Human Impact Project

Beginning May 27, 2026, hundreds of detainees at Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed private immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey operated by GEO Group under contract to ICE, initiated a hunger and labor strike protesting conditions including expired and contaminated food infested with worms, forced labor at wages as low as $1 per day, stiflingly hot conditions due to ventilation problems, and reports that female detainees had been groped by a guard. Federal data showed that of 591 detainees held at the facility, only 76 (about 13 percent) had criminal convictions and 123 (about 21 percent) had pending criminal charges. Organizer Martin Soto led the strike and was transferred to another facility during escalation. Some detainees had been held for 8 to 12 months. Outside the facility, protesters gathered nightly and clashed with federal police and state troopers in riot gear. ICE responded with chemical agents including pepper spray and pepper balls, armored vehicles, and batons against both detainees and external protesters, with at least 90 arrests of external protesters since May 26. Detainees involved in the strike faced retaliation including solitary confinement and transfers to other facilities. The action was part of at least six concurrent hunger strikes at immigration detention facilities nationwide.

Jesus Alexis Cruz, 16, was detained by ICE following a traffic stop in Morrisonville, Illinois on June 9, 2026. Local police towed his vehicle, and ICE agents subsequently picked him up at a nearby gas station. Cruz's family, which includes documented relatives, requested his release to their custody, but ICE denied the request. He was transferred to a juvenile detention facility in Texas without family involvement in the transport. Representative Nikki Budzinski's office became involved to seek answers regarding his detention and transfer.

Hector Cruz-Sanchez, 19, from Mexico, and Jesus Alexis Cruz, 16, from Collinsville, Illinois, were detained by ICE on June 9, 2026, after Morrisonville Police stopped their vehicle on Illinois Route 48 for expired registration during a work trip. Police impounded the truck and transported the three occupants to a gas station, where ICE agents arrested them. Cruz-Sanchez was initially held at Ste. Genevieve County Jail in Missouri before being transferred to Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas, while the 16-year-old was transported to a juvenile detention facility in Texas. Family representatives alleged police violated the Illinois Trust Act by facilitating the ICE pickup and characterized the transfer of the minor as a kidnapping due to denial of information about transportation and family accompaniment across state lines. U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski's office sought information about the detentions and raised concerns about the circumstances, particularly regarding the age of one detainee.

Abdullahi Mohamed, a Somali refugee who had lived in the U.S. for decades with his family, was detained and then rapidly transferred within five days across Massachusetts, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas before being deported to Somalia. He reported being beaten and shackled during transfers and enduring long periods without food or water. ICE did not respond to his lawyer's requests for release and ignored habeas petition efforts. Mohamed has no family or means of support in Somalia and his wife remains in hiding due to her immigration status.

An immigration detainee who entered the United States without inspection in 2007 and established deep community ties in Utah over nineteen years was arrested by ICE on June 8, 2026, while on his way to work in Salt Lake City. He was transferred between immigration detention facilities in Utah, Wyoming, and California without receiving an individualized custody determination or bond hearing. The court granted his petition for writ of habeas corpus in part, ordering respondents to either conduct a bond hearing before a neutral decisionmaker within seven days or cease his detention.

A Romanian citizen, 52, who underwent multiple heart surgeries including an emergency triple bypass in April 2025, was arrested in July 2025 and required 16 daily medications as part of his recovery. While at an ICE field office in Baltimore, he went two days without any medication before being transferred to a New Jersey facility. Despite numerous requests from treatment providers, the detention center did not provide all 16 medications; medical records show he received only eight after his second hospital release. He was hospitalized three times while detained for chest pain related to non-compliance with his medication regimen, and in August 2025, he suffered a stroke while on a video call with his daughter.

An El Salvadoran woman missed an entire week of HIV medication when she was transferred from a Colorado detention facility to a county jail in Wyoming without adequate coordination of her medical care. Detainees are frequently moved across the country without warning, interrupting critical treatment. Her case exemplifies the systemic failure to maintain continuity of medical care during transfers across ICE's sprawling detention system.

