Human Impact Project

A man was struck by a car while ICE agents pursued him on foot near Jersey City's Liberty State Park light rail station on a Wednesday evening around 6:20 p.m., and the driver fled the scene. City officials said an ICE agent was also hit by the vehicle, with both the agent and the man sustaining minor injuries. Footage showed agents handcuffing the man on the sidewalk and placing him in an ICE vehicle before an ambulance took him to Jersey City Medical Center, where agents and the man later entered the emergency room. The mayor's chief of staff said Jersey City police were not involved in the pursuit or arrest and only responded afterward to complete an accident report, adding that such ICE operations "put residents and bystanders at risk." ICE said it had transported a patient in custody for medical evaluation and that standard protocols were followed.

Ariel Arias, a husband, father, and grandfather, was taken into custody by ICE agents in Houston on the morning of September 23, 2026 as he was leaving for work in his residential parking lot. His family says the arrest was unlawful and were unable to locate him within ICE's standard 24-48 hour processing window. Arias has a heart condition and relies on sublingual medication to prevent a heart attack, and his family is urgently trying to confirm his location so he can access it. They have appealed to Representatives Sylvia Garcia, Greg Casar, and Joaquin Castro for help.

A Colombian asylum seeker who fled to the United States in 2022 was detained without warning while attending a routine ICE check-in in San Francisco. He had previously been released from custody after DHS determined he posed no danger or flight risk, and he attended every scheduled check-in since then. He held employment authorization and a Social Security number, worked assembling ventilation and refrigeration equipment, filed federal tax returns for two years, resided in Fremont, California, had a partner of one year, and regularly attended a Mormon temple. In June 2026, he was arrested for an alleged DUI after being found sleeping in his parked car outside his home. He was not shown a warrant at his re-arrest and was subsequently transferred to the Central Valley Annex detention facility in McFarland, California. He filed a habeas petition and motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing his detention violated due process because he was not given a pre-detention bond hearing. The court granted the TRO, ordering his immediate release and barring re-detention pending further briefing and a hearing scheduled for October 8, 2026.

A witness described being followed by immigration officers from a Medford store to Emigrant Lake in July before he and a companion were taken into custody. His account was presented as evidence in a federal hearing examining whether ICE officers in the Rogue Valley complied with a February court order requiring individualized assessments before warrantless arrests. Government attorneys have disputed the allegations, and the judge has not yet ruled on the claims.

A Medford man testified in federal court that immigration officers surrounded his vehicle when he arrived at work in June, broke a window and handcuffed him before releasing him after determining he was not the person they were seeking. He told the court he had an active asylum application at the time. His testimony was presented as evidence in a hearing where lawyers argued ICE officers failed to comply with a February court order requiring individual assessments of flight risk before warrantless arrests.

ICE detained at least 21 people, believed to be agricultural workers at local cannabis farms, during raids conducted September 23-24 at farms in Ruch, West Medford, and Cave Junction, Oregon. The September 23 raids in Ruch and West Medford involved DEA, Customs and Border Protection, Medford Police, and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, and resulted in 13 detentions, with eyewitnesses documenting a GEO Group passenger van loading detainees at the Medford ICE office. A separate raid on September 24 at a farm in Cave Junction involved the FBI, Josephine Marijuana Enforcement Team, Josephine County Sheriff, Oregon State Police, and ICE, with at least 8 people detained and GEO Group vehicles, including a Nissan Pathfinder and passenger van, observed on site. Advocates with Rogue Valley Migra Watch say these raids, along with a July 2025 raid that detained 17 farmworkers, represent the largest documented ICE operations in Southern Oregon and have questioned whether local and state law enforcement participation violates Oregon's sanctuary law barring such agencies from assisting federal immigration enforcement.

Lorenzo Sánchez, born in Guantánamo, Cuba, was studying to become a heavy-machinery mechanic when he fled Cuba by boat in the 1980 Mariel boatlift after saying Fidel Castro's government had targeted him for his political ideas. In the U.S. he learned English while working at a museum and school, earned certificates in cabinet making, blueprint reading, and technical drawing, and spent decades building a life in Florida. In June 2025, in his mid-60s, he was arrested for drinking a beer on a Florida beach; a records check turned up a 1991 deportation order and ICE took him to a Miami detention center, then to a hospital in El Paso while he was still recovering from diabetes-related amputation of the toes on his left foot. Told he would be sent to Cuba, he was instead taken across the border — "You're going to Mexico. Cuba doesn't want you," officials told him — and bused over three days from Piedras Negras to Villahermosa, Tabasco, a city he had never visited. After 150 days at the Amparito Shelter he was left on the streets for at least five months, struggling to find water, food, and medication. "Dogs live better than we do, and they eat every day," he said. He was eventually recognized as a refugee in Mexico and is settling into long-term shelter in Guanajuato.

