respect.' Fellow detainees described him as a devout Christian whose daily prayer meetings calmed tensions at the jail. He is now in a Kampala hotel with no family or friends remaining in Uganda, relying on financial assistance from the Ugandan community in Boston.

Alicia Labrador, a Venezuelan dermocosmiatrist and founder/CEO of the Aliestetic beauty and MedSpa brand, was detained by federal immigration authorities on September 30, 2026, while dropping off her 16-year-old daughter at a friend's home in Doral's Ibis Villas neighborhood. She also serves as vice president of the Hispanic Women's Chamber of Commerce of Doral. Her attorney, Ros Ana Guillén, says Labrador has a pending asylum application, valid work authorization, and a current driver's license, and family members say she entered the U.S. legally on a visa in 2016 with no criminal record. Her son, Héctor Sánchez, said he learned of the detention when his mother called him while she was with officers, telling Telemundo, 'I couldn't even speak.' Reports conflict on her location, with some saying she was transferred the same evening to a detention facility in Texas, while her attorney says she may be held at a CBP transit facility in Florida where she has not been permitted to visit her. She now faces deportation proceedings, and her family says they are focused on bringing her home.

Anyi Hernandez-Escobar came to the United States from Honduras in 2018, eight months pregnant and fleeing what she described as a desperate situation, and was detained for four days before being granted parole to remain temporarily. She later married U.S. citizen Patrick Keating, who became a father figure to her son Daniel, and the couple had a daughter together in May 2025. A Houston immigration judge rejected her request to temporarily close her removal proceedings while she pursued a green card through her marriage, a decision her attorney said followed a June agreement between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Department of Justice ending a Biden-era policy that allowed such closures. Without that option, her attorney says she may need to leave for Honduras to pursue an immigrant visa, and her seven-year-old son Daniel may be unable to go with her because his biological father has not surrendered custodial rights.

Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, mother of three, poet, and legal observer, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7, 2026, while monitoring Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement operation on Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis. Good had blocked the street with her Honda Pilot to warn neighbors of ICE's presence when Ross fired three shots as her car turned away from officers. Her wife, Becca, said they were simply warning neighbors. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump called her actions 'domestic terrorism,' but video evidence, a New York Times analysis, Human Rights Watch, and an independent autopsy found she posed no imminent threat. Fellow protester Alex Pretti was also killed during the same operation. Protesters who gathered at the ICE Field Office in St. Paul the following day were met with pepper balls, mace, and tear gas. The administration blocked a federal criminal investigation, Noem was later fired, and hundreds of federal agents were withdrawn from Minnesota. Good's family filed two federal lawsuits under Bivens and the Federal Tort Claims Act against the agent and top administration officials, and her case was presented at an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing. DHS agents have shot at roughly two dozen people and killed six since the start of the administration.

Adrián Higareda Ceja, 43, originally from Michoacán, Mexico, was surrounded and taken into custody by ICE agents last Friday while dropping off his two children at Edison Elementary School in Phoenix. His children, ages 7 and 8, witnessed the arrest, with his young daughter reportedly pleading with agents not to take her father. His wife said she believes agents may have targeted the wrong person. The school district confirmed the detention occurred outside the campus. Higareda Ceja is currently held at the Florence detention center in Arizona.

Monica Ryadi, a 30-year-old nurse from Delaware County, Pennsylvania, was detained by ICE agents at Los Angeles International Airport as she arrived with her husband, Steven Sary, and their 3-year-old son for a Disneyland trip. Ryadi came to the U.S. from Indonesia as a child fleeing religious persecution and was granted Withholding of Removal in 2010, which has allowed her to maintain work authorization, a Social Security number, a REAL ID, and buy a home. According to court filings, officers handcuffed and shackled her around her ankles and waist, and threatened to place her son in child protective services when her husband protested; her attorney said she was never given a warrant or documentation explaining her arrest. DHS maintains she overstayed a visa and received a final removal order in 2010. After about two weeks in custody at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, a U.S. magistrate judge ordered her released under an alternative-to-detention program requiring GPS monitoring, and she was reunited with her husband and son that night while her attorney pursues legal steps toward permanent status.

Julian Curo-Churata, a 47-year-old man from Peru, died in ICE custody on September 29, 2026, pronounced dead at 4:01 a.m. at Ochsner LSU Health Monroe Medical Center in Monroe, Louisiana. He was arrested by ERO Baltimore during a targeted enforcement operation on June 27, 2026, and later transferred to ERO New Orleans custody, where he was held at Richwood Correctional Center. After being found in medical distress, he was taken to the hospital around 8:14 p.m. on September 28; the cause of death has not yet been determined pending an autopsy. An immigration judge had denied his applications for relief and voluntary departure on September 18, 2026, after which he reserved his right to appeal; ICE notified his spouse, attorney, and the Consulate General of Peru, as well as the DHS Office of Inspector General and ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility, following his death.

