Human Impact Project

Hugo Ávila Villegas, 40, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Hidalgo, Mexico, says he was held by federal agents in his vehicle on the morning of August 31 near Power and Thomas streets in Mesa, Arizona, despite showing them his U.S. passport. He said agents told him they had a removal order against him and showed him a photo of a suspect born in 1983, though Ávila Villegas was born in 1986 and said the man in the photo did not resemble him. He said agents deflated one of his vehicle's tires before leaving, and about a month later he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, reporting headaches, dizziness and insomnia. A civil rights attorney who reviewed the case said the order agents placed on his windshield may not have been valid and that the officers' conduct could warrant investigation.

ICE officers arrested Jose Saul Canas-Guandique, a 49-year-old Salvadoran national, in Falls Church, Virginia on August 31, 2026. He is wanted in Colorado on felony charges including child sexual assault, solicitation of child prostitution, and using the internet to lure a child, and had previously been arrested by the Glenwood Springs Police Department in Colorado on March 7, 2024. He had lawfully entered the U.S. in 2004 but remained after his permitted stay expired, and he is now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and the Colorado criminal justice process.

Gilberto Jacobo Mata was taken into ICE custody on August 31, 2026 while on his way to work. He had lived in the United States for 14 years and was the sole income provider for his four children, ages 1 1/2 to 14. Family members describe him as a hardworking man who treated others with kindness and are raising funds to cover legal fees and support his children.

The petitioner was detained at a facility in or near Vinton, Texas, though his exact facility and immediate custodian had not been reliably confirmed to him or his supporters at the time of filing. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, along with a motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent his removal from the country and to prevent his transfer outside the Western District of Texas without advance notice. The court found it lacked jurisdiction to stay his removal because such claims are barred under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g) as directly connected to execution of a removal order. The court did find it had jurisdiction over the underlying habeas petition itself, since it was filed in the district of confinement and named the facility administrator as respondent. The court noted that its jurisdiction would not be lost even if he were transferred to another facility after filing. The motion for a temporary restraining order was denied in full.

A man held at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention under 8 U.S.C. §§ 1225 and 1226, seeking release or, alternatively, a bond hearing. He argued that the government's interpretation of these statutes to deny him a bond hearing was unlawful. The court found this dispute had already been resolved in his favor by a recent Tenth Circuit decision interpreting the same statutory provisions. The court granted the petition in part, ordering that he receive a bond hearing within seven days at which the government must bear the burden of proving his continued detention is justified. The court also enjoined the government from denying him bond on the basis that he is detained under § 1225(b), and barred his removal from the District of Colorado except pursuant to a final removal order, in order to preserve its jurisdiction over the case.

Victor Salgado Araujo, 44, was detained by ICE on July 7, 2026, after witnessing an ICE agent fatally shoot his brother, Houston homebuilder Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, while the two drove their construction crew to a job site. He was held for 54 days at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center, where he missed his brother's funeral. The three detained witnesses filed habeas petitions and sought U visas, and reported pressure from ICE to self-deport while in custody. Victor was released in late August 2026, the last of the three witnesses freed, and reunited with his family. His attorney said he is expected to testify before the Harris County grand jury investigating the shooting while pursuing a U visa and facing separate removal proceedings.

ICE Phoenix arrested two men during targeted enforcement actions in northern Arizona the week of August 2. A 50-year-old Mexican national was arrested near Prescott after fleeing briefly on foot; his 1996 deportation order had been reinstated multiple times following repeated illegal reentries. A 28-year-old Nepali national, who entered the U.S. legally in 2016 before overstaying his visa, was arrested near Flagstaff following 2023 convictions tied to a 2022 arrest and remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

A Venezuelan family, including a father, a mother who was seven months pregnant, and their 7-year-old son, was arrested by ICE during an interview for DHS's self-deportation program, according to Fwd.us president Todd Schulte. Rather than assisting the family in leaving the country as promised, DHS incarcerated them, and the mother has reportedly not received proper medical care while detained at the Dilley family detention facility.

