Human Impact Project

Fernando Vazquez, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen, was detained by Border Patrol agents at his workplace in Cary, North Carolina on November 20, 2025, during a broader immigration enforcement sweep. Agents confiscated his wallet and personal belongings, including college and high school IDs and AirPods, before placing him in a vehicle. Vazquez asserted his First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights during the detention. Agents released him after realizing their error, but he was left without his personal items. The incident occurred as part of enforcement operations that detained over 250 people in Charlotte during the same period.

ICE states that video footage from Broadview Detention Center was lost in a system crash on October 31, one day after the facility was sued on October 30 for allegedly abusing detainees. Two weeks of surveillance footage was reportedly destroyed. Government lawyers stated they lack resources to preserve surveillance footage.

Federal immigration agents conducted enforcement operations at multiple locations in Long Beach on November 20, 2025, including at Polly's Pies restaurant where agents chased and tackled a gardener in front of Long Beach Police Department officers. Agents also arrested three people outside Cherry Donuts and were spotted at four additional locations throughout the morning.

A British woman was arrested by ICE while holding her 5-month-old baby at her green card interview in San Diego on November 20, 2025. She spent five days in custody before being released with her green card approved on November 25. Multiple immigration attorneys noted that federal law provides exceptions for direct relatives of U.S. citizens undergoing adjustment of status.

ICE conducted operations at six locations in Long Beach on November 20, 2025, detaining at least nine people. One detention involved a gardener who was chased and attacked inside Polly's Pies restaurant in front of customers and dining police officers. Local elected officials and community organizations issued criticism regarding ICE's enforcement tactics.

A 41-year-old undocumented immigrant and stepfather of a 22-year-old Army National Guard member was detained by ICE agents around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday while walking to work in Port Richmond, Staten Island. The stepfather, who immigrated from Mexico in the early 2000s and has no criminal record, is now being held in an ICE detention facility. The National Guard member, a U.S. citizen, said the detention occurred just one month after completing his first year of military service.

Gladys Tentes-Pitiur, a 25-year-old Indigenous Shuar woman from Ecuador, was detained by ICE for 135 days at Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana after being arrested outside a courthouse in New Haven on July 7, 2025. She had fled Ecuador due to persecution and traveled through seven countries with her two young sons, surviving cartel kidnapping in Mexico before arriving in New Haven in November 2023. After an immigration judge granted her asylum on October 17, 2025, based on the violence she experienced in Ecuador, she was released on November 19 and reunited with her children. Her lawyer noted this was an increasingly rare outcome, with Tentes-Pitiur's case being the only successful asylum grant her office had achieved in 2025.

Nine people were detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents during an immigration enforcement sweep in the Raleigh area on November 19, 2025, and held overnight at New Hanover County jail in Castle Hayne. The nine detainees, consisting of one woman and eight men ranging in age from 24 to 59, were transferred to an undisclosed location on November 20, 2025. ICE officials did not disclose to jail staff the reasons for the detentions or the destination of the detainees. This operation was part of a broader U.S. Border Patrol enforcement surge that began in Charlotte over the weekend, which had resulted in more than 250 arrests by the time of this article.

On October 19, 2025, approximately 200-plus law enforcement officers from at least 14 agencies, including the FBI, ICE, and Border Patrol, conducted a raid on La Catedral Arena, a horse track near Boise in Wilder, Idaho, as part of a gambling investigation. The operation detained approximately 400 people for hours, resulting in 105 immigration-related detentions and 5 arrests on gambling charges. Officers zip-tied children as young as 8 and 11 years old, used flash-bang devices, and fired rubber bullets when crowds surged forward. Four protesters, including activist Avalon Hardy, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor resisting or obstructing officers after officers used force against them. One month after the raid, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered the release of 15 detainees, ruling the government failed to demonstrate they posed a danger or flight risk and that mandatory detention violated due process rights.

