Human Impact Project

Chih-Ming 'Petey' Feng, a Taiwanese line cook who worked at well-known Dallas restaurants including Bullion, Georgie, Quarter Acre, Carte Blanche, CBD Provisions and Charlie Palmer, was detained by ICE on November 6, 2025 during a routine check-in tied to a visa overstay dating to 2010 and a 2023 DWI misdemeanor. He was denied voluntary departure and inadvertently signed away his right to appeal, resulting in more than 130 days in ICE detention facilities in southwest Texas. Dallas restaurant consultant Leslie Brenner and members of the local restaurant community rallied to help secure him legal representation and financial support during his custody. Feng was deported in March 2026 and arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where he now cares for his aging parents and his mother and sister, who are being treated for cancer.

Two individuals were detained by ICE and subsequently released on bond following legal proceedings. Estefany María Rodríguez Flores, a Colombian journalist for Nashville Noticias, was detained during a traffic stop on March 4, 2026, and released on March 19 after an immigration judge granted bond. Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman, was detained in March 2025 after meeting with immigration authorities and held for over a year at Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas before being released on March 16, 2026, following a judge's bond order that the Department of Homeland Security declined to appeal. Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman and visible campus advocate, was detained in March 2025 for staying in the U.S. on an expired F-1 student visa. While in detention, she experienced her first-ever seizure and was handcuffed to a hospital bed for 72 hours. An immigration judge ordered her release on bond twice before the government kept her detained through automatic stays. A Texas judge ordered her release a third time on March 16, 2026, setting bond at $100,000.

A growing number of detainees in U.S. immigration detention centers have signed voluntary departure agreements in exchange for promised cash payments ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. Immigration lawyers describe the practice as psychological pressure to discourage migrants from defending their cases in court. Many detainees report signing under pressure to escape harsh detention conditions, though most experience significant delays in receiving promised funds. Luis Andrés Monterroso López, 29, detained at Alvarado detention center in Texas, signed such an agreement and was deported to Guatemala in December 2025. He eventually received $2,600 through Western Union in March 2026, which he used to establish a mechanic shop in his village.

Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen from Minneapolis with autism and traumatic brain injury, was arrested by Capitol Police while attending the State of the Union as a guest of Rep. Ilhan Omar. The federal government announced it will not file charges against her. Rahman claims she was arrested for standing silently in the gallery; Capitol Police say she refused to obey lawful orders.

A federal jury returned a mixed verdict against nine defendants accused of domestic terrorism stemming from a July 4 noise demonstration outside the Prairieland immigrant detention center in Alvarado, Texas. Prosecutors argued the defendants constituted a "North Texas Antifa cell" and all played a role in a nonfatal shooting of a police officer during the protest. The defendants stated the protest was intended to show solidarity with migrants in detention and involved fireworks and vandalism. Eight defendants were convicted on felony charges including providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to use explosives.

Approximately 400-500 people protested in Salt Lake City against a Department of Homeland Security warehouse purchase intended for conversion into an ICE detention facility. During the protest on March 19, 2026, a smaller group vandalized the building by spray-painting and throwing rocks at windows, causing approximately $3,000 in damage. Three people were arrested: Chase Taylor Fredrickson, age 18, and two minors. They faced charges including rioting, property damage, and unlawful assembly, with some charges at the third-degree felony level. The majority of protesters remained peaceful.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and ICE regarding conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, which holds approximately 1,800 people. The brief documented inadequate medical care, unsafe conditions, insufficient staffing, contaminated water, spoiled food, lack of clean clothing, and reports of pepper spray use on detainees. Three men died at the facility between September 2025 and February 2026. Detainees also reported limited access to phones for legal calls and failure to accommodate people with disabilities. ICE denied the allegations, stating detainees receive proper meals, water, and medical treatment.

A Venezuelan man with a U.S. citizen son was detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, despite having been previously released by ICE. Court records indicate ICE reassessed his tattoos as a basis for re-detention. He was among at least 16 asylum seekers released by federal court order after successful litigation challenging their detention.

A former career public servant from Afghanistan who fled violence and was granted work authorization to work as a supermarket cashier and Uber driver was among at least 16 asylum seekers detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, and later released by federal court order. The detention was based on alleged violations of the Intensive Supervision Appearance program.

A Russian asylum seeker who fled persecution over refusing to participate in Russia's invasion of Ukraine was among at least 16 asylum seekers detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, and later released by federal court order. The detention was based on alleged violations of the Intensive Supervision Appearance program.

An Afghan asylum seeker was assured by ICE that two missed check-ins would not be held against him—one due to a double-booked appointment and another due to hospitalization for a heart arrhythmia. Two months after the hospitalization, ICE detained him at work, claiming he was a flight risk for missed check-ins and failing to report a move to Portland. ICE provided no documentary evidence of the violations. U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson ruled in his favor and released him after 41 days of detention at the Northwest Detention Center.

