Human Impact Project

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. She was held for extended periods—sometimes up to six days—despite the holding cells being designed for stays under 12 hours. The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit on September 18, 2025, challenging ICE's detention practices and courthouse arrest policies, alleging unconstitutional conditions and violations of due-process protections.

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.

Santos Reyes Banegas, a Honduran man, died on September 18 at the Nassau County Correctional Center on Long Island, New York, where he was held by ICE. During intake at 11:22 a.m. on September 17, a nurse noted he was experiencing alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Two hours later, a doctor evaluated him and prescribed medications for withdrawal but the ICE report does not specify which medications or confirm they were administered. Reyes was found unresponsive in his cell at 6:25 a.m. the next morning and declared dead 20 minutes later. DHS reported the preliminary cause as liver failure complicated by alcoholism. Medical experts noted that timely hospital care could greatly reduce life-threatening risks from alcohol withdrawal.

Felipe de Jesus Hernandez Marcelo, 28, a Mexican native and single father raising a 9-year-old son while working construction in Muscatine, Iowa, was shot and nearly killed during a robbery attempt on June 21, 2025, undergoing emergency surgery for gunshot wounds to his arm and leg. Days later, when he went to the police station to retrieve his impounded car and cash, officers arrested him on an old unpaid traffic ticket warrant and turned him over to ICE within hours. He has since been held at the Muscatine County Jail, separated from his son and mother, unable to attend medical appointments or receive physical rehabilitation, and says he was denied pain medication for five days. He is seeking a U visa as a crime victim and witness against his attackers, one of whom has pleaded guilty, but the county prosecutor has not certified his eligibility. A federal judge ruled on September 10, 2025 that his detention without a bond hearing was illegal, but Immigration Judge Alexandra Larsen subsequently denied him bond, calling his U visa eligibility "speculative at best" and finding him a flight risk. His attorney, Emily Rebelskey, said she would continue fighting for his release.

A man was detained by ICE at a Home Depot location in Orange County. He was admitted to Orange County Global Medical Center. He is a stroke patient who has had six prior strokes and takes multiple medications.

The first state-funded Prairie Thunder saturation patrol resulted in 44 felony drug arrests in Sioux Falls. Federal inmates including ICE detainees had to be moved from Minnehaha County Jail to other facilities to make room. U.S. Marshals and ICE transported 35 people to other regional facilities.

Mariela, a mother of three, was denied proper medical care while in immigration detention and is now facing a possible cancer diagnosis. She is seeking urgent medical care, housing, and legal support to address her health condition and provide stability for her children.

Rosalio Pelayo Salgado, detained by ICE on September 10, called his daughters from the Broadview processing facility to report being held in a room with at least 150 other men. He described officers yelling slurs, food and water being withheld based on behavior, and his anxiety medication being refused. His daughters protested at the facility on September 19, learning he was scheduled to be deported the following day.

Óscar Rascón Duarte, 58, a Mexican national, died on September 8, 2025, at Banner Desert Medical Center in Arizona while in ICE custody. He suffered from advanced-stage Alzheimer's disease, right kidney cancer, and hepatitis C. Rascón Duarte entered the United States in September 1976 as an undocumented immigrant near Douglas, Arizona. In 2004, while in Arizona Department of Corrections custody, ICE initiated deportation proceedings against him and transferred him to Eloy Detention Center. On January 15, 2025, ICE arranged long-term care for him at a medical facility due to his advanced medical conditions. He remained hospitalized in long-term medical care until his death. ICE stated that the cause of death is under investigation and that the Mexican Embassy was notified of his death. His death was one of 17 Mexican immigrant deaths in ICE custody or during immigration enforcement operations during the Trump administration's mass immigration crackdown, prompting Mexico's government to file complaints and demand investigations.

Oscar Rascon Duarte, a 58-year-old Mexican national, died on September 8, 2025, while in ICE custody at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona, where he had been hospitalized for an extended period. According to ICE, Rascon Duarte had advanced-stage Alzheimer's disease, right kidney cancer, and hepatitis C. On January 15, 2025, ICE arranged long-term care for him at Promise Hospital in Mesa. ICE stated that the cause of death was under investigation and notified the Mexican Embassy of his death.

Eight migrants from Burma, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, Mexico, and South Sudan were detained in a converted shipping container at a U.S. military base in Djibouti for more than six weeks while awaiting appeals filed by their lawyers. On July 5, 2025, they were deported to South Sudan. ICE agents transporting them described the living conditions as 'outrageous.' Mexican citizen Jesús Muñoz was subsequently repatriated to Mexico in early September, and South Sudanese citizen Peter Domach was released. Six other deportees' whereabouts remain unknown, with lawyers suggesting they may be imprisoned at the Blue House, South Sudan's National Security Services headquarters. The South Sudan government stated it would guarantee their safety but refused to disclose their location or eventual fate.

