Human Impact Project

Yasmani Noel Moreno de Armas, a 31-year-old Cuban who arrived in Florida by raft in 2016 under the 'Wet Foot, Dry Foot' policy and ran a small trucking business between Miami and Tampa to help support his parents near Orlando, was detained by ICE in West Palm Beach on May 11, 2025, after his green card bid under the Cuban Adjustment Act was denied. He was held for about a year before being deported in late July/August 2026 not to Cuba but to the Central African Republic on a roughly 21-22 hour shackled flight, learning his destination only hours into the trip. Moreno, who manages diabetes and asthma, said the flight left him ill and triggered an anxiety attack. He is now confined at the Maison Confort lodging in Bangui alongside migrants from Afghanistan, Vietnam and Russia, without a passport, visa or legal status, suffering stomach problems and allergies, and says he was kidnapped twice by armed men he believed were security forces, with family and a fellow detainee paying about $100 for his release. A Cuban embassy representative told him Cuba would not take him back because he left as a 'rafter' migrant, and he fears returning there given a past imprisonment for trying to flee. 'They brought us here illegally,' he said, adding his parents 'went crazy, crying and yelling' when he told them where he was; his attorney is negotiating with federal officials for his return.

Danilo Alves Silva, 46, was arrested after authorities said he dressed up as an ICE agent—wearing an ICE hat, raid jacket, tactical gear, and a face mask—to intimidate voters at a Miami-Dade College polling site during Brazil's presidential election. Several voters became visibly afraid that an immigration agent was interfering with the election and could deport them. Silva later admitted the outfit was a costume he bought online and said he returned to record people's reactions after voting himself. He allegedly threatened a detective and offered a bribe after being detained, and faces charges including felony voting intimidation, bribery, threatening a public servant, and unlawful use of police insignia.

Christian Omar González, a 27-year-old Cuban man living in Hialeah, Florida, has been held at an ICE facility in Miramar for nearly two months after being arrested on August 5 while riding as a passenger to his job in West Palm Beach. His mother and grandmother have publicly pleaded for his release, with his mother saying 'mi niño no es ningún delincuente,' insisting he has no criminal record. ICE said he was arrested during a joint operation with the Florida Highway Patrol following alleged traffic violations, though the vehicle's driver, U.S. citizen Luis Villalba, disputes that account and says he was never ticketed. González left Cuba in 2022 to avoid mandatory military conscription after the July 11 protests, and his asylum case is pending; a bail request was denied because he was classified as an 'arriving alien,' a category that bars the immigration judge from granting bond. His family says they have taken on debt trying to secure his release, and his attorneys note his case coincides with a pending U.S. Supreme Court review of whether ICE can detain migrants in this category without bond. The Miramar facility where he is held has reportedly held as many as 342 people despite an official capacity of 56.

A U.S. citizen was injured when an ICE agent punched him during a work van stop in Naples Manor, Florida, after community members arrived to document and protest the stop. Graphic images shared with the Naples Daily News and The News-Press show an ICE agent pointing a gun toward bystanders during the encounter. June Sanson, a legal observer with the Rapid Response Alliance for Immigrant Safety and Empowerment, said the agent involved had previously pointed his weapon at her during an unrelated encounter in Immokalee. The advocacy group has planned a protest in Naples on Oct. 2 in response to the incident. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reginaldo Quej, Erwin Orlando Xoy Acaham, and Catherine Migdalia Rax Sis, all Guatemalan nationals working at Chile & Chili's Taqueria in Tallahassee, Florida, were detained on September 25, 2026 when ICE and Florida Highway Patrol attempted to stop a vehicle suspected of carrying someone without legal status near the restaurant. The three fled on foot before being caught and handcuffed, with security footage capturing the scene; ICE said the taqueria itself was not the target. One detainee, a 23-year-old woman, worked to financially support her mother, who has cancer, and her two younger sisters in Guatemala. Owner Shannon/Marco Tenorio, a naturalized U.S. citizen, described the workers as 'good people trying to make a living,' said some were in the process of finalizing immigration paperwork or seeking asylum while others held DACA status and work permits, and noted it was the third immigration operation the business had faced in just over a month. Remaining staff quit out of fear, prompting the business to permanently close. An immigration attorney said none of the three had a serious or prior criminal history, though their legal statuses varied, and all remained in ICE custody at detention centers far from Tallahassee. Community members raised nearly $13,000 via GoFundMe, and the Tallahassee Immigrant Rights Alliance organized a protest rally at the restaurant.

