Human Impact Project

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 starting in May 2025 despite presenting a valid Alabama REAL ID and Social Security card. 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 site, dismissing his ID as fake, and in a third encounter officers followed him home, pulled him from his vehicle, tackled him, and shackled him. Never charged with a crime, he 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. Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock ruled that ICE likely violated his constitutional rights through warrantless entry and detention, and temporarily barred the agency from continuing those practices while the case proceeds. Garcia Venegas called the ruling 'a huge blow to lawless enforcement practices.'

A Senegalese woman deported to Ghana under a third-country removal arrangement was sent, along with other detainees, to a remote military camp with little electricity or outside contact after Ghanaian officials reacted angrily to viral video of another deportee being forcibly removed. Fearing she would be returned to Senegal, she attempted suicide by drinking bleach and was hospitalized before being deported back to Senegal anyway.

Gisèle, who fled fighting between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, was deported by US authorities to Cameroon under a third-country removal agreement. Suffering from a thyroid condition, she was never able to obtain her medication at the Yaoundé migrant shelter despite repeated requests, and after five months there she abandoned plans to seek asylum in Cameroon and agreed to be sent back to the DR Congo out of concern her health would worsen.

Isatou, a pseudonym for a woman from Guinea who migrated to the U.S. to escape a forced marriage, was removed to Ghana as a third-country destination and subsequently sent back to Guinea, her country of origin. Months after her removal, she said she has had to hide out of fear of encountering her family. "I don’t go out anymore, I’m scared of coming across my family," she said. "They ruined my life."

José Serrano Salgado, Ecuador's former interior minister under President Rafael Correa, fled to Miami in 2021 and later applied for asylum. ICE arrested him outside his Miami home in mid-2025, and he spent nearly a year detained at Krome North Service Processing Center, where a source said he lost about 25 pounds and his prediabetes worsened into diabetes. In May 2026, an immigration judge denied his asylum claim but granted deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture after he showed he faced torture if returned to Ecuador. Three Trump-appointed appeals judges reversed that protection within a day of reviewing the case, and Serrano was deported to Ecuador within hours, sent on a private jet in late August 2026. He now faces murder charges over the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and is held in a maximum-security prison, where a source said he has been abused, including having his fingernails smashed, being denied food, and being told footage of him stripped naked would be shared with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, a political rival of his former boss.

Kevin was detained and later transferred to ICE detention in Virginia, according to a GoFundMe campaign organized by his friend Dani Lagraba. His family and friends have been navigating legal and immigration challenges connected to his case and upcoming court proceedings. The fundraiser aims to help cover legal representation, attorney fees, and other case-related expenses as his family supports him through the process.

A crowd gathered at the scene of the ICE shooting in Austin throughout the afternoon, and officers fired pepper ball-like projectiles at the crowd after some demonstrators threw rocks and water bottles at law enforcement while people were leaving the area. A 14-year-old boy was among those affected by the chemical agent, according to his father, who spoke to Austin police. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson called for an independent investigation into the earlier shooting, citing the chaos it caused in the city.

Javier Rueda, a Venezuelan immigrant, has been held in ICE custody in Oklahoma for approximately seven months. His family says an immigration judge approved his asylum request after a nine-hour hearing, but the government has appealed the decision, keeping him detained. A bond of $20,000 has been set, and his family is seeking donations to pay it within a required deadline, warning that without the funds he could remain detained for several more months awaiting the appeal.

On August 19, 2025, ICE agents stopped two vans carrying construction workers on Interstate 99 and Route 220 near Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, as they traveled to a job building the Mount Nittany Medical Center patient tower. ICE confirmed 24 arrests in what it called a 'targeted enforcement operation,' though immigrant rights groups said as many as 26 men — nationals of Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras — were taken into custody. A foreman driving some workers from their motel said he was pulled over by two unmarked vehicles, and witnesses said agents confiscated phones, questioned workers about their origins and work permits, and restrained them before detention, with some reportedly holding valid work permits and identification. The men were transferred to Pike County Correctional Facility, Clinton County Correctional Facility, and Moshannon Valley Processing Center. A state representative and local advocacy groups said they struggled for a week to obtain basic information about the detainees and raised due process concerns, including allegations some were coerced into signing self-deportation orders. Community organizers described the men as 'partners, sons, brothers and fathers,' saying the arrests disrupted households in the community.

Roberto Mosquera del Peral, a 59-year-old Cuban immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a child during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and worked as a plumber while raising four daughters, was detained by ICE at a routine immigration appointment and held at the Krome detention center in Florida. He had a criminal record but had already served his sentence in the U.S.; because Cuba has refused to accept his return for nearly three decades, he was flown from Texas and deported without his consent to Eswatini under the Trump administration's third-country deportation program. He has since been held over a year in a maximum-security cell at Matsapha Correctional Complex without being charged with any offense or given access to legal counsel, according to his lawyer, Alma David. He staged a 30-day hunger strike that raised serious health concerns to win small concessions such as wearing his own clothes and having a cellphone to contact family. He does not know if or when he will be released, has missed the deaths of his oldest sister and best friend in America, and will miss his daughter's upcoming wedding. Civic groups in Eswatini have filed court cases challenging the legality of detaining him and other deportees without charge.

