Human Impact Project

Mohsen Mahdawi, a lawful permanent resident and Columbia University student, was detained by ICE on April 14, 2025, immediately after his naturalization interview at a USCIS field office in Vermont. Federal Judge Crawford ordered his release on April 30, 2025, after finding that the government arrested him in retaliation for his pro-Palestinian speech and activism, violating his First Amendment and due process rights. The Trump administration had targeted him for lawful political speech deemed contrary to U.S. foreign policy. Mahdawi was released on bail pending resolution of his habeas petition, though he may still face deportation proceedings.

ICE deported at least two families including three U.S. citizen children aged 2, 4, and 7 from New Orleans in early morning operations on April 25, 2025. The families were held without legal access. One child with metastatic cancer was deported without medication and a pregnant mother was deported without prenatal care arrangements. The deportations occurred after ICE reversed course and expedited the process before courts reopened. A habeas corpus petition had been filed.

A 2-year-old U.S. citizen was apparently removed to Honduras on Friday with her mother, who had been ordered deported, according to a federal judge in Louisiana. The child's mother, a Honduran national, was seized by ICE on Tuesday morning in New Orleans while attending a scheduled check-in appointment with an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office. During approximately three days in ICE custody, the mother and her two daughters were separated from family and legal counsel. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty wrote that the child was sent to Honduras "with no meaningful due process" and expressed "strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen." The mother's attorney stated that ICE mischaracterized the removal as the mother's voluntary choice and that she was pregnant and prevented from contacting lawyers or family to make arrangements.

Erasmo Zavala Almanza, a 50-year-old undocumented Mexican immigrant, was arrested by ICE agents at his home in April 2025 after cooperating with Berks County police in investigating the fatal shooting of his 20-year-old daughter and wounding of his granddaughter in February 2025. Despite applying for a U visa with support from the District Attorney's Office and receiving a favorable bona fide determination from USCIS along with deferred action and work authorization, ICE detained him at Moshannon Valley Processing Center and initiated deportation proceedings. His case reflects a shift under the Trump administration from prior guidance that discouraged arrests of crime victims and witnesses. A federal judge issued a temporary bar on removal while considering whether to grant a preliminary injunction to block deportation.

Priya Saxena, an Indian graduate student at South Dakota Mines, received notification on April 7, 2025 that her visa was revoked as part of a Trump administration criminal records check of international students. The revocation was triggered by a misdemeanor traffic conviction from 2021 for failing to pull over for an emergency vehicle in Meade County; a related DUI charge from the same traffic stop was dismissed after her blood alcohol tested within the legal limit. Saxena had previously disclosed these legal matters when obtaining her most recent visa in 2022. She filed a temporary restraining order against the government seeking a court order to remain in the country after completing her master's and doctoral degrees at the institution.

Adrian Gil Rojas, a Venezuelan national, holds Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and has been detained at El Valle Detention Center for more than two months. He has a two-year-old son in the United States whose mother witnessed ICE officers illegally arrest Mr. Gil Rojas approximately two months ago, leaving their young son alone and traumatized. Mr. Gil Rojas also served as a trial witness in a murder case in Clinton County, New York, where he testified despite fears of retaliation and helped secure a conviction. He is challenging his detention through a habeas corpus petition, arguing that 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(d)(4) explicitly prohibits detention of individuals with TPS status on the basis of immigration status. The government claims it can detain him based on speculative predictions that his TPS may expire on April 2, 2025, and that a pending motion to reopen his removal case may be denied, but the petition argues this violates the TPS statute's unambiguous prohibition and that his removal is automatically stayed while the motion remains pending.

A Nicaraguan asylum seeker is a citizen and national of Nicaragua who has lived in the United States since September 2021. He is married and living with his wife in California. He fled Nicaragua after police beat him for participating in anti-government protests, fracturing his arm. He was detained by DHS upon arrival in the US but released in October 2021 on reporting requirements to ICE, which he never missed. On September 14, 2023, he applied for asylum and received work authorization. In April 2025, he reported for a routine ICE appointment and was detained without notice or hearing despite full compliance with check-in requirements. He was transferred between multiple detention facilities where he suffered inhumane conditions, including excessive heat in transport vehicles, contaminated food and water, and injury from handcuffs. An immigration judge released him on a $5,000 bond in June 2025, and he was placed in ICE's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. On July 13, 2026, the immigration judge denied his asylum application and ordered removal to Nicaragua. He timely appealed. The federal court granted his preliminary injunction, prohibiting ICE from re-detaining him without a pre-detention hearing where the government must prove by clear and convincing evidence that he is a flight risk or danger.

An Iraqi citizen and national was detained by ICE on March 18, 2025 after serving sentences for felony firearm possession and assault convictions. He was informed he would be deported to Iraq pursuant to an administrative removal order, but claimed he could not return due to fears of torture. Despite an initial credible fear finding, an Immigration Judge denied his Convention Against Torture relief and ordered his removal to Iraq on November 20, 2025. The court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release from immigration detention.

José Eliezer Martínez-Andino, a young Honduran man with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and a work permit, was stopped by Border Patrol agents in a car crossing Montana in March 2025 over an alleged forged license plate. Despite trying to withdraw a voluntary departure form he says he signed out of fear, he was deported to Honduras in April, separating him from his 3-year-old U.S.-citizen daughter and family in Raleigh, North Carolina. A federal judge later ordered the government to bring him back, calling his removal a case that 'boggles the mind,' but when he returned in August he was sent to an ICE detention facility in Texas rather than home, and DHS has filed a new removal case against him.

