Human Impact Project

In Evanston, Illinois, federal immigration agents believed to be from ICE attempted to detain an adult resident near Howard Street and Dodge Avenue during what they described as a fugitive investigation, mistaking him for someone else. According to police, the man refused to provide identification, was held for fingerprinting, and resisted, and he was later found on the ground with injuries to his head, neck and teeth; an ambulance took him to St. Francis Hospital, where police photographed and documented his injuries. A witness, Miguel Angel Olivares, recorded the encounter and said agents used 'very rough force' on him. An agent told police he was injured while trying to handcuff the man and had blood on his hands. Agents determined the man was not the person they were seeking and that he was a U.S. citizen, and released him; Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss confirmed he was 'briefly detained and then released.' Evanston's police chief later met with the man at the hospital to offer community resources, and the incident is under investigation by Evanston police, Illinois authorities, and the FBI. Local activists raised concerns about mistaken identity and treatment of Latino residents in the area.

Leonardo 'Leo' Garcia Venegas, a 25-year-old U.S.-born citizen of Mexican descent working construction in Baldwin County, Alabama, was detained by immigration agents multiple times beginning in May 2025 despite presenting a valid Alabama REAL ID. In the first incident, armed agents raided a Foley construction site, tackled his undocumented brother, and held Garcia Venegas handcuffed for over an hour after he began filming and asserted his citizenship; his brother was later deported. Weeks later, agents detained him again at another job site, again dismissing his ID as fake despite him also providing his Social Security card. In a third encounter, officers followed him home, pulled him from his vehicle, tackled him, and shackled him. Never charged with a crime, Garcia Venegas testified before Congress saying 'I don't feel free,' and filed a federal lawsuit with the Institute for Justice against DHS officials, including Tom Homan and Kristi Noem, alleging Fourth Amendment violations, assault, battery, and false arrest. A federal judge in the Southern District of Alabama denied the government's motion to dismiss and temporarily halted warrantless construction-site raids, a ruling Garcia Venegas called 'a huge blow to lawless enforcement practices.'

Ahmed Soliman, a gay man in his early 30s who fled Egypt as a child and grew up in Phoenix and Tucson, had won a judge's ruling protecting him from deportation to Egypt over fears of persecution based on his sexuality and family history. Despite this ruling and a pending habeas petition, ICE transferred him from Arizona to Louisiana and deported him in April 2026 to a decommissioned hotel in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, under a $7.5 million third-country removal deal that has sent at least 66 people there since November 2025. After guards confiscated detainees' phones, police pointed rifles at Soliman and forced him to his knees when he tried to film officers and the forced removal of other detainees to Ethiopia. Amnesty International reported he was bound and beaten by police upon arrival. After speaking to journalists, including the American Prospect, about conditions at the facility, he was arrested on accusations of damaging property, then blindfolded, beaten, and pushed down a staircase before being transferred to a prison in Malabo. He and another detainee from Eritrea have since been missing for more than a week, with his attorneys unable to confirm charges against him or his location and fearing for his life, believing the arrest was retaliation for speaking to the media.

Luis Ochoa and his friend JC, both 17-year-old U.S. citizens, were detained by ICE agents in Alamo, Texas, after stopping to film agents conducting an enforcement action near Santos Livas Elementary School. The teens said they were on their way to submit paperwork to enlist in the Marine Corps when agents pulled Ochoa from his vehicle, breaking his wrist, and pepper-sprayed both teens and struck JC in the face, despite them stating they were U.S. citizens. One agent reportedly told Ochoa, "I don't give a damn... Your parents can't help you now." Ochoa's mother, Teresa Ochoa, said she went roughly eight hours without information about her son and described it as one of the most frightening moments of her life, adding that the ordeal made both teens reconsider plans to enlist. DHS disputed the account, describing the teens as "anti-ICE agitators" who obstructed a lawful vehicle stop and became physically combative, stating two ICE officers suffered minor injuries. The Alamo Police Department forwarded the teens' complaint to the DHS Office of Inspector General for review.

Edgar Martinez, 33, was detained outside his West Phoenix home after men allegedly posing as electricians cut power to check a breaker box, according to his partner, Marisol Lopez. Lopez said the agents never identified themselves or showed a warrant before pinning Martinez to the ground and taking him into custody. She said Martinez had no serious criminal record and was in the process of applying for a T visa as a victim of human trafficking. ICE said Martinez lacks lawful status and cited two prior domestic violence misdemeanors on his record. Martinez was being held at a detention facility in Florence, Arizona, due to capacity issues at other facilities and was set to appear in immigration court.

