Human Impact Project

Sokhean Keo, detained at California City Detention Facility, witnessed a fellow detainee's suicide attempt by hanging. The facility did not offer mental health services to Keo and others who witnessed the incident; instead, staff disciplined anyone who had not immediately returned to their cells afterward. Keo joined a class-action lawsuit filed November 12, 2025, against the Trump administration alleging severe medical neglect and inhumane conditions at the CoreCivic-operated facility.

ICE agents arrested Juanita Avila, a 47-year-old legal permanent resident carrying her green card, during a traffic stop in November 2025 without showing a warrant or probable cause. Video evidence of the arrest captured by her daughter became part of a lawsuit challenging ICE's arrest practices. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking ICE from continuing warrantless arrests in Oregon, citing the agency's conduct and systematic violation of constitutional rights.

Federal immigration agents deployed tear gas in the Irving Park and Avondale neighborhoods on Chicago's Northwest Side on Saturday, detaining multiple people including a landscaper, a tortilla delivery driver, and an elderly resident. Neighborhood protests occurred following the incident. The incident was alleged to violate a federal judge's temporary restraining order limiting tear gas use. Additional arrests occurred at O'Hare International Airport's rideshare lot the same day.

On October 23, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino deployed tear gas and pepper spray against protesters in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood in response to immigration enforcement operations. Video evidence documented Bovino throwing a tear gas canister into the crowd, allegedly in violation of a federal court order prohibiting such tactics without imminent threat. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Bovino was struck by a rock, but witnesses and video evidence contradicted this account. On October 24, Federal Judge Sara Ellis ordered Bovino to appear in person to answer allegations that he violated the temporary restraining order.

During federal immigration enforcement operations in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on October 23, 2025, federal agents led by U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino detained at least five people, including two Benito Juarez Community Academy high school students and at least one U.S. citizen. A 16-year-old junior was detained and later released; video showed federal agents grabbing a teenage boy from a sidewalk and forcibly handcuffing him. When dozens of residents and protesters gathered near a discount mall at 27th and Whipple streets to oppose the enforcement action, federal agents wearing military-style camouflage and gas masks deployed tear gas and pepper spray into the crowd. Video evidence shows Bovino himself tossing a tear gas canister into the crowd after being told not to do so by Little Village Community Council President Baltazar Enriquez. A 24-year-old U.S. citizen woman protesting was also detained and placed in a van; her sister reported not hearing from her as of Thursday afternoon. Attorneys filed a federal complaint alleging agents violated a court order prohibiting riot control weapons without imminent threat and requiring prior warnings. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered Bovino to testify for five hours and appear in person for a status hearing.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from about 10 agencies swept La Catedral Arena horse track in Wilder, Idaho, in October, zip-tying roughly 400 attendees, including children, during what the FBI called an illegal gambling investigation covered by a warrant for only five suspects. Ultimately 105 undocumented immigrants were taken into ICE custody, while a group of Idahoans, including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, sued alleging officers used racial epithets and withheld water, food, bathroom access and medical care; lead plaintiff Juana Rodriguez said she was zip-tied for nearly four hours and unable to hold her 3-year-old son. Records show the Nampa Police Department spent about $24,000 and the Caldwell Police Department spent $11,300 in officer wages that day, with Caldwell's chief saying he felt 'very bad' that children were separated from parents. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill later ordered 16 detainees released after rejecting the government's bid to expand mandatory detention and awarded roughly $87,000 in attorneys' fees to two law firms suing over the raid. Four protesters arrested at the scene were charged with misdemeanor resisting and obstructing officers, with most charges later dropped; ICE, the FBI and local agencies have since filed motions seeking dismissal of the lawsuit. Attorney Nikki Ramirez-Smith said, 'If the government's going to illegally detain them, and we have to fight that ... we're all going to pay for it.'

The ACLU of Nevada filed a lawsuit challenging Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's 287(g) partnership with ICE, which allows local officers to hold undocumented immigrants for transfer to federal agents. The case centers on Sergio Morais-Hechavarria, a 36-year-old man arrested in August who pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a stolen vehicle. After completing his criminal sentence, a judge ordered his release to an inpatient treatment facility, but Metro detained him on an ICE immigration hold for weeks beyond his release date. On October 16, Morais-Hechavarria was transferred to a Texas immigration facility without notice to his attorneys and in violation of the court order. The ACLU contends the 287(g) partnership violates Nevada state law and Dillon's rule, which prohibits local agencies from exercising powers not authorized by the Legislature.

