Human Impact Project

Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, mother of three, poet, and legal observer, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7, 2026, while monitoring Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement operation on Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis. Good had blocked the street with her Honda Pilot to warn neighbors of ICE's presence when Ross fired three shots as her car turned away from officers. Her wife, Becca, said they were simply warning neighbors. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump called her actions 'domestic terrorism,' but video evidence, a New York Times analysis, Human Rights Watch, and an independent autopsy found she posed no imminent threat. Fellow protester Alex Pretti was also killed during the same operation. Protesters who gathered at the ICE Field Office in St. Paul the following day were met with pepper balls, mace, and tear gas. The administration blocked a federal criminal investigation, Noem was later fired, and hundreds of federal agents were withdrawn from Minnesota. Good's family filed two federal lawsuits under Bivens and the Federal Tort Claims Act against the agent and top administration officials, and her case was presented at an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing. DHS agents have shot at roughly two dozen people and killed six since the start of the administration.

Adwoa, a 21-year-old bisexual woman from Ghana, fled years of violence and ostracism after neighbors accused her family of witchcraft over her sexuality. Despite obtaining a US court guarantee that she would not be deported back to Ghana, she was instead sent to Cameroon earlier this year, where same-sex relations are illegal and punishable by up to five years in prison. She has been held at a government-run detention facility in Cameroon for several months, describing her situation as feeling like "a criminal" and fearing she could be killed if returned to Ghana.

Pietro Graza de Lima, a gay Brazilian man who lived in Orlando, Florida for about seven years running a small services business, fled Brazil after corrupt police shot him over his sexuality, an attack that cost him a kidney and left lasting physical damage. After his student visa expired and he was arrested for drug possession, ICE detained him for nearly two years, including time at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. On April 16, 2026, an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation to Brazil under the Convention Against Torture, but ICE continued holding him while seeking another country to deport him to. After he refused to sign a document accepting removal to Liberia, he was shackled for roughly 36 hours and flown to Liberia—where he and other detainees refused to disembark—and then to Equatorial Guinea, a country with which he has no ties. His attorney said he was denied the interview he was entitled to under CAT protections before being sent there. He and about a dozen other deportees have been confined at a decommissioned hotel, Hotel Bamy, in Malabo, where armed officers confiscated his phone on September 8, 2026 after he spoke with journalists, cutting off contact with his attorneys and leaving him unreachable since September 9, 2026.

Diego Mauricio Ospina Sanchez, a 41-year-old Colombian man, was detained by six plainclothes ICE agents at an Alaska Airlines departure gate at Portland International Airport while preparing to fly home to New Jersey with his boyfriend, Kewin, after a vacation in California and Washington. Ospina Sanchez had entered the U.S. legally in October 2024, later overstayed his visa and sought asylum, but said he never received notice of his first immigration court hearing, resulting in an in-absentia deportation order issued August 13, 2026. Kewin said agents surrounded the couple and demanded identification before taking Ospina Sanchez away, saying, "They hunt us as if we were bad people... as if you were a criminal or an animal." Left alone at the airport, Kewin contacted a local immigrant rights hotline and received help from community members. Since the arrest, Ospina Sanchez has been repeatedly transferred between detention facilities in Tacoma, El Paso, Louisiana, and Arizona, reporting poor sleep, poor appetite, psychological distress, and weight loss, and was denied his regular medical treatment on one occasion. Through a lawyer, Kewin has filed a motion to reopen the case and a stay of removal, spending more than $11,000 on legal fees. A DHS spokesperson said Ospina Sanchez received due process and that the agency is targeting travelers with expired visas as part of a new enforcement push, and the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition said it was the first known immigration arrest this year at the airport.

Milo Yiannopoulos, a 41-year-old British national and former Breitbart News editor, was detained by ICE agents at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on August 27, 2026. He was transferred to an ICE processing facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, before being deported to the United Kingdom roughly 24 hours later. DHS said he legally entered the U.S. in May 2019 but overstayed his authorization, and that an immigration judge issued a final removal order on July 22 after he failed to appear at a hearing. Yiannopoulos disputes this account, saying he held a valid O-1 visa and later a green card through his 2017 marriage to an American man, which he claims was quietly canceled without notice. He said he was surrounded by roughly 15 agents, denied food for a day, and repeatedly moved to prevent him from reaching his lawyer, and plans to challenge the removal in court. Far-right activist Laura Loomer claimed she had reported him to ICE, and border czar Tom Homan denied allegations of preferential treatment regarding the speed of his removal.