A 23-year-old woman detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint was charged with assaulting a federal officer but the charge was dismissed in August after body-camera video revealed agents used a Taser on her while she was turning away to enter a holding cell. Court documents showed agents had found no evidence of criminal activity before the incident and that one falsely told her about deleted evidence on her phone. Nearly half of 22 assault-on-officer cases filed in San Diego during Trump's second term were later dismissed.

Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio, 23, of Wendell, North Carolina, was detained by federal agents during a U.S. Border Patrol immigration enforcement sweep on November 19, 2025. Velasquez-Antonio came to the United States at age 14 from Honduras after her father was killed by a gang and her mother died of cancer; she had no criminal record beyond two traffic violations, had graduated high school, and recently purchased a home in Wendell with her boyfriend with plans to start a family. She was arrested near her workplace at an HVAC business and transferred to New Hanover County jail before being moved to an undisclosed location on November 20, 2025. Her family has received no information about her whereabouts or what will happen to her next. The detention occurred as part of a broader U.S. Border Patrol operation in the Triangle area that detained nine people total.

Vicente Ventura Aguilar has been missing for over 45 days after suffering a medical emergency while in ICE custody in South Los Angeles. He and a friend were taken by masked agents, and his friend, who was deported to Mexico, last saw him fainting in ICE custody. Despite searches of hospitals, morgues, and government agencies, and DHS reporting no records of him, his whereabouts remain unknown.

Katherine Carreño, who was facing 10 years for a felony assault charge on a federal officer, was acquitted of all charges. The post references an individual also known as Yorhena Panama or Bertha.

Federal immigration agents arrested a man in a parking lot at Eastway Crossing shopping center in Charlotte while he was documenting their activities. The man, Joshua Long, was released from an FBI office six hours later. DHS claimed he was arrested for vehicular assault against a federal agent, which Long disputed.

On November 18, a 23-year-old asylum seeker named Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents at a construction site in Cary, North Carolina, and held at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia for over a month. A federal immigration judge ordered her release in late December, ruling that her detention violated a juvenile-arrival settlement agreement since she had entered the United States unaccompanied as a minor nine years prior and held a valid work permit. The detention was part of Operation Charlotte's Web, a federal enforcement operation that resulted in at least 370 arrests in North Carolina.

Melissa Tran, a Maryland mother who came to the U.S. from Vietnam in the 1990s as a refugee with a Green Card, was deported to Vietnam after being detained by ICE in May. Though a judge ordered her release in October, she still faced deportation due to a 2003 removal order stemming from a 2001 conviction for stealing checks as a teenager. Vietnam had previously refused to accept her, allowing her to remain in the U.S. for over 20 years while completing regular immigration check-ins, until her detention during a check-in in Baltimore.

Two U.S. citizens, Aliya Rahman and Marimar Martinez, testified before Congress about their experiences being apprehended by ICE. Rahman, who is disabled, was forcibly removed from her car while en route to a medical appointment in Minneapolis and denied medical care in detention. Martinez was shot five times by ICE agents in Chicago while attempting to warn neighbors about ICE presence in the area.

Prosecutors dismissed charges without prejudice against 54-year-old John Bennett, an assistant principal at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach, and his 59-year-old brother Mark Bennett. The two men had been arrested in November 2025 for allegedly threatening violence against local police and ICE agents.

A man appeared in court in Lebanon, Tennessee for a routine traffic violation when ICE agents in plain clothes detained him without showing identification. His U.S. citizen daughter intervened and was injured in the process. The man was taken away in a white van, and his family reports lacking clear answers about his whereabouts or status. Five people were detained by ICE after appearing in Robertson County General Sessions Court on November 19 to answer summons for misdemeanor traffic violations. All five had pleaded guilty to traffic offenses and paid their fines before being escorted to a private room and subsequently removed from the courthouse in handcuffs and leg shackles by masked ICE agents. The detainees, including Yanim Lopez and Aurora Leao, both originally from Mexico, were transferred to detention facilities in Knoxville and later Louisiana. ICE arrested 6,251 people in Tennessee between January 20 and October 15, 2025, with arrest rates rising throughout the year. Attorneys report that immigrants following legal requirements—including routine ICE check-ins—are now being detained and deported, a shift from previous practice. The article documents cases where immigrants with no criminal records are detained at check-ins, judges in some counties are contacting ICE, and immigration holds prevent bonded release, leaving immigrants in jail for months before court appearances.