Julio Alfredo De Ávila Hernández, who worked as a driver in Guadalajara, disappeared in Jalisco, Mexico, ten years ago after a cartel forced him into running packages and threatened to kill his family if he quit. His mother, Blanca Hernández, 59, says a hitman began following Julio and that he had no way out. Julio's parents and siblings later fled to the United States and applied for asylum, but an immigration judge ruled in April that they must continue their asylum process in Ecuador, Honduras, or Guatemala instead of remaining in the U.S. The family has filed an appeal to try to stay; Julio's sister, Alondra De Ávila, 26, who crossed the border with her four-year-old son in 2024 to turn themselves in to immigration authorities, said, "We want to stay here. I don't want my son to live what I lived."

Sae Joon Park, 57, a Korean-born US Army veteran awarded a Purple Heart after being shot in the spine during the 1989 US invasion of Panama, self-deported to South Korea last year after ICE threatened to detain him at a routine immigration check-in over old criminal convictions. Park, who moved to the US at age 7 to join his mother, later settled in Hawaii, where he raised his two adult children, cared for his elderly mother and worked at the Aloha Kia auto dealership before his removal order led to deportation. He developed untreated PTSD after his military service, leading to a crack cocaine addiction, a 2007 drug possession conviction in Queens, N.Y., and a later bail-jumping conviction after he was apprehended in Hawaii and extradited to New York. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned Park for the bail-jumping conviction last week, one of six pardons she granted after his legal team petitioned since January; his attorneys said the pardon does not guarantee his return, and Park remains in Busan, South Korea, separated from his family.

Nexan Aroldo Asencio Corado, a Guatemalan carpenter and small business owner who had lived in Milford, Massachusetts for about a decade, was arrested by masked ICE agents in his backyard on May 30, 2025, as his young twin sons, Jhon and Damian, watched from a window. His wife, Christina Toledo, a U.S. citizen, said agents told her they were looking for his brother-in-law and dismissed the couple's approved I-130 petition as possibly fake. Toledo said Asencio Corado, who has no criminal record, spent several nights in custody sleeping on a bathroom floor without adequate food or water, and the family was denied bond; relatives launched a GoFundMe to cover legal costs. The twin boys, who have partial hearing loss and speech delays, needed therapy after witnessing the arrest. Asencio Corado was deported to Guatemala months later after his pending application to remain in the country was set aside. In December 2025, Toledo and the boys traveled to his home village near the Salvadoran border to reunite with him before returning to Milford, and Toledo has since relocated to Florida to be near her mother while the family decides whether to move permanently to Guatemala.

Héctor Zelaya, who had lived in Memphis, Tennessee for 21 years, was detained by ICE agents around 1:00 a.m. on August 30, 2026, while eating a baleada at a local business during an immigration enforcement operation. His stepdaughter, Ashley Martínez, said agents pushed him into a parking lot and detained him without an arrest warrant, and that the family believes the operation targeted the business's registration rather than its customers. Martínez said Zelaya has an active visa case, has rheumatoid arthritis, and has supported his family by helping put her and her siblings through school. The family launched a GoFundMe campaign seeking $9,000 to hire an immigration attorney.

Kwesi Menezes, a 35-year-old lawful permanent resident who had lived in the U.S. since age two and grew up in Burlington County, New Jersey, was found unresponsive in Guyana on August 30, months after being deported there in April. His family believes he overdosed on medication prescribed for schizophrenia, a condition he had struggled with for years. Menezes had been arrested by ICE in Mount Holly, New Jersey, in connection with a prior conviction for assaulting a police officer during what his family described as a mental-health episode, and was later transferred into ICE detention and placed on DHS's 'Worst of the Worst Criminal Aliens Arrested' list in December. His mother and sister said his psychiatric condition was not adequately considered during his immigration proceedings and questioned whether he understood what was happening to him while in custody. Relatives describe him as a gifted singer and dancer who was always willing to help others, and are working to bring his remains back to the U.S. for burial.

