Human Impact Project

Santo, a Dominican national, was recently detained by ICE agents and transferred to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. He has no criminal record but is a diabetic who was held without his medication for ten days, causing health complications. His wife Yolanda, who declined to use her full name due to deportation fears, stated he does not have legal representation and has reported experiencing side effects from medication deprivation. The family would prefer his release or deportation to the Dominican Republic over continued detention.

Karina Lozano Chiriboga, Angel Granda, and their daughter Ariana Granda Lozano were deported to Ecuador on Wednesday morning despite their asylum case being denied without a hearing. The family had fled Ecuador two years prior due to violent organized crime and were going through legal channels to seek asylum. Their initial attorney missed filing deadlines, leading a judge to vacate their case, and although they obtained a temporary stay from U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin on April 24, that order was vacated four days later. ICE ordered them to the airport for a 5:30 a.m. departure, and while they were in flight, the Bureau of Immigration Appeals accepted their appeal into the record.

On April 28-29, 2026, approximately 40 protesters, including Maine residents and faith leaders, gathered at ICE's Burlington field office in Massachusetts to protest overcrowding and unsanitary conditions at the facility. The group attempted to block the administrative entrance and deliver care packages and a letter of support to detainees but were denied access. Police arrested between 9 and 12 protesters for trespassing and disturbing the peace after they refused orders to relocate to a designated free speech area. All arrested protesters were released and summoned to court. Some detainees at the facility had been transferred there during a January ICE operation in Maine.

Hector V. was detained during an ICE raid at the Allston Car Wash in November 2025 alongside eight coworkers. Though he had legal work authorization, he remained in custody due to an outstanding removal order from a 2007 hearing he missed because he is illiterate and was given incorrect information. After spending five months in the overcrowded South Texas ICE Processing Center under harsh conditions, he elected to self-deport at the end of January and was deported to El Salvador in mid-April, 11 weeks after making that choice. His attorney filed a motion to hold the government in contempt for failing to schedule a required bond hearing and a motion to reopen his case, both of which were denied.

A federal grand jury in Boston indicted 10 Indian nationals for conspiring to stage armed robberies of convenience stores, liquor stores, and fast food restaurants to help store clerks falsely claim victim status on U visa applications. The defendants, most of whom were residing unlawfully in the United States, face up to five years in prison and deportation. The investigation stems from an earlier case against organizer Rambhai Patel and driver Balwinder Singh, both convicted in May 2025 for carrying out at least six staged robberies beginning in March 2023.

ICE Boston arrested Bolivar Rivera-Perez, a Mexican national with two prior deportations and a criminal history including firearms offenses and DUI convictions in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. ICE lodged a detainer against Rivera-Perez with the Franklin County House of Corrections on March 24, 2025, but the facility released him into the community on March 31, 2025, without honoring the detainer.

A 14-year-old Brazilian national was detained by ICE agents in Marlborough, Massachusetts on March 10, 2026, during an operation targeting suspected gang members. She was transferred to a juvenile detention facility in New York without following proper legal procedures. A federal judge ordered her immediate release on March 12, 2026, finding the detention and out-of-state transfer violated constitutional protections and questioning why she was not turned over to state child welfare authorities instead. She was reunited with her aunt and uncle in Massachusetts but received a notice to appear in immigration court and now faces deportation to Brazil. Her attorney plans to challenge the deportation and petition for special immigrant juvenile status.

Darwing Inocente Xitumul Morales, a Guatemalan worker, was returned to ICE custody after an immigration judge ruled he was a danger to the community and denied him bond on March 2. Morales had been arrested in New Bedford on February 11 and briefly released after a federal judge ordered his release and a bond hearing. He is now being held at Plymouth County Correctional Facility pending a hearing scheduled for April 23.

Djeniffer Ribeiro-Semedo, a 22-year-old from Cape Verde who came to the U.S. in 2015 under her mother's lawful permanent resident status, was detained by ICE agents on February 11 after appearing at Brockton District Court. While roughly 24 weeks pregnant, she was held at the Burlington ICE field office—a facility not designed for long-term detention—where her condition "deteriorated rapidly," and she was hospitalized at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, with a treating doctor determining her detention put her at higher risk of dangerous pregnancy complications. She was released from ICE custody last week after her attorney, Carl Hurvich, filed a habeas petition challenging the legality of her detention.

