Human Impact Project

Miguel Angel Tercero Raudes, a Salvadoran national who had been living and working legally in the United States for over a decade with a 2023 Withholding of Removal court order, was detained at a routine ICE check-in on May 29, 2026. He is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of two U.S. citizen daughters. The government has indicated plans to remove him to a third country where he has no family or legal status, in apparent violation of his court-ordered withholding of removal protection.

José Yugar-Cruz, a 37-year-old Bolivian asylum-seeker, was granted temporary release from ICE custody on May 29, 2026, after an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo suspended deportations to that country. An immigration judge had ruled in January 2025 that Yugar-Cruz faced likely torture if returned to Bolivia and granted him withholding-of-removal relief under the Convention Against Torture, yet ICE detained him at an April 2026 check-in appointment and attempted to deport him to the DRC despite his court protection and lack of connection to that country. After being held for 17 months while ICE sought third countries willing to accept his deportation—including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, and Canada—Yugar-Cruz challenged his indefinite detention in court in December 2025. The WHO declaration of an Ebola emergency in Congo on May 17, 2026, forced suspension of deportations to that destination, resulting in his temporary release following legal challenges and community advocacy.

Yessenia Ruano, a teacher's aide at a bilingual Milwaukee public school and mother of twin daughters who are U.S. citizens, fled El Salvador in 2011 to escape gang violence and later became a victim of human trafficking in the U.S. She had attended 19 in-person ICE check-ins over 14 years and had a pending T-visa application for trafficking survivors when, at her final check-in in May 2025, officials told her she had to leave within days. Facing arrest and separation from her daughters, she self-deported to El Salvador in June 2025, taking her daughters with her while her husband, Miguel, stayed behind temporarily before joining them. Her Milwaukee community rallied around her, gathering 2,800 petition signatures within 24 hours and raising nearly $16,000 for her family. In May 2026, a federal judge ordered that Ruano and two other plaintiffs be allowed to return to the U.S., finding immigration officials had violated federal law and due process by automatically deporting crime victims without considering their pending applications. Her attorney said the government must now review her T-visa petition once she returns.

Jorge Cubillos, a 42-year-old truck driver from Bogotá who fled threats from armed groups in Colombia, was deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo despite holding withholding of removal protection granted by an immigration judge in 2022 under the UN Convention Against Torture. He had lived in the U.S. since 2018, settling with his wife and four children in St. Cloud, Florida. After an arrest on a domestic battery charge, ICE lodged a detainer and detained him in Orlando, holding him for more than three months and moving him between facilities in Orlando, Jacksonville, and Louisiana while he filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention. He was flown to Kinshasa in shackles on April 15, 2026, after refusing to sign paperwork agreeing to relocation to Mexico, one of 15 Latin American migrants sent to Congo under a Trump administration deal with Kinshasa. He is now housed in a Kinshasa hotel with other deportees, reporting poor conditions including power cuts and lack of drinking water, and is receiving assistance from the International Organization for Migration while awaiting possible repatriation to Colombia.

Etinosa Osahon, a 49-year-old Nigerian lawful permanent resident who came to the U.S. in 2002, was granted protection under the Convention Against Torture in 2012 after an immigration judge found Nigerian officials had tortured him, tying him to a tree, beating him, hanging him from a ceiling and forcing him to stare at the sun. He lived in California with his U.S. citizen wife and three U.S. citizen children and complied with ICE supervision for 14 years. In May, he was detained by ICE at what he believed was a routine check-in at the agency's Los Angeles field office and deported through Ghana toward Nigeria. After Ghanaian officials said he would be sent on to Nigeria, he fled into hiding in neighboring Togo, where his attorneys say he has contracted malaria and lacks legal status or medical care. A federal judge found the government likely acted in "flagrant violation" of his due-process rights and its own regulations by removing him without revoking his supervision or torture protections, and ordered officials to disclose his location and detail steps to bring him back.

Deisy Fidelina Rivera Ortega, wife of active-duty U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jose Serrano stationed at Fort Bliss, was detained by ICE agents on April 14, 2026, while attending a USCIS appointment in El Paso, Texas to apply for Parole in Place. A native of El Salvador who had lived in the U.S. for approximately a decade, Rivera Ortega held valid work authorization and a 2019 court order granting her withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture. Despite these legal protections, ICE arrested her based on a December 2019 removal order for illegal entry and indicated plans to deport her to Mexico under third-country removal procedures. After approximately one month in custody at the El Paso Service Processing Center, Rivera Ortega was released on May 15, 2026, following media reporting and personal intervention by U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and combat veteran who contacted the Department of Homeland Security on her behalf. She remains subject to GPS monitoring, mandatory ICE check-ins, home visits, and travel restrictions while facing potential deportation.

