Human Impact Project

Federal agents arrested a teacher at a Chicago daycare in front of parents and children; the educator had a work permit and can be heard telling authorities she had papers. In a separate incident in Los Angeles, federal immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen during a Home Depot raid and drove away with his 1-year-old daughter still in the vehicle; the child and her grandmother are both U.S. citizens.

An unconfirmed ICE sighting was reported on July 3, 2025 in Anaheim, California. According to the alert, ICE agents in a white van were observed circling a Target parking lot and a nearby Quick Quack car wash, with reports indicating they picked up several people. The agents were reported to be moving southbound along Euclid Street toward a 7-Eleven gas station.

A Russian citizen on parole through the CBP One program was arrested on December 22, 2025 in Hollywood on misdemeanor solicitation charges. After being released from criminal custody, ICE immediately detained him without a hearing despite his compliance with parole conditions. The court ordered his immediate release, finding his detention violated due process rights.

Ashleigh Brown and Cynthia Raygoza, both 38, were convicted of stalking a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, identified in court as Rogelio Reyes Huitzilin, after following him from a federal building to his home in Baldwin Park on August 28, 2025. Prosecutors said the women livestreamed the encounter, shared his address, and shouted that "ICE lives on your street," with the agent's wife and children present. Both were acquitted of conspiring to publish his personal information, while a third defendant, Sandra Samane, was acquitted of both charges. Huitzilin testified that his family has lived in fear since the incident and moved out of their neighborhood; Brown and Raygoza each face up to five years in federal prison, with sentencing scheduled for June 8, 2026.

Babblejit Kaur, an Indian-origin woman who has lived in the United States since 1994, was detained by ICE agents while attending a biometric interview for her green card application at a USCIS office. She had no criminal record, was sponsored by her daughter who is a green card holder, and worked for decades as a restaurant businesswoman and store employee. The detention occurred amid increased scrutiny of Indian nationals under new H-1B visa vetting policies announced in 2025.

Seven people detained by ICE at a California immigration detention center filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on November 12, describing severe medical neglect and inhumane conditions. One detainee, Fernando Viera Reyes, reports being denied medication and urgent treatment for likely prostate cancer while in custody.

A foreign national in removal proceedings was initially released by immigration authorities on October 4, 2023, and enrolled in alternatives to detention. He was re-detained by ICE on December 15, 2025, while attending a scheduled immigration appointment. After being ordered removed on June 8, 2026, he filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his re-detention. The court granted his petition, finding that his re-detention without notice and a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process, and ordered his immediate release on the conditions he was subject to prior to re-detention.

Six foreign nationals were arrested between November 2025 and January 2026 and charged with being inadmissible as persons present without admission in the United States. They were detained at the Adelanto Detention Center and Desert View Annex without individualized bond hearings. The court granted a temporary restraining order requiring bond hearings within 7 days or immediate release.

A Guatemalan asylum seeker who fled to the U.S. in April 2024 was arrested on December 11, 2025, while attending a scheduled ICE check-in at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. She had been released on her own recognizance, complied with all supervision conditions, and had no criminal history. The court granted a temporary restraining order requiring her immediate release, finding her detention likely violated her constitutional due process rights.

Viktoriia Bulavina, a 46-year-old Ukrainian woman who entered the US in September 2022 under the Uniting for Ukraine program, was detained by ICE on December 4, 2025, during a scheduled green card interview at the USCIS San Diego Field Office. She is married to US citizen Victor Korol. Bulavina spent three days in the downtown San Diego ICE facility, where she reported harsh conditions including lack of sleep, inability to change clothes or shower, cold temperatures, expired food, and inadequate privacy. Her attorney stated she had complied with all immigration procedures and was renewing her Temporary Protected Status when detained, with her legal team asserting her TPS application was approved in June 2024, while DHS claimed her TPS had expired in April 2025. She was released after five days in custody, with her TPS extension approved the day of her release.

A Chinese activist who entered the U.S. on an F-1 student visa in May 2016 and engaged in publicly documented activism against the Chinese Communist Party was arrested on December 9, 2025, during a traffic stop in Yermo, California after immigration agents conducting surveillance identified him from a photograph. He had lived openly in the U.S. for over nine years without immigration enforcement contact. He was charged as deportable for visa overstay and detained at Adelanto ICE Processing Center. On June 16, 2026, an immigration judge denied his bond request, finding him a flight risk. The federal court denied his habeas petition seeking immediate release, finding that a post-deprivation bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) satisfied his due process rights.

A Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. on a B-2 visa in 2019 and overstayed was arrested during a targeted ICE raid in Los Angeles on December 8, 2025, without an arrest warrant. He was detained and received a bond hearing on April 30, 2026, where bond was denied. The federal court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding the arrest violated 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) requirements and ordered his immediate release, prohibiting re-detention without a pre-detention hearing before an immigration judge.

Immigration agents took a cash box from a taco stand in La Puente after arresting four people at the location, according to a witness account. The incident involved the confiscation of the business's cash box during the enforcement action.

ICE agents arrested Julio, a man with end-stage kidney failure requiring regular dialysis, as he returned home from a medical appointment. He was held in detention facilities and denied appropriate medical care, eventually suffering a severe stroke while hospitalized under ICE surveillance. His family, all U.S. citizens including a military servicemember, advocated for his release but ICE refused despite his critical medical needs.

A behavioral therapist for children in Key Largo, Florida, was pulled over by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while driving to work in a car registered to her undocumented partner. Video recorded in part by a Miami Herald reporter showed agents unlocking her door, dragging her from the vehicle, searching her purse, and handcuffing her as she screamed that she was a U.S. citizen and asked for help. The woman, described as under 5 feet tall and 85 pounds, said she complied with instructions to roll down her window but declined to show identification until agents located her driver's license and confirmed her citizenship, releasing her about 10 minutes after the stop began. She said this was the third time she had been stopped in the same area and that the experience left her unable to sleep, in physical pain, and emotionally traumatized. CBP said the stop stemmed from identifying her partner as undocumented, and the broader operation led to 14 undocumented immigrants being arrested. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the incident reflected a pattern of racial profiling, protesters later gathered in Islamorada, and the case is one of more than 500 documented by ProPublica involving U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents.

An asylum seeker from Ecuador who fled extortion and death threats was detained by ICE on December 3, 2025 during a routine check-in at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. Despite having no criminal record and consistently appearing for immigration hearings, ICE alleged she missed a July 23, 2025 check-in that was not visible on her application. The court granted a temporary restraining order requiring her immediate release and prohibiting re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing.

A 32-year-old Turkish man was detained and transferred to ICE custody while working as a driver, before he could receive follow-up medical care despite blood tests indicating he needed prompt treatment. He has rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disease causing intense pain in his neck and ankles. His family attempted to deliver medication to Otay Mesa but was turned away. His sister, brother-in-law, cousin, uncle and a family friend submitted court declarations supporting his release and attesting to his community standing. A judge granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered a bond hearing within seven days, considering his documented medical conditions.

Noemi, a Guatemalan asylum seeker, witnessed ICE agents smash a window of her family's car and forcibly remove her Mexican national partner from the vehicle while she and their three children (ages 1, 7, and 9) were inside an ICE office for a check-in appointment in December. Her partner was sent to Adelanto ICE Processing Center. The three children subsequently experienced significant emotional and behavioral regression, including depression, sleep disturbances, developmental regression (the 1-year-old returned to crawling), and academic decline.

Noemi, a Guatemalan asylum seeker, was at an ICE check-in appointment when immigration agents smashed the car window and forcibly removed her Mexican national partner, who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years. Officers attempted to separate Noemi from her three young children (ages 1, 7, and 9) but the children's screams prevented separation. Her partner was sent to Adelanto ICE Processing Center. Since the detention, the couple's children have experienced depression, eating disorders, sleep disturbances, regression (including a 1-year-old reverting to crawling), and cognitive decline.

Diana Sanchez Ledezma, a Stockton-area DJ known as DJ Reina Azteca with pending asylum and U-visa applications, was detained by ICE officers at a check-in appointment on December 18, 2025, despite being enrolled in the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program and requesting deportation herself. During processing at Otay Mesa Detention Center, she initially refused a medical screening and pregnancy test out of fear, having heard accounts of forced abortions and hysterectomies in detention, and was held unclothed in a cold cell before relenting. Over nearly four months in custody, she witnessed medical emergencies including strokes and fainting, reported inadequate care and poor food, and faced retaliation from guards after filing grievances; she also lost her deactivated DJ account and entire music library. A federal judge ruled in her favor in April 2026, finding ICE lacked authority to detain her, and she was released, though she has struggled to rebuild her music career while awaiting the return of her identification documents.