Human Impact Project

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. legally in 2024 through CBP One and had lived in Austin for about two years working as a DoorDash driver, was shot in the back by an ICE agent during a vehicle stop near Research Boulevard. He disputes DHS's account that he fled on foot, saying he never left his car, and no body camera footage of the encounter exists. He was discharged from Dell Seton Medical Center about four hours after being shot, still with a bullet lodged near his spine, and transferred roughly 140 miles away to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall. His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, says he has been denied timely surgery, given only over-the-counter pain relievers despite a fractured clavicle and partial paralysis, held in isolation, and denied consistent access to counsel; Rep. Greg Casar, who visited him, said he could lose feeling on his left side without surgery. After speaking to reporters, detention staff reportedly confiscated his communication tablet and moved him to solitary confinement. His legal team filed a federal habeas petition seeking his release and applied for a visa citing his status as a victim of violent crime, while Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and Reps. Casar and Joaquin Castro called for an independent investigation and release of body camera footage; DHS said it would investigate through Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI.

Adam Abdullah, a 31-year-old Somali auto mechanic and asylum seeker living in St. Paul with a pending asylum application, work permit and Social Security number, was arrested by masked federal agents on Dec. 12, 2025 during 'Operation Metro Surge.' Despite regularly attending ICE check-ins and having no criminal record beyond two parking tickets, he was moved between detention facilities in Minnesota, Kentucky and Louisiana over roughly nine months before being flown, shackled, toward Somalia but instead held at Guantánamo Bay's Camp Six alongside seven other Somali detainees, several also arrested in the Twin Cities. His attorney, Marc Prokosch, said calls with him were limited to five to ten minutes and possibly not confidential. Abdullah began a hunger strike over lack of information, after which he says guards beat him and placed him in a freezing solitary confinement cell; while detained, his mother died, and he says authorities denied him an international call and a request for voluntary departure to attend to her. The ACLU sued the federal government, arguing it lacks legal authority to detain immigrants overseas, and a judge allowed the case to proceed with a hearing set for October 14. Abdullah was deported to Somalia alongside eight other men, and his attorney said ICE also stopped publishing detainee location data.

Katsiaryna Bartko, a 33-year-old Belarusian asylum seeker and thyroid cancer survivor, is being held at the CoreCivic-operated Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, where her partner says her medical condition has severely deteriorated. Lab records show her thyroid-stimulating hormone level spiked to more than 31 times the normal range, with dropping calcium levels causing pain, spasms and voice loss, and she has not been seen by an endocrinologist despite a referral. Days before a federal court hearing on her medical care, she was moved to a solitary isolation room and staff allegedly attempted to confiscate legal documents she had prepared for the hearing. Bartko entered the U.S. legally in 2022 and applied for asylum in 2023 after speaking out against the Belarusian government and the war in Ukraine.

Marianita, a woman held in ICE detention, said sickness spread among detainees while her requests for medical care were ignored. She described being soaked with cold water, forced to dry off in front of an air conditioner, and later confined in a freezing punishment room as her pneumonia worsened. She was transferred through ICE facilities in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas during her detention.

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.

A leaked video filmed by a detainee inside the River Center ICE Detention Center in Louisiana shows 76 people held together in a single crowded space. Detainees allege exposure to outbreaks of tuberculosis, flu, and conjunctivitis, and say sick people are being placed in punitive isolation cells instead of receiving medical care. The detainee who filmed the footage asked media outlets for help publicizing the conditions.

In a smuggled video from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, run by GEO Group, detained women describe abuse, medical neglect and family separation. Larina, one of the women, says ICE separated her from her five-month-old daughter after she called police during a domestic violence incident and was arrested instead of her husband; she says she has been ordered deported but has remained detained for three months. Kelly, a Venezuelan woman with one failing kidney, says the facility has denied her testing, medication and specialist care. Other women describe a miscarriage, pregnancy without adequate care, an amputation, and say one detainee was placed in solitary confinement after recording a video, while others faced hitting and threats for speaking out.

Hunger strikers at the Adelanto detention center in California faced retaliation from ICE officials after staging protests, according to attorneys with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef). Detainees were zip-tied, threatened with teargas, placed in solitary confinement, and transferred to other ICE facilities. ICE officials denied that detainees were forgoing food and denied that retaliation was occurring, instead claiming that one detainee who led the hunger strike faced disciplinary actions for vague facility violations.

Sanan Atou, 43, was held in solitary confinement for approximately three weeks in January at North Lake Processing Center in Northern Michigan. He says the isolation cell had poor heating, with a vent that did little to warm the corner room with two exterior walls from the former Baldwin prison facility. Atou stated: "I felt like I was going to freeze to death. I didn't know if I was going to wake up." Data shows that as immigration detention has expanded under the Trump administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increasingly used solitary confinement, a practice experts say causes mental, physical, and psychological harm.

Five immigrants detained by ICE at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami reported experiencing severe conditions including cramped, scorching-hot cells, widespread cockroach infestations, broken toilets overflowing with waste, and denial of medical care. According to accounts from detainees, their relatives, and a prison employee, men sleep in their underwear to keep cool and sweat through bedsheets due to extreme heat. Family members and advocates reported severe overcrowding with up to 97 men in cells designed for 50, lack of air conditioning during extreme heat, inadequate medical care, cockroach-infested meals, and forced consumption of contaminated water. Families alleged that detainees who spoke to media about these conditions faced retaliation, including solitary confinement and warnings from officers not to speak publicly. The facility, a Bureau of Prisons location, has housed ICE detainees as part of mass deportation operations, with many detainees recently transferred from other regional holding centers including the now-closed Alligator Alcatraz facility.