ICE agents detained several men in Montclair's Fourth Ward on the morning of September 14, 2026, stopping a pickup truck near Elm Street and Bloomfield Avenue as the men were driving to perform construction work at The Vestry, a luxury apartment building. Witnesses said agents smashed the truck's window, forcibly pulled one man out by his leg, and pushed others against the vehicle while handcuffing them, just a block from Charles H. Bullock Elementary School as children arrived for the day. One detained man, a 24-year-old construction worker identified as Kevin, was held on a $7,500 immigration bond, with community members raising funds through the Envision Freedom Fund. Mayor Renee Baskerville and Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Andersen said ICE had not notified local police of the operation. After attorney Joseph Fortunato filed habeas corpus petitions, a federal judge ordered two of the men returned to Delaney Hall in New Jersey after ICE had already placed them on a bus bound for a flight to a Louisiana detention facility.

Samson Birhane, 47, arrived in the US as an Eritrean refugee at age 13 and lost his immigration status after a robbery conviction in 1988, though he had already served his sentence and had been regularly checking in with ICE as required. A US immigration judge had previously ruled he faced a risk of torture if returned to Eritrea, but he was instead deported to Equatorial Guinea under a $7.5 million agreement between the countries. On September 11, 2026, Birhane and fellow deportee Ahmed Soliman were arrested and allegedly beaten, blindfolded, and pushed down a staircase by police after helping document abusive conditions at Hotel Bamy, a site used to detain US deportees, with officers accusing him of property damage and seizing his phone. He was transferred to a prison in Malabo, where he has limited access to medical care and his whereabouts have been kept from other detainees.

A former Guilford County detention officer, Michael Diehl, was charged with 20 counts of felony forgery after allegedly submitting fake magistrate signatures on ICE detainer forms. The forged documents allowed the jail to hold inmates beyond their release time so ICE could take custody, even though the inmates had not been properly presented to a magistrate. Diehl was fired and arrested, and the investigation into additional forged documents is ongoing.

James Mervil and Josselene Polidor were arrested by ICE agents near John Marshall Elementary School in the Chollas Creek neighborhood of San Diego minutes after dropping off their 2- and 5-year-old children. Witnesses said officers boxed in the family's car, and the mother ran barefoot into a nearby home under construction, where she was handcuffed while pleading with workers for help and explaining her daughter attended the nearby school. Construction workers reported that an officer unholstered his gun and threatened pepper spray when a supervisor tried to intervene, and that the officer entered the home without the owner's permission. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrests, stating the parents had overstayed their visas. San Diego Unified School District confirmed both parents were taken into ICE custody, said the children were not present and were doing well, and arranged for a family friend to pick them up, while also condemning ICE arrests near its campuses. Local elected officials, including Rep. Scott Peters and Mayor Todd Gloria, condemned the arrests, saying such actions traumatize children and families.

Deng Deng, a 19-year-old Southern Connecticut State University basketball player originally from Aweil, South Sudan, was arrested by ICE agents at Tweed New Haven Airport on September 4, 2026, while boarding a flight to visit his girlfriend in North Carolina. Deng attended high school in New Jersey and was lawfully admitted to the U.S. as a minor on an F-1 student visa; he has a pending asylum application based on fear of persecution in South Sudan and holds a valid Employment Authorization Document. A witness described the arresting officers as "very aggressive." His attorneys, Glenn Formica and Steven Strom, filed a habeas corpus petition arguing an officer falsely claimed Deng was violating Temporary Protected Status he never held, that he has no criminal history, and that the arrest violated his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. A federal judge barred his transfer to any ICE facility beyond 150 miles of the Connecticut border, though the case was later moved to the District of Massachusetts; he remains held at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island. SCSU said it is in contact with him and assisting where appropriate.