Indi Veitia, a 47-year-old Venezuelan asylum-seeker who lives in Indianapolis with her wife and worked her way up from a warehouse job to a corporate position, was detained by ICE officers while walking to her gate at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport during a work trip. She said plain-clothes officers slammed her against the jetway wall, handcuffed her, and transported her in an unmarked vehicle before transferring her to a detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia, where she spent 21 days in a windowless dormitory with more than 60 other women sharing four toilets and showers, at times without running water or power, describing the conditions as 'inhumane.' Veitia entered the U.S. on a work visa in 2019 and later applied for asylum, holding a valid work permit and driver's license while her application had been pending since 2020. She was released on bond after friends and her employer wrote supporting letters and secured lawyers, but now wears a GPS ankle monitor and must report to the ICE field office in Indianapolis under a court order. Her attorney said asylum applicants like her are 'low-hanging fruit' for detention despite following legal processes, while DHS said a pending asylum application does not confer legal status. Veitia said, 'I have done everything that the government have asked me to do.'

Alex Ramirez Gonzalez and Yan Vasquez Hidalgo, a married Cuban couple working in environmental services at SUNY Upstate Medical University, were detained by ICE after appearing for a scheduled immigration hearing in Mattydale, New York. The couple had fled Cuba, entered the U.S. in 2021, turned themselves in to seek asylum, and held valid work authorization. They said they were handcuffed and chained before being transported to a federal detention facility, where they were held for nearly four months, mostly separated from each other. In January, two immigration judges ruled they could not seek asylum in the U.S. but could pursue it in Ecuador, a country to which they have no connection; their lawyer appealed, and the case remains pending. They were released on bond, with one required to wear an ankle monitor, and have returned to their jobs and families in Syracuse. A third coworker, Mohamed Fofana, remains in ICE custody in Texas.

Wilmar Quintero, a 50-year-old transgender woman from Venezuela, fled her home country after she said police officers tortured her, carved out her breast implants and left her for dead for speaking out against civil rights abuses. She sought asylum in the United States and was detained for about three months in Michigan, where she said she was sexually assaulted by another migrant and mistreated by staff. Immigration officials deported her to Venezuela in April 2025, where she went into hiding, saying she remains afraid of police there.

Camila Toro de Paula, a 25-year-old transgender woman from Venezuela, has been held for nearly a year at a men's ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, after being arrested during a routine immigration check-in at ICE's New York City office in August 2025. She fled Venezuela after suffering childhood abuse, including repeated rape by relatives and a homophobic stabbing attack by police, and sought asylum in the U.S. two years ago. Toro de Paula says she has been assaulted, threatened, placed in solitary confinement, denied water, and deprived of the hormone therapy she had received for years, after a policy protecting transgender detainees was eliminated in February 2025. She told The New York Times, "I'm afraid of dying here," and says she has resisted pressure to voluntarily return to Venezuela. Immigration officials cited felony assault and weapons charges as justification for her detention, though both charges were later dismissed and sealed.

Omar David Panqueva, a Colombian DJ known as DJ Tunjo, and his husband Santiago Páez were arrested by ICE agents at Chicago's Midway International Airport as they prepared to fly out and join reggaeton star Karol G's tour for DJ after-parties. The couple, both members of the LGBTQ+ community, had applied for asylum due to persecution they faced in Colombia and held work permits while their case was pending, though their visas had expired in 2022. Panqueva had recently performed at Chicago's Fiesta del Sol and the Sueños music festival and was planning a tour to Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. He described being 'chained, handcuffed on a bus with bars' during the arrest. The couple was held in Indiana and released on bond on August 12 after supporters rallied around them, with their immigration case continuing in court and a hearing scheduled for August 19.

Three women who fled LGBTQ+ persecution in Ghana and had been granted protection from deportation in the United States were sent to Cameroon in January 2026 as part of the Trump administration's secretive third-country deportation agreements, part of a group of 36 migrants. According to DW reporting, the women described being shackled during the process. They were held for about two months in a government compound in Yaounde and were released only after staging a hunger strike; they must still return to the compound each night and cannot work while their asylum claims are pending. Their lawyer has raised concerns about sending them to a country where they could face further persecution.

Avishay Alon, a transgender former intelligence specialist with Israel's Unit 81 who later worked as a computer engineer at Amazon and Microsoft, was transferred from New Hampshire state custody into ICE custody on Aug. 20, a day after signing a parole certificate, and is now held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia. Alon, who uses the name Allison, had been serving a two-to-six-year sentence imposed July 7, 2025, following a 2024 kidnapping conviction. A federal judge had previously noted that immigration detainers are capped at 48 hours and ordered the state to show cause. Alon separately filed a federal lawsuit in December 2025 against the New Hampshire Department of Corrections over housing in a men's facility and access to gender-transition care, with some claims still pending.

