Human Impact Project

Gustavo Barrera Reyes was also arrested by ICE officers in Seaside around the same time as another local resident. According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Barrera Reyes entered the United States without authorization in 2014 and now faces removal proceedings.

Martin Anguiano, 63, who has owned and operated Guadalajara Taco Shop in Seaside for 23 years, was arrested by ICE officers on September 10 while picking up supplies at a Safeway. Officers cited a 1993 removal order, after which Anguiano was deported and later returned to the country; his family says he has faced no charges since and is now questioning the validity of the warrant ICE is using to hold him. His wife, Michelle, said she is struggling to understand what happened and described him as a hardworking father, grandfather and husband known throughout the community, while Steve Haugen, owner of the building housing the restaurant, called him "the last person you'd think would be arrested." Anguiano is being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, where his family says conditions are poor, and a GoFundMe started by his daughter has raised more than $14,000 for bills and legal fees.

The petitioner is currently held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. He filed an ex parte application seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the Department of Homeland Security from transferring him to another detention facility. The federal court denied the motion, finding that he failed to meet the procedural and substantive requirements for ex parte relief under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65. The court also held that it lacked jurisdiction to enjoin DHS from transferring him under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii), citing precedent that ICE has authority to determine detention locations and transfer individuals between facilities. The case has been placed on an expedited schedule for further resolution. The document does not specify the petitioner's nationality, family circumstances, employment, or the circumstances of his initial detention.

Anthony, a Zimbabwean man in his forties, was detained by ICE last year after crossing the US-Mexico border following a long and dangerous journey through Central America. He was subsequently deported to Cameroon, a country with which he has no ties, and now spends much of his time reading the Bible for comfort while facing uncertainty about his future.

Peter, a 51-year-old Kenyan man and country music fan whose son serves in the US Navy, lived in Dallas, Texas for 25 years before being deported to Cameroon, only learning his destination midway through the flight. After arriving, he contracted malaria and spent three days in the hospital on respiratory support. He has since had an interview with the UN refugee agency, which could grant him refugee status, though Cameroon may still decline to accept the outcome.

Ayana, 40, was born in a refugee camp in Sudan to an Eritrean mother and Ethiopian father and lived legally in the United States since she was two years old, building a life in San Diego where she studied business and worked as a nursing assistant and mother. ICE agents detained her while she was renewing her residence permit, and she was flown to Cameroon in shackles, a country with which she has no personal ties or documentation. She said a US judge had found her fear of returning to her family's home countries credible, but she was nonetheless removed to Cameroon under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy, and now lives in fear and uncertainty in Yaounde with limited support.

Kenis Alberto López (also reported as Adalberto López), a 44-year-old Nicaraguan man held in U.S. immigration detention for about eight months, was deported to the Central African Republic on a flight departing Aug. 28-29 from Texas. He alleges ICE agents shot him with rubber or pepper-ball projectiles, injuring him, then bound, hooded, and dragged him before tying him to a stretcher to force him onto the plane, restraining him for roughly 24 hours. He told the Los Angeles Times he pleaded with agents, saying, 'I'd rather die here than in Africa.' The flight carried around 100 deportees, including migrants from Iran, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, with López traveling alongside fellow Nicaraguans Luis Carlos Mendoza Santamaría and Isaac Cruz. López says he has no criminal record, had received a deportation stay in 2024, and cannot return to Nicaragua due to danger there, though DHS says he re-entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was later released under the Biden administration. He and the other Nicaraguan men are now confined under police custody in a housing complex in Bangui with roughly 40 other migrants, facing mobility restrictions and limited access to water and electricity. ICE has not responded to the mistreatment allegations.