A 40-year-old Filipino man, the son of a slain Filipino radio broadcaster, was detained by US immigration authorities on September 21 after returning to Los Angeles from a music performance in Chicago. He is being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and is scheduled for a hearing on the eve of the fourth anniversary of his father's 2022 killing. He arrived in the US in February 2023, holds work authorization, and had sought asylum after receiving death threats following his father's murder. The Philippine consulate in Los Angeles has conducted a welfare visit, and Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said the consulate is coordinating with the family's lawyers.

ICE conducted a multi-day operation called 'Operation Safe Community - Kansas' from September 22-25, 2026, arresting about 104 people in Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal, Hutchinson, Larned and other southwest Kansas communities, including workers at meat processing plants like National Beef and Cargill. Liberal Vice Mayor Janeth Vazquez witnessed agents detain a mother with a baby in her car, and a community volunteer arranged for a family member to retrieve the child. Viridiana Boron, a legal permanent resident from Mexico who came to the U.S. after her family was threatened, spent days delivering meals cooked by her mother and sister to roughly 200 families too afraid to leave their homes, and said she herself felt frightened despite having proper documentation, describing agents stopping cars based on whether someone appeared Hispanic or Latino. Advocates said many detainees had no criminal records, while the U.S. Attorney's Office named five arrestees with convictions including homicide, kidnapping, and sexual assault, disputing claims the operation amounted to discriminatory sweeps. The operation caused widespread disruption, with 120 students absent from one elementary school and businesses closing for the week. Officials did not release a full roster of those arrested or disclose their detention locations.

Mamadou Fadel Cherif, 56, a West Oak Lane man who fled political persecution in Guinea after being jailed for protesting the 1998 presidential election, was arrested by ICE on July 13 as he left his home. Nearly 20 years earlier he had been granted Withholding of Removal, which bars his deportation to Guinea, and he has no criminal record. Cherif works legally as a dining services employee at La Salle College High School and as an Uber driver, and is the primary financial support for his wife, a green card holder, and their four American-born sons, one of whom is a Marines reservist. His employer described him as "an extremely hard worker" whom students and staff love. His attorney filed a federal court petition seeking his immediate release, arguing there is no likelihood of third-country deportation and that he was denied due process. As of September 2026, Cherif remains in detention while the Trump administration seeks to deport him to Ghana, a country to which he has no reported ties.

Three undocumented brothers from Honduras, who shared an apartment in New Bedford and worked in construction and as laborers, were detained by ICE agents while doing their family's weekly grocery run at a Market Basket. Their sister-in-law Maria said federal vehicles surrounded the men as they arrived, and agents were 'pretty aggressive' toward the brother who was driving, twisting his arm behind his back. The family says none of the three have criminal records, and one had lived in the U.S. for 14 years. Maria described the brothers as 'hardworking and very kind' men who doted on their baby niece, and said their elderly mother has been especially distressed by the detentions. The brothers are being held at Plymouth's ICE detention center.

The father of a student at a Seattle-area school was detained by ICE earlier this week while on his way to work and is now being held at the Northwest Detention Center. His partner, who is pregnant, is caring for their children, including a toddler, while facing the sudden loss of the family's income. A fellow parent at the school organized a fundraiser to help cover the family's rent, groceries, utilities, and other essentials, as well as the father's commissary account and potential legal costs.

Antonio Frometa Ascón, a 63-year-old Cuban immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1994 after being paroled through Guantánamo, has been in ICE custody since Aug. 14, 2025, when Florida Highway Patrol stopped him on his way to work under the state's Operation Tidal Wave crackdown. He was first held at the South Florida Detention Facility, where he alleges a guard's blow left him partially deaf, then transferred to Camp East Montana in El Paso, where he witnessed a detainee's death, and later moved to the ICE El Paso Service Processing Center. Cuba has refused to accept his deportation, and he has refused removal to Mexico as a third country, citing fears of cartel violence and extortion. His first granddaughter was born while he has been detained, and he says he has not been able to meet or hold her. He has filed pro se and attorney-assisted habeas corpus petitions arguing his prolonged detention violates the Supreme Court's Zadvydas v. Davis limits on indefinite confinement, and a federal judge has yet to rule as his health and mental state decline and his family says he has grown depressed awaiting word from his lawyer.

Teresa de Jesus Ochoa Briseño, 31, a cook at Carmelita's Restaurant in Alamo, Texas, was arrested by ICE agents outside her workplace around 5 a.m. on September 21, 2026, and deported to Reynosa, Mexico, later that day. Her 17-year-old son, Luis Ochoa, a U.S. citizen, had witnessed an ICE apprehension near a Marine Corps recruiting office days earlier and was himself detained after speaking out publicly; he said agents offered him money to stay quiet and threatened to detain his undocumented relatives. Luis believes his mother was targeted because of the attention her public criticism of ICE generated in local media. ICE said Teresa had a prior removal order from a July 2025 arrest for alleged illegal reentry and denied the deportation was retaliatory, describing it as part of a 'targeted operation.' Advocacy groups We the People RGV and Carnalismo Brown Berets are calling for a congressional hearing and independent investigation into the family's case.