An Australian woman and wife of a Navy veteran was arrested by ICE agents during her green card interview on November 18, 2025, in the same enforcement operation as other military spouses. She was detained for eight days before an immigration judge ordered her release on bond on November 26, 2025. She has no criminal history and remains eligible to pursue her green card through her U.S. citizen spouse. Her attorney noted this was the first arrest of this type at green card interviews in over 12 years of practice.

Border Patrol agents walked onto Rheba Hamilton's front lawn on Saturday to question two workers who were installing Christmas lights, demanding to see papers and asking if they were American citizens. The agents left without making an arrest after about two minutes, but the encounter left Hamilton and the workers shaken.

Paramjit Singh, a native of India who entered the U.S. without inspection in 2004, was re-detained by ICE at a New York office during a scheduled check-in on November 18, 2025. Singh had been previously detained, placed in removal proceedings, and released, with an asylum application pending since 2024. The court ordered respondents to provide Singh with a bond hearing within seven days or release him.

Community organizers and immigration attorneys report an uptick in detainments at the Dallas ICE Field Office during routine check-in appointments. Multiple immigrants, including those with pending asylum cases and proper documentation, have been detained during check-in appointments.

Two U.S. citizen women were arrested by Border Patrol agents in Charlotte after allegedly honking their horn to alert others of agents' presence in the area during Operation Charlotte Web. An agent used an assault rifle to break the driver's window, and both women were handcuffed with zip ties and removed from the vehicle. They were taken to an FBI building and released later that day, charged with 18 USC 111 for allegedly impeding a federal officer.

Chanidaphon Sopimpa, a Thai national and wife of retired Marine Staff Sergeant Samuel Shasteen, was arrested by ICE agents during her final green card interview on November 18, 2025, and detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center. Sopimpa had overstayed her visa but the couple had been pursuing her green card through marriage to a U.S. citizen spouse, which includes a federal law exception for such cases. ICE stated the arrests were for visa overstays, but immigration attorneys note this enforcement action at green card interviews is unprecedented in recent history. Sopimpa has no criminal history and is scheduled for a bond hearing.

An NYPD sergeant named Atickul Islam was charged with posing as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field director and ordering a victim and their family to report to an ICE facility by April 15. Islam pleaded not guilty to personation of a federal officer and was released on an unsecured $25,000 bond. The NYPD suspended him without pay and seized his badge and service weapon.

Transgender immigrant Britania Uriostegui Rios was deported to Mexico on November 11, 2024, despite a judge's order blocking her removal due to torture risk. ICE and Department of Justice officials acknowledged the deportation was improper and made in violation of the immigration judge's March order concluding she was likely to face torture in her home country. Uriostegui Rios was deported without medications, identification, money, or a cell phone and went into hiding in Mexico. As of November 2025, the Trump administration was working to bring her back to the U.S. from Tijuana while seeking an alternative country for deportation. Uriostegui Rios filed suit seeking forced release from custody upon her return.

A man in a white truck impersonated an ICE agent by displaying a fake badge and clipboard while harassing an Uber driver and passenger near USC in Los Angeles. The man yelled racist slurs, spat at the vehicle multiple times, and chased them for several blocks before fleeing. The incident lasted approximately 20 minutes and was reported to 911 and the Newton Community Police Station.

Border Patrol arrested a 23-year-old woman named Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio in Raleigh, North Carolina. The arrested woman is a high school graduate and homeowner with two traffic violations on her record.