On September 4, 2025, 14 people were deported from U.S. detention to Ghana on military aircraft as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign to African countries. Four detainees were placed in straitjackets when they refused to board without speaking to their lawyers. The group landed in Accra after 16 hours with no explanation provided and no documentation given. According to lawyers, the actual group consisted of 11 detainees (four Nigerians, three Togolese, two Malians, one Liberian, and one Gambian), who were held at Bundase Military Camp with irregular food and water supply. On September 23, eight were deported by Ghana to Togo and given approximately $100 each, with two reportedly taken to Mali and one remaining in Ghana.

K.S., a Gambian citizen and LGBTQ+ community member who had obtained humanitarian parole to remain in the U.S., was removed from a Louisiana detention center without explanation on September 4, 2025, chained and placed on a military aircraft. He was deported to Ghana as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign to African countries. K.S. had fled Gambia where LGBTQ+ status is punishable by up to life in prison, and expressed his fear of returning to his homeland to Ghanaian officials, but immigration authorities proceeded with the deportation anyway. He is currently in hiding.

Iara do Carmo Santana, a 29-year-old Brazilian woman recovering from a miscarriage, surgery and subsequent infection, was arrested by Malden police after her fiancé called 911 out of concern for her mental health. After being released from police custody, she was detained by ICE agents who were waiting outside and taken to an ICE field office in Burlington, where she said she was denied a medical assessment, a Portuguese interpreter, and consistent antibiotics and pain medication for roughly four days. Her lawyers filed a habeas petition alleging ICE violated her due process rights given her recent surgery, and U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her release, calling the lack of medical care 'a serious issue' and the Burlington facility's use for extended detention 'troubling as a systemic matter.' Santana had applied for asylum and held employment authorization working as a house cleaner; she is engaged to a lawful permanent resident and has since been reunited with him and her six-year-old son, though her criminal case remains pending and she still faces possible deportation.

More than 300 South Korean workers who were among 475 people detained in a September 4, 2025 immigration raid at the Hyundai-LG battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia are filing administrative claims against nine federal agencies, the first step toward a federal lawsuit. Workers, including a lead organizer identified only as Kim, allege they were shackled, denied interpreters, pressured to sign documents they could not read, and held for about a week in overcrowded, cold cells with limited food and sanitation at a detention facility in Folkston, Georgia. One worker, Ryu, said he lost nearly 10 pounds in custody, while another, Choi, said he has since returned to work at the same plant but wants a government apology. The lawyer representing the claimants said the raid, which targeted only four named individuals per a search warrant, wrongly swept up hundreds of workers who had valid visas or business travel status.

Martin G., a 66-year-old Cuban man and testicular cancer survivor who has had a partial lung removal, was detained at Camp East Montana from September 2025. Despite daily written and verbal requests, he was never taken to see medical staff during his months of detention. His conditions worsened — he experienced severe headaches, trouble breathing, low oxygen levels, and lightheadedness. 'I'm scared that I will die here,' he said. When he engaged in a hunger strike to bring attention to his medical needs, guards tried to force him to eat on at least three occasions and then placed him in solitary confinement for seven days as punishment. His wife said: 'I pray for my husband's health every day. I pray that he will live and that I will be able to hug him again.'

Ramiro G., a 45-year-old Cuban man detained at Camp East Montana, was twice subjected to attempted forced expulsion to Mexico. On September 22, 2025, he was woken at midnight, chained, and bused with about 15 mostly Cuban men to the border. Guards told them to cross into Mexico. Ramiro refused, saying he was Cuban, had no ties to Mexico, and had previously been kidnapped by a cartel there. Some men crossed; Ramiro and three others refused and were returned. On December 15, guards tried again, this time telling him he was being transferred to another facility. When he overheard guards mention the Santa Teresa port of entry, a guard admitted the transfer was being carried out 'in secret.' He began shaking uncontrollably. Other detainees banged on doors in protest until he was returned to his cell. Guards had told him: 'Your country won't take you; leave now or we'll lock you up for life.'

The Trump administration attempted to repatriate 76 Guatemalan children from U.S. government custody in overnight operations. Children were woken from their beds and reported crying and vomiting. A federal judge temporarily blocked the removals after attorneys argued the government violated U.S. law protecting unaccompanied minors from deportation without due process. The children were returned to shelters after being placed on planes. Declarations indicated many had not requested to return and stated they feared danger if sent back to Guatemala.