More than 60 federal agents raided the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, New York in September 2025, herding roughly 160 workers into a breakroom and arresting 57 of about 100 people questioned, including pregnant women and mothers of young children. Body camera footage later released in a lawsuit showed agents breaking down a locked bathroom stall door to remove a female employee and separating workers by citizenship status, with some told they would be arrested if they asked for an attorney. Argentina Juarez-Lopez, 50, invoked her right to counsel, but an agent falsely claimed she confessed without one; a federal judge called the conduct 'grossly negligent' and suppressed the evidence, yet she was deported after her case was dismissed. Juana Castillo Avelar, a mother of three U.S. citizen children who had lived in the U.S. over 20 years, was granted $9,000 bond but was deported before ICE would release her, based on a false claim she had appealed. Only five of the 57 arrested faced criminal charges, mostly for illegal reentry, and no charges have been filed against the company. The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Worker Justice Center of New York filed a lawsuit alleging officers lacked arrest warrants, exceeded search warrant authority, and violated workers' Fourth Amendment rights; one deported plaintiff has since been allowed to reenter the country while attorneys for another seek his return.

Federal and Tennessee state agents raided El Corralón, an immigrant-owned nightclub and restaurant in Memphis's Berclair neighborhood, in a pre-dawn operation called 'Operation Corral Light' on August 30. Witnesses said patrons and employees were corralled onto the dance floor, checked for identification, and loaded onto buses while children screamed for their detained parents; advocates estimated parents of at least 16 children were taken. Among those detained were a mother and stepfather, now held in separate facilities — she in Basile, Louisiana, and he in Mason, Tennessee — leaving their four children and four cousins in the care of their grandmother, who said the youngest wakes up crying for his mother while a 16-year-old has taken on helping raise the younger children. DHS confirmed more than 120 arrests but has publicly identified only five detainees, citing prior charges such as larceny, drug possession, and assault, while the status of most remaining detainees has not been disclosed. The operation stemmed from Tennessee Bureau of Investigation warrants targeting illegal gambling machines and narcotics, prompting the ACLU, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, State Rep. Gabby Salinas, and Memphis's mayor to question whether it exceeded the warrant's scope. Some detainees were reportedly deported to Honduras within days, and four people were released at the scene after showing documentation.

Moises Velasquez, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker with a work permit and an upcoming December immigration hearing, was pulled from his car by ICE agents in Lakewood while waiting for his shift to start at a barbershop. Cellphone video shows agents smashing his car windows before dragging him out; his fiancé, who was eight months pregnant, heard his screams for help over the phone during the arrest. His attorney, Bart Klein, said ICE had been searching for a Mexican national but arrested Velasquez by mistake and sent him to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma even after realizing the error. Velasquez was released after his attorney filed a habeas corpus petition and has since returned to work.

Brandon Domena, a lifelong Passaic County, New Jersey resident and U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE agents for about five hours after a confrontation broke out while he and his family watched agents arrest a neighbor, reportedly a Mexican man wanted for domestic violence. Video showed agents in tactical gear restraining Domena face-down on a lawn and handcuffing him, with a witness saying his arm was nearly dislocated; he says he was left with bruises and marks on his hands. Domena said he repeatedly told agents he was a U.S. citizen, believes he was racially profiled, and was denied water, a restroom, medical attention and a phone call during his detention. DHS alleges he spit at and kicked an officer and was arrested on potential charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers, but he has not been criminally charged. He disputes DHS's account, says an agent later apologized to him, was released the same day, and has hired a lawyer.

Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a 24-year-old Venezuelan man, was shot in the leg by ICE agent Christian Castro through the door of his North Minneapolis home during a January raid connected to Operation Metro Surge. His partner, Indriany Mendoza Camacho, said agents fired as Sosa-Celis fled inside and then threw tear gas into the home, which had children present, before entering to detain him. Federal prosecutors initially charged Sosa-Celis and his cousin, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, with assaulting officers using a snow shovel and broom, but surveillance video contradicted the officers' sworn testimony. A federal judge dismissed the charges with prejudice, and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons acknowledged two officers may have lied under oath, placing both on administrative leave. Minnesota prosecutors later charged Castro with assault and false reporting, and he also faces a federal indictment for false statements; Texas Governor Greg Abbott refused to extradite him, prompting a lawsuit from Minnesota's attorney general.

