Human Impact Project

Nazira Haji Zada, a 47-year-old Afghan lawful permanent resident, was arrested at her home in Fort Worth, Texas, in July 2026 after prosecutors alleged she supported a plan by her son and son-in-law to carry out an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day 2024. Rather than face criminal charges, the Justice Department pursued the first-ever case against her in the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, a specialized federal tribunal created in 1996 but never previously used, which permits the use of classified evidence. Her court-appointed public defenders challenged the proceedings on due process grounds and questioned the court's constitutionality, arguing evidence had been withheld from her defense, though the judge allowed the case to proceed. Haji Zada ultimately waived her right to contest the proceedings and consented to removal, and a federal judge ordered her deportation to Afghanistan on August 20. Her son Abdullah was separately sentenced to 15 years in prison, and her son-in-law pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges.

Twenty deportees from the United States arrived in Liberia as part of a new agreement that could see up to 1,200 people sent there under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. The 1,200 deportees are expected to include nationals from African countries as well as North America, South America and the Caribbean. Liberia's justice minister said most deportees had committed migration-related violations and could seek asylum in Liberia, while the U.S. agreed to extend visitor visas for Liberians and pledged $124 million in assistance. Immigration lawyers have said such third-country deportation deals are used to send asylum seekers to countries they have never been to, sometimes putting them at risk.

A Colombian mother was separated from her two young children during a routine ICE check-in in Baltimore, despite an immigration judge having ruled she would likely face torture or persecution if deported to Colombia. She was transferred to the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona and remained in ICE custody for months afterward. An Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting analysis identified her as one of more than 120 immigrants in Arizona whom ICE continued to detain even after judges had barred their deportation to their home countries due to humanitarian protections.

Wilmar Quintero, a 50-year-old transgender woman from Venezuela, fled her home country after she said police officers tortured her, carved out her breast implants and left her for dead for speaking out against civil rights abuses. She sought asylum in the United States and was detained for about three months in Michigan, where she said she was sexually assaulted by another migrant and mistreated by staff. Immigration officials deported her to Venezuela in April 2025, where she went into hiding, saying she remains afraid of police there.

Camila Toro de Paula, a 25-year-old transgender woman from Venezuela, has been held for nearly a year at a men's ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, after being arrested during a routine immigration check-in at ICE's New York City office in August 2025. She fled Venezuela after suffering childhood abuse, including repeated rape by relatives and a homophobic stabbing attack by police, and sought asylum in the U.S. two years ago. Toro de Paula says she has been assaulted, threatened, placed in solitary confinement, denied water, and deprived of the hormone therapy she had received for years, after a policy protecting transgender detainees was eliminated in February 2025. She told The New York Times, "I'm afraid of dying here," and says she has resisted pressure to voluntarily return to Venezuela. Immigration officials cited felony assault and weapons charges as justification for her detention, though both charges were later dismissed and sealed.

Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Umana, 46, an El Salvador national, was detained by ICE after a Coast Guard investigation confirmed his unlawful presence in the United States. He had been arrested on August 9 following the capsizing of a boat near the Statue of Liberty that killed 27-year-old Sara Sanchez and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella Garcia, both of Queens. Federal prosecutors said the 21-foot vessel was illegally chartered and overcrowded with 14 people aboard, more than double its 10-person capacity, and capsized around 10:20 p.m. on August 8 as Hernandez made a U-turn in choppy waters possibly caused by a larger vessel's wake. He told authorities he entered the U.S. through Texas in 2007 after falsely claiming to be a citizen, and he remains in ICE custody awaiting trial, after which he will face removal proceedings.

Omar David Panqueva, a Colombian DJ known as DJ Tunjo, and his husband Santiago Páez were arrested by ICE agents at Chicago's Midway International Airport as they prepared to fly out and join reggaeton star Karol G's tour for DJ after-parties. The couple, both members of the LGBTQ+ community, had applied for asylum due to persecution they faced in Colombia and held work permits while their case was pending, though their visas had expired in 2022. Panqueva had recently performed at Chicago's Fiesta del Sol and the Sueños music festival and was planning a tour to Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. He described being 'chained, handcuffed on a bus with bars' during the arrest. The couple was held in Indiana and released on bond on August 12 after supporters rallied around them, with their immigration case continuing in court and a hearing scheduled for August 19.