The brother of Zolia Virgen Verduzco, who had lived in the United States for 45 years, was detained and deported to Mexico despite having legal counsel and ongoing documentation processes underway, according to Verduzco. She said her family had paid thousands of dollars in legal fees to try to keep him in the country. Verduzco shared her brother's story while attending a community rally in Tallahassee supporting other detained immigrants.

Alicia Labrador, a Venezuelan dermocosmiatrist and founder/CEO of the Aliestetic beauty and MedSpa brand, was detained by federal immigration authorities on September 30, 2026, while dropping off her 16-year-old daughter at a friend's home in Doral's Ibis Villas neighborhood. She also serves as vice president of the Hispanic Women's Chamber of Commerce of Doral. Her attorney, Ros Ana Guillén, says Labrador has a pending asylum application, valid work authorization, and a current driver's license, and family members say she entered the U.S. legally on a visa in 2016 with no criminal record. Her son, Héctor Sánchez, said he learned of the detention when his mother called him while she was with officers, telling Telemundo, 'I couldn't even speak.' Reports conflict on her location, with some saying she was transferred the same evening to a detention facility in Texas, while her attorney says she may be held at a CBP transit facility in Florida where she has not been permitted to visit her. She now faces deportation proceedings, and her family says they are focused on bringing her home.

Claudia Carolina Rodríguez Caglianone, a 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant who served as captain of St. Thomas University's soccer team and earned bachelor's and master's degrees there, was detained by ICE at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on July 31, 2026, while trying to board a domestic flight. She had entered the U.S. in 2017 on a tourist visa, applied for asylum within six months, and held Temporary Protected Status until it expired in October. Her family said she was held for eight days at the Miramar ICE field office without being able to shower or change clothes, losing 15 pounds, before being transferred to facilities including the Broward Transitional Center and Pompano Beach. Her former coach praised her leadership and character. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited the facility, criticized ICE for detaining 'law-abiding residents like Claudia,' and raised concerns about hundreds of similar detainees, with the resulting public pressure contributing to her eventual release.

Jose Felipe Pacheco Bautista, a 21-year-old Fruitland Park man, was stopped by Leesburg police after radar showed his truck traveling 51 mph in a 45-mph zone on State Road 44 and Whitney Road. He and another occupant fled on foot while the vehicle was still rolling, and Pacheco Bautista was apprehended shortly after and charged with resisting an officer without violence. He was booked into the Lake County Jail, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a hold on him.

Antonio Frometa Ascón, a 63-year-old Cuban immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1994 after being paroled through Guantánamo, has been in ICE custody since Aug. 14, 2025, when Florida Highway Patrol stopped him on his way to work under the state's Operation Tidal Wave crackdown. He was first held at the South Florida Detention Facility, where he alleges a guard's blow left him partially deaf, then transferred to Camp East Montana in El Paso, where he witnessed a detainee's death, and later moved to the ICE El Paso Service Processing Center. Cuba has refused to accept his deportation, and he has refused removal to Mexico as a third country, citing fears of cartel violence and extortion. His first granddaughter was born while he has been detained, and he says he has not been able to meet or hold her. He has filed pro se and attorney-assisted habeas corpus petitions arguing his prolonged detention violates the Supreme Court's Zadvydas v. Davis limits on indefinite confinement, and a federal judge has yet to rule as his health and mental state decline and his family says he has grown depressed awaiting word from his lawyer.

Luis Manuel Chavarría-Galeano, a 48-year-old exiled Nicaraguan journalist who hosts the interview program Café con Voz, was detained by ICE agents on September 14, 2026 while working as an Uber/Lyft driver near Orlando to supplement his journalism income. He fled Nicaragua in 2018 after police raided his newsroom and imprisoned colleagues over his reporting critical of Daniel Ortega's government, filing for asylum in the U.S. in June 2019 with a pending case, a valid work permit, and no U.S. criminal record. In 2023, the Ortega-Murillo government stripped him and 93 other journalists, writers, and activists of their citizenship. His wife, Daykel Santamaría, said she received only a brief call before his phone was taken, during which he asked her to contact a lawyer and notify journalists. He was held at Baker Correctional Facility and then Krome North Service Processing Center, where press freedom groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, Nicaraguan opposition members, and U.S. lawmakers such as Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar called for his release. An immigration judge granted him bond on September 23, and he was released on September 26, with a future immigration court hearing scheduled.