Edgar Chacon-Miranda, 45, a father with U visa protections and full legal custody of his children under a New Mexico family court order, was detained by ICE agents in the parking lot of La Familia Health/Medical Center in Santa Fe while driving his daughter to a medical appointment. Clinic staff, including chief information officer Jasmin Milz, said agents appeared to have followed him from home and blocked his vehicle, taking him into custody without entering the building; his daughter was later picked up by a family member with help from community advocates. DHS described him as a 'criminal illegal alien' with an 'extensive criminal history,' citing 2018 battery, criminal sexual penetration, and child abuse charges, but court records show those charges were dismissed after the alleged victim declined to cooperate. His attorney, Allegra Love, said he received the U visa in 2022 for cooperating with law enforcement and that it expired in May while his residency application remains pending. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies criticized federal officials for citing the dismissed case without noting its outcome, and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández called leaving the child in the parking lot 'cruelty,' noting ICE reported eight detentions in Santa Fe that day. Chacon-Miranda was later jailed and alleges immigration agents fabricated reports to secure his deportation despite his legal status.

Patricia Valdez, a 37-year-old Venezuelan engineer from Mérida known to loved ones as Patty, was detained by ICE while attending a scheduled check-in with immigration authorities as part of her asylum application process, and was transferred to a detention facility in Oklahoma. Valdez, who became a mother three months ago, worked for the City of Dallas and previously taught at the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad de los Andes in Venezuela. In the U.S. she has passed the FE exam and holds the Engineer in Training (EIT) and Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications, recently passing the PE Civil Construction exam, and is active in communities of Venezuelan engineers. Her family says she has no criminal record, is seeking reunification with her infant son, and has started a GoFundMe campaign to cover her legal defense and her baby's care.

A mother started a fundraiser seeking legal help for her son, who was arrested and is now being held by ICE. The family does not know where he is being detained and is trying to locate him and hire a lawyer before he can be deported.

Nathan 'Nate' Samudzi, a delivery driver from Yankton, South Dakota originally from Zimbabwe, was detained by ICE for a second time this year after reporting to the agency's Sioux Falls sub-field office. He was quickly transferred to a detention center and then to Minneapolis for a deportation flight, but a federal judge granted an emergency Temporary Restraining Order about 30 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart. Samudzi holds a valid work permit, had begun the citizenship process, and had been under strict GPS monitoring since a prior detention in February; his wife, a local schoolteacher, said he complied with every condition. ICE told reporters Samudzi had a conviction for drug possession and distribution, but his attorney said this is false, explaining he has only a misdemeanor marijuana ingestion conviction from age 20 and a separate charge that was dismissed a year later. Judge Jerry Blackwell has ordered ICE cannot remove or transfer Samudzi from the District of Minnesota while his legal team pursues an emergency habeas corpus petition citing fear of persecution if returned to Zimbabwe, a country he has not lived in since age four. He remains held at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, as family, friends, and South Dakota's congressional delegation seek updates on his case.

ICE agents conducted large-scale enforcement operations in Dodge City, Garden City, and Liberal, Kansas—an area known as the 'golden triangle of beef'—arriving around September 22-23 and departing roughly three days later. Agents in unmarked vans and plain clothes stopped vehicles and detained dozens of people in surrounding communities, including a mother taken into custody with her baby, prompting a volunteer to arrange for a relative to retrieve the child. Hispanic and Latino residents described being stopped based on appearance, with agents even entering a local restaurant before being told to leave. Advocates said many detained had no criminal records, while Dodge City schools warned families of possible relative detentions and 120 students missed school at one elementary school. Community organizer Amy Soberanes delivered food to frightened residents and described children crying over detained parents, while worker Deymi Anayela Martinez Lemus described an empty parking lot and short staffing at area plants operated by Cargill and National Beef. Businesses closed or slowed operations, USDA data showed reduced cattle processing, and industry groups estimated millions in lost revenue. About 200 people protested in downtown Dodge City calling for immigration reform, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2 condemned the operation. Kansas Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall criticized ICE for failing to coordinate with local officials, while DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ICE targeted people with final removal orders and criminal histories rather than conducting worksite operations.

Jessica Trevino (also spelled Treviño), a DACA recipient in her mid-30s who arrived in the U.S. from Mexico as a young child and lived in Texas her entire life, was arrested by ICE agents on December 28, 2025, as she left church with her family in the Rio Grande Valley. Unmarked vehicles rammed the family's car in a Home Depot parking lot, agents struck her husband Juan with a baton, and shoved their 14-year-old daughter against the vehicle hard enough to bruise her. Trevino worked in an elementary school cafeteria and had no criminal record; her DACA status remained valid at the time. After nearly three months in ICE custody, she was deported to Matamoros, Mexico on March 25, 2026, despite disputing that she consented to a 'voluntary departure' order. Her three U.S. citizen children, ages 16, 14, and 13, remained in Texas with relatives. USCIS later moved to terminate her DACA status, citing unauthorized travel. Her family filed a federal lawsuit seeking her return and restoration of her status, though a federal judge has since recommended dismissal on jurisdictional grounds.