Human Impact Project

Federal ICE agents raided Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria, California on July 11, detaining dozens of farmworkers. Hundreds of community members gathered to protest, and federal agents deployed tear gas and smoke grenades on the crowd, injuring at least one city council member. Judith Ramos, a 22-year-old certified nurse assistant, was sprayed with tear gas when she arrived at the farm to support her father, a farmworker at the facility, and learned he had been detained. Rep. Salud Carbajal was denied entry when he attempted to conduct congressional oversight of the raid. National Guard troops in military vehicles also responded to the scene. ICE agents conducted a heavily armed raid on Glass House Farms cannabis facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria on July 10, 2025, detaining 361 adults and 14 minors. A 56-year-old farm worker died after falling 30 feet from a greenhouse roof. Three men—undocumented farm worker Santiago, security guard George Retes (an Iraq veteran), and professor John Caravello—were arrested during the operation; Caravello was arrested after throwing back a teargas canister at agents.

ICE conducted raids on cannabis farms near the California coast in summer 2025, resulting in the detention and rapid deportation of more than 300 undocumented workers. More than a dozen US citizen children were left stranded without parents. In one case, a 15-year-old was left alone with his two younger brothers, ages 8 and 9, after their mother was deported to Mexico only three days after the raid. A 10-month-old was left with family friends when her single mother was arrested. During the raids, federal agents used riot gear, flash bang grenades, and smoke bombs; a worker fleeing the facility fell 30 feet from a greenhouse roof and died.

A 60-year-old Afghan migrant, Baqir Rezaei, died in an Iranian detention camp in Zabol after being intercepted despite holding an official exit permit. He was held without food or water and forced to work under extreme heat conditions. According to his family, at least eight migrants died in the camp out of 35 who lost consciousness from heat and thirst.

Isidro Perez, a 75-year-old Cuban man who arrived in the U.S. in 1966, died on June 26, 2025 after 21 days in ICE custody at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County. He was arrested on June 5 during a law enforcement operation in Key Largo and charged with inadmissibility under the Immigration and Nationality Act, based in part on prior drug convictions from 1981 and 1984. On June 17, he was admitted to Larkin Community Hospital with unstable angina and chest pain with EKG changes; he was discharged on June 25. On June 26 at approximately 7 p.m., he reported chest pains while in the Medical Housing Unit at Krome. Miami Dade Rescue responded with life-sustaining interventions including CPR and defibrillator shock, and he was transported to HCA Kendall Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:42 p.m. His cause of death is under investigation, with medical reviewers suspecting acute myocardial infarction. He is the fifth person to die in ICE custody in Florida since January 2025.

Johnny Noviello, a 49-year-old Canadian permanent resident and U.S. citizen since 1991, died on June 23, 2025, in ICE custody at Federal Detention Center Miami after being detained for approximately 40 days. He was arrested by ICE on May 15 in Daytona Beach and transferred to the Miami facility on May 19 following a 2023 drug trafficking conviction and faced removal proceedings. An autopsy determined he died from acute kidney failure caused by calcium oxalate crystal deposits. Six kidney specialists concluded the death was preventable, noting symptoms would have been detectable for days and treatable through dialysis. ICE records documented he had health issues including hypertension, convulsions, and abnormal vital signs during detention. A complaint alleges Bureau of Prisons medical staff failed to document an evaluation or create a treatment plan after he appeared dizzy and unstable. The FBI is investigating his death.

Johnny Noviello, a 49-year-old Canadian lawful permanent resident who had lived in Florida for nearly four decades, died on June 23, 2025, while in ICE custody at the Federal Detention Center Miami. Noviello was arrested by ICE on May 15, 2025, following drug trafficking and related criminal convictions, and was awaiting removal proceedings. During his approximately five-week detention, Noviello—who had epilepsy, hypertension, and mental health concerns—reported health issues and symptoms of illness but did not receive adequate medical monitoring or treatment. He was found unresponsive in the afternoon and pronounced dead after CPR and emergency response efforts failed. An autopsy determined the cause of death was acute kidney failure caused by calcium oxalate crystal deposits, which experts concluded was preventable with appropriate medical care. A complaint alleges that Bureau of Prisons health staff failed to properly evaluate, document, or create a treatment plan for Noviello despite observable symptoms. The FBI is investigating his death.

A 41-year-old man from Guatemala drowned in the American Canal near El Paso after crossing the border fence without authorization with two other individuals in June 2025. Border Patrol agents and Department of Defense personnel observed the three individuals enter the canal and rescued two of them. The third man was found unresponsive approximately two-tenths of a mile away. Despite CPR efforts by Border Patrol and fire department personnel, he was pronounced dead at University Medical Center.

A 52-year-old day laborer died after being struck by an SUV on the freeway while attempting to flee a federal immigration raid at a Home Depot in Monrovia. He worked to support his wife and four daughters. His death was one of the immediate casualties of the June 2025 mass deportation campaign launched across Los Angeles County.

A person died after a human smuggling attempt ended in a vehicle chase and river crossing at the Rio Grande near Laredo. After Texas Department of Public Safety troopers attempted to stop a black Tahoe, nine people jumped into the river. One person was rescued, another drowned, and the suspected smuggler fled to Mexico.

Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado, a 68-year-old construction worker who had lived in the United States for 40 years, died on May 5, 2025, while being transported from Lowndes County Jail to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. The coroner suspected an aortic aneurysm as the cause of death, though the exact cause remained under investigation. According to his family, Delgado had no prior health conditions but was placed in a wheelchair during his detention and given medications he had never taken before. He had been detained multiple times since 1979 as an undocumented immigrant.

Marie Blaise, a 44-year-old Haitian woman, died at the Broward Transitional Center in Florida on April 25, 2025, after complaining of chest pains for hours. Detention staff took her blood pressure, discovered hypertension, gave her pills, and told her to rest. Hours later she began shaking and screaming about chest pain and was pronounced dead at 8:35 p.m. She had been detained at the facility for 20 days after being arrested on February 12 at Saint Croix International Airport for attempting to board a flight without a valid visa and subsequently issued an expedited removal notice.

Marie Ange Blaise, a 44-year-old Haitian woman, died on April 25, 2025, at Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, after spending more than 10 weeks in ICE custody. She had been detained since mid-February after being stopped at an airport in Saint Croix, Virgin Islands without a valid immigrant visa, and was transferred through multiple facilities including San Juan, Krome North Processing Center in Miami, and a Louisiana facility. According to fellow detainees, Blaise experienced what appeared to be a seizure while in a kneeling position. When other women began screaming for help, guards ignored their pleas. One officer approached, looked at Blaise without intervening, and walked away. It took approximately eight minutes for a medical provider to arrive and another 15 to 20 minutes for a rescue team. She was pronounced dead shortly after. Following her death, facility staff told the women to stop making comments about what they had witnessed.

Nhon Ngoc Nguyen, a 55-year-old Vietnamese man, died on April 16, 2025, after 52 days in ICE custody at El Paso Service Processing Center in Texas. Medical reviewers attributed his death to end-stage dementia and acute-on-chronic respiratory failure. He had a Do Not Resuscitate order in place. His death was one of seven reported in ICE custody during the first three months of Trump's presidency.

Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a 27-year-old Cuban man, died in ICE custody in Florida on April 12, 2025, in what appeared to be a suicide attempt. His family launched a fundraising campaign in May 2026 to raise $3,000 for cremation and to repatriate his ashes to his parents in Cuba, who cannot travel to the United States. He is the second person to die by suspected suicide in ICE custody in Florida in less than a month, with at least 49 people having died under ICE custody since Trump took office in January 2025.

A 52-year-old Chinese woman died by suicide while detained at the Yuma Border Patrol station in Arizona after overstaying her B-1/B-2 visitor visa. She was initially detained in California and transferred to Yuma. Surveillance footage documented the incident, showing she created a noose. CBP records indicate required welfare checks were not properly conducted or were falsely documented, and medical intervention did not occur for nearly two hours after she was found unresponsive. Representative Pramila Jayapal called for accountability regarding CBP's failure to follow detainee safety procedures.

Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year-old Vietnamese man who had suffered a stroke, collapsed on April 1 at Miami Correctional Facility (the "Speedway Slammer") in Indiana where he was being detained. Fellow detainees screamed for help, and it took approximately 15 minutes for a guard to respond and 10 more minutes for medical staff to arrive. An Iraqi detainee performed CPR while waiting for medical help. The local coroner attributed his death to natural causes related to cardiovascular disease. This case is among 50 deaths in ICE detention since Trump took office in January 2025, a rate that has more than doubled compared to the 2009-2024 average.

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.

An undocumented Maryland mother whose teenage son died of cancer while she was in ICE custody has requested deportation to Mexico. Officials did not release Martinez-Carrada in time to see her son before his death in late January, though she was permitted to attend his funeral.

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.

Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during a traffic stop in South Padre Island, Texas on March 15, 2025. Martinez was traveling from San Antonio with his best friend to celebrate his 23rd birthday when law enforcement attempted to stop him at the scene of a road accident. Federal officials claimed Martinez refused orders to exit the vehicle and intentionally ran over an agent, prompting the officer to open fire through the driver's side window. However, body camera footage released nearly a year later—following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by American Oversight—contradicted the official account. Martinez's family members said he had been attempting to comply with police instructions when shot, and Texas Rangers investigators told his mother that video evidence contradicted the federal agents' account, though authorities declined to comment on the alleged discrepancies.

A grand jury issued a 'no bill' in the March 2025 shooting death of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez by a Homeland Security Investigations agent at South Padre Island, Texas. DHS stated Martinez attempted to run over a federal agent, but a witness affidavit indicated the vehicle was moving slowly and the agent fired without warning. The shooting was not publicly disclosed until February 2026.

Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent on South Padre Island, Texas in March 2025 during an immigration enforcement operation. According to ICE's internal report, the agent fired at Martinez after he allegedly accelerated his vehicle and struck another HSI agent. The involvement of ICE in the incident was not publicly disclosed until nearly a year later when news outlets reported details based on internal incident reports.

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.

Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Olivares, a 24-year-old Venezuelan migrant, drowned in the Rio Grande near the U.S.-Mexico border and was buried in Eagle Pass, Texas. His parents in Venezuela watched the funeral service via livestream. The burial was the first funeral service organized by Border Vigil, a human rights organization, for a migrant who died crossing the border.

Genry Ruiz Guillén, a 29-year-old Honduran man, died in ICE custody at Krome detention center in Florida on January 23, 2025. In December 2024, during a phone call from the detention center, he told his mother three times that he was about to faint and that he did not feel well; she was unable to contact him after that call. His mother traveled to the detention center seeking information about his whereabouts and was notified of his death by ICE authorities weeks later. His body was repatriated to Honduras. Ruiz Guillén was one of seven migrants who died in ICE custody during the first three months of Trump's presidency.

Juan Alexis Tineo-Martinez, a 44-year-old Dominican man, died on February 23, 2025, after three days in ICE custody in Puerto Rico. He was taken into ICE custody following a maritime interdiction and was treated at Centro Medico Hospital. His suspected cause of death was hemorrhagic stroke. He was one of seven migrants who died in ICE custody during the first three months of Trump's presidency.

Maksym Chernyak, a 44-year-old Ukrainian man who fled Russia's invasion of Ukraine, was arrested on a domestic battery charge in January 2025 and transferred to ICE custody at Krome North Service Processing Center in southwest Miami-Dade County on February 2. On February 18, he suffered a stroke; Krome staff delayed calling 911 for over 40 minutes despite his seizures and non-responsive state. He was transported to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital where doctors confirmed a hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. He died two days later. Medical experts who reviewed records said the delayed emergency response and treatment of his symptoms as intoxication fell below standard of care and may have contributed to his death.

Maksym Chernyak, a 44-year-old Ukrainian man who entered the U.S. legally under a humanitarian parole program in August 2024, was arrested in January 2025 following an assault charge and placed in ICE custody at Krome detention center in Miami. In the days before his death, Chernyak reported fever, chest pain, irregular heartbeat, and blood in his stool, but was not seen by a doctor for several days and his elevated blood pressure went untreated. On February 18, 2025, while in an overcrowded hold room with approximately 30 other people, he experienced a severe medical crisis—suffering multiple seizures, vomiting blood, and becoming unresponsive. When cellmates screamed for help, staff took 15 to 20 minutes to respond and initially accused him of drug use; toxicology reports later confirmed he had not been intoxicated. He was transported to a hospital where he was declared brain dead and died two days later. His wife said he had been in good health before detention and was pressured to sign documents without a translator.

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.

Domingo Juan Juan, a 49-year-old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, was arrested by ICE in February 2025 in connection with a March 2024 fatal car crash near Seymour, Indiana that killed Brad Castner. Juan was charged only with driving without a license; the arrest occurred under the Laken Riley Act, which mandates ICE detention for individuals facing charges related to crimes resulting in serious injury or death.

An Ethiopian national died in ICE custody at a Phoenix-area hospital on February 7, 2025. The death occurred during the first 100 days of the Trump administration, one of seven migrant deaths in ICE custody reported during that period. An ACLU investigation found that most ICE custody deaths in recent years could have been prevented with proper treatment.

A 45-year-old Ethiopian man died on January 29, 2025, from complications of untreated HIV while in ICE custody at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. He had been detained for nearly four months after entering the country illegally and was not screened for HIV despite developing severe symptoms. Medical experts stated routine blood tests at initial intake or upon symptom development could have identified HIV through early diagnosis and antiretroviral treatment.

Arlit Maria Martinez-Carrada, a Mexican national, was detained by ICE on January 3 while on her way to work in Wicomico County. Her son Kevin died from cancer just days later on January 5, but an immigration judge initially denied her release, deeming her a flight risk. After a federal judge approved her release on January 26 with a $12,000 bond, Martinez-Carrada returned to Salisbury with an ankle bracelet monitor.

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 sought help from volunteers, saying his mother had stopped breathing while in a vehicle in Mexico. The cause of death is under investigation and may take weeks to determine.

Genry Ruiz-Guillen, a 29-year-old Honduran man with schizoaffective disorder, was transferred to ICE custody in October 2024 and held at Krome North Service Processing Center. While detained, he experienced seizures, dizziness, fainting spells, confusion, and loss of consciousness. In December he was hospitalized for acute psychosis and subsequently transferred to three Larkin Health System hospitals for psychiatric treatment and treatment of rhabdomyolysis, a life-threatening muscle breakdown condition. He died on January 8, 2025. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner ruled his cause of death as "complications of schizoaffective disorder," but medical experts including a former NYC chief medical examiner questioned this finding, noting mental illness alone cannot be a proper cause of death and citing concern about multiple medications in his system and the unresolved rhabdomyolysis.

Victor Diaz, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan restaurant worker, died by suicide in January 2025 while in ICE custody at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas. Diaz was initially detained by ICE in Minnesota and transferred to the crowded El Paso facility, where he lost contact with relatives. After reporting harassment from fellow detainees, he was placed in isolation, where he subsequently died by suicide.