A 43-year-old Mexican citizen who has lived in the U.S. since 1997 was detained on March 17, 2025, at the GEO Group's ICE Processing Center in Aurora, Colorado. She is the mother of three U.S. citizen children. In 2011, an Immigration Judge denied her cancellation of removal application but granted her voluntary departure with 60 days to leave. She appealed that decision, which tolled her departure period. In September 2012, while her appeal was pending, she traveled to Mexico to see her dying mother; her departure was deemed a withdrawal of the appeal, triggering her timely compliance with the voluntary departure order. She returned to the U.S. in April 2013 without inspection and was subsequently apprehended and charged criminally. On July 24-25, 2013, ICE issued a Form I-871 purporting to reinstate her prior removal order, but the petition alleges the reinstatement was procedurally deficient because it was signed before she was notified of her right to challenge it. ICE granted her a stay of removal on August 8, 2013, which has been repeatedly extended since then. She is now challenging her detention through a habeas corpus petition, arguing she has no valid removal order and therefore no statutory authority supports her detention.

M.K., a lawful permanent resident and student at Columbia University, was arrested by ICE on March 8, 2025, at his student housing with no prior notice. According to his habeas corpus petition, DHS agents initially claimed his student visa had been revoked, but M.K. presented documents proving he is a green card holder. The agents arrested him anyway, claiming his green card had been revoked without providing any basis for the revocation. M.K. is married to a U.S. citizen who is 8 months pregnant. His petition alleges the arrest and detention violate his First Amendment and Due Process rights and claims the government is using immigration enforcement to suppress student activism and political speech.

Jorge Reyes Medina, a Mexican father of four, was arrested in Baltimore in March 2025 and held at the George H. Fallon Federal Building before being transferred to Arizona and then California. After a federal judge ordered ICE to return him to Maryland for a bond hearing as part of a habeas corpus petition, he was moved through Louisiana, Pennsylvania, back to Baltimore, then Louisiana and Texas again. He was denied bond, and a judge ordered his deportation on June 23, 2025; no appeal was filed.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and Palestine student leader who is a lawful permanent resident, was detained by immigration agents at his campus residence in March 2025. A federal appellate court reversed a lower court's decision releasing him in January 2026, and he remains in ICE detention as of the article date.

Sering Ceesay, a Gambian man with serious heart conditions, was detained by ICE on February 19, 2025, after showing up for a routine immigration appointment in New York City. He was shackled and transferred to the Batavia facility, where he went two weeks without his heart medications. He subsequently suffered a stroke-like syndrome. A physician noted that without strict adherence to his medications, he faced risk of recurrent heart attacks, worsening peripheral artery disease, and strokes. A U.S. District Judge later ordered his release.

A Congolese woman entered the United States on February 15, 2025 and was placed in removal proceedings. On December 4, 2025, an Immigration Judge denied her asylum application but granted withholding of removal to both Congo and Senegal. She has remained detained since her final order of removal, with no apparent efforts made to remove her to a third country. The court ordered respondents to answer her habeas corpus petition seeking release from custody.

Sergey Kostenyuk, a Ukrainian refugee who came to the U.S. as a child and is a legal permanent resident with a green card, was arrested by ICE agents posing as customers interested in buying a chicken coop. He was detained for over two months based on two 2018 felony convictions for theft, but was eventually released when a judge ruled he did not meet the federal criteria for deportation.

Adelso Bravo, a 39-year-old painter from Guatemala who had lived in Syracuse for over 20 years, was detained by ICE on February 10, 2025, after entering the country without authorization decades earlier. With support from family, advocates, and lawyers using a habeas corpus petition strategy, Bravo secured a bond hearing and was released after 21 days with a $5,000 bond and ankle monitor. The habeas corpus petition strategy has been used across the country in response to Trump administration detention policies requiring mandatory detention for immigrants who entered without permission.

Juan, a Mexican national who entered the U.S. legally on a work visa in 2018 and overstayed, was detained by ICE on February 5, 2025, during a raid at Cedar Run Apartments in Denver. He has been held at the Aurora ICE detention facility for over a year. His wife, Lucie Donovan, a U.S. citizen and Denver teacher, married him while detained in September 2025 and has pursued legal avenues including habeas corpus petitions to fight his deportation and obtain a green card, though immigration judges have repeatedly denied bond requests.

Elmerson Campos, a 45-year-old from Guatemala who has lived in Easton for 24 years, was arrested by ICE on February 5 and transferred through multiple detention facilities, eventually being held in California. A federal judge ordered ICE to release him on bond or schedule a bond hearing by February 23. Campos, who owns a construction business and has no criminal record beyond a 2007 traffic citation, reportedly has not received his medication for diabetes and a back injury while detained.

Bayartulga Avirmed, a deaf Mongolian who fled persecution and entered the U.S. in February, was detained by ICE and subjected to deportation proceedings, mental health evaluations, and expedited removal without access to a Mongolian Sign Language interpreter despite communicating only in MSL. The government initially provided only an American Sign Language interpreter who could not understand him. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ruled that the government must provide an MSL interpreter, redo Avirmed's hearings and evaluations, and allow three hours of video communication with his attorney instead of CoreCivic's one-hour policy to accommodate interpretation time. Avirmed claims he faced beatings and discrimination in Mongolia due to his deafness, suffering a traumatic brain injury in 2020.