Berhanu Kibret, a pharmacy instructor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy since 2023, was detained by federal immigration agents at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on July 21, 2026, while returning from an American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy conference where he had just been honored as a teacher of the year. Authorities alleged he was undocumented and had overstayed a visa that expired May 31, 2024, despite his holding valid work authorization. University of Maryland officials described him as "an effective and beloved teacher" and a "highly valued" colleague. Kibret remained in detention following the arrest. His detention occurred the same day Ecuadorian traveler Chantal Morales Rojas was detained at Denver International Airport, amid a broader increase in ICE enforcement activity at U.S. airports.

Daniel Fúnez, a Honduran roofer who had lived in the United States for 15 years, was deported and arrived at the Ramón Villeda Morales airport in La Lima, Honduras on August 19, 2026. Fúnez, who moved to the U.S. at age 12 and settled in Hanover, Pennsylvania, said he was linked to a crime committed by a friend and spent five months in a federal prison in Philadelphia before immigration agents took him into custody, moved him to a detention center near Harrisburg, then to Louisiana, and deported him. He left behind his wife, a U.S. citizen daughter of Salvadoran immigrants who was eight months pregnant at the time of his deportation, and said he plans to work in roofing in Honduras while his wife considers joining him there or in El Salvador.

W., a 40-year-old Honduran man, was intercepted by police officers in New Orleans in July while picking up his wife from work. He was held at the Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Louisiana before being transported to Alexandria airport and deported to Liberia on a charter flight, marking the second time he was deported under the Trump administration after an earlier deportation to Honduras. He said staff from the International Organization for Migration are assisting him with his diabetes at the hotel in Liberia where he is being housed, and he does not feel safe leaving the premises.

A., a 45-year-old Venezuelan man who worked in the wind energy sector and held protection against forced return to Venezuela, was detained by ICE at a routine immigration check-in earlier in 2026 while his wife, who had the same protection, was released. He was transferred through four detention centers, suffered severe anxiety and depression, and said his lawyer was never informed about the transfers or his deportation. He was shackled hand and foot during the roughly 15-hour flight to Liberia after an officer told him he would be put on the plane "willingly or by force," and he said other passengers began crying once seated. His daughter has been in therapy since his deportation, and he fears ICE will also detain his wife, leaving his children without either parent in the United States; Liberia has reportedly agreed to accept about 1,200 people over one year under an agreement with the Trump administration.

C., a 36-year-old Venezuelan man who had lived and worked legally in the U.S. for five years under a withholding of removal protection, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in at an immigration office in December 2025 and held for eight months across nine detention centers. On August 19, 2026, he was placed on a charter flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Liberia, learning of his deportation only hours beforehand and without time to say goodbye to his family, missing the birth of his son born while he was in custody. He said he and other deportees were kept shackled for the entire flight, and after arriving in Monrovia he was taken to a hotel in the coastal town of Marshall, where he has remained for more than a week with no word on when he might leave. He says he fled Venezuela in 2021 as a political opponent facing threats to his life.

Two Venezuelan men, identified only as C. (36) and A. (45), said they were deported from the United States to Liberia and remained chained hand and foot for the roughly 15-hour flight. C. had lived and worked legally in the U.S. for five years under a renewable temporary residency permit, selling cars by day and delivering food at night, but was detained for eight months after a routine immigration check-in and moved through nine detention facilities before being deported; he missed the birth of his now five-month-old son and can only see him by video call. A. had worked in the wind energy sector and said he and his wife, who both had protections against being sent back to Venezuela, went together to a routine immigration appointment where she was released but he was detained and later deported after passing through four facilities without his attorney being informed. Both men were part of an initial group of 20 people sent to Liberia under an agreement between the Trump administration and the Liberian government to accept about 1,200 deportees over one year; six of the 20 refused to disembark and were instead sent to Equatorial Guinea, while the rest were taken to a hotel in Marshall, near Monrovia.