Grace Stephanie Calero Cabanilla, 39, and her 19-year-old daughter Giulianna Mía Carriel Calero, Ecuadorian nationals who fled Ecuador three years earlier due to death threats, were taken into ICE custody at HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital near Kissimmee after a highway rollover crash. Polk County Sheriff's Office deputies, operating under a 287(g) agreement with ICE, ran a database check during the crash investigation and said it revealed the women had overstayed their visas, prompting ICE detainers. Grace, still sedated and in a cervical collar, was handcuffed at her bedside, while Giulianna, who has epilepsy, suffered a seizure and was handcuffed in her hospital gown and led out in front of other patients and staff. Family members said agents did not identify themselves or produce a warrant, and the family's attorney said both women had pending asylum claims with valid work permits and visas, though the Sheriff's Office disputed this, said neither had a criminal or gang history, and stated no state charges were filed. Video of the arrest circulated widely, prompting a press conference from local immigrant advocates, while Sheriff Grady Judd said he approved of how deputies handled the arrests. Fearing for her daughter's health in detention, Grace signed voluntary departure paperwork and the pair returned to Ecuador.

A Black man with no connection to an ongoing traffic stop was questioned and handcuffed by a US Border Patrol agent at an Orion gas station in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. Video shows the agent demanding his identification and telling him it was 'because you're an immigrant' before officers forced his arms behind his back and restrained him. He was released minutes later after a status check cleared him. A second man who appeared Latino was seized shortly afterward, and an older man filming the encounter was ordered to move away from the scene.

Jonatan López, a man from Guatemala, was eating chips and drinking a soda on the steps outside a residential building in New Rochelle, New York, when ICE agents approached and began questioning him. Witness Brenda Figueroa, who recorded part of the encounter, described the detention as violent and said one agent who arrived later acted with particular aggression. Another witness said agents arrived in three unmarked vehicles, took a bystander's phone during the incident, and did not present a warrant despite repeated requests to do so.

Chief Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak ordered a habeas petitioner released after finding that ICE agents had violated an injunction issued by Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson requiring agents to meet probable cause requirements before making warrantless arrests. Varholak wrote that the case was 'one in a series' in which the Department of Homeland Security 'appears to have simply ignored the law and detained an individual in violation of the law,' noting the government could not defend the decision. He set a hearing for September 10 for the government to address its 'apparent repeated violation of the law.'

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents entered private property in Brownsville, Texas, to arrest a man, while the property owner demanded to see a judicial warrant. According to local news reports cited in the post, immigration authorities told the Brownsville Police Department they would be increasing their presence in the city.

According to an airline gate manager, two men in plain clothes identified themselves only as federal officers and asked staff to summon a passenger to the gate. When the manager asked for identification, the men revealed previously hidden badges and said they were ICE agents; after the passenger approached, they took her into custody. The manager asked to see a warrant, and the officers presented an administrative warrant rather than a judicial warrant before handcuffing the woman and driving away in an unmarked vehicle.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national living in Maryland with his U.S. citizen family, was unlawfully deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison in March 2025 despite a 2019 court order protecting him from removal due to gang violence risks. The Supreme Court unanimously ordered his return, and he was brought back to the U.S. in June 2025, after which federal prosecutors indicted him on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Costa Rica offered him refugee status in August 2025, but the administration instead pursued deporting him to African nations, including Liberia, which have resisted. A judge ordered his release from ICE custody in December 2025 after finding government lawyers misled the court, and later blocked his re-detention and deportation to Liberia. A federal judge dismissed the smuggling charges in May 2026 as vindictive retaliation for his legal challenge, but in August 2026 the Justice Department asked the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the charges, a move his attorneys are contesting.

A construction worker was detained by ICE agents while on the job at a construction site near Esperanza Homes in the Texas Heights area of Weslaco, Texas. A coworker told the agents he was from the area, but agents ignored him, entered the property without a warrant, and took the worker away. As the coworker filmed the encounter, agents reportedly threatened to accuse him of 'impeding' for documenting the incident.

Beaubrun Charles Ardouin, a naturalized U.S. citizen who drives for a transportation company shuttling workers, was pulled over near Topre America in Springfield, Ohio, in what DHS called a 'targeted enforcement' stop. Ardouin said he showed officers his ID and told them he was a citizen, but they demanded identification from his five Haitian passengers and threatened to break his van's windows if he didn't unlock them. All five men, who said they had pending asylum applications, were detained and booked into Butler County Jail under ICE holds; jail records identified them as Canot Monnimat, Albert Francois, Nero Adrien Toussaint, Cadet Vixama and Wislain Fenelon. The stop occurred amid broader ICE activity across Springfield, including arrests near a car wash in an area with several Haitian-owned businesses, with some detainees' mugshots showing them still in work uniforms. Butler County Jail held 17 people listing Haiti as their birth country under ICE detention as of one recent Monday, as many of Springfield's estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian residents became vulnerable to detention after a federal judge lifted a stay on the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti. Legal experts questioned whether officers had reasonable suspicion for the traffic stop, and DHS said several of the detained men have since been released or transferred.