Otis Nicholas Ffriend, a Jamaican LGBTQ asylum seeker who had been granted Convention Against Torture withholding of removal in November 2024, was arrested without a warrant by ICE agents at his California home on May 1, 2026. He had been complying with supervision requirements and living with his U.S. citizen wife. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order requiring his immediate release and barring re-detention without a hearing. After the government moved to dissolve the order, U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick granted a preliminary injunction on May 14, 2026, continuing Ffriend's release pending further proceedings. The government has since appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A Salvadoran woman who was previously under an order of supervision and had been granted withholding of removal to El Salvador was re-detained by ICE on May 14, 2026 after her supervised release was revoked. The court found that ICE violated federal regulations by failing to provide adequate notice of revocation reasons and conducting the required informal interview on the same day as detention. The court ordered her immediate release, finding the revocation procedures unlawful.

Hubert George Cole, a Honduran citizen who immigrated to the U.S. at age 11, was detained by ICE during his regular check-in on May 8, 2026, after 12 years of complying with supervision conditions. Cole's deferral of removal to Honduras stems from a long legal history: a former gang member with visible tattoos who was seriously injured in a 2007 drive-by shooting, he argued he would likely be tortured or killed in Honduras due to his tattoos and race, a claim supported by testimony from his sister and mother. In 2011, the Ninth Circuit found the Board of Immigration Appeals had failed to properly consider his expert witnesses and remanded his Convention Against Torture claim for further review, which ultimately resulted in deferral of his removal to Honduras. Despite this deferral, ICE served Cole with a Notice of Removal in 2026 stating intent to remove him to Mexico instead. A court granted a temporary restraining order requiring his immediate release and prohibiting removal without proper procedures.

Meenu Batra, a 53-year-old certified court interpreter fluent in Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu, was detained by ICE agents on March 17, 2026, at Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas while traveling for a court assignment in Milwaukee. Batra fled India approximately 35 years ago after her parents were killed in violence connected to their Sikh religion and was granted withholding of removal status by an immigration judge in 2000. She has maintained valid work authorization that she regularly renews and continues to be valid for several more years, and has worked in immigration courts for over 20 years. Batra is a single mother of four U.S. citizen children, including youngest son Jasper Batra, who joined the U.S. Army shortly before her arrest. She was held at El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville for 45 days, during which she alleged denial of food, water, and medication. On April 30, 2026, federal judge Rolando Olvera in Brownsville issued a temporary restraining order ordering her release, finding the government lacked proper justification and had violated procedural protections and due process. Her attorney noted she has had only one speeding ticket in the last 30 years.

A noncitizen from Cameroon who entered the U.S. in 2024 was granted withholding of removal to Cameroon on September 16, 2025. Despite this protection from deportation to his home country, he remained detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility for more than six months after his removal order became final. The court ordered his release within 24 hours, finding his continued detention violated due process since removal was not reasonably foreseeable.

Barbara, a young woman from Tigray, Ethiopia, fled her country's civil war and traveled through Brazil before crossing into the US, where she was detained by border police and sent to an immigration detention center in Louisiana. A judge granted her withholding of removal, a protection barring deportation to her home country, but months later she was abruptly put on a flight and deported to Cameroon on April 28, 2026. As of September 2026, she remains at a government-run migrant shelter in Yaoundé alongside about 20 other deportees from nearly a dozen African countries, saying she has no family there and struggles because most residents speak French while she speaks English. She hopes to seek asylum in Cameroon rather than return to Ethiopia.

Wilfido Nolberto Cortez Esteban, a Guatemalan father, and his minor daughter Keyra Issa Susana Cortez Calderon were detained by immigration authorities after previously being released on Cortez Esteban's own recognizance while he served as his daughter's guardian. The detention came months after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied their petition for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture, finding that threats against the family stemmed from personal retribution over Cortez Esteban reporting a vehicle theft rather than a protected ground, and that relatives in Guatemala remained unharmed. Despite the denial, the pair had remained fully compliant with all ICE obligations, attending every immigration court hearing and committing no crimes since their release. A federal judge granted an emergency Temporary Restraining Order finding they had a strong likelihood of being entitled to a pre-deprivation hearing before an immigration judge, ordering the government to release both from custody and barring their re-detention or removal until a proper hearing was held before a neutral decisionmaker.