ICE agents detained a man who was resisting arrest inside Bravo Supermarket in West Park, Florida. A witness recorded video showing multiple agents attempting to subdue the man on the floor of the store as customers looked on. The arrest was part of a larger multi-agency operation, Operation Sandhill Sentinel 9.0, involving ICE, Border Patrol, HSI, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Broward Sheriff's Office, which has reportedly resulted in about 250 immigration arrests in South Florida.

A single mother in La Marque, Texas, was detained by ICE, leaving her three children, including two minors ages 11 and 14, without their primary caregiver. Her eldest daughter, 21, is now caring for her younger siblings while the family raises funds for an immigration lawyer to fight the case and help their mother remain with them. The family describes her as a hardworking, loving mother with no prior criminal record who has always provided for her children.

Jose Gregorio "Grego" Pena Pacheco, a 51-year-old Venezuelan man living in Davenport, Florida, was detained by ICE on September 17, 2026 while driving a short distance from his home to take out the trash, still in his pajamas without shoes. He has a pending asylum case, is authorized to work in the U.S., and has no known criminal history, but has a chronic illness requiring daily medication that he did not have with him at the time of detention. His sister Eliana received one brief call from him on September 18 during which he could not identify his location, and family and friends have since been unable to confirm his whereabouts or whether he received his medication. He reportedly told his sister he was given three documents in English, a language he does not speak fluently, asking him to choose between leaving the U.S., paying for release, or remaining detained while fighting his case. His family has retained an immigration attorney and is asking the community for help locating him and information about his case.

Leonardo Sánchez, a Cuban migrant with a large abdominal hernia and a pending operation, was deported to Equatorial Guinea and is being held at the Hotel Bamy in Malabo. His mother, Caridad, said from Miami that she has not heard from him in a week because authorities took away detainees' phones to prevent them from speaking with the press. "What they're doing is criminal; the treatment is unfair," she said.

Carlos Rodríguez, a Cuban migrant, was one of five deportees who refused to leave the ICE deportation plane upon landing, saying they did not feel safe; he says officers carried him off the aircraft and beat him while he was handcuffed. He and three other Cubans, along with a Brazilian, had been told by authorities that if they stayed calm they would be returned to the United States, but the plane instead delivered them to Equatorial Guinea. "This is human trafficking, they trafficked us on a plane," he told EL PAÍS.

Demonstrators have repeatedly clashed with federal agents outside the ICE detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, over several consecutive weeks, protesting detention conditions and showing support for detainees. On September 19, 2025, protesters blocking the facility's driveway were pepper-sprayed, including directly in the face, and an ICE vehicle struck at least one protester who sustained minor injuries; a witnessing attorney described agents as pushing protesters in an 'aggressive and violent manner.' On September 26, agents used pepper balls, tear gas, and baton rounds against more than 100 protesters, taking 11 into custody, with five later facing federal charges. On October 4, agents again deployed tear gas, pepper balls, and other chemical munitions against protesters, journalists, and legal observers, with chemical agents also affecting nearby residents; congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss were arrested. Broadview's mayor sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security citing dangers to residents from chemical agents and blocked emergency access, while lawsuits were filed alleging excessive force and First Amendment violations.

A 34-year-old Venezuelan man known only as JCCV, who lives in The Dalles, Oregon with his family and had a pending immigration application, testified he was detained by ICE agents who mistakenly believed he was his brother and never checked his identification. He was transported to a detention facility in Portland and held for multiple days, during which agents pressured him to sign a voluntary self-deportation document written in English, a language he cannot read, without explaining what it meant. His testimony was part of a federal court hearing examining whether ICE has continued making warrantless arrests in Oregon despite a February injunction requiring warrants and flight-risk assessments before arrests.

An Iraqi man showing early signs of dementia was arrested by ICE agents in his own front yard after living in the United States for more than 30 years. An immigration judge had previously ruled he would likely face persecution or torture if deported to Iraq, granting him legal protection from removal to his home country. Despite that ruling, he was held in Arizona ICE detention facilities while officials searched for another country willing to accept him. He was identified as one of more than 120 immigrants in Arizona who remained detained even after winning protection from deportation to their home countries, according to an analysis of habeas corpus petitions.

ICE officers arrested Zokhid Zakhidov, 37, a Uzbek national and commercial truck driver, on August 23, 2026, during a targeted enforcement action in Woodbridge, New Jersey. He held a New York commercial learner's permit and had a May 15 conviction for driving while intoxicated, along with pending charges for assault and harassment. Cranbury, New Jersey, police had previously arrested him in April as a fugitive from justice. He remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

A mother of a family in Port Isabel, Texas, is being detained by ICE after living in the U.S. for more than 20 years. Her daughter describes her as a loving, hard-working caretaker with no prior criminal record, not even a traffic violation. The family launched a fundraiser to help cover immigration legal expenses and household costs while she remains in detention.