Multiple armed ICE agents in at least four vehicles arrived at the Morris Law Group, an immigration law firm in North Natomas, claiming to have a list from Washington, D.C. listing the building's address as a primary mailing address for numerous people. The agents requested to tour the office for beds, stating they could return at 3 a.m. to break windows and enter if they received follow-up orders. Law firm owner Raissa Morris instructed her staff to deny entry without a warrant. After approximately one hour, building manager Daniel Azurduy arrived and told the agents they were trespassing; they left shortly after. UC Davis Law Professor Kevin Johnson noted the tactic was unprecedented and questioned its legality, stating agents would need a warrant to search for evidence.

Maria Perez, a Guatemalan asylum-seeker fleeing domestic violence, was arrested by ICE agents at her Nashville home on May 19, 2026, while preparing to take her two young children to a doctor's appointment. Attorneys said agents had come to serve a warrant on her husband but detained her instead, despite ICE policy generally barring detention of nursing mothers absent extraordinary circumstances. She was breastfeeding an infant and had a toddler with Down syndrome requiring ongoing medical care; the children were left in a neighbor's care without a formal plan, causing them to miss medical appointments. Perez, who has no criminal history, passed a credible fear interview, and had complied with immigration requirements since entering the U.S. in 2022, was held nearly 700 miles from home at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, where her sudden separation from her nursing infant compounded her diabetes. Advocacy groups including Sanctuary of the South, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, ACLU of Louisiana, Amnesty International, and the Kennedy Human Rights Center filed a civil rights complaint with DHS seeking her release. She was released on August 14, 2026, reunited with her children, and continues pursuing her asylum application.

Armelle Bondonga, a 21-year-old who came to the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of Congo as a child under her father's asylum case, was detained by ICE agents on August 12 during her marriage-based green card interview at the USCIS field office in Louisville. Her husband, U.S. citizen Terrance Bradshaw, and their 19-month-old U.S. citizen son were present; agents separated the couple, and Bradshaw left with their son. Bondonga had a final removal order from November 2025 but was pursuing residency through marriage, with Bradshaw's I-130 petition still pending. Her attorneys, including Arianit Osmani, filed a habeas corpus petition arguing agents lacked a warrant and unlawfully detained her, while federal officials described the arrest as a lawful targeted operation. Bondonga is active in community organizations including Future Ancestors and Empower Youth; dozens of community members and elected officials, including state representative Sadiqa Reynolds, rallied on her behalf, describing her as a dedicated volunteer with no criminal record. She was held at the Clark County jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana, as attorneys sought a stay of removal and prepared for a bond hearing.

Jimy Samuel Godoy Alfaro, an 18-year-old Honduran man, was confronted by ICE agents in the parking lot of a market in Columbia, Maryland, after agents mistakenly linked his vehicle to another person with a deportation order. When agents ordered him out of the car and tried to break his window, he drove off, striking an ICE agent who was later treated at a hospital for trauma and abrasions. Godoy Alfaro turned himself in to Howard County Police on hit-and-run related traffic charges and is being held without bond at the Howard County Detention Center, while ICE has lodged a detainer seeking custody of him.

Britney Ramirez Corona, a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE agents on Tidewater Drive along with her husband and brothers-in-law during a targeted operation. She was later released after showing her identification and documentation. At a protest that followed the arrests, Corona described her fear of ICE interactions, saying "I fear every day, I carry my registrations with me because I don't know how they're gonna treat me one day" and expressed shock that showing her I.D. did not prevent her detention.

Eric Ornelas, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, says ICE detained him after he recorded an immigration enforcement operation. According to Ornelas, ICE used him as bait to apprehend his father. ICE has not responded to media inquiries about the specific details of Ornelas' encounter.

