Human Impact Project

Wilmer Solano, a 59-year-old Venezuelan journalist with over 20 years of professional experience, was detained by CBP/ICE agents on July 26-27, 2026, during a traffic stop while working as a private transport driver at Haulover Beach in Miami Beach. Solano entered the United States legally in January 2015 on a journalist visa and filed for asylum in December 2015 after being persecuted in Venezuela for his journalism covering opposition political campaigns and figures including Henrique Capriles and Julio Borges. In August 2011, he and his cameraman were beaten by municipal officials while covering news. He previously worked for Globovisión from 2002 to 2008 and founded and directed the news agency Zorro Comunicaciones. At the time of his detention, Solano held a valid Florida work permit and driver's license. He had been granted Temporary Protected Status beginning in 2021, which expired in September 2025. According to his wife María Moreno and the Venezuelan Journalists Abroad Association (Apevex), officers detained him without a judicial warrant and without criminal charges, telling him his asylum case could take another decade and that he was in irregular immigration status. DHS confirmed the arrest and stated Solano has no immigration status allowing him to remain in the U.S. He was transported to CBP headquarters in Dania Beach with removal proceedings and an immigration court hearing scheduled for August 26, 2026.

William Israel Martinez Ruiz, 42, a construction worker from Kansas City, Kansas, was pulled over by Anderson County sheriff's deputies in Garnett on August 24, 2026, for a burned-out license plate light while driving his son, Kansas Army National Guard member Louis Martinez, to a state active duty mission for storm disaster cleanup. Deputies discovered his driver's license was expired and questioned him and his wife about their immigration status; he was arrested for driving without a valid license. Under the county's 287(g) agreement with ICE, a detainer was issued the same day, and ICE arrested him on August 26 for unlawful presence. Martinez Ruiz, who had previously held a U visa but did not renew it, is being held without bail at the CoreCivic-operated Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, with a bond hearing scheduled for October 14; his family says he has a pending application to legally remain in the country. ICE has also cited a 2024 federal trespassing arrest it said occurred in Virginia, but his son disputed the location and court records show the incident actually took place at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where the case was later dismissed. His son said, "I'm serving this country, I'm proudly serving, and I love the mission I took on. It honestly feels like betrayal."

Ana Kikabidze, a green card holder from Georgia, spent 58 days detained with her children, 11-year-old Lizi and 14-year-old Nikoloz, at the Dilley immigration detention camp in Texas. An immigration judge ordered the family deported after warning that appealing could mean months more in detention, so Kikabidze gave up her fight and accepted deportation rather than keep her children locked up. "It felt as though the decision to deny us had already been made in advance," she said, "and that nothing I said would have changed the outcome." Her case is one of more than 66,000 parents and children detained and deported since the Trump administration expanded detention requirements, and a federal judge has since appointed an independent monitor to oversee conditions for children at Dilley.

Daniel, an 18-year-old, was arrested by ICE officers while sitting as a passenger in a parked car outside a 7-Eleven convenience store in Colorado. Officers pulled a weapon, smashed the car window, and beat him, leaving him with a broken wrist, a laceration to his hand, multiple cuts on his face and forehead, and an eye swollen shut for days. Arrest records show ICE agents did not know who Daniel was before arresting him and did not determine his flight risk. When he was taken to the hospital, ICE prevented a community member from seeing or speaking with him and denied him a phone call. The incident was cited in an ACLU of Colorado court filing detailing ICE's continued violations of a federal injunction requiring flight-risk determinations before warrantless arrests.

A native and citizen of Cambodia who was admitted to the United States as the child of a refugee in 1982 was detained by ICE on August 26, 2026, when she reported for a scheduled check-in. She had been under a 2004 final order of removal stemming from a 2001 California drug conviction, but was never removed and lived under supervised release for years. She was briefly detained again in August 2025 before being released under a class-action settlement requiring 14 days' notice before re-detention. In September 2025, a California court vacated the underlying conviction, and her motion to reopen her immigration case remains pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. After Cambodia issued a travel document and the BIA denied a stay of removal, ICE revoked her release and took her back into custody, later scheduling her for transfer and removal by charter flight. She is currently held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and filed a habeas petition seeking immediate release or a bar on her removal and transfer. The federal court denied her request for a temporary restraining order, finding it lacked jurisdiction to block her removal and that she had not shown a likelihood of success on her detention claims, while her underlying habeas petition remains pending.

