Human Impact Project

Carlton Junior Burke, a 25-year-old Jamaican national, was arrested by ICE at his home in Madison, Wisconsin on October 1, 2025, after overstaying a B2 tourist visa he entered on in 2021. Burke says his passport and driver's licenses were taken during detention and not returned to him, disputing DHS's claim that ICE does not confiscate documents. He had built a life in the U.S., married, and was attempting to adjust his immigration status when arrested. Burke was transferred through multiple detention facilities over several months, including county jails and a correctional facility in Indiana, where he raised concerns about food quality, limited medical assistance, and inadequate family communication. He was granted voluntary departure on January 7, 2026, and ultimately left the country on January 28, 2026, leaving his wife and young child behind in the United States.

Jean, a 33-year-old Haitian, was deported from the United States to Mexico in late October 2025. He was transferred by bus to Villahermosa, then relocated to Cancún, where he was left without official assistance or resources. He submitted an asylum application to COMAR in mid-November but has not received confirmation of receipt. Jean cannot work because he is undocumented, cannot leave Quintana Roo state where he filed his application, and cannot access banking services or receive money from relatives.

Stanley Minjale, who immigrated to the United States from Malawi in 2021 on a student visa initially valid through 2022, later received an extension through March 2027, but that status was terminated after he failed to enroll in a university as required. At the time of his detention in October 2025, he held a valid work permit and was employed full-time as a nursing assistant in Indiana. He has a nearly two-year-old U.S. citizen son, and during his nine-month detention at North Lake Processing Center he has missed several of the boy's milestones, including his second birthday. Minjale has received a deportation order but continues to appeal, describing life in detention as a difficult, repetitive routine without freedom.

Kamal Tijani, who arrived in the U.S. from Nigeria in 2017 on a valid student visa, was arrested by ICE in October 2025 for overstaying his visa and has been held for nine months at North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan. He met his wife, who is from Georgia, while attending college in Chicago, where he worked night shifts as a maintenance technician; after his arrest, she lost their apartment and has not been able to visit him. "I just got married last year," Tijani said, describing feeling abandoned and isolated during his detention. The facility, operated by GEO Group, is the largest immigrant detention center in the Midwest, holding about 1,400 people.

A father from an unnamed country who was separated from his daughter at the US-Mexico border in 2017 and reunited with his children in Florida in 2021 was detained by ICE in October 2025 at Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades and transferred to Camp East Montana in Texas. While detained, he experienced poor conditions including mouldy food with worms and witnessed a fellow detainee's death from asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. The ACLU filed a motion and he was released in April 2026, but remains subject to ankle monitoring and bi-weekly ICE check-ins.

Santos Edilberto Banegas Reyes, a 42-year-old Honduran construction worker and father from Hempstead, New York, died on September 18, 2025, less than 18 hours after being taken into ICE custody. He was arrested by ICE Long Island Fugitive Operations on September 17 and processed at Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow, where a nurse noted alcohol withdrawal symptoms during intake and a doctor later prescribed related medications. He was found unresponsive in his cell around 6:25 a.m. the next day and pronounced dead shortly after. DHS initially cited liver failure related to alcoholism, later revised by ICE to acute alcohol withdrawal, but his family disputes this account, with his sister stating he had no underlying health conditions and that officials never contacted them. The family's attorney alleged a cover-up after ICE missed the federal deadline to release a death report and has requested an independent autopsy and jail video footage. His death prompted a September 29, 2025 protest in Mineola, New York, where advocates called for ICE to leave Long Island and for the 287(g) program to be abolished.

Paramjit Singh, a lawful permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years and runs a business in Fort Wayne, was detained by ICE and DHS at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on July 30, 2025. He was held incommunicado for five days before being hospitalized, and his family only learned of his whereabouts when a hospital bill arrived. DHS has cited a 25-year-old infraction related to a payphone and an alleged 2008 forgery conviction that reportedly does not exist as grounds for his detention and removal. An immigration judge ordered his release on a $10,000 bond in August, but DHS filed an automatic stay to keep him detained. Singh, who suffers from a progressive brain tumor causing vision loss, remains held at the Boone County Jail in Kentucky, with removal proceedings scheduled for September 29.

Watchdog groups alleged in a court filing that children and families held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas face prolonged detention beyond legal limits, along with shortages of clean drinking water, chronic sleep deprivation, inadequate medical care, and lack of hygiene products. Legal experts filed accounts describing the facility environment and conditions for detainees.

A 42-year-old Honduran national died while held by ICE in Nassau County, New York in the week prior to September 26, 2025. The death was among at least 16 ICE detainee deaths recorded since January 2025, contributing to concerns about deteriorating detention conditions.

Vicente (a pseudonym), a 60-year-old Cuban baseball coach who trained players who went on to the professional ranks, left Cuba for Venezuela in 2009, where he met his wife and raised his children. After receiving threats from Cuba's Interior Ministry investigators, who called him "a traitor" and warned his family would "pay the price," he crossed the Darién Gap and the Rio Grande in 2023, hoping to build a better future for his nine-year-old son. After months in detention at Port Isabel and the Geauga County Safety Center, he was released and reunited with his wife and son in Ontario, California, on Christmas Day 2023. He never missed an ICE check-in while working with a lawyer toward legal residency. Around August 2025, at what he believed was a routine check-in, an agent led him to a separate room where four officers handcuffed his hands, legs, and feet. "It was all a lie. A set-up," he said. He was held in an overcrowded Los Angeles basement holding room with more than 80 people, bused to Arizona and then to Camp East Montana in El Paso, and deported to Villahermosa, Mexico, in August 2025. He now lives in a 15-square-meter concrete-block house, volunteers coaching a youth baseball team, and has built an incubator to raise Japanese quail. "There's nothing I've done that justifies why I was separated from my family," he said. Last Christmas his family sent him a photo of the stockings on their fireplace in Ontario, including one embroidered with his name.

Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Sikh grandmother who had lived legally in the East Bay for over 30 years with no criminal record, was detained by ICE on September 8, 2025, after being asked to turn in paperwork at the San Francisco office during a routine check-in. Kaur had lived in Hercules, worked for two decades at Sari Palace in Berkeley, and regularly attended the El Sobrante Sikh Gurdwara; she has two grandsons and three granddaughters. Family members and roughly 200 community members held a protest at the El Sobrante Gurdwara demanding her release, with her daughter-in-law Manji Kaur calling the situation 'a total nightmare.' During her 15-day detention at facilities in Bakersfield and Georgia, Kaur reported being denied basic hygiene supplies, vegetarian meals consistent with her faith, and water for her medication, and was forced to sleep on cell floors. Despite her attorney's requests for release with monitoring or accompaniment on a commercial flight due to her age and medical conditions, Kaur was deported to India on September 22 without advance notice to her family and without being allowed to return home or say goodbye.

A 26-year-old San Jose woman learned of her pregnancy and miscarriage in a Central California immigrant detention facility.

A 26-year-old San Jose asylum-seeker miscarried while detained at Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield after being denied immediate medical care for severe bleeding and cramping; she was shackled during hospital transport and required a blood transfusion. According to migrant rights advocates, her case may reflect a broader pattern, with evidence suggesting ICE is not following required protocols for pregnant and postpartum detainees, who are being held in unprecedented numbers without adequate medical care and food.

Gustavo, a detainee at California City ICE Detention Facility speaking from inside the facility, reported inadequate medical attention and expressed concern that CoreCivic staff are not providing proper care because they assume all detainees will be deported. He stated that medical staff appear unwilling to spend money on medication, assuming detainees will "just gonna get sent to Mexico."

Karam, a detainee with a chronic stomach ulcer, was transferred from Mesa Verde ICE facility to the California City ICE Detention Facility in late August 2025. Despite informing intake staff of his ulcer, prescribed liquid diet, and daily medications, he received no medication during his first 24 hours and subsequently received wrong pills infrequently. As his health declined, he began a hunger strike on September 18th. By September 22nd he was vomiting blood; he fainted the next day, triggering a medical emergency. Staff conditioned his medication on ending the strike. After ending the strike, he was told to "go back" to his country for medical care and has not received proper treatment. Three months later, his condition has worsened with mouth ulcers, continued blood vomiting, and blood in stool. He has gone on three additional hunger strikes since September.

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested during a civil disobedience protest inside 26 Federal Plaza in September 2025, where ICE maintains holding cells for recently detained immigrants. Lander and 10 state lawmakers were taken into custody while demanding access to detention cells to draw attention to conditions at the facility. Federal prosecutors offered to drop obstruction charges if Lander avoided arrest in federal buildings for six months, but he rejected the plea deal while the lawmakers accepted. Lander proceeded to a bench trial, stating he took the case to trial to insist that the rule of law apply to all people facing removal proceedings. He was found not guilty of obstructing elevators and the elevator lobby at 26 Federal Plaza.

Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, an asylum-seeker, was detained at the ICE field office at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco and held in harsh conditions including small, cold rooms with no beds, limited hygiene supplies, and restricted access to counsel. The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit on September 18, 2025, challenging ICE's detention practices and courthouse arrest policies. On November 25, 2025, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts provisionally certified the class action and issued a preliminary injunction, finding the facility's conditions likely unconstitutional and noting people are routinely held over 12 hours, with some exceeding 72 hours. The court ordered ICE to immediately provide beds and bedding, medical screenings and care, dimmed lighting and comfortable temperatures overnight, hygiene supplies, daily cleaning, and information about detainees' rights in their primary language.

Wesley Powers, a U.S. Navy veteran and U.S. citizen, was shot with chemical agent by ICE agents while protesting at Minnesota's Whipple Detention Center in January 2026. He was detained for 9 hours in an overcrowded cell, had his lawyer calls monitored, and was photographed by agents using personal phones before being released without charges. Powers reports subsequent incidents including vehicles at his home and lost work income.

Ligia Garcia, an asylum-seeker from Colombia with no criminal record, was arrested by ICE on July 31, 2025, after attending her immigration court hearing in San Francisco and detained at the ICE field office at 630 Sansome Street. She was held in harsh conditions including small, cold rooms with no beds, forced to sleep on the floor under bright lights, limited hygiene supplies, and restricted access to counsel after 3 p.m. and on weekends. She was held for extended periods despite the holding cells being designed for stays under 12 hours. On September 18, 2025, the ACLU and immigrant rights lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Garcia and three other plaintiffs detained at the same facility, challenging ICE's detention practices and courthouse arrest policies and alleging unconstitutional conditions and violations of due-process protections.

Martin Hernandez-Torres, a noncitizen who has lived in the United States for 30 years and has cancer, was arrested Wednesday during a "reasonable fear" interview at the ICE field office at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. He was held in harsh conditions including small, cold rooms with no beds, forced to sleep on metal benches or the floor with only thin plastic or foil as blankets, bright lights kept on all night causing sleep deprivation, open toilets, limited hygiene supplies, and restricted access to counsel and medical care. He was held for extended periods—sometimes up to six days—despite the holding cells being designed for stays under 12 hours. The ACLU, alongside the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights and CARECEN, filed a class-action lawsuit on September 18, 2025, on behalf of Hernandez-Torres and three other asylum-seeker plaintiffs, challenging ICE's detention practices and courthouse arrest policies and alleging unconstitutional conditions and violations of due-process protections.