John Phillips, a U.S. citizen and frequent traveler with TSA PreCheck, was handcuffed by ICE agents at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while boarding a Delta flight to Las Vegas. Delta employees had directed him to board last, citing technical issues, before agents stopped him on the jetway, pinned him against the wall, and handcuffed him despite his telling them he was a citizen. Agents held him for several minutes, using facial recognition on his phone and showing him a photo of a British national who shared his name and birthdate, before confirming his identity and releasing him to board his flight. Phillips said the experience was a "big awakening" that gave him new empathy for immigrants who fear being targeted by ICE. He is seeking clarification about Delta's role in the incident, including what information the airline may have provided to ICE. DHS acknowledged the case, saying the agency takes responsibility for protecting the public and conducting operations professionally and lawfully.

A Black DoorDash delivery driver was arrested by masked ICE agents on a Jersey City street while working. According to the post, the agents did not provide a warrant or demonstrate they had legal reason to detain him. The arrest occurred days after another person died in ICE custody at Delaney Hall in Newark.

Jose Eliezer Martinez-Andino, a 20-year-old Honduran who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2020 and held Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, was detained by immigration officers in March while traveling through Montana for his job as an auto mechanic in Raleigh, North Carolina. Despite holding legal status that should have protected him from removal, he was held across multiple detention centers for over 10 days without access to his attorneys and was coerced into signing voluntary departure paperwork he says was never properly explained. He was deported to Honduras on April 10, separating him from his young U.S. citizen daughter. Federal Judge Beryl Howell found he had likely been denied due process and ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. He was flown to McAllen, Texas in August but was then held for weeks by CBP and ICE at the Port Isabel Detention Center before his lawyers reached a settlement securing his release, allowing him to return to Raleigh to reunite with his family.

A September 30 ICE raid in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood detained dozens of Venezuelan migrants, with officials claiming they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang designated as a terrorist organization. A ProPublica investigation found that many of those arrested had no criminal records and the government provided no evidence tying them to terrorism or gang membership. No criminal charges have been filed against any of the 37 individuals detained in the raid.

The ACLU of Ohio filed a federal lawsuit alleging that ICE agents repeatedly violated federal law by making warrantless arrests without determining flight risk, detained individuals for weeks or months, and mistreated detainees. The lawsuit details cases involving people with valid visas, work permits, and U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico, suggesting possible racial profiling. The plaintiffs seek class action status and want courts to stop warrantless arrests and require compensation for those improperly detained.

Esteban Rios Sosa, a Mexican national who has lived in Oceanside, California since 1988, was detained with his wife by ICE at the gate of Camp Pendleton while visiting his pregnant daughter, who lives on base with her active-duty Marine husband. Rios Sosa's son, a former Marine Sergeant, said the family held deferred action status tied to his wife's pending U visa petition and had valid work permits that should have shielded them from enforcement. After being fitted with ankle monitors and told to report for a routine ICE check-in, Rios Sosa was instead taken to a federal building basement and deported to Mexico within 24 hours, without notice that his status had been revoked. His son has accused ICE and DHS of discrimination and false accusations of criminal activity, and the family sued the agencies for violating federal law and due process rights. A federal judge later ordered the government to immediately facilitate Rios Sosa's return to the U.S. and restore his immigration status.

Jesus Verde Hernandez, a Worden man who has lived in Montana for 10 years with his partner of 14 years and three young children, was arrested on July 30 by Customs and Border Patrol without a warrant or probable cause while agents searched for another man they said resembled him. He was transported between Lewistown, Jordan, Malta, Havre, and Great Falls over 30 hours and held in the Cascade County Detention Center. Federal authorities attempted to coerce him into self-deporting himself. Chief District Judge Brian Morris ordered his release, finding the detention violated his constitutional rights and that the government had no statutory authority to detain him. The judge rejected the government's argument that Hernandez must exhaust administrative remedies, saying the process was "deficient from the outset." His attorneys at Upper Seven Law are seeking class certification, identifying 17 people similarly unlawfully detained in the same facility.

A 46-year-old Ecuadorian national who has lived in the United States since 2003 and established community roots in Philadelphia with two U.S. citizen children was detained by DHS/ICE on July 29, 2026, after officers showed him a photograph of a different individual they were seeking. Despite his denial that he was the person depicted, officers detained him anyway at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. The court granted his habeas corpus petition on August 1, 2026, finding that his detention without a bond hearing violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, ordered his immediate release, and temporarily enjoined re-detention for seven days pending a proper bond hearing.