Chang Yeon Cho, 71, a Gardena, California resident known as 'Auntie Jo' who ran a clothing alteration business with her husband Jongs Soo Kim, was detained by ICE in June during her permanent residency interview despite having no criminal convictions. Her detention reportedly stemmed from an old, uncharged arrest linked to a dispute with a customer over unpaid alteration fees. Cho, who speaks Korean and Portuguese but not English after years living in Brazil, was physically restrained on her first night in custody following a communication breakdown, then collapsed and was hospitalized for eight days; the Korean consulate attributed this to low blood pressure and vomiting caused by stress and unfamiliar food. She is held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, where her bond request was denied on August 25 and she received a final order of removal. The Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles has visited her multiple times, and a GoFundMe campaign has raised over $20,000 toward a $24,000 goal for her legal expenses.

Nelson Contreras-Gelves, a 35-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker who arrived in the U.S. in 2022, was detained by ICE in Philadelphia on June 27, 2026, just a week after his wedding reception with wife Ariel Whaley of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. He had been following all required immigration procedures at the time of his arrest. Contreras-Gelves worked as a distribution associate at Mighty Writers, a nonprofit in New Garden Township, where colleagues described him as 'irreplaceable' and part of their extended family. He was held for about three weeks at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia before being transferred to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, where he faced repeated bond denials and described scalding shower water, insect infestations, poor food, and inadequate medical care. A crowdfunding campaign raised more than $38,000 to help cover legal costs and household expenses. He was unexpectedly released on September 10, 2026, and now wears an ankle monitor, is restricted to travel within Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, and must attend frequent check-ins.

Maria Rosales, a 32-year-old DACA recipient who came to the U.S. from Colombia as a young child and has lived in Florida for nearly three decades, was detained without warrant by ICE agents at Logan Airport on July 10, 2026, while returning home after a trip to Boston. She works as a dermatologist's assistant treating skin cancer patients and founded a nonprofit color guard organization that provides performing arts opportunities to young people in the Orlando area, with friends and colleagues describing her as a dedicated community leader. ICE cited a 2017 removal order from a New Mexico immigration checkpoint stop that Rosales says she was never properly informed of, and her attorney contends the warrant used to justify her detention may have been fabricated after she was already in custody. She was held for 10 days at ICE's Burlington, Massachusetts facility, where she reported inconsistent access to showers, food, water, and medication, and rooms holding as many as eight women at a time. A federal judge ordered her release after finding ICE failed to comply with statutory detention procedures, and she subsequently filed a lawsuit against the agency, which a judge refused to dismiss in September.

Min Khant Zaw, a Rohingya and Kaman activist and asylum seeker from Myanmar, was detained by ICE officers at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in July 2026 while returning from a West Coast trip visiting his grandparents. He spent seven weeks at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena before being released on Sept. 9 on a $40,000 bond. Zaw, a computer science graduate researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology, fled Myanmar in 2019 after his family, who are Rohingya political dissidents, warned him not to return amid violence against the Rohingya, and he filed for asylum in 2020.

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.

Wilfredo Giron, a construction worker and father, was taken into ICE custody after someone posing as a potential client contacted him about a job, luring him into an encounter that resulted in his detention. He has been held for more than two weeks, leaving behind his wife, Rachel, who is pregnant, and their 2-year-old son. The family is raising funds for immigration attorney fees, legal filings, and a potential bond to secure his release while his case continues.

On the morning of September 9th, two family members—an aunt's husband and her son-in-law—were detained by ICE agents outside their home as they left for work. The men had lived in the U.S. for nearly 13 years and have three children between them, one of whom was born in the U.S. They were taken to the Buffalo detention center, where they were pressured into signing voluntary departure forms, and were later transferred to a facility in Louisiana. One of the men has heart problems requiring five medications nightly, and one reported experiencing abuse in custody; family members say they are unsure if he is receiving needed medical care. ICE confiscated the men's passports, leaving the family without a way to relocate, and the wives have had only brief phone calls with the detained men since their arrest.