The petitioner, held in ICE custody at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, is mandatorily detained under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c) based on two misdemeanor convictions for criminal threats under California Penal Code § 422, along with a prior DUI conviction and a vandalism conviction. Roughly three months into his detention, he suffered a stroke on August 16, 2026, and was hospitalized for three days before being returned to Adelanto, where he was told he would not receive the physical therapy required by his discharge plan. He has since experienced worsening symptoms including severe headaches, facial drooping, difficulty eating and speaking, numbness, and mobility problems, without being provided a wheelchair or walker despite being classified as a fall risk. He also suffers from HIV, severe dental decay, a history of blood clots, and neurocognitive and mental health conditions, and medical experts submitted declarations warning that continued inadequate care could result in recurrent stroke, infection, or death. His attorney, who also serves as his qualified representative because he was deemed incompetent to represent himself, and his sister both submitted declarations describing his deteriorating condition. He filed a habeas petition and sought a temporary restraining order for release based on a substantive due process claim that his detention amounted to unconstitutional punishment given the inadequate medical care. The court granted the TRO, ordering his release by September 2, 2026, without requiring an ankle monitor, and ordered the government to show cause why the TRO should not be converted into a preliminary injunction.

DHS said ICE arrested 28-year-old Ecuadoran national Leonel Geovanny Morocho-Arteaga during a targeted operation in Danbury, Connecticut, on August 26, 2026, disputing advocates' claims that the arrest took place near a school bus stop. The agency said Morocho-Arteaga had entered the U.S. without authorization and was previously arrested and released by Customs and Border Protection in July 2021, and that agents found a kitchen knife in his vehicle during the stop. DHS said the child associated with him remains under the guardianship of her mother, and that Morocho-Arteaga remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

Katherine Sanchez-Bonilla, known to friends as "Kathi," was arrested by ICE agents while traveling to Rochester, New York, and has since been moved between several detention facilities before landing in El Paso, Texas. Her attorney, Nour Chammas, says she has no criminal record and had a pending asylum application after leaving Costa Rica, and notes that such arrests have become more common, with ICE detaining an average of more than 1,580 people daily in July. Friends, including Nicole Velez, describe her as an ethical and conscientious person who held a Real ID, paid taxes, worked multiple jobs, and attended school while working with a lawyer for years to resolve her immigration status; family members say they have been left to track her transfers online without being able to offer in-person support. The Department of Homeland Security said ICE acts in accordance with current law and that a person's legal status determines enforcement action. Sanchez-Bonilla was expected to appear before an immigration judge on September 3, while her 12-year-old son remains with family in another city.

Daniel Tirado Pantoja, 43, a construction worker who had lived in the U.S. for roughly 30 years and was applying for a green card, was detained by ICE on July 7, 2026, after witnessing the fatal shooting of his employer, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, during a Houston traffic stop. Tirado Pantoja, who has a U.S. citizen son and stepdaughters and is in a common-law marriage with a legal permanent resident, disputed ICE's account of the shooting, saying agents were never in front of the van when they opened fire. Held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, he lost 20 to 30 pounds and suffered depression linked to the trauma of the shooting and detention conditions, according to advocates supporting his family. U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett ruled his detention violated due process and ordered his release, and he was reunited with his wife outside the detention center on August 26, 2026.

Leonel Geovanny Morocho-Arteaga, a 28-year-old Ecuadorian citizen and father of two, was arrested by ICE in Danbury, Connecticut, during a four-day operation that led to 118 arrests. In a sworn affidavit filed in federal court, he said agents surrounded his car after he placed his 6-year-old son on a school bus, and that his asylum appeal was pending at the time. DHS has denied the arrest took place at a bus stop, though video from cameras on the school bus appears to show agents detaining an adult at a nearby intersection shortly after children boarded. DHS has previously said agents found a large kitchen knife in his vehicle and that one of his children is under the guardianship of her mother; Morocho-Arteaga remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

Jordan Shafapay is being detained by ICE and facing possible deportation to Canada, according to a fundraiser set up by his loved ones. His situation grew more precarious after the unexpected death of his father, whose green card status Jordan had been under. Friends and family are raising money to hire an immigration attorney to fight his case.