Ibrahim Mohammed, a 44-year-old Ethiopian national who came to the U.S. in 2014, was granted protection from deportation in 2024 under the Convention Against Torture after an immigration judge found he would likely face torture or persecution if returned to Ethiopia. Despite federal court orders in February and March requiring his release, roughly 10 ICE agents arrested him a third time on July 28, 2025, at his Baltimore-area apartment after falsely telling him and his attorney his ankle monitor was malfunctioning. Agents shoved his head into a car and gave him documents referencing Eswatini, a country ICE had previously tried unsuccessfully to deport him to. A judge again ordered his immediate release the same day, and U.S. District Judge John deGravelles later held then-ICE deputy field office director Vernon Liggins, who ordered the arrest on his last day in that role, in civil contempt, ordering ICE to pay Mohammed's attorney's fees and $180 for lost time. Mohammed, who spent 13 months in and out of ICE custody, testified the repeated detentions caused him nightmares and led his landlord to force him to move out.

Elzon Lemus, a 23-year-old electrician and U.S. citizen from Brentwood, New York, was stopped and detained by ICE and Homeland Security agents while riding in a passenger seat on his way to work in Westbury. Agents told him he "looks like somebody we are looking for" but refused to identify themselves or specify who they were searching for. When Lemus refused to provide ID without identifying information from the agents, he was handcuffed and held for 20-25 minutes while they confiscated his phone; they eventually found his ID in his pockets. His attorney, Fred Brewington, is calling the incident racial profiling and a breach of federal civil rights, while state assemblyman Philip Ramo demanded a Department of Justice investigation.

Elaine Miles, an Indigenous actor best known for roles in 'Northern Exposure,' 'Smoke Signals,' and 'The Last of Us,' was detained by four ICE agents at a bus stop in Redmond, Washington, while walking to Target. When she presented her tribal ID from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation—a form of identification recognized by federal agencies—the agents called it fake and claimed anyone could make one. Miles said the agents did not identify themselves when asked for names and badge numbers, and attempted to take her phone when she tried to call the tribal enrollment office to verify her ID. The agents left after a fifth agent whistled them back to their vehicles. Miles's son and uncle were also detained by ICE agents who initially rejected their tribal IDs before being released.

Jesus Acevedo Sanchez, a 39-year-old father of two U.S. citizen daughters from Mexico, was arrested by ICE agents on June 11 outside Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in East Baltimore while dropping off his children. Unmarked ICE vehicles cut off his SUV at Dundalk Avenue and O'Donnell Street; armed agents in plain clothes with guns drawn broke his driver's side window. Believing he was being carjacked and fearing for his children's safety, Acevedo Sanchez drove to the school seeking protection. He sustained injuries including bleeding from his leg and face during the extraction. His partner, Adriana Gavilan Sanchez, 37, a mother of two U.S. citizen daughters from Mexico, was also detained by ICE that same day outside the school. She reported feeling terrified and experiencing nightmares following her detention. U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin ruled that ICE lacked probable cause and violated due process in Acevedo Sanchez's arrest, calling it a "stomach churner" and stating his detention was not justified. Judge Rubin ordered his release from Farmville Detention Facility. His attorney Rachel Girod said the judge reached the right result, noting that any other outcome would have been "rubber-stamping lawlessness." U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox ordered Gavilan Sanchez's release from immigration detention, and she was freed on July 15 from Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia.

Dr. Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow and peace scholar at Georgetown University, was arrested without a warrant by ICE agents in March 2025 after expressing pro-Palestinian views on social media. He was held in multiple detention facilities for nearly six weeks and subjected to conditions including denial of religious accommodations. A federal court ordered his release on bail. The Trump administration attempted to re-detain him, arguing federal courts lacked jurisdiction to review his case. In July 2026, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration's re-detention attempt, upholding habeas corpus protections that allow immigrants to challenge their detention in federal court.

Luis, a 25-year-old tile installer from Ecuador, was arrested by ICE agents in the parking lot of Tanger Outlets in Deer Park while sitting in his car. ICE agents ran his out-of-state license plates without his knowledge, identified him as an Ecuadorian citizen, obtained a warrant, and arrested him within 20 minutes without giving him an opportunity to explain that he had a valid work permit and federal status protecting him from deportation. A judge later freed him from custody. Luis's arrest occurred as part of a broader enforcement pattern: Newsday's investigation found ICE has arrested over 2,000 people on Long Island since Trump's second term began, primarily through parking lot surveillance and traffic stops rather than coordinated raids. At least 84 of 400 reviewed cases involved immigrants arrested while using vehicles, despite New York state law barring ICE from accessing DMV records.