The petitioner is a citizen of Nepal who entered the United States without authorization roughly four years before this order. In August 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A) pending his removal proceedings. He filed a habeas corpus petition seeking immediate release or, alternatively, a bond hearing. The court held that binding Fifth Circuit precedent forecloses his statutory argument, as § 1225(b)(2)(A) mandates detention without bond for unadmitted individuals like him throughout removal proceedings. The court also rejected his due process claims, finding both that a precedential stay order forecloses such claims and that, independently, his detention does not violate procedural or substantive due process. The court further noted that any prior release on recognizance under a different statute does not exempt him from mandatory detention here. His Fourth Amendment argument was likewise rejected. The court denied the habeas petition and all pending motions as moot.

Tareq Zakarneh, a 44-year-old Palestinian man who lived in Portland and Vancouver, Washington for more than a decade, has been in ICE detention since May 2024, mostly at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. He moved to the U.S. on a student visa in 2013 to attend Portland State University and later married a U.S. citizen, but lost his legal status after a divorce in 2017, when an immigration court found the marriage was not entered in good faith. Zakarneh said ICE agents beat him and broke his teeth on Sept. 9 after he refused to board a deportation flight to the West Bank via Tel Aviv, restraining him on the floor for four hours without access to water or a bathroom, leaving his hand and shoulder swollen and numb while he received only ibuprofen. Advocates and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden have raised concerns about his treatment and the danger he could face if deported amid escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

A man was arrested by ICE agents alongside Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers near 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Miami Beach. According to a witness account, two unmarked vehicles and a Florida Fish & Wildlife truck were used in the operation, and children were reportedly present as a school crossing guard had to stop traffic during the arrest. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has a 287(g) agreement with ICE authorizing its officers to conduct immigration arrests.

Marianela Pujol and Nelson José Díaz, a Venezuelan couple originally from Ciudad Ojeda, Zulia, were detained by ICE agents on the night of Sunday, September 6, while stopped at a Wawa charging station on 87th Avenue in Doral, Florida, to recharge their electric vehicle. The couple, who work as insurance agents, entered the U.S. legally in 2021 on a visa and have a still-pending asylum application. Their 21-year-old daughter, Daniela Pujol, said an officer told her mother there was no specific infraction but that she was being taken into custody because of the pending asylum case, leaving Daniela alone in the country. Family members said the couple has no criminal record, and Daniela has sought legal representation, appealed to a local council member and advocacy organizations, and started a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal defense costs.

Ernestina Pavlovsky, a 33-year-old Argentine personal trainer who lived in Aspen, Colorado for 13 years, was detained by plainclothes ICE agents at Miami International Airport on August 1 while returning from visiting family. She was held for several days in Miramar/Pompano Beach, Florida, where her partner said constant lighting felt like 'a torture chamber,' before being shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles and driven overnight to the CoreCivic-run Laredo Processing Center in Texas. She has no criminal record, had entered the U.S. on a tourist visa, and had a stalled application to regularize her status after a divorce from a U.S. citizen. She and her family described conditions at the Laredo facility including rats, cockroaches, ants, mold, contaminated water, restricted bottled-water access, and sleep deprivation from overnight guard patrols. A judge initially denied her bond over flight-risk concerns, but at a September 1 hearing granted her request for voluntary departure. She remains in ICE custody in Texas awaiting a flight back to Argentina, and supporters have raised roughly $50,000 through a GoFundMe campaign for her legal costs.

César David Miranda Pinedo, a Venezuelan father with a pending asylum case, was detained by ICE agents in South Florida on August 25 while returning from the pharmacy with medication for his 6-year-old daughter, who had been treated at a hospital the night before for a severe ear infection. His wife, Paola Álvarez, said he texted her 'ICE detained me' and left the medication and their car at Central Park before being taken into custody. Miranda Pinedo entered the U.S. legally in 2018 and had waited about eight years for a decision on his asylum application. He was transferred to the Krome Detention Center, and his attorney filed a habeas corpus petition arguing he should not be held without a formal charging document. His wife, whose own immigration status is also pending, said she has prepared a legal power of attorney for their two daughters in case she too is detained. Immigrant rights organizations in South Florida are calling for prosecutorial discretion so he can continue his immigration case while free to care for his daughter.