Catherine Rax, 25, was detained along with her partner and another coworker after a traffic stop escalated into an immigration enforcement operation at Chile & Chili's Taqueria in Tallahassee, where all three worked. Rax, who is originally from Guatemala, said her coworkers had become like family and that she sends money home to help her mother, who is battling cancer. Speaking from inside the Flagler County Jail, she described the experience as 'not living — it's surviving' and said she did not know when she would be released or see her family again. One of the three men detained with her is now being held at a state-run immigration detention facility in Baker County, and community members held a rally outside the now-closed restaurant in support of the detained workers. Owner Marco Tenorio, who was in Mexico and watched the raid unfold via security cameras, said it was the third immigration operation the business had faced in just over a month and described workers having panic attacks during the raid. He announced the taqueria's permanent closure, saying he did not want to keep exposing his employees, after several other workers quit in the aftermath.

Olga Lebedeva, a Russian woman who has lived in Sarasota, Florida for nearly a decade, has been held at ICE's Eloy, Arizona detention facility since August 19, when she was separated from her husband and two sons at the Phoenix airport. She entered the U.S. legally in 2016, co-owns a women's clothing boutique with her husband, and holds a work permit valid until 2029, with her asylum application still pending and no criminal record. Her family, unable to afford the nearly $90,000 bond set by the court, has started a fundraiser, while her attorney has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of her continued detention.

Carlos, a recent graduate of Miami Beach Senior High who was preparing to begin college in finance, was detained by ICE and is being held at a Border Patrol facility. His family says he is being given little food, sleeps on the ground with only a paper blanket in cold conditions, and has suffered a recurrence of pancreatic pain that staff reportedly cannot treat because he is under 21. His brother describes him as hardworking and caring, noting he maintained top grades, played high school football, and enjoys mountain biking and helping others at the gym, and says his mental health is deteriorating in custody. The family is raising funds to hire a lawyer, seek bail, and fight his case before a judge.

June Sanson, a legal observer with the Rapid Response Alliance for Immigrant Safety and Empowerment who has lived in Collier County since 2009, said she was confronted by an ICE agent while monitoring enforcement activity at an Immokalee gas station. Sanson said the agent, whom she later identified as the same agent involved in wounding a U.S. citizen during the Sept. 23 Naples Manor raid, pointed his gun at her and demanded she move her vehicle. Sanson works with other legal observers to document ICE encounters for potential civil rights violations.

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.

Elia, a mother of three who has worked as a housekeeper for nearly 20 years, was detained by police and placed on an ICE hold while traveling to see her dying grandmother in hospice care. Her daughter Sindy describes her as the family's devoted caregiver and provider, noting that her son Jonathan, who has autism, relies on her daily for support and advocacy. With Elia in custody, the family is raising money through a GoFundMe campaign to cover everyday expenses and anticipated legal costs.

José Serrano Salgado, Ecuador's former interior minister under President Rafael Correa, fled to Miami in 2021 and later applied for asylum. ICE arrested him outside his Miami home in mid-2025, and he spent nearly a year detained at Krome North Service Processing Center, where a source said he lost about 25 pounds and his prediabetes worsened into diabetes. In May 2026, an immigration judge denied his asylum claim but granted deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture after he showed he faced torture if returned to Ecuador. Three Trump-appointed appeals judges reversed that protection within a day of reviewing the case, and Serrano was deported to Ecuador within hours, sent on a private jet in late August 2026. He now faces murder charges over the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and is held in a maximum-security prison, where a source said he has been abused, including having his fingernails smashed, being denied food, and being told footage of him stripped naked would be shared with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, a political rival of his former boss.

ICE agents detained a man who was resisting arrest inside Bravo Supermarket in West Park, Florida. A witness recorded video showing multiple agents attempting to subdue the man on the floor of the store as customers looked on. The arrest was part of a larger multi-agency operation, Operation Sandhill Sentinel 9.0, involving ICE, Border Patrol, HSI, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Broward Sheriff's Office, which has reportedly resulted in about 250 immigration arrests in South Florida.

Jose Gregorio "Grego" Pena Pacheco, a 51-year-old Venezuelan man living in Davenport, Florida, was detained by ICE on September 17, 2026 while driving a short distance from his home to take out the trash, still in his pajamas without shoes. He has a pending asylum case, is authorized to work in the U.S., and has no known criminal history, but has a chronic illness requiring daily medication that he did not have with him at the time of detention. His sister Eliana received one brief call from him on September 18 during which he could not identify his location, and family and friends have since been unable to confirm his whereabouts or whether he received his medication. He reportedly told his sister he was given three documents in English, a language he does not speak fluently, asking him to choose between leaving the U.S., paying for release, or remaining detained while fighting his case. His family has retained an immigration attorney and is asking the community for help locating him and information about his case.