Manuel Ndongala, an asylum seeker from Angola, was detained by ICE on November 18, 2025, during what he expected to be a routine check-in at the Scarborough, Maine ICE office. His car was left in the office parking lot and was towed under Maine's abandoned vehicle law while he was detained for over 80 days. The incident prompted Maine's Secretary of State to temporarily adjust the state's process for transferring ownership of abandoned vehicles to better protect detained immigrants.

Border Patrol detained Moises Benitez Diaz, a 27-year-old Raleigh construction contractor, on November 18 during Operation Charlotte's Web. His wife Esmeralda Escobar, who is 8 months pregnant, is now managing the family business while he is held at a Georgia facility. Despite DHS claiming he was a criminal convicted of felony larceny, court records show his charges were dismissed and he completed a misdemeanor diversion agreement.

Harrinson Jose Osuna Benitez, a Venezuelan tattoo artist seeking asylum over fears of torture and persecution, was released on parole when he arrived at the U.S. border in September 2024 after ICE found no criminal history. He moved to Portland with his partner, who gave birth to their son in December 2024. On November 17, 2025, when Osuna Benitez appeared for an immigration court appointment in Portland, ICE detained him. Court documents indicate ICE later reassessed his tattoos as a security concern, despite having cleared him on the same basis at entry. He spent two months in detention while his family struggled financially without his income as primary breadwinner.

Cristobal Maltos, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen, was stopped by Border Patrol agents on November 17, 2025, while following a hit-and-run driver and reporting it to police. Agents surrounded his vehicle at an intersection, and when he attempted to move forward, they broke his car windows and removed him from the vehicle, allegedly causing injuries. Maltos was charged with felony assault, resisting arrest, and impeding a federal officer during the enforcement operation dubbed "Charlotte's Web."

ICE agents conducted an enforcement action at a church, arriving without visible identification and detaining individuals. According to accounts, agents chased workers into the woods. The incident resulted in children screaming and women crying.

Joel Camas, a 16-year-old with approved Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, was detained by ICE on October 23 during a routine immigration check-in at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, despite having legal protections and a pending pathway to permanent residency. After nearly a month in federal custody, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel ordered his immediate release on November 17. His attorneys argue ICE violated federal law and the Constitution by arresting a child with legal status at a routine appointment.

Hanne Daguman, a Norwegian national, was detained by ICE on November 17, 2025, during a USCIS marriage-based green card interview in San Diego after she acknowledged overstaying her student visa. She has type 1 diabetes and no criminal record. Her next court hearing is scheduled for November 24, 2025.

Jahir Torralba Castillo, who had resided in the United States since 2001 with no criminal history and U.S. citizen family members, was detained by immigration authorities in November 2025. He was charged with entering without inspection and denied a bond hearing under Section 1225(b)(2). The federal court granted his habeas petition, finding his detention violated due process, and ordered either immediate release or an individualized bond hearing within 7 days.

Heather Morrow, a 44-year-old Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bus driver, was arrested on November 16 while protesting at an ICE office on Tyvola Centre Drive. Federal prosecutors charged her with felony assault on a federal officer, claiming she grabbed an agent's shoulders and attempted to jump on his back. Video footage released by Morrow's attorney shows her touching an agent's shoulder before being tackled to the ground.

Miguel Angel Garcia Martinez, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested by Border Patrol agents on November 16, 2025, while photographing and documenting their operations in Charlotte to warn immigrants of their locations. He was charged with using his van as a deadly weapon to assault, resist, and impede federal agents after driving away when agents approached his vehicle and attempted to open its door. According to court documents, an agent was injured breaking the van's window during the incident.

Antonio Enriquez, 53, a lawful permanent resident, was walking to a store in Melrose Park when federal agents in unmarked vehicles demanded to see his documents. When he told them his green card and documents were at home, agents ignored his pleas and pushed him to the ground, handcuffing him after he resisted. He was taken to an ICE facility and held for six hours until his daughter brought copies of his green card and Social Security card.

