Human Impact Project

Dr. Rubeliz Bolívar, a 33-year-old Venezuelan emergency medicine resident working at South Texas Health System in McAllen, Texas, was detained by Customs and Border Protection agents at McAllen International Airport while traveling with her 5-year-old U.S. citizen daughter to California for a scheduled asylum interview. Bolívar entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2016, held a valid work permit through 2030, and had an active asylum case and pending green card application; CBP said she had overstayed her visa since 2017. Her daughter was also held, for about 19 hours, before being released to a relative. Bolívar was transferred to ICE custody at El Valle Detention Center and missed the asylum interview, which her husband, Milenko Faria, attended alone. The American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association have advocated for her release and called for a national-interest exemption for physicians.

Dr. Ezequiel Veliz, a Venezuelan-born family-medicine resident physician at Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco who had lived in the U.S. lawfully for about nine years, was detained by Customs and Border Protection agents at the Sarita Border Patrol checkpoint while driving with his husband, Joseph Williams, from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston. Veliz had lost his work permit in late 2025 when the Trump administration terminated Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans and was pursuing a green card based on his marriage to Williams, a U.S. citizen. Agents transported him to a detention facility in McAllen, and CBP said his pending green card application did not qualify as a valid visa. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro criticized the detention, noting Veliz served a medically underserved region. Veliz was released on an $8,000 bond on April 16, 2026, after ten days in ICE custody in Laredo, and has an immigration court hearing scheduled in July in Houston.

A Venezuelan national with Temporary Protected Status was detained by ICE on April 2, 2026, after being stopped for speeding. She had been granted humanitarian parole in October 2022 and subsequently received TPS status. The court granted her habeas corpus petition and ordered her immediate release, finding her detention violated due process rights.

Dr. Ezequiel Veliz, a Venezuelan physician working as a resident at UT Health Rio Grande Valley/Knapp Medical Center in Texas, was detained by Border Patrol at the Sarita checkpoint in April 2025 after his Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was revoked in October 2024. Veliz is married to a U.S. citizen, had a pending green card application, and was carrying required immigration documents at the time of detention. Following outcry from the medical community and intervention by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a judge granted him bond during his immigration hearing, allowing his release from custody. Another Venezuelan colleague was also detained within the same week.

A man with a clean police record, an employment letter, and a rental lease filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan on March 20, 2026, challenging his detention. The petition includes motions for temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and immediate release, with supporting documentation including passport, employment letter, rental lease, and clean police record.

ICE agents detained Reginald Toussaint, a Haitian with Temporary Protected Status, while he was picking up his wife from work in Birmingham, Alabama. Agents approached multiple unmarked vehicles and removed Toussaint from the family's minivan in front of his children. Toussaint stated he had valid TPS status. He was charged with impersonating a U.S. citizen based on an alleged pistol permit application from August 2025 where he marked the citizenship box. His wife disputes this characterization.

A Yemeni national with Temporary Protected Status and father of four U.S. citizen children was detained by ICE on March 6, 2026, three days after his TPS status expired on March 3, 2026. He owns a car dealership in Birmingham, Alabama and his wife is a U.S. citizen pregnant with their fifth child. The court denied his motion for temporary restraining order seeking immediate release from detention.

Emmanuel Damas, a 56-year-old Haitian who arrived in the U.S. under the Biden Administration's Humanitarian Parole program with a pending Temporary Protected Status application, died on March 2, 2026, from sepsis caused by an untreated dental infection. Damas was detained at Florence Correctional Center in Arizona and repeatedly reported tooth pain to facility staff starting in mid-February, requesting dental care multiple times but receiving only ibuprofen. After two weeks of complaints and developing difficulty breathing, he was taken to a Scottsdale hospital on February 19, but the infection had already progressed to septic shock and pneumonia. Damas died at the hospital. Representatives Ansari, Grijalva, and Stanton demanded a full investigation, noting he was the tenth person to die in ICE custody in the first two months of 2026.

Jimmy Paz, a Georgia man with a valid work permit and no criminal record, was detained by ICE agents during a traffic stop in January despite presenting valid identification documents. Paz, who has lived in the U.S. for 21 years and was approved for temporary protected status in 2022, is being held at the ICE Processing Center in Folkston. His family expresses concern about his health, as he had a heart transplant four years ago, and hopes he will be released to continue his asylum process outside of custody.

Carlos Roberto García, 42, the former mayor of Mérida, Venezuela, now living in Butler County, Ohio, and working as an Amazon delivery driver, was detained by federal agents on January 23 during what his wife described as a routine immigration check-in. García fled Venezuela in 2017 after refusing government orders to suppress anti-Maduro protests and being removed from office and sentenced to prison by the Chavista-controlled Supreme Court; he later crossed into Texas with his family in 2022, applied for asylum, and received Temporary Protected Status along with a work permit valid through 2030. His wife, Gaby Duarte, said he has no criminal record and fears torture if returned to Venezuela, where an outstanding arrest order remains against him. His attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition seeking his release from Butler County Jail, but a February 10 hearing revealed the Department of Homeland Security is instead seeking to deport him to Ecuador, a country where his wife says he has no family, home, or support network. Duarte said, 'We are simply asking that he be allowed to defend his case where he formally requested asylum.'

Jose Avendano, a 62-year-old dishwasher from El Salvador with temporary protected status and a valid work permit, was arrested on January 9, 2026, while driving to work. He told officers he had legal authorization to be in the United States, but was detained and transferred to El Paso. Avendano has lived in the U.S. for 32 years, has a heart condition requiring daily medication and a pacemaker, and missed a critical medical procedure due to his arrest. A federal judge ordered his release after his lawyer filed suit, but ICE kept him in custody for three additional days in violation of the court order.