Mario David Coronado Juarez, a 36-year-old Guatemalan construction worker from Tuichilupe village in Comitancillo, San Marcos, died Sunday, Sept. 20, when his vehicle struck a tree and burst into flames in Grand Rapids, Michigan, while fleeing an attempted ICE traffic stop. He had worked in the U.S. for six to seven years to support his wife, two daughters and a son, and was building a house for his family. DHS said ICE officers had been trying to stop him to confirm his identity, mistaking him for a different Guatemalan man they were seeking, and that officers discontinued the pursuit and tried to render aid after the crash. Community members, including volunteer Karla Barberi of Cosecha Grand Rapids, described him as "a hard-working man for the working class" and "an honest man" who "was not a criminal." Grand Rapids Police Chief Joseph Trigg requested that Michigan State Police investigate, citing limited cooperation from federal agencies, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered an independent review. Rep. Hillary Scholten sent a letter to ICE demanding a transparent investigation, and the Guatemalan Consulate is coordinating repatriation of his remains while a GoFundMe and community vigil were organized to help his family, who could not initially afford the trip to begin repatriation proceedings.

Nancy Burton, a Meriden resident and member of a rapid response team monitoring ICE activity in Connecticut, was pepper-sprayed by an ICE agent exiting the Meriden courthouse during a confrontation between activists and agents. She said she was stepping away after the officer demanded she move when he deployed the spray, and was treated by an emergency medical technician at the scene. Fellow rapid response team member Madeline Gallagher was pushed to the ground by a courthouse security staffer as activists crowded around the ICE officers, briefly losing consciousness before being taken by ambulance to a hospital. The incident occurred as ICE agents detained at least one man at the courthouse, raising questions about compliance with Connecticut's Trust Act, which limits immigration enforcement at courthouses, bans masked law enforcement, and will extend protections to additional "protected areas" like hospitals, schools and places of worship starting Oct. 1.

Retired Wayne County judge Michael Callahan said a convoy of eight armed ICE officers arrived at his metro Detroit home in August, falsely claiming they only intended to place an ankle tether on his foster son, a Congolese refugee who had lived in the U.S. for more than seven years, attended every required ICE check-in, had no criminal record and worked full-time as a truck driver. The officers had no warrant or court order, according to Callahan, and took the foster son into custody once he stepped outside. DHS disputed that officers used a ruse, saying they identified themselves as law enforcement, and a federal court declined to block the deportation after the government cited a 2019 final removal order. About two weeks after his arrest, he was flown to Cameroon, a country where he has no known ties, despite having been granted protection from return to his native Democratic Republic of Congo, which he had fled due to violence tied to his father's political opposition activity.

Rapheal Oludemilade Adebowale, a Nigerian national, was arrested by ICE in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, as part of a Department of Homeland Security enforcement operation. Adebowale had been previously convicted of larceny and money laundering in Massachusetts following a jury trial, after a motion to dismiss the indictment against him was denied. DHS also arrested Jawwad Ali Ahmed, a Pakistani national with a prior conviction in Sacramento, California, and Alexandre Esdras Pandolfi-Soares, a Brazilian national with a prior conviction in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the same operation. DHS described the men as priority targets but did not disclose further details about their immigration status, pending court dates, or the specific immigration allegations against them. Adebowale now faces immigration proceedings and possible removal from the United States.

Malick, a pseudonym for a Senegalese man who fled to the US in 2023, had a work permit and legal protection against deportation to his home country, but was placed on a third-country deportation flight to Ghana. He was held at a remote military camp with little electricity or communication, alongside Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old nurse who fled Sierra Leone's civil war and had lived in the Washington, D.C. area for 30 years. Kuyateh was detained by ICE during a routine check-in in July 2025, and despite a judge ruling she could not be deported to Sierra Leone due to past torture there, her attorney says the government pursued sending her to a third country without a hearing. She was flown to Ghana in shackles on a 10-hour flight, and Malick filmed her being forcibly dragged into a van by people believed to work for Ghana's government when she resisted being put on a bus to Sierra Leone. After the footage spread online, Ghanaian troops arrived at the camp at night with trucks of soldiers. Kuyateh's son, Mohamed Alghali, said he has not seen her since the July check-in.