A U.S. citizen in his early 20s and his undocumented father were stopped by federal agents while walking to La Chiquita grocery store in Little Village to buy carne asada and beans. Both men were arrested and transported to the ICE facility in Broadview. The son was later released but said agents dismissed his pleas that his younger brother has epilepsy and needs their father's care. The father remains in ICE detention out of state. The son requested anonymity to protect his father from potential retaliation.

On July 4, 2025, roughly a dozen people demonstrated at the Prairieland ICE detention center in Texas, and gunfire erupted during a police response with one officer reportedly injured. Nineteen people were charged with material support for terrorism, rioting, and other federal crimes. On February 17, 2026, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman declared a mistrial during jury selection in the case involving nine defendants, citing an attorney's attire. Jury selection is scheduled to resume on February 24, 2026.

During an August 11, 2025 joint patrol at Lake Borgne with U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, three men were detained by federal agents for immigration issues despite officers reporting no witnessed crimes or civil violations. Two of the men had legally entered the U.S. but overstayed their authorized time; the third allegedly entered without authorization.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived at an east Charlotte church on Saturday while about 15-20 congregants were doing yard work. Agents detained one man who was outside. His wife and child were inside the church. Church members reported that agents showed no identification and asked no questions before making the arrest.

Christian Elian Mendoza Barragan was re-detained by immigration authorities on November 14, 2026, after previously being released on bond or parole. The court found that the government violated his due process rights by failing to provide a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter. The court ordered his immediate release with the same conditions he had prior to detention and required the government to provide seven days' notice and a proper hearing before any future re-detention.

In September 2025, federal agents from ICE, Border Patrol, FBI, DEA, IRS, and ATF conducted the largest single-site DHS enforcement operation in history at a Hyundai-LG joint venture battery manufacturing facility near Savannah, Georgia, detaining approximately 450-475 workers. Approximately 300 of those arrested were South Korean nationals; roughly 250 worked for HL-GA Battery Company LLC and about 50 for LG Energy Solutions. ICE alleged many had overstayed visa waiver permits (ESTAs) or held B-1 business visas that did not permit manual labor, though at least one worker with valid documentation was arrested. South Korea's president and foreign minister expressed concern and launched an investigation into whether detained workers were read their rights and reported inappropriate conduct by ICE agents. By November 2025, some workers had been released and returned to their jobs, with HL-GA Battery Co. resuming construction using a mix of new and returning workers, and the facility's opening delayed by two to three months.

Two homeschooled brothers, Sam (16) and Ben (17) Luhmann, have been patrolling West Chicago and surrounding areas since mid-September to document federal immigration enforcement activity during Operation Midway Blitz. The brothers have had numerous encounters with ICE agents and have been threatened with arrest while documenting their activities. Their efforts represent part of a broader youth activism movement against the enforcement operation across the Chicago area.

Francisco Amezquita Diaz, a Mexican citizen who entered the US without inspection in 1988, was taken into ICE custody on November 14, 2025, after his Form I-485 application for permanent residence was denied. He had been living in the United States for 37 years before being detained and placed in removal proceedings. The court is considering his petition for release from mandatory detention.

Samuel Gonzalez Isabel, who had been living in the US for 25 years with three US citizen children, was arrested by ICE agents immediately after a criminal court hearing in November 2025. He had been released without conditions since 2019 following his initial NTA but was re-detained based on a misdemeanor assault plea. The court ordered his immediate release, finding his detention without a pre-detention hearing violated his procedural due process rights.

José Barco, a 39-40-year-old decorated Iraq War veteran who received a Purple Heart after suffering traumatic brain injury in combat, was deported in November 2025 despite serving in the U.S. Army since age 4. After his release from prison in January 2025—following 15 years served for a 2008 shooting conviction—ICE detained him immediately. His 2006 citizenship application while stationed at Fort Carson was lost in the system. Venezuela initially ordered him deported there but refused to accept him at the Honduras border, citing documentation concerns. He was eventually deported to Mexico in November 2025, a country he had never visited, where he is now seeking asylum.