A Mexican asylum seeker previously placed in removal proceedings had been released by immigration authorities on his own recognizance and complied with all required immigration court hearings and check-ins. His asylum application was pretermitted and he was ordered removed in March 2026, but he timely appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals in April 2026, meaning there was no final removal order against him. Despite this, ICE re-detained him during a routine check-in in San Francisco. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and sought a temporary restraining order, arguing that his re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated his due process rights. A federal court found he raised a serious question on the merits and that the balance of hardships favored him, granting the TRO and ordering his release by 10:00 a.m. the next day while barring further detention without a hearing before a neutral decisionmaker. The government was ordered to file a status report confirming his release and to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue.

Felipe was detained by ICE and is currently in custody, according to a GoFundMe campaign started by his wife, Jarilis Quiles. Felipe is described as the main provider for his household, and his family is beginning legal proceedings to fight for his return home. The family is raising funds to cover legal expenses and Felipe's basic needs during the immigration process.

Emmanuel Nelson, 18, a senior linebacker for Port St. Lucie High School's football and wrestling teams, was pulled over for driving 45 mph in a 20 mph school zone and is still in ICE custody more than a week later. Police found he was not a U.S. citizen and contacted ICE, which placed a detainer on him; he was first held at the St. Lucie County Jail and is now at the Broward Transitional Center. ICE says Nelson entered the U.S. legally in January 2016 but violated the terms of his admission, while his family says he came through the Haitian Family Reunification Program and has a pending residency petition from a U.S. citizen step-parent, and had held a valid work permit, Social Security number and driver's license. His coach and teammates have said they hope to welcome him back to the team.

Maria Del Carmen Negrete Raya, 39, a Mexican citizen, was arrested and charged with three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer after an encounter with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers in Fort Myers, Florida. Authorities said ICE officers attempted to stop a vehicle registered to a non-U.S. citizen, and after the occupants fled, Negrete Raya confronted the officers, with one officer suffering minor injuries. Records show Negrete Raya entered the United States without inspection and filed an asylum application in 2023, and officials said she remains subject to removal proceedings. State prosecutors plan to seek reclassification of the charges as second-degree felonies based on her immigration status.

In a separate incident on Aug. 19, ICE agents pulled at least one person off a plane at Sea-Tac International Airport and arrested them at the gate, according to immigration attorney Jane O'Sullivan, who spoke with the detained person's travel companion. The detained person had overstayed a visa but had an active immigration application pending. O'Sullivan said 'a number of people' were taken off planes that day and later brought to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, though she could not specify how many were held. The arrests are part of a broader Department of Homeland Security enforcement effort targeting non-citizens with pending immigration cases at airports nationwide.

The petitioner, who was previously detained by immigration authorities and then released on his own recognizance, was later re-detained by ICE. Respondents argued he was held under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2), but acknowledged that recent Ninth Circuit precedent establishes that § 1226(a) actually governs his detention, meaning he is entitled to seek a custody redetermination. He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus and a motion for a temporary restraining order challenging his detention. The court found that his prior release created a liberty interest in continued release, and that his re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process. The court granted the habeas petition, ordering his immediate release on the same conditions as before his re-detention, and enjoined respondents from re-detaining him without first providing notice and a bond hearing before an immigration judge. The motion for a temporary restraining order was denied as moot given the grant of habeas relief.

An Uzbek asylum seeker, a citizen of Uzbekistan, entered the United States without inspection in November 2023 and was apprehended shortly after by Customs and Border Patrol, issued a Notice to Appear, and released into the country pending removal proceedings. He resided in the US for over two years and filed an asylum application in April 2024. On August 19, 2026, he was arrested at a scheduled ICE check-in and transferred to the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. He filed a habeas corpus petition the same day, arguing his mandatory detention without a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2) was unlawful. The Government argued he remained an 'applicant for admission' subject to mandatory detention. The court held that § 1225 applies only to newly arriving noncitizens, not those like him who have resided in the country for years, and that his detention was instead governed by § 1226(a). The court granted his habeas petition and ordered his immediate release.