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.

A Cuban national held at Florence Correctional Center in Arizona staged multiple hunger strikes to protest what he described as inhumane detention conditions and lack of transparency regarding his asylum claims. He alleges that ICE subjected him to solitary confinement and restrictive measures to isolate him from legal counsel and advocacy groups after his protests gained attention. He was subsequently deported to Ecuador, a third country, which terminated his ability to participate in U.S. legal proceedings.

Approximately 300 immigrants detained at Delaney Hall, a privately operated ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, launched a hunger and labor strike beginning May 25, 2026, to protest conditions including spoiled and expired food, inadequate medical care, overcrowding, filthy bathrooms, lack of hot water, and denial of medical treatment. Detainee Elder Guerra, a Guatemalan immigrant, suffered a head injury after slipping in the shower and was placed in isolation rather than receiving proper treatment. Martin Soto, arrested by ICE four months earlier while buying diapers, remained detained despite a judge blocking his removal from the facility. Detainees reported retaliation by facility staff, including beatings, solitary confinement for strikers, and confiscation of personal items. The facility, operated by Community Education Centers, faced scrutiny for a pattern of medical neglect and rights violations, with sustained crowds of protesters gathering outside in solidarity.

Carlos Iván Mendoza Hernández was shot seven times by ICE agents during a traffic stop in Patterson, Stanislaus County, California on April 8, 2026. According to dashcam video and eyewitness accounts, Hernández reversed away from officers who had drawn weapons, then drove forward as agents opened fire; ICE stated he attempted to run over agents with his vehicle. While hospitalized at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, FBI agents accessed his HIPAA-protected medical records without clear authorization or warrant, prompting concerns from his federal public defenders. After discharge, Hernández was arrested by the FBI and placed in solitary confinement at California City Detention Center with his gunshot wound injuries remaining unaddressed. On June 27, 2026, he was removed from the facility for a scheduled medical appointment to evaluate bullet fragments, but his family received no updates for hours and the detention center refused to confirm his whereabouts or safety.

A 77-year-old Iranian man with a rare, life-threatening liver disease was detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center and placed in solitary confinement despite doctors recommending his release. He had lived in the U.S. under supervised release for over two decades and had multiple health conditions including sleep apnea, severe diabetes, and hearing loss. While detained for six weeks, he lost 10 pounds, experienced high blood sugar readings, and was denied essential CPAP equipment after staff reported losing parts of the machine. Two doctors and a nurse practitioner wrote letters urging his release. A federal judge ordered his release in January after finding ICE officers violated his due process rights.

Katsiaryna Bartko, a 33-year-old Belarusian thyroid cancer survivor, has been held by ICE since early June 2026, most recently at the CoreCivic-run Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, Kansas. She requires daily hormone medication and calcium supplements for permanent hypoparathyroidism and chronic hypocalcemia following cancer surgery, but her partner, Dmitry Shyshov, says she was initially denied her prescribed medications despite intake records documenting her needs. She was hospitalized three times in four days, once in acute distress requiring intravenous calcium, and lab records showed her thyroid-stimulating hormone soaring to over 31 times normal. A Harvard endocrinologist and an independent physician with Physicians for Human Rights both warned her continued detention is medically unsafe, risking organ failure, coma, or death. Bartko entered the U.S. legally on an F-1 student visa in March 2022 and filed for asylum in 2023, citing persecution over her pro-democracy activism and opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine; she was detained in Florida after local domestic battery charges against her were dropped and has never been convicted of a crime. She was placed in solitary isolation days before a federal court hearing, and a judge has ordered the government to bring her to a Kansas City courthouse to hear her petition for release.

Orolua Eluonyechie, a Nigerian national, has been held in immigration detention for over two years, initially detained in Atlanta in April 2024 and later transferred to Allen Parish in southwest Louisiana. While detained, he has been injured by guards and placed in solitary confinement. He filed a federal habeas petition seeking release or deportation but remains waiting for judicial action as federal courts in Louisiana become overwhelmed with habeas petitions from detainees held in prolonged detention.

All detainees at the South Florida Detention Center, a facility in Florida's Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz" that opened in July 2025, were transferred to other facilities in mid-June 2026. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security cited hurricane season safety concerns as the reason for the transfers. However, immigration advocates and lawyers dispute this explanation, noting the facility operated throughout the previous hurricane season without prior closures. Approximately 800 detainees have been transferred, with families and legal representatives reporting difficulty locating them and unclear information about their current status. The facility had faced persistent criticism and lawsuits over poor conditions, including worms in food, non-functioning toilets, flooding, denial of medical care, solitary confinement, and inadequate legal access.

Hanne Engan, a 24-year-old Norwegian citizen applying for a green card through her U.S. citizen husband, was arrested by ICE agents on November 17, 2025, during a green card interview at a San Diego facility and held at Otay Mesa Detention Center for eight to nine days. Despite her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis, ICE confiscated her insulin and continuous glucose monitor, misclassified her condition in detention records, and denied her mealtime insulin despite repeated requests, resulting in dangerously elevated blood sugar levels (508 mg/dL), weight loss, infections, and suicidal ideation. She was placed in solitary confinement for five days. A federal judge found no flight risk, ordered her release on a $1,500 bond after nine days, and later terminated her deportation case after ruling ICE lacked jurisdiction to detain her.

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.