Gustavo Parraga Durán, a Venezuelan journalist who has been seeking asylum in the U.S. for nearly a decade, remains in ICE custody in Washington state after being detained during a traffic stop in Utah. His wife says he has no criminal charges or even traffic tickets, and the family has lost income and risks losing their home. Relatives and the Association of Venezuelan Journalists Abroad have launched a fundraising campaign to cover legal representation and a possible bond, while expressing fear that he could be deported to Venezuela given his past political activity with Voluntad Popular and his work as a journalist. Parraga Durán, a graduate of the Universidad Bicentenaria de Aragua, is married and the father of two young daughters.

Khalil, a 24-year-old Afghan man, was deported to the Central African Republic despite having been granted 'withholding of removal' by a U.S. immigration judge in August 2025 due to the threat of Taliban persecution. His attorney, Alma David, said his family in Afghanistan received direct threats from the Taliban because of his brothers' support for U.S. military operations—one brother served in the Afghan National Army, while another, trained as a pilot by the U.S. military, was killed by the Taliban. A retired Marine colonel who supervised his brother said he fears Khalil could be killed if eventually returned to Afghanistan. Khalil crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2024 and was held in ICE custody throughout his time in the U.S., but did not qualify for asylum under a Biden-era policy requiring migrants to seek protection in other countries first. He was among 12 Afghans on a flight to Bangui that also carried eight Iranians and individuals from Nepal and Nicaragua—the second such flight to the Central African Republic since June, when roughly two dozen migrants, including an Iranian woman fearing persecution, were sent there.

Milo Yiannopoulos, a 41-year-old British national and former Breitbart editor who has also worked as a spokesman for Kanye West, was detained by ICE agents at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on August 27. He was transferred to an ICE processing facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, and deported to the United Kingdom roughly 24 hours later. DHS said he legally entered the U.S. in May 2019 on an O-1 visa 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 disputed this, saying he held a valid O-1 visa and later obtained 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 said he 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 in the speed of his removal.

Yan Vazquez (also referred to as Yan Vasquez Hidalgo) and his husband Alex Gonzalez (Alex Ramirez Gonzalez), a married Cuban couple working in environmental services at SUNY Upstate Medical University, were detained by ICE in October 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 based on persecution related to their sexuality, and held valid work authorization while pursuing permanent residency. 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, 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 filed an appeal, and the case remains pending. They were later released on bond, with one required to wear an ankle monitor, and have returned to their jobs and families in Syracuse. A coworker, Mohamed Fofana, remains in ICE custody in Texas.

An operation at the El Corralón bar in Memphis's Berclair neighborhood, which began just before 1 a.m. on August 30 as a state-led raid targeting illegal gambling and drugs, turned into the city's largest documented immigration sweep. State and federal agents, including Tennessee Highway Patrol and ICE, shut off the music, questioned patrons about their legal status, and restrained many with cable ties before busing 121 people to ICE detention facilities. The Department of Homeland Security later named the operation "Operation Corral Light," and Memphis Mayor Paul Young said local police had no role in planning it; officials have released criminal histories for only five of those detained.

The petitioner, who was lawfully admitted to the U.S. on a B-2 visa in March 2025, has resided in the country since then and applied for asylum in January 2026, a claim that remains pending. On August 29, 2026, she was detained after the vehicle she was riding in as a passenger, driven by her boyfriend, was stopped; the document states no process was provided to her during the detention. She is now in removal proceedings and has been held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. She has a history of breast cancer and takes related medication, and imaging taken since her detention showed a mass or tumor in her breast, yet for more than two weeks she received no follow-up care or prescribed medication. She filed a habeas corpus petition and a TRO application seeking release, arguing her detention violated due process. The government did not respond to the petition despite a court-ordered deadline, and the court granted the petition, ordering her immediate release on reasonable conditions without monetary bond.

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.'