Angel Camacho, a Venezuelan asylum seeker with temporary protected status and a valid work permit, was arrested by Border Patrol agents at a Dania Beach station on January 6, 2025, despite being cleared and approved to perform IT work there. Camacho is married to a U.S. citizen, has American-born children, and was in the process of applying for permanent residency at the time of his detention. He spent 30 days detained at an Everglades detention facility before being released on bond.

Viktoriia Bulavina, a Ukrainian woman with Temporary Protected Status, was detained for five days after being arrested during a green card interview at the USCIS San Diego Field Office on December 4, 2025. She spent three days in the downtown San Diego ICE facility where she reported harsh conditions including lack of sleep, inability to change clothes or shower, cold temperatures, expired food, and inadequate privacy. Her attorney stated she had complied with all immigration procedures and was renewing her TPS when detained; her TPS extension was approved the day she was released.

Carlos, a Venezuelan man with temporary protected status, was detained by ICE at a New Mexico immigration office in December 2025 after being called for what he believed was a reunification meeting with his 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter. Federal officials had previously vetted Carlos and told him his custody case was complete. When he arrived at the ICE office, officers attempted to force him to sign documents he did not understand. After refusing to sign, officers stripped his clothes, seized his belongings, and chained him by the neck, waist, and legs. Carlos said he felt "tricked" and that ICE "used my children to grab me." His two children had been in a federal shelter in Texas for nearly a year after crossing the border to reunite with him. According to reporting, the Trump administration's Office of Refugee Resettlement has begun coordinating with ICE to arrest parents and caregivers seeking custody of unaccompanied migrant children, reversing Obama-era restrictions on data sharing between the resettlement office and immigration enforcement.

Victor Cruz, a Hillsboro resident with legal work authorization and temporary protected status, was arrested by ICE on October 14 after agents pulled him over, claiming he was wanted on DUI and hit-and-run charges. ICE agents allegedly confused him with another man bearing the same name despite recognizing the photo mismatch. After ICE confirmed at the Portland facility that Cruz had no criminal record, he was transferred to a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, where he remained for over three weeks. An immigration judge initially denied bail, but a federal district court judge released Cruz on bond on November 7. Democratic political leaders, including Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, and his family and attorney protested the detention as unlawful.

Darian Maldonado Medina, a Venezuelan with Temporary Protected Status, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in in Tampa on September 5, 2025, and deported to Venezuela three weeks later. He had valid TPS status at the time of detention, a pending family petition through his U.S. citizen mother, and a 15-month-old U.S. citizen son and partner remaining in Florida. A federal court order had extended TPS protections prior to his deportation. Lawyers have argued that the deportation violated federal law and court orders.

José Escobar Molina, 47, a Salvadoran native with temporary protected status who had lived in Washington, DC for 25 years, was grabbed and handcuffed without questions by ICE agents in two cars as he approached his work truck. He was held overnight in Virginia before being released. He is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit challenging warrantless arrests in DC.

Gilbert Joubert Adrien, a 41-year-old Haitian pastor described as "beloved" by his Springfield, Ohio community, was detained by ICE agents on the morning of August 20 at a Sunoco gas station on South Limestone Street. Victor Yonel, another Haitian man, was detained alongside him after ICE released Yonel's wife, who had been in the car with them. Fellow pastor Carl Ruby said Adrien left Haiti because his life was in danger and had faithfully served Christ and his congregation, calling the arrest an example of ICE's willingness to "incite panic among people who came here peacefully" and urging his immediate release. Vilés Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Support Center, said he speaks with Adrien regularly and that the two work together distributing items to people in Springfield as pastors and community leaders, warning that if Adrien is deported his congregation "will be here terrified and without their leader." Advocates with Springfield G92 called the detention "a profound wound" to the Haitian community, with member Marjory Wentworth adding it left people "deeply saddened" and "feeling even more vulnerable." A second pastor from the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield was also detained while traveling in Northwest Ohio; Ruby said he may already have been deported. Adrien's detention came amid a broader ICE crackdown that has detained more than 40 Haitian residents following the July 27 end of Temporary Protected Status, with community members also being required to wear ankle monitors and report to ICE offices.

Wilmer Roberto Solano Dávila, a 59-year-old Venezuelan journalist and Uber driver with a pending asylum case, was pulled over by Customs and Border Protection agents while driving a rideshare fare near Haulover Beach. He had entered the U.S. legally on a journalist's visa in 2015, held Temporary Protected Status from 2021 until it lapsed in September 2025, and had a valid work permit and Florida driver's license, but was detained and held first at a Dania Beach processing site and then at the Krome North detention complex. He described being packed into an outdoor tent with as many as 250 people and no visible smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, or sprinklers, before being released on $5,000 bond after 19 days in custody and now wears an ankle monitor while his asylum case continues. Solano previously worked as a correspondent covering Venezuelan opposition politics and said he was attacked by government officials while reporting in 2011.

An 18-year-old Key West High School senior and wrestler was detained by immigration agents on December 2 while driving his mother's car to school and was held at the Everglades detention facility before being deported to Honduras within a week. He is now staying with his grandparents near San Pedro Sula, a place he left with his mother at age 6, and says he hopes to return to the life they built together. His mother says he had been in the process of adjusting his legal status through a petition filed by her husband, a U.S. citizen, and friends and community members have raised funds to pay for an attorney to review his case.