Carlos Rodelo, a 43-year-old from Barranquilla, Colombia, fled his home country after being repeatedly extorted and entered the U.S. through the Mexican border, where a federal judge granted him protection under the Convention Against Torture, barring his return to Colombia but not to a third country. Detained since August, Rodelo was held at the Alexandria, Louisiana airport and shackled without food by ICE agents despite his objections and a pending habeas corpus challenge, then flown via Dakar and Accra to the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a Trump Administration third-country deportation agreement covering the first group of 15 Latin Americans. Rodelo, who has diabetes and other medical conditions, described feeling like a prisoner in Congo despite being told he was free, and stayed in a Kinshasa hotel hoping to be repatriated. The Department of Homeland Security asserted he had violated the terms of his parole. Rodelo later returned to Colombia through the International Organization for Migration's Assisted Voluntary Return program.

A 23-year-old South American woman was deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo after being detained in Louisiana for 15 months by ICE. An immigration judge had previously granted her protection from removal to her home country after she claimed persecution based on her LGBTQ+ status. Despite a federal magistrate judge's recommendation for her release in a lawsuit filed in December, she was deported before a district judge could approve the recommendation as part of a third-country deportation agreement.

Maria, a 29-year-old woman, fled Colombia in January 2024 after being kidnapped and tortured by the FARC rebel group and abused by her ex-husband, a police officer. In May 2025, a U.S. immigration judge found she would more likely than not be tortured if deported to Colombia and granted her protection under the Convention Against Torture. She was nonetheless detained at a routine ICE check-in earlier this year, told a third country had been found for her, and less than three weeks later flown to the Democratic Republic of Congo with her hands and feet restrained during a nearly 24-hour charter flight, learning her destination only the day before departure. She is one of 15 Latin Americans the Trump administration has sent to Congo, many despite U.S. court orders barring their deportation to their home countries, and a recent court ruling found the government likely broke the law in deporting a fellow Colombian there.

A 56-year-old Colombian citizen who had been granted withholding of removal was detained without a warrant by ICE officers in Baltimore on March 31, 2026, when he reported for a scheduled check-in. He had been complying with supervised release and had a home visit scheduled for April 1, but ICE instructed him to report in-person on March 31 instead. The court granted his temporary restraining order motion and ordered his immediate release, finding ICE violated his due process rights. A second man was placed in removal proceedings in August 2023 and charged with inadmissibility for entering the United States without inspection. He was released from immigration custody on an Order of Recognizance but was subsequently arrested by immigration authorities and is currently detained at the Adelanto ICE Detention Facility. The court granted his temporary restraining order requiring an individualized bond hearing within seven days.

A Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. in 2023 was granted withholding of removal to Venezuela in February 2025. On April 9, 2026, he was detained by ICE during a routine check-in. His wife was informed that authorities intended to remove him to Africa, despite his withholding protection. The court issued a habeas petition order requiring respondents to show cause why the petition should not be granted and ordered advance notice of any removal.

Rudy Villeda Mejía, a 47-year-old Honduran roofing business owner who has lived in Washington state since 2010 after being kidnapped and held for ransom by Los Zetas cartel members, was arrested by ICE at Denver International Airport on March 30, 2025. He had attended routine immigration check-ins for years without incident and had a pending T visa application as a trafficking victim, which his attorney argued was his only lawful path to remain with his U.S. citizen wife, Mabel Shaffer, and her three children. During roughly four months in ICE custody in Aurora, Colorado, his health declined, including worsening Bell's palsy symptoms, back pain, and weight loss, while the family's roofing business lost contracts and his wife struggled to manage it alone. A federal judge initially denied his habeas petition, but later ordered his release under a court order barring detention of pending T visa applicants; ICE had already transferred him to Louisiana and released him there without his ID, passport, or work permit. His wife flew to Louisiana to drive him home, and his stepson said he immediately returned to work at the family business.

Patience Gore, a 44-year-old Zimbabwean national who has lived in the U.S. for about 24 years, was seized by undercover plainclothes ICE agents at a United Airlines gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after a gate agent repeatedly called her name over the loudspeaker. Gore, who held a withholding of removal order, has sole custody of her 11-year-old U.S. citizen daughter and is married to U.S. citizen Olaoluwa Omotosho; she had been traveling home to Maryland with her partner after attending a friend's wedding. She was held for nearly two weeks across three Arizona detention facilities in what her lawsuit describes as degrading, squalid conditions, including sleeping on a mattress on the floor, being denied a change of clothes, and being denied sunglasses despite light sensitivity. The detention disrupted a time-sensitive IVF cycle, and a subsequent replacement cycle did not result in pregnancy. A federal judge granted her habeas petition and ordered her release on March 27, and she and her husband are now suing United Airlines, alleging it colluded with ICE to lure her to the gate.