Carlos Josué Marchena-Marchena, a 36-year-old Costa Rican father of four who worked as a ride-service driver, was found unresponsive on September 18, 2026 at Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. He had Type 1 diabetes and had been detained since January, transferred between facilities in Michigan, California, and Louisiana; his cousin said his care was adequate in Michigan but worsened after later transfers, though his sister said his decline began in Michigan after he was placed in a security cell following an argument with another detainee. His sister, girlfriend, and a fellow detainee said he repeatedly complained of missed insulin shots, inadequate food and water, and worsening symptoms including chest pain, vomiting, chills, and stomach pain, with his girlfriend saying he called around midnight the night before his death saying his medication wasn't helping. An immigration judge ordered his removal on July 29, 2026, and he had requested bail and voluntary deportation to Costa Rica, both denied. ICE said he received appropriate medical care, while a fellow detainee said he received only irregular insulin shots and a single pill for his symptoms. His death is the third reported at the Louisiana facility since April 2026, following a DHS Inspector General report finding violations in medical care, food service, and use of force, and at least the 58th ICE detainee death nationwide since January 2025. A GoFundMe was launched to return his body to Costa Rica while his family awaits autopsy results.

Arsalan Saleh Fard (referred to as "Ali" in one account), a 25-year-old Christian convert from Qazvin Province, Iran, fled after being pursued by Iran's intelligence services and the Basij paramilitary force. He struggled to find work because of tattoos, and when a bank refused to hire him over them, he burned one off himself — only to then be rejected for appearing mentally unstable. After crossing the U.S. border to seek asylum, he was expelled to Panama on a military flight in January/February 2025 without an asylum hearing, as part of a group of 299 migrants deported there weeks after President Trump's inauguration. Eighteen months later, he remains stranded in Panama with no clear path to permanent refuge, at times sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Bella Mosselmans, a human rights lawyer who directs the Global Strategic Litigation Council and represents deportees sent to Panama, said such outcomes are an inevitable result of sending migrants to a country with a nonfunctioning asylum system, language barriers, and little access to legal counsel.

Unmarked vehicles carrying agents wearing 'ERO' patches, identifying them as ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, entered a Home Depot parking lot in Concord early one morning and detained up to five day laborers who were waiting for work. Advocates with the Concord Immigrant Protections Network said the detained individuals' names and whereabouts remain unknown, and that ICE has not responded to requests for information. Advocates and community members rallied outside the store the following day, calling on Home Depot and city officials to take action to protect immigrant workers.

An 18-year-old University of Alaska Fairbanks sophomore majoring in physics, a Panamanian-Russian dual national and graduate of Alaska Middle College School, was detained by ICE at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport after her plane landed. She was held overnight at the mostly male Anchorage Correctional Complex before being transferred the next morning to Hiland Mountain Correctional Center for women, then released after posting bond while her removal proceedings continue. She had entered the U.S. legally in July 2023 but was supposed to leave by May 2024; a former teacher described her as "an incredibly hard worker" with "a beautiful personality" and "a kind soul," and she remains enrolled at UAF.

Tomas Pacajoj Lastor, known as "the mechanic," was detained by ICE on September 22, 2026, around 7:35 a.m. while driving his young son to school. His daughter Baudelia searched for him through multiple phone calls as he was transferred between detention facilities before she confirmed his location and safety. He has not yet been given a court date and is working with an attorney, while his family describes him as a hardworking provider and devoted father who regularly helped neighbors in need. His detention has left the family struggling financially, as his daughter postponed her college plans at Emporia State University to help care for her nine-year-old sibling and support her mother, who has ongoing health issues.

A father seeking asylum in the United States with his wife and three children, ages 2, 8, and 10, was detained by ICE a few days before a GoFundMe was launched on his family's behalf. The family had fled their home country due to political persecution and had an active asylum case. His wife, who does not speak fluent English and has no income, was left alone to care for the children and is struggling to pay rent, utilities, and buy food.

A father who co-owns a food truck business with his wife was detained by ICE on a Tuesday morning while leaving home to take his children to school. His family describes him as a calm, loving, and hardworking man deeply involved in his community. With him detained, his wife is now struggling to keep the family's food truck business running while covering household expenses and attorney fees.

Guilherme, a husband and father of 5-year-old twins, was detained by ICE according to his wife Camila. She says he had no criminal history and was not out of status, which made his detention especially shocking. Guilherme was the family's main provider, and his wife is now raising funds to cover attorney fees and household expenses while he is held.