Luis, a roofer with no criminal record, was arrested during an ICE raid in Arkansas while working. He was transferred through multiple facilities—a local jail, a Texas prison, and ultimately the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico—where he has been held for over a year without criminal charges and with limited legal assistance or clarity on his status.

Boanerges Flores-Bravo, a Nicaraguan asylum seeker who entered the U.S. in 2022 with his wife and 8-year-old daughter, was detained on May 18, 2026, during a scheduled immigration check-in appointment despite being told he would not be arrested. He was transferred from a Missouri detention center to Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana. According to Rep. Wesley Bell, Flores-Bravo was coerced into signing voluntary self-deportation paperwork under threat that his family would be detained if he refused. Flores-Bravo was deported to Nicaragua in June 2026. His wife was released with an ankle monitor and later signed up for voluntary departure, scheduled to leave the country in summer 2026 with their daughter.

Mirsy Maricela Alva López, a 39-year-old Guatemalan mother, was first separated from her son Ederson in 2018 when she was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and he was placed in government custody as an unaccompanied minor for nearly five months before a federal court order reunified them in the Ms. L v. ICE case. In June 2025, while traveling to a landscaping job near Mar-a-Lago, federal agents stopped her, transferred her through two Florida jails to ICE custody in Louisiana, and deported her to Guatemala despite being a protected Ms. L class member with legal status, work authorization, and a court-ordered pathway to residency and asylum. She was not given the opportunity to speak with immigration officials about her legal protections before deportation. Her son Ederson, who had been in fifth grade in Florida, suffered nightmares and had to repeat fourth grade in Spanish during the family's 11 months in Guatemala. After a federal judge's order in May 2026, Mirsy and her children returned to Florida, though she remains under ankle monitoring and required to attend ICE check-ins every two weeks.

Randy Cordova Flores, a 36-year-old Peruvian landscaper and father of two children enrolled in the Allegheny Valley School District, was pulled over by Springdale Borough police for a traffic violation on February 10, 2026, and turned over to ICE agents. He had entered the U.S. without documentation in 2023 and was pursuing an asylum case with valid work authorization; ICE claimed he had missed an immigration hearing, but his family and legal representatives said he had been complying with check-in requirements. He was held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County and later transferred to Northern Regional Correctional Facility in West Virginia, where he was confined to a small cell 23 hours a day. After his family launched a legal challenge, he won release through a habeas corpus petition in June 2026, four months after his detention began, and was freed on bond with an ankle monitor while his case continues.

On June 10, 2025, ICE conducted a workplace enforcement operation at Glenn Valley Foods meatpacking plant in Omaha, Nebraska, detaining 76 employees as part of a three-month investigation into identity theft. Workers were accused of using stolen Social Security numbers from over 100 U.S. citizens to gain employment. Luis Mejia's mother was among those detained while Mejia, then 19, was released to support the separated family. Of those arrested, approximately 17 were deported immediately, 25 were released on bond, and 25 were transferred to other facilities. Most detainees remained in immigration court proceedings months later.

On May 18, 2026, Rogerio da Silva Lima and his 15-year-old son Nycolas were detained by the U.S. Coast Guard during a recreational fishing trip approximately one mile offshore Martha's Vineyard near Menemsha. Following a vessel safety check, the Coast Guard transferred them to ICE custody at a federal processing facility in Burlington. Da Silva Lima, a Brazilian national who entered the U.S. in 2021 and sought asylum, had a denied asylum application with a removal order issued in 2023-2024. Community advocates and attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court of Massachusetts on May 20, which halted a planned transfer to Texas. A federal judge found ICE had exceeded the congressionally mandated 90-day removal period and violated constitutional due process rights. Approximately 200 students at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School, where the son was a freshman, walked out to protest his detention. The teenager was released on May 24 to his older brother, and the father was ordered released by May 28-29.