A transgender woman detained at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona reported being strapped into a wheelchair, handcuffed, and interrogated for hours by detention officers. The account was shared by U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari and represents one of multiple allegations of human rights abuses at the facility, including solitary confinement, inadequate water and food, and extreme temperatures. ICE has disputed many of the allegations, and the incident highlights ongoing concerns about how transgender people are treated in immigration detention.

Celestin Dima, a gay asylum seeker from Burkina Faso, fled kidnapping, military persecution and police torture after being outed before crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2024. An Arizona immigration judge granted him withholding of removal, finding he would likely face persecution if deported home, but ICE held him at the Eloy Detention Center for nearly two years while searching for a third country willing to accept him, considering Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda—all countries where homosexuality is criminalized. While detained, he grew depressed, stopped eating, and was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks. A federal judge ordered his release in June 2026 after granting a joint habeas petition, but ICE redetained him on July 17 during a mandatory check-in at a field office in Lower Manhattan. He was then transferred through detention facilities in New Jersey and near Dallas, fitted with a GPS ankle monitor, and scheduled for deportation without being told in advance where he would be sent.

Aylin, a 28-year-old gay woman from Turkey who fled after being threatened by a religious group and a family member, had been granted withholding of removal by a US judge because returning to Turkey would endanger her due to her sexuality, though her underlying asylum application had been denied. After spending 18 months in US immigration detention, she says she was handcuffed and shackled and put on a flight she only learned mid-flight was headed to the Central African Republic, a country she had never heard of. She spent weeks confined to an apartment in Bangui, too afraid to go outside, before ultimately returning to Turkey, telling her family she had 'changed her sexual orientation' and saying she hopes to eventually reach another country. The Department of Homeland Security told CNN that third-country deportation agreements are lawful and that a protection order barring removal to one's home country does not bar deportation elsewhere; CNN reported she is one of several deportees sent to third countries despite court protection orders, and the AP found eight of nine deportees on one January flight had similar orders, with at least 35 third-country deportation deals signed by US immigration authorities.

A 22-year-old woman was detained by police in Hamilton, Tennessee, who then contacted ICE, leading to her transfer into immigration custody. She was moved to a jail in Etowah County, Alabama, before being transferred to a facility in Louisiana after three days. Her girlfriend, who organized a fundraiser to cover legal and bond costs, described her as hardworking, cheerful, and always willing to help others; she also cares for her 14-year-old brother.

Jesús Augusto Paizano Casares, a 24-year-old Venezuelan national, reported experiencing domestic violence from his spouse in the United States. When he attempted to leave the relationship, his partner threatened to report him to immigration authorities and filed a false report against him, leading to his arrest. He was released after no evidence was found against him but was subsequently placed in ICE custody. Paizano Casares filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court in Michigan challenging his detention. On January 29, 2026, Judge Robert J. Jonker granted his habeas petition, resulting in his release from ICE custody. He was represented by attorney William McLean, III, and later filed a motion for attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which was denied on June 12, 2026.

Jessica Crystal Lira, 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, she was housed in a male detention unit, where she experienced verbal harassment and feared for her safety. She filed suit, captioned Lira v. Mullin, seeking emergency relief. The court granted her motion for a temporary restraining order, enjoining officials from housing her in a male detention unit or solitary confinement, and ordered that she either be moved to appropriate housing or released within 24 hours.

Andry Hernández Romero, a gay makeup artist from Venezuela, legally entered the U.S. in August 2024 and passed a credible fear interview for asylum. In March 2025, the Trump administration deported him to CECOT, a maximum security prison in El Salvador, under the Alien Enemies Act as part of a broader deportation of 237 Venezuelan migrants. Authorities cited tattoos allegedly linking him to gang activity, which his family disputed as relating to a local cultural festival. Hernández Romero was detained in CECOT for over four months before being released in July 2025 as part of a prisoner swap. He was subsequently returned to Venezuela rather than allowed to remain in the U.S. His case became part of a class-action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations. A Venezuelan makeup artist was deported to El Salvador and subsequently traveled to Spain to seek asylum. The person states they feel safe in Spain and is pursuing asylum protection there.

Loba, a transgender woman from El Salvador, was detained at California City ICE detention center for six months in 2025. She experienced sexual harassment and intimidation from guards while housed in male dormitories. Due to the traumatic conditions and lack of support for LGBTQ+ detainees, she signed voluntary departure paperwork and self-deported to El Salvador.