Human Impact Project

A small panga-style boat carrying migrants capsized off Torrey Pines State Beach near San Diego, killing four people including a 14-year-old boy and resulting in a 10-year-old girl missing at sea. The children's father is in a coma and their mother remains hospitalized. Five Mexican citizens have been charged with human smuggling resulting in death and other related crimes.

A pregnant Guatemalan woman became lost in the Arizona desert near the U.S.-Mexico border while attempting to cross. She navigated dangerous terrain while pregnant and provided a firsthand account of her experience.

The Trump administration has expanded immigration detention by moving hundreds of immigrants to federal prisons run by the Bureau of Prisons, including facilities in Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, Berlin, and Leavenworth, where detainees report moldy food, overcrowding, denial of legal access, and being cut off from attorneys and families. At Miami's Federal Detention Center, detainees, their lawyers and relatives describe cockroach infestations, broken toilets overflowing with waste, extreme heat, and medical complaints being ignored, conditions corroborated by a prison employee. ICE data show an average daily population of 460 at the Miami facility as of early April, with numbers rising after detainees were relocated there following fires near the Krome detention center. The Bureau of Prisons said it was addressing air conditioning issues, while families say many detainees had already completed sentences for past convictions before entering immigration custody.

Vicente Garcia Jr., 18, of Roma, Texas, was arrested after allegedly driving a vehicle involved in human smuggling operations in McAllen on March 28. According to federal prosecutors, Garcia was transporting a smuggled person to another smuggler, Jose Alexis Baeza-Combaluzier, who was driving a vehicle with four additional smuggled passengers. When law enforcement observed the suspected smuggling operation and attempted to approach, Baeza-Combaluzier drove through a flooded road and crashed his vehicle into a canal, resulting in the deaths of a woman and a 14-year-old child. Garcia faces up to life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.

On March 28, 2025, Border Patrol agents observed a Ford Explorer suspected of human smuggling in McAllen, Texas. When agents activated emergency equipment and approached the vehicle, it fled and drove into a canal approximately one-half mile away, becoming submerged. Five occupants were rescued from the canal, but two individuals remained unaccounted for. A female was recovered deceased on March 28, and a juvenile male was found deceased in the vehicle on March 29. Autopsies determined both deaths were caused by drowning.

Three migrants died during two separate incidents while attempting to cross the southern border near Otay Mountain Wilderness in San Diego County during severe winter weather. The first incident involved an adult woman who made a distress call and was found alive alongside a deceased woman; the second involved a 16-year-old girl who survived and two deceased men, one her father. Both groups had crossed into the U.S. illegally and faced extreme cold, rain, and snow.

A 24-year-old Venezuelan man, Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Olivares, drowned in the Rio Grande while attempting to enter the United States.

Three migrants died in two separate incidents in the Otay Mesa/Otay Mountain Wilderness area near San Diego on March 14, 2025, during a winter storm with near-freezing temperatures. In the first incident, Border Patrol agents found one deceased woman near Cuchama Truck Trail and rescued an adult female who had called for help. In the second incident occurring less than an hour later, agents discovered two deceased men and rescued a 16-year-old girl who was the daughter of one of the deceased men. All individuals who crossed the border became lost and experienced hypothermia symptoms in the severe weather conditions.

A family of four—two parents and children ages 1 and 2—were found huddled under a tree after spending many hours lost in woods while attempting to cross from New York into Quebec in March 2025. Unprepared for winter conditions, the parents lost their shoes and hiked barefoot in snow while their children lacked cold-weather gear. The mother called 911 after several hours in freezing conditions, and the family was rescued by local authorities at approximately 4:15 a.m. All four were treated for hypothermia at a hospital and have since requested refugee status with Canadian authorities.

Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Olivares, a 24-year-old Venezuelan migrant who had trained as a barber since age 14, drowned in the Rio Grande near the U.S.-Mexico border and was buried at Maverick County Cemetery in Eagle Pass, Texas, in a service attended by about 10 people. His parents in Venezuela watched via livestream, having last seen him alive in a video showing him riding a train toward the border in 2023. His father recalled his son's final words of ambition to help the family, calling the funeral "sentimental, sad, but at the same time we are able to breathe a sigh of relief." The burial was the first funeral service organized by Border Vigil, a human rights organization formed in 2023 amid rising migrant deaths along the border.

The Battalion Search and Rescue Organization, based in Ajo, Arizona, conducts regular expeditions into the southern Arizona desert to locate and identify the remains of migrants who died during border crossings. According to the Pima County Medical Examiner, over 150 migrants died in southern Arizona in the previous year. During recent trips in February, the group found 10 and 8 death sites respectively, recovering bone fragments and other remains which are documented and reported to county authorities.

Undocumented day laborers in Los Angeles are preparing to help clear debris and rebuild homes after wildfires. ICE has conducted multiple raids across major U.S. cities and is planning large-scale enforcement operations. Workers like Luis and Jonathan are volunteering to help their communities rebuild while facing potential deportation.

Chidi Nwagbo, a Nigerian migrant who had lived in the U.S. for 37 years, was detained at the Buffalo Federal Detention facility in Batavia on February 10, 2025, after attempting to cross into Canada. He arrived at the facility with frostbite and was under doctor's orders to see a specialist at Kessler Burn and Trauma Center in Rochester within a week. ICE staff never took him to the appointment. By the time he saw a doctor 16 days later, portions of six fingers had to be amputated due to untreated frostbite.

A 46-year-old woman from Mexico was found dead by humanitarian volunteers near the border wall east of Sásabe, Arizona on Monday morning. Her 15-year-old son ran to volunteers for help, saying his mother had stopped breathing while in a vehicle that had been speeding toward the wall from Mexico. A volunteer who examined her found no visible injuries and said she did not appear to have died from exposure, despite overnight lows of 19 degrees in the area. She remains unidentified, though she was carrying documents indicating she was from Mexico, and the cause of death may take weeks to determine.