Human Impact Project

Greggy Sorio, a 37-year-old man from the Philippines held at Tacoma's Northwest ICE Processing Center, was released following a federal court order that deemed his detention unconstitutionally punitive. While in ICE custody, Sorio developed a serious bone infection that resulted in the amputation of one of his toes and part of his foot, along with other serious health conditions including ulcerative colitis and acute blood loss anemia. U.S. District Judge Tana Lin found that the detention center staff engaged in unreasonable treatment and failed to provide adequate medical care. Sorio still faces a deportation order despite his release from detention.

A Cuban citizen who entered the U.S. in 2021 and filed for asylum in 2022 was arrested by Lee County Sheriff's Office in Florida on February 14, 2026 for disorderly public intoxication and property damage. This encounter with police prompted ICE to arrest and detain him at California City Immigration Processing Center. The federal court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered the government to provide him a bond hearing within 14 days.

A man was arrested by ICE at his family home in San Jose on February 14, 2026, following an Immigration Judge's decision ordering his detention without bond. The IJ found by clear and convincing evidence that he was a danger to the community based on recent incidents involving law enforcement in 2025. He challenged his detention claiming violations of his procedural and substantive due process rights, but the court denied his habeas petition.

Fadya Contreras de Rondon and Johnny Rondon Rodriguez, both real estate agents in Central Florida, were detained by federal immigration agents on January 9, 2026, while traveling to work together. Both had valid documentation and pending asylum cases at the time of their arrest. Fadya was transferred between the Orange County Jail, Broward Transitional Center, and back to Orange County Jail during her nearly month-long detention. U.S. District Judge John Antoon found that the arrest warrants used to justify their detentions contained issues with signature authenticity and were invalid, ordering both released on February 13. Two other individuals detained in connection with the same enforcement action—Junier Alexander Silva Parucho, who had overstayed a visa, and Miguel Rincon Hernandez, an asylum applicant—were also ordered released by judges on February 13 after determinations that their detentions were unlawful or that bond payment processing issues should not delay their release.

A Chinese national who arrived in the U.S. in 2014 on a visitor's visa was detained by ICE at the Adelanto Detention Facility on February 13, 2026. He has lived in the United States for over eleven years, has a wife and two U.S. citizen children ages 4 and 1, and has a pending asylum case seeking protection under the Convention Against Torture. The court ordered his immediate release and enjoined the government from re-detaining him without a proper bond hearing.

A man who entered the United States in July 2017 and worked in the pipeline industry for five years, and who is the father of a U.S. citizen residing in Florida, was detained by ICE on February 12, 2026. He had previously been in removal proceedings that were closed in January 2024. The federal court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release, finding that his detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1) was improper since he had been continuously present in the U.S. for more than two years.

Abhishek Kumar, a native of India who entered the United States in May 2022, was detained by Iowa State Patrol and ICE officers on February 11 while driving a commercial truck at a weigh station near Mitchellville as part of Operation ICE Wall, a joint state-federal enforcement operation targeting commercial truck drivers near Interstate 80. Kumar was taken to Polk County Jail where he has been held without a bond hearing or opportunity to argue for his release. He is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, alleging violations of his due process rights and seeking either his release or a bond hearing in immigration court.

Alejandro Villegas Angel was one of two other immigrants released by a lower court in February 2025 after the judge granted bond hearings. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Angel's habeas petition, freezing the lower court's release order and sending the case back into legal limbo pending full appeal proceedings.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bazis ordered ICE to provide Carlos Roldan Chang a bond hearing within seven days or release him immediately. Chang, 44, has lived in the U.S. since 2005 and was detained at the McCook facility under ICE's mandatory detention policy. The ACLU of Nebraska filed the civil lawsuit on his behalf after he was denied a bond hearing.

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.'

Rümeysa Öztürk, a 30-year-old Turkish doctoral student pursuing a PhD in child development at Tufts University on a valid F-1 student visa, was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents on March 25, 2025, outside her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, as she left to attend an Iftar dinner. The Trump administration revoked her visa and detained her based on allegations she supported Hamas, though government officials later acknowledged the action was tied to a pro-Palestinian op-ed she co-wrote for the Tufts Daily criticizing the university's response to divestment resolutions and Israel's war in Gaza. During her 45-day detention across multiple states—including New Hampshire, Vermont, and Louisiana's South Louisiana ICE Processing Center—Öztürk suffered at least 12 asthma attacks in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions without adequate medical care or access to medications. Tufts University administrators stated they found no information supporting the allegations against her and that she did not violate university policies; a colleague described her as "quiet, steady, and unshakably kind." U.S. District Judge William Sessions III ordered her release on May 9, 2025, finding serious claims of due process and First Amendment violations and noting the government's only evidence was the op-ed itself, with "no evidence here … absent consideration of the op-ed." An immigration judge subsequently terminated her removal proceedings, determining the Department of Homeland Security lacked legal grounds to deport her. In December 2025, a federal judge ruled her SEVIS record (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) was wrongfully terminated and must be reinstated retroactively to March, and in January 2026, another federal judge determined the government's policy of arresting and detaining scholars for protected speech violated the First Amendment. Öztürk has since resumed her research and teaching duties at Tufts.

A Chinese citizen who entered the US without inspection in February 2024 was detained by ICE at a truck weight station in February 2026. He had established a life in the US with a wife and child and worked as a truck driver with no criminal history. The court ruled he was entitled to a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226 and ordered the government to provide one within seven days.

