Human Impact Project

In New Mexico, 10 Las Cruces high school students on their way to a swim meet were confronted by a Border Patrol agent at a permanent interior Border Patrol checkpoint. After the Spanish-speaking driver could not answer the agent's questions in English, the agent boarded the bus and demanded students' papers in Spanish over their coaches' objections. 'Without hesitation he jumped on the bus and didn't ask the adults any more questions. He just started walking in the bus and started yelling in Spanish, demanding documentation from all the passengers,' said Las Cruces High Swim coach Pamela Quiñones. Students were visibly shaken.

A Puerto Rican family of U.S. citizens, including a toddler, was wrongfully detained by ICE in Milwaukee after being overheard speaking Spanish while shopping. The family was transported to a detention center before officials acknowledged the error and apologized. After presenting official documents proving their citizenship, they were released but left to arrange their own transportation home.

U.S. citizens, including Native Americans and a military veteran, have been detained and questioned during Trump administration immigration raids. Witnesses report that those caught in ICE operations are being targeted based on race or skin color, with Navajo Nation citizens experiencing particularly problematic encounters. The seafood wholesaler owner in Newark reported that ICE targeted certain types of people while ignoring white and Portuguese workers.

U.S. Border Patrol agents conducted raids in Kern County in January 2025, stopping and arresting 78 people, predominantly Latinos and farmworkers, often without reasonable suspicion. A federal court ruled in April 2025 that the agents likely violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure, and ordered them to halt raids in California's Eastern District, but Border Patrol continued operations in Los Angeles and Sacramento despite the court order.