An immigration detainee was detained under immigration law 8 U.S.C. § 1225 at Orange County Jail in Florida. The court granted a temporary restraining order on May 6, 2026, enjoining respondents from detaining him and ordering his immediate release if held on immigration charges. Orange County Jail released him in accordance with the court order, making the habeas corpus petition moot. A man who entered the U.S. without inspection in December 2022 but was formally paroled by DHS and had complied with all conditions for 3.5 years was arrested during a routine traffic stop in Oklahoma and taken into immigration custody. He was transferred between detention facilities before arriving at Golden State Annex in California. The court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release, finding his detention without pre-deprivation process violated due process rights.

Luis Fernando Cabrera, an 18-year-old senior at Northeast Early College High School in Austin, was detained by ICE on May 1, 2026, after a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper pulled him over for expired vehicle registration. Body camera footage shows the trooper photographed Cabrera's school ID and used the encrypted messaging app Signal to contact federal immigration agents, receiving a message instructing him to "detain." Cabrera, who had an active pending asylum case dating to 2019 with no deportation order or criminal history, was transferred to Karnes County Immigration Processing Center over 100 miles away. His detention sparked protests from classmates and community members, with support from his school and St. James Episcopal Church. On May 20, a federal judge ordered ICE to release Cabrera, barring deportation and allowing him to graduate and take his final exams.

Ricardo Navarrete, an 18-year-old senior at Mather High School, was detained by ICE agents on March 16, 2026, during a scheduled check-in appointment for his pending asylum case. He had fled Colombia in 2022 seeking asylum, held a valid work permit and REAL ID, and had been accepted to play soccer at Truman College. Following his detention, Ricardo was transferred between multiple ICE detention facilities across Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, where he reported sleeping on floors without blankets and spending time in solitary confinement. His attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention, and he was released on May 26, 2026, just days before his high school graduation.

Martin Soto, a Peruvian detainee held at Delaney Hall in Newark, was forcibly transferred by ICE agents to solitary confinement at a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, after agents broke through a protester blockade in the early morning hours of May 25, 2026. His wife Gabriela, a U.S. citizen who was several months pregnant, had been rallying outside the facility in support of detainees who had launched a hunger and labor strike days earlier. Gabriela later lost her pregnancy in July after an emergency C-section performed when she was seven months pregnant, and said she had to tell her husband the news while he remained in solitary confinement.

Daniel Romero, 18, a Colombian national and recent graduate of Ooltewah High School in Tennessee, was taken into ICE custody on May 18, 2026, during what his family believed was a routine appointment related to an immigration program. ICE cited missed check-ins and failure to submit required weekly photos as reasons for detention. Romero's family disputed the allegations, claiming the check-in app malfunctioned for four weeks and provided documented evidence of the technical error, but officials did not allow Romero to present this proof before his arrest. Records provided by the family indicated compliance with program requirements. He was held at Etowah County Jail in Alabama before being transferred to a detention center in Louisiana, where no bond, video calls, or visitation were allowed.

A 22-year-old transgender woman and Nicaraguan citizen was re-detained by ICE on May 22, 2026 during a scheduled check-in and transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) in Tacoma, Washington. Despite identifying as a woman, Respondents housed her in a male detention unit where she experienced verbal harassment and fear for her safety. The court granted her motion for a temporary restraining order, enjoining Respondents from housing her in a male detention unit or solitary confinement, and ordered Respondents to either move her to appropriate housing or release her within 24 hours.

Everlee Amelia Wihongi, a 37-year-old New Zealand citizen and lawful permanent resident who moved to the U.S. at age six, was detained by CBP at Los Angeles International Airport on April 10, 2026, upon returning from a family trip to New Zealand for an uncle's 80th birthday. DHS cited a 2014 felony conviction for THC possession in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, as grounds for detention, saying it rendered her inadmissible. During her transfer to the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, she was forced to sleep on the floor while shackled for 14 hours, denied food and water, and not permitted to bathe. She was transferred between facilities in California, Texas, Montana, and Arizona without notice to her family or attorney, causing her to miss a scheduled legal meeting. Her brother Avaiiki said ICE was "largely unresponsive" and offered the family little more than instructions for his sister to "stay compliant." New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said consular officials were assisting but could not intervene in U.S. immigration decisions. DHS said Wihongi was placed in removal proceedings and will remain in custody.