An 18-month-old girl named Amalia was hospitalized with respiratory failure, pneumonia, COVID-19, and RSV after being detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center with her parents. After 10 days of hospital treatment, she was returned to detention on January 28 and denied access to prescribed medication, despite medical warnings that she remained vulnerable. A federal lawsuit and emergency habeas corpus petition led to her release on February 7.

Amalia, an 18-month-old Venezuelan girl, arrived in the United States with her parents Kheilin Valero Marcano and Stiven Arrieta Prieto through the CBP One appointment system and was living in El Paso while awaiting asylum processing. On December 11, 2024, the family was arrested during a routine ICE check-in despite complying with all immigration requirements and checking in regularly. They were detained at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. In early January 2026, Amalia developed a high fever, vomiting, and breathing difficulties. Despite her parents' repeated requests for medical care at the facility's clinic, staff provided only Tylenol. On January 18, her oxygen levels dropped critically to the 50s, and she was rushed to Methodist Children's Hospital in San Antonio, where she was hospitalized for 10 days and diagnosed with pneumonia, COVID-19, RSV, and viral bronchitis. After discharge on January 28, doctors prescribed nebulized breathing treatments and nutritional supplements. ICE returned Amalia to Dilley detention instead of her prior community, where staff confiscated her nebulizer, albuterol, and nutritional supplements. Her parents were forced to wait daily in an outdoor 'pill line' and were frequently turned away without her prescribed medications. After her attorneys filed an emergency federal habeas corpus petition, the family was released in February 2026. Upon release, they were transported to a shelter in Laredo without her medications, birth certificate, vaccination records, or money for travel. Amalia developed behavioral changes after detention, crying when separated from her mother. Her case is one of more than 500 infants and toddlers under age three detained by ICE since January 2025, according to documentation by MS NOW and The Marshall Project.

Seven emergency habeas corpus petitions were filed in North Dakota federal courts over three months, coinciding with a 75% national increase in ICE detentions over the past year. The petitions challenge a new policy denying bond hearings to many individuals arrested in the interior of the U.S. Two cases resulted in the release of petitioners.

A federal judge in Louisiana ordered the immediate release of four men who were unlawfully re-detained by ICE after living in their communities for months or years while checking in regularly with the agency. The judge found that ICE failed to provide justification for the re-detention, failed to demonstrate deportation was likely, and violated due process rights. All four men were released and had been held at an immigration detention center at Angola prison.

Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano, a 10-year-old fourth-grader from Columbia Heights Public School District in suburban Minneapolis, was detained by ICE agents on January 6, 2026, along with her mother Rosa Elena Caisaguano Cajilema while being driven to her school bus stop. Agents told Elizabeth they would take her to school but instead transported both of them 1,200 miles to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The family had fled Ecuador and sought asylum in 2020; their asylum application was denied in September 2025, but they had a pending appeal. Both developed illnesses during their month-long detention—Elizabeth with flu-like symptoms and her mother with hives—with limited medical care provided. At least six other children from the same school district were sent to the Dilley detention center over the following weeks as part of Operation Metro Surge. After a habeas corpus petition was filed, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled on February 2 that they could not be deported while their case proceeds. Elizabeth and her mother were released on February 3 and returned to Minnesota with their asylum appeal remaining pending.

Four unnamed immigrants detained by ICE in West Virginia during a January 2026 operation were ordered released by federal judges who ruled their detentions unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston, Judge Robert C. Chambers, and Judge Joseph R. Goodwin each issued orders for release, finding that the government violated due process rights by detaining the immigrants without explanation, hearing, or notice. The releases were part of a broader challenge to a two-week ICE operation in January that resulted in 650 arrests; fifteen detainees have filed petitions for release arguing unconstitutional detention, with more expected.

A 22-year-old native of Peru fled to the United States with her family in September 2022 to escape death threats. She was paroled into the US after brief detention at the border due to facility overcrowding. While living in Illinois, she updated her address with ICE, filed an asylum application in July 2023, and married a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 2024. ICE issued her a Notice to Appear on May 2, 2024, but served it at an outdated Florida address, so she was unaware of removal proceedings held in her absence on October 2, 2025. At a virtual check-in appointment on February 5, 2026, ICE arrested her despite no warning in the appointment confirmation. She was held at Clinton County Jail in Frankfort, Indiana (later transferred to Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville). She sought to reopen her removal proceedings, which was granted on February 20, 2026. She filed Form I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) and Form I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence) with USCIS. She petitioned for habeas corpus relief, arguing her detention without a bond hearing violates federal law. The court granted her petition, ordering the government to provide her an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) by 5:00 p.m. on May 26, 2026, or release her under reasonable conditions of supervision.

A man was taken into custody by ICE on February 4, 2026, after being referred by the Stanislaus County Probation Department. He had previously turned himself in to ICE in June 2015 and was released on an order of recognizance with the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. He was convicted of a crime in 2022 and violated the terms of his supervision, leading to his re-detention. On March 24, 2026, an immigration court denied bond, stating it lacked jurisdiction. He filed a federal habeas corpus petition challenging his detention and seeking immediate release. On April 24, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted his petition, ordering his immediate release on the same conditions he was subject to before his February 4, 2026 re-detention, and enjoining ICE from re-detaining him without notice and a pre-detention hearing before an immigration judge.