Human Impact Project

Kyon Shakeel Swaso, a 35-year-old Belizean immigrant detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California, helped organize a hunger strike that began May 19 to protest facility conditions, which expanded into a commissary boycott after detainees who complained said they would 'become a target.' After speaking with members of Congress about conditions at Adelanto, Swaso was transferred without notice to a facility in Texas and then to one in Louisiana before being deported to Belize. Immigrant rights groups and advocates, along with Swaso himself, described the deportation as retaliation by the Department of Homeland Security for his activism and congressional testimony.

Diego Armando Escalona Polanco, a 19-year-old Chipotle cook in Orlando, was detained by ICE agents following a Florida Highway Patrol traffic stop for a vehicle registration issue. Unable to afford legal representation and facing unfavorable odds in his case, Escalona signed paperwork to self-deport. He spent 42 days at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami before being transported through four states in shackles and flown to Venezuela, where he reunited with family in Maracaibo after 11 years living in the United States.

ICE agents took a father of six from the Monrovia Arms apartment complex in Costa Mesa after he had previously been given an order of removal. According to LUCHA Costa Mesa, his family was seeking to raise $2,150 that night to petition for a stay of his deportation.

A 19-year-old Russian citizen lawfully entered the United States on a visa in 2022 at age 16 with his parents and younger sister. His father filed an asylum application listing him as a derivative beneficiary before his visa expired in September 2022. USCIS granted him work authorization in July 2024 while his asylum application remained pending. He graduated from high school, worked lawfully at two jobs, obtained a Florida driver's license, and has no criminal history. On June 16, 2026, Border Patrol agents stopped him while he was driving to work without a traffic violation, arrested him for visa overstay despite his pending asylum application, and transported him to Golden State Annex Detention Facility in McFarland, California. After being detained for over 40 days with his bond hearing postponed to August 5, 2026, he filed a habeas corpus petition. The federal court granted the petition and ordered his immediate release, ruling that due process required a pre-deprivation bond hearing before detention given his four years of government-sanctioned liberty while his asylum case proceeded.

A noncitizen subject to an order of supervision under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b) since 2013 was informed by an ICE officer at a routine check-in on June 16, 2026, that ICE planned to remove him to a third country and instructed him to return with a plane ticket for El Salvador, Guatemala, or Mexico, with threats of deportation to Africa if he did not cooperate. An Immigration Judge had previously granted him withholding of removal in 2022, finding he would likely face persecution in Honduras based on his sexual orientation. The court is examining whether he received proper notice and due process protections regarding the threatened removal and whether a bond hearing is required before any detention.

Cal Robinet, a 37-year-old union electrician, and 14 others were arrested by federal agents in the Twin Cities on June 16 and charged with conspiracy to impede or injure immigration enforcement officers during Operation Metro Surge. The defendants include teachers, union organizers, and transgender rights activists who opposed the massive immigration enforcement operation. The Justice Department has characterized them as members of Antifa, while legal observers have questioned whether the prosecution focuses on crimes or ideology.

Erik Davis, a 53-year-old Buddhist studies scholar at Macalester College and father of two, was arrested on June 16, 2026, when federal agents stopped his car en route to a medical appointment and placed him in a belly chain. He is among 15 defendants, including members of Direct Action Minnesota, indicted on federal conspiracy charges accusing them of using force, intimidation, and threats to impede ICE officers, with prosecutors citing alleged ties to antifa but not alleging specific injuries to officers. Davis has called the case "petty revenge" meant to criminalize community organizing, and civil rights advocates say the prosecution is designed to chill protest activity following large demonstrations against a federal immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities earlier this year.

Three foreign nationals were arrested during an ICE targeted enforcement operation in Danbury on June 16-17, 2026. Edwin Palacios-Rivera, a Peruvian national, was arrested and has previous arrests for domestic violence, criminal mischief, possession of burglar tools, violations of a protective order, criminal trespass, and interfering with police. Jose Espinoza-Ceraquive, an Ecuadorian national, was arrested and has pending charges for operating a motor vehicle under the influence and third-degree criminal mischief; he is subject to a final removal order issued in 2024. Jorge Tamay-Angulo, also an Ecuadorian national, was arrested during the operation, though ICE provided no additional details regarding his case.

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

A woman was detained by ICE agents in an incident captured on video near a Hudson County school, separating her from her young children. Local officials condemned the enforcement action and noted that the agents wore masks in violation of a state law signed by Gov. Mikie Sherrill in March.

During a raid on a horse racing venue in Wilder, Idaho, law enforcement officers detained 105 undocumented immigrants. A 14-year-old U.S. citizen, SueHey, was zip-tied and confined during the operation. The ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging mistreatment of families, including the use of force against children and destruction of property, with eyewitness accounts contradicting government denials of the zip-tie allegations.