Jorge Guzmán, a Venezuelan father of four who arrived in the United States five years ago seeking a better future for his family, was unexpectedly arrested by ICE while returning home from work in Miami. He was subsequently transferred to a detention center in another state, far from his children and family. His family is raising funds to hire an immigration lawyer to fight his deportation and secure his release.

A foreign national who entered the United States around 2008 was arrested and detained by ICE officers on August 26, 2026, without prior notice while he was on his way to work. He is currently held at the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center, with the government asserting he is subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A). He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging his detention. The district court granted the petition, relying on recent Third Circuit precedent holding that noncitizens already present in the United States are not 'seeking admission' and therefore cannot be detained under § 1225(b), but only under § 1226. The court ordered the government to release him immediately, temporarily enjoined his re-detention for seven days, and required that any future detention be preceded by a bond hearing before a neutral immigration judge. The court also barred the government from removing or transferring him out of the district pending that bond hearing.

Two volunteers working as legal observers for Danbury Unites for Immigrants were pepper sprayed by ICE agents during an encounter on Wednesday, with one of them hospitalized afterward, according to co-founder Juan Fonseca Tapia. Tapia said an ICE vehicle struck him as agents were leaving the parking lot. The hospitalized legal observer was treated and has since returned to volunteer work, the group said.

During Operation Metro Surge, ICE agent Christian Castro was involved in a shooting, and the Department of Justice initially charged two immigrants involved in the incident. The charges against the immigrants fell apart after evidence emerged that Castro and another agent had lied about the circumstances of the shooting. Castro has since become a fugitive from Minnesota authorities, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has resisted extraditing him, while the DOJ is now considering federal charges against Castro.

A 20-year-old Venezuelan man identified in court filings only as "Cristian" was unlawfully deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison under the Alien Enemies Act in violation of a court-approved settlement agreement overseen by U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher. The Trump administration stonewalled Gallagher's order to facilitate his return for months before abruptly repatriating him to Venezuela, the country from which he had been seeking asylum. His lawyers subsequently lost contact with him, and Gallagher noted it was unclear whether he had chosen not to reach out or had become a victim of the violence he fled.

A Mexican woman who was eight months pregnant was pulled over by Lee County deputies over her vehicle's dark window tint, and her nephew, a U.S. citizen, was called to the scene to translate. The nephew said ICE agents then grabbed him and placed him in handcuffs without cause, telling the story of protesting his detention by saying he would sue. The incident occurred amid a broader wave of ICE arrests across Lee County neighborhoods that week.

Ledgar Ramses Delgado-Reyes, a 25-year-old Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. seeking asylum in 2023 and was granted work authorization, was reunited with his wife, Madeline Ramos-Delgado, in Las Cruces after posting a $14,000 bond following nearly a year in immigration detention. Reyes said he was called in to sign paperwork correcting an address discrepancy and was told it would be quick, but was instead detained by ICE officers. His attorney said an immigration judge found he had no criminal history, was not a flight risk given his U.S. citizen wife had relocated to be near him, and had a possibility of success in his pending asylum claim. His family raised the bond money through a GoFundMe campaign.

ICE agents carried out a raid early Wednesday morning at the intersection of Madison Avenue and Alderman Street off Palm Beach Boulevard in Lee County, Florida, detaining dozens of people using masked agents, armored vehicles and machine guns. Resident Ana Hernandez said neighbors live in fear of being stopped for being undocumented, while witness Hillary Hogue described the arrests as targeting hardworking people, not criminals. ICE released images of five men with prior arrests taken into custody but has not disclosed the total number detained, and immigration attorney Indera DeMine said courts in Miami are experiencing "mass chaos" from the surge in cases.

Julio Borrell, a 72-year-old Cuban mechanic who arrived in Florida during the 1980 Mariel boatlift, was arrested during a routine immigration check-in last December after 46 years of never missing an appointment. He was held about four months at the Florida detention facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz," transferred to a processing site in Eloy, Arizona, and then bused nearly two days to Tapachula, Mexico — a city he said he had never heard of, more than 1,100 miles from the nearest U.S. border crossing. Now surviving by patching tires on the street and saving for a room to rent, Borrell is the father of seven U.S.-born children, eleven grandchildren and a great-grandchild whom he can only reach by borrowed phone; he told his daughter, "I won't die in Tapachula." His case is part of a broader U.S. practice, tied to Mexico's Interior Repatriation Programme, of flying deportees far from the border into remote interior cities like Tapachula and Villahermosa.