An Iranian native who entered the U.S. as a child in 1993 and was granted withholding of removal in 1999 was detained by ICE at Los Angeles International Airport on March 18, 2026 while attempting to fly to Chicago for his father-in-law's funeral. He had been on supervised release for over 12 years and is married to a U.S. citizen with two U.S. citizen children. The court granted his temporary restraining order and ordered his immediate release, finding that ICE failed to follow proper procedures for revoking his supervised release.

This guide explains how families can locate loved ones detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida. It describes the ICE detention process, including how detainees are transferred through processing centers and facilities, which can make locating them difficult. The article provides instructions on using the ICE Online Detainee Locator System to search by A-Number or biographical information, and explains reasons why detainees may not immediately appear in the system.

Ben and five other people in Illinois, Oregon, and Minnesota were arrested while protesting at ICE facilities and had DNA swabs taken without clear consent. Ben was arrested during a protest at Chicago's Broadview ICE facility during Operation Midway Blitz; video reviewed by NPR shows a masked federal officer slamming him to the ground while three immigration officers pinned him down and dragged him to their vehicle. He was held in custody for approximately three hours, then photographed, fingerprinted, and had a DNA swab collected from inside his cheek without clear explanation. The six cases, reported in recent months across three states, are now part of litigation challenging the Department of Homeland Security and FBI DNA database collection practices as violations of First and Fourth Amendment protections.

Rafael Rubio, a New York City Council data analyst, was ordered deported to Venezuela by a federal immigration judge after being detained by ICE for more than two months. The judge deemed Rubio's asylum application abandoned due to a missing signature on paperwork. Rubio had overstayed a 2017 tourist visa. According to DHS, he has a prior arrest for assault.

Wilfredo Castillo, a Venezuelan who fled political persecution and violence, was arrested at an immigration check-in appointment in Tukwila in March 2025 after being told by ICE he would be detained. ICE claimed he missed nine SmartLink app check-ins, but Castillo says the app malfunctioned and he never missed in-person appointments. He spent 11 months at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where he was stabbed multiple times by another detainee. A federal judge released him after finding the government lacked justification for his prolonged detention.

Jefferson Fernando Cando Llano, 29, a father of a 6-year-old boy seeking asylum from Ecuador, was detained by masked Border Patrol agents in unmarked vehicles at a laundromat parking lot in Browne's Addition, Spokane on March 8. Cando Llano came to Spokane three years ago with his wife to escape trauma and violence in Ecuador and has an open asylum case with no criminal record. Friends who witnessed the encounter could not identify the agents and filed a missing persons report with Spokane police, fearing a kidnapping. Cando Llano was held for 10 days at Kootenai County Jail before being released after his attorney filed an appeal against a removal order issued by an immigration judge. The incident raised concerns among local police about the use of unmarked vehicles and masks by federal agents in immigration enforcement operations.

A Vietnamese immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee in 1992 was detained by ICE on January 12, 2026, during what he believed was a routine check-in appointment at an Anchorage facility. He is a husband and father in the Anchorage area. ICE held him for 65 days in the Anchorage Correctional Complex, citing a denied green card application based on a prior conviction from the 1990s. His attorney and immigration lawyers disputed the detention, arguing he was eligible for permanent residency under the Indochinese Parole Adjustment Act and that the conviction on his DHS record was inaccurate. A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order, and ICE canceled his final administrative removal order on March 18, 2026, resulting in his release. He was released on conditions including an ankle monitor and weekly ICE reporting requirements.

Multiple Ohio organizations, including ACLU Ohio, Community Refugee and Immigration Services, and Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, filed a lawsuit on March 18, 2026, against the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection, alleging federal agents illegally arrested people without proper arrest warrants or probable cause since April 22, 2025. The lawsuit includes a specific case from December 2025 in which plainclothes agents in an unmarked vehicle arrested a man outside a home improvement store without displaying a warrant, despite his active asylum case, valid work permit, and social security number. The suit names four immigrants held in ICE custody for weeks before a judge determined they were not flight risks, and cites a leaked January DHS memo that broadened the criteria for considering someone a flight risk. Federal agencies have filed only one document in the case and have not responded to requests for comment amid an ongoing partial government shutdown.

Juan Antonio Maldinera Guzman was detained on March 17, 2026, after having been previously released on bond or conditional parole. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California found that the government violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights by re-detaining him without first providing a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter. The court determined that the Due Process Clause requires such a hearing to consider a noncitizen's eligibility for bond before re-detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) or § 1182(d)(5). Following prior precedent established in Selis Tinoco v. Noem, Labrador-Prato v. Noem, D.L.C. v. Wofford, and Altin v. Chestnut, the court granted Maldinera Guzman's petition for writ of habeas corpus and motion for temporary restraining order. He was ordered released immediately from the California City Detention Facility with the same conditions he was subject to prior to his March 17, 2026 detention. If the government seeks to re-detain him, it must provide seven days' notice and hold a constitutionally compliant pre-deprivation bond hearing.