Miguel Gorasieta Jaimes, a Mexican national, and Santos Ruben Gutierrez, an El Salvadoran national, were arrested by ICE during a nationwide weekend enforcement operation targeting individuals with prior criminal convictions. Jaimes was arrested in Harris County and had a prior conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child. Gutierrez was arrested in Lewisville and had a prior conviction for indecency with a child. Both men were in the country illegally at the time of their arrests. The operation targeted 15 individuals across at least nine states.

Scarleth, 10 years old, called out in distress—'Why are you taking my papa from me? He's the only one I have'—as ICE agents arrested her father outside a New York immigration court. Photographer Carol Guzy documented the incident as part of her year-long coverage of families affected by immigration enforcement. The image, titled 'Separated by Ice,' later won the World Press Photo Contest, marking Guzy's ninth win, and was displayed at the World Press Photo and Doc Edge Immersive Exhibition in Auckland.

ICE arrested Jose Jairo Rivas-Santiago, 32, a Honduran national, on June 15 after he was released from a Virginia correctional facility where he was serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder and armed robbery. In 2019, ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents had arrested him on armed robbery and conspiracy charges and turned him over to the Richmond City Police Department for prosecution, leading to his 2021 conviction. ICE had lodged an immigration detainer with Coffeewood Correctional Center following that conviction. Rivas-Santiago is now in ICE custody awaiting removal to Honduras under a previously issued final order of removal.

Between June 15 and July 3, 2026, ICE carried out intensified enforcement operations across the Kansas City metropolitan area during the World Cup, detaining at least 30 people according to the KC Community Defense Coalition. Enforcement concentrated in Wyandotte County and Johnson County—including Kansas City, Kansas, Olathe, and Northeast Kansas City—areas with significant Hispanic and Latino populations. Among those detained was a Northeast Kansas City father of four, a stay-at-home dad whose wife works evening shifts in healthcare; five masked ICE agents detained him in his front yard while mowing his lawn, leaving his young children to wake and find him gone. Separately, federal authorities arrested at least six people at La Fontanella Foods, a food manufacturing warehouse in Northeast Kansas City, on July 9, 2026. The surge reflects national ICE directives to increase arrests to 2,000 per day and deploy 80% of officers to arrest operations, part of the Trump administration's intensified immigration enforcement push.

José Pineda, originally from El Salvador with Temporary Protected Status and over 30 years in the U.S., was detained by ICE agents while working his construction job despite having no criminal record and a valid work permit. He was held in Burlington's ICE office for two days and slept on the floor of a cell with at least 50 other people. ICE agents told him that only people born in the U.S. have rights and that his work permit did not matter. After two days of public pressure and advocacy by Centro Presente, Pineda was released, but his family remains fearful of going out in public.

Gabriela Soto's husband has been detained at Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark since January. Soto and her children have been repeatedly denied visits more than 10 times due to alleged dress code violations, including rejection of her 11-month-old's onesie and her 4-year-old's leggings as 'provocative.' The facility has also faced scrutiny for unsanitary conditions and tuberculosis control issues, with mass protests erupting outside and detainees reportedly participating in a hunger strike.

Jenner Edilzar Roldan-Perez, a Guatemalan national, was arrested by ICE agents at Kane County Courthouse on June 15, 2026. According to DHS, Roldan-Perez has a prior arrest for battery and domestic violence and has been subject to a removal order since October 2019.

Felipe Linares de Oliveira Dell Aquilla, a Brazilian noncitizen, was arrested on June 5, 2026, during a traffic stop in Mooresville, North Carolina. According to law enforcement, he was a commander of two Brazil-based organizations designated as foreign terrorist organizations and held an international arrest warrant from Brazil for criminal association and extortion. During the traffic stop, Aquilla attempted to flee in his vehicle, leading to a high-speed chase that ended in a crash with parked cars. He was apprehended while fleeing on foot. Authorities seized cell phones, laptops, cash, and a 9mm handgun from his vehicle. Aquilla is also accused of holding his wife against her will. He faces state charges for fleeing to evade arrest and federal charges including illegal firearm possession and kidnapping.

Adriana Quiroz Zapata, a 53-year-old Colombian national and torture survivor with New Jersey ties, was detained by ICE in August 2024 after re-entering the United States despite a prior removal order. In February 2025, she passed a Reasonable Fear Interview and received withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Despite these protections, ICE deported her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on April 16, 2026—a country where she has no ties and where she cannot receive adequate medical care for her chronic conditions. On May 14, 2026, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return her, ruling the deportation likely illegal. However, on June 15, 2026, the judge reversed that order after the administration produced evidence claiming the DRC had agreed to accept her, leaving Zapata in the DRC.