Garnet Smith, a 44-year-old U.S. Army veteran originally from Jamaica, was released from the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma on July 21, 2026, after spending over nine months in ICE detention. During his detention, Smith reported experiencing sexual assault by a GEO Group guard during a pat-down search, as well as inadequate medical care for a broken hand and poor detention conditions including inedible food and foul drinking water. A federal judge granted Smith's habeas corpus petition on July 20, finding that his earlier bond hearing violated his due process rights and that his prolonged detention was unlawful. Smith continues to fight a deportation order to Jamaica while advocates call for an investigation into the alleged sexual assault.

Chantal Alejandra Morales Rojas, a 27-year-old Ecuadorian au pair and software developer, was detained by plainclothes ICE agents at Denver International Airport while boarding a Southwest Airlines flight to Oakland. She had entered the U.S. lawfully on a J-1 exchange visitor visa in early 2023 and, before that visa expired, filed an immigration application allowing her to remain with federal authorization while her case was pending, according to her attorney Laura Lichter. ICE alleged she had overstayed her visa, but Lichter said Rojas "followed the rules of her program" and worked legally under federal employment authorization as a software developer for a recycling app company in Oakland. Agents in civilian clothing removed her from the jetway and placed her in a Homeland Security van as friends and fellow passengers watched, and the arrest was captured on video that circulated widely amid a broader increase in ICE enforcement at U.S. airports. She was transferred to the Aurora ICE Processing Center, where a federal immigration judge later ordered her release on a $3,000 bond. The family she worked for said, "She is a part of my family. She has never hurt anyone and just lives a quiet life. She came here legally and tried to do everything right."

ICE agents in Lakewood, Washington detained 23-year-old Venezuelan citizen Moises Velasquez while searching for a Mexican national with a final deportation order who drove the same make and model car. Velasquez, who entered the U.S. legally through a CBP appointment in 2023, was paroled, obtained employment authorization, and was awaiting a December 2026 asylum hearing when agents broke his car window and arrested him outside the barber shop where he works. A federal magistrate judge called the arrest 'egregious,' finding officers failed to verify his identity or license plate before detaining him, and granted his habeas corpus petition; he was released from the Tacoma ICE detention facility. His attorney said Velasquez has no criminal convictions and had built a life in the community with his pregnant partner.

A non-citizen from El Salvador who entered the United States in 2021 was arrested and detained by ICE agents outside his apartment building in San Francisco on July 17, 2026. ICE agents arrested him without presenting a warrant at the time, claiming it was at their office. He has no criminal record, filed an asylum application, received work authorization, and is the sole provider for his pregnant wife and two young children. The court granted his temporary restraining order requiring immediate release and prohibiting re-detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing where the government must prove by clear and convincing evidence that detention is necessary to prevent flight or protect the public.

ICE agents in Passaic, New Jersey detained a U.S. citizen who repeatedly asked them to verify his identification. According to a neighbor who filmed the incident, the man told the federal agents who he was and pleaded with them to check his ID, but agents forced him to the ground, handcuffed him, and placed him in their vehicle without verifying his identity.

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25- or 26-year-old Colombian national with legal work authorization, was fatally shot by ICE officer David Brouillette on July 13, 2026, during a mistaken traffic stop near a laundromat in Biddeford, Maine. He was working an early-morning DoorDash delivery shift when agents conducting surveillance on a different address approached his vehicle and fired five shots through the windshield, with his 3-year-old daughter witnessing the shooting. DHS said the vehicle attempted to flee and the officer fired fearing for public safety, a claim disputed by witnesses; Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed Guerrero was not the intended target. He lived with his partner Karolina Rojas and also worked as a veterinary clinic cleaner; she described him as 'a hard worker devoted to his family' who 'always dreamed big' for their daughter. His death prompted hundreds of protesters to gather and led to inquiries by the Maine Attorney General's Office, the FBI, and the DHS Office of Inspector General, with Democratic lawmakers, including Congressman Bennie Thompson, calling for an investigation into the officer's hiring history.