A federal judge in Illinois issued a temporary restraining order blocking federal agents from using tear gas, pepper balls, and excessive force against protesters demonstrating outside an ICE detention facility near Chicago. The order was prompted by video of Reverend David Black, a Presbyterian pastor in clerical garb, being repeatedly struck with pepper balls and chemical spray while peacefully praying during a protest at the Broadview facility.

Chicago TV producer for WGN-TV, Debbie Brockman, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Friday in a residential area during immigration enforcement operations. A federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting DHS agents from arresting journalists without probable cause. Brockman was released from federal custody the same day with no charges filed against her.

On February 7, 2025, ICE officers arrested 12 employees at El Potro Mexican Restaurant in Liberty, Missouri while searching for a registered sex offender. A federal judge ruled that 11 of the arrests were unlawful, finding that ICE lacked probable cause to justify warrantless arrests and violated a legal settlement agreement requiring probable cause that a person is likely to escape before making such arrests in the Midwest region. The judge found that the restaurant owner was not informed that employees had the option to refuse speaking with agents. The National Immigrant Justice Center brought the case challenging the raids. The federal judge extended the terms of the settlement agreement through February 2026.

Five asylum seekers from Colombia, Guatemala, China, and Nicaragua were arrested by DHS agents immediately after exiting immigration court hearings at the San Francisco Immigration Court on October 2, 2025. All had pending asylum applications and were previously released under supervision with no criminal history. The federal court granted a temporary restraining order requiring their immediate release and prohibiting re-detention without a hearing.

A father from Guatemala, separated from his daughter at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2017, was returned to Guatemala under the first Trump administration but came back to Florida in 2021 to reunite with his children under the Ms. L settlement agreement. He was re-separated from his children in October 2025 after being stopped in West Palm Beach while performing landscaping work near Mar-a-Lago. He was detained first at Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades, then transferred to Camp East Montana in Texas, where he reported being fed moldy food with worms and berated by guards; he also learned that a fellow detainee died from mistreatment. The ACLU filed a motion on behalf of detained Ms. L parents, and he was released in April 2026. Though reunited with his children, he continues to feel tracked through ankle monitoring and required bi-weekly ICE check-ins, and his children worry he will not be present when they leave school.

A Chicago couple was arrested during Operation Midway Blitz just eight days after getting married. The wife was deported to Mexico while the husband remained in detention in Michigan. Despite being named in a federal lawsuit alleging unlawful arrests, a judge ordered the husband's removal to El Salvador.

Noemi Chavez, her husband Jaime Ramirez, and their two children (ages 8 and 3) were detained by federal agents at Millennium Park on September 28, 2025, without a warrant while the children played at the Crown Fountain. When Chavez asked to see a warrant, agents ignored her request. The family originally came from Guatemala in 2023 seeking protection and have an asylum hearing scheduled for October 2027. Chavez and the children were released after detention, but Jaime Ramirez was transferred to detention facilities in Texas and Indiana. A federal judge characterized the stop as "unconstitutional" based on the family's appearance, and attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition alleging the family was stopped because of their skin color. The case is part of broader litigation challenging ICE's warrantless arrest practices in violation of a 2022 consent decree.

The National Immigrant Justice Center and ACLU of Illinois filed a federal court notice on behalf of 27 people arrested without warrants or probable cause by Department of Homeland Security officers since May 2025, with at least 20 arrested in September. The filing challenges violations of a consent decree that prohibits racial profiling and warrantless arrests, documenting incidents where people were arrested while walking in neighborhoods, at parking lots, during traffic stops, and at their homes.

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.

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.

The government of Ghana announced that 14 West Africans (13 Nigerians and 1 Gambian) who were deported from the US have been sent to their home countries. US lawyers filed a lawsuit arguing the deportations violated immigration protections and that the Trump administration used Ghana as a third country to circumvent US immigration laws.

ICE agents detained Willian Gimenez in Little Village on September 12 while he entered a barbershop with his wife. ICE refused to disclose his location and denied his attorneys access to him. Gimenez is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Home Depot and off-duty Chicago police for targeting immigrant day laborers.