Rümeysa Öztürk, a 30-year-old Turkish doctoral student pursuing a PhD in child development at Tufts University on a valid F-1 student visa, was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents on March 25, 2025, outside her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, as she left to attend an Iftar dinner. The Trump administration revoked her visa and detained her based on allegations she supported Hamas, though government officials later acknowledged the action was tied to a pro-Palestinian op-ed she co-wrote for the Tufts Daily criticizing the university's response to divestment resolutions and Israel's war in Gaza. During her 45-day detention across multiple states—including New Hampshire, Vermont, and Louisiana's South Louisiana ICE Processing Center—Öztürk suffered at least 12 asthma attacks in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions without adequate medical care or access to medications. Tufts University administrators stated they found no information supporting the allegations against her and that she did not violate university policies; a colleague described her as "quiet, steady, and unshakably kind." U.S. District Judge William Sessions III ordered her release on May 9, 2025, finding serious claims of due process and First Amendment violations and noting the government's only evidence was the op-ed itself, with "no evidence here … absent consideration of the op-ed." An immigration judge subsequently terminated her removal proceedings, determining the Department of Homeland Security lacked legal grounds to deport her. In December 2025, a federal judge ruled her SEVIS record (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) was wrongfully terminated and must be reinstated retroactively to March, and in January 2026, another federal judge determined the government's policy of arresting and detaining scholars for protected speech violated the First Amendment. Öztürk has since resumed her research and teaching duties at Tufts.

Juan David Quichimbo, an Ecuadorian father living in Springfield, Massachusetts, has been held at the Plymouth ICE detention facility for nearly two months despite having a pending T-visa application as an alleged labor trafficking victim. Quichimbo has no criminal record; his family received notice at a routine immigration check-in in November before his detention. His attorney Elizabeth Shaw said he and his family 'have been diligently pursuing their relief from removal' since arriving in the U.S. and that he has never had any interaction with law enforcement, 'not even a minor driving infraction.' After one federal judge lifted a ban on his transfer or deportation, a second federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking ICE from moving him, which the government has moved to dissolve.

Nexan Aroldo Asencio Corado, a Guatemalan carpenter and small business owner who had lived in Milford, Massachusetts for about a decade without legal status, was arrested by masked ICE agents outside his home on May 30, 2025, while his young twin sons, Jhon and Damian, watched. His wife, Christina Toledo, a U.S. citizen, said agents told her they were looking for his brother-in-law, Victor, and dismissed the couple's approved I-130 petition as possibly fake even after it was presented. Toledo said Asencio Corado, who has no criminal record, spent several nights in custody sleeping on a bathroom floor without a shower, enough food, or water, and the family was denied bond while relatives launched a GoFundMe to cover legal costs. The twin boys, who have partial hearing loss and speech delays, needed therapy after witnessing the arrest. He was deported to Guatemala months later, and his application to remain in the U.S. was set aside. In December 2025, Toledo and the boys traveled to his home village near the Salvadoran border to reunite with him for the holidays before returning to Milford in January 2026, as the family continues deciding whether to relocate permanently.

A man who had lived in the U.S. for 27 years and worked with a company for 17 years was deported after his wife was pulled over for a broken headlight. He had paid taxes, owned a home, and raised American-born children. The deportation occurred despite his lack of criminal conduct.

Bruna Ferreira, a Brazilian woman who arrived in the U.S. in 1998 at age six and previously held DACA protection, was arrested by ICE agents on November 12, 2025, in Massachusetts while driving to pick up her 11-year-old son from school. Ferreira shares custody of her son with her former fiancé Michael Leavitt, brother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She has no criminal convictions, and her brother, sister and son are U.S. citizens. She was held for 26 days across multiple facilities, including the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, before an immigration judge granted her release on a $1,500 bond on December 8 after DHS attorneys did not challenge her release. She remains in removal proceedings with mandatory periodic check-ins with ICE.

Associate pastor Ruzana Nehonde, 49, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in at the Burlington field office in November 2025 and transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana facing deportation to Zimbabwe. Despite having no criminal record, an adult son with U.S. citizenship, a pending green card application, and nearly three decades of residence in Massachusetts with a history of ICE compliance, she was taken into custody. Her church community in Stow has rallied to support her and is collecting donations to help cover household expenses.

Alejandro Orrego Agudelo, a 27-year-old Colombian asylum seeker, was arrested by Boston police on November 21 after a dispute over a parking space on Falcon Street in East Boston. He was charged with assault and battery on a police officer and released by a judge that same day at East Boston District Court. However, ICE agents arrested him in the courthouse lockup and detained him for four months at Plymouth County jail under the Laken Riley Act. After legal challenges including a habeas corpus petition and dismissal of criminal charges, an immigration judge granted him bond, and he was released.

Juliana Milena Ojeda Montoya, 24, an Ecuadorian national with a pending asylum claim and valid work authorization, was detained by ICE on November 6, 2025, during a traffic stop on Kimball Street in Fitchburg. The detention occurred while her husband, Carlos Sebastian Zapata, 24, a Fitchburg resident, appeared to suffer a seizure while holding their 1½-year-old daughter. According to Zapata's account, an ICE agent pushed him, hit his ribs, and pressed on his neck, causing him to lose consciousness. Video of the incident captured bystanders expressing concern for his safety and went viral. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Zapata was faking a medical emergency to help his wife evade arrest, though medical examination findings are disputed. A federal judge ordered Ojeda Montoya's release on November 10, finding that her detention without a hearing violated her due process rights and citing her young daughter whom she breastfeeds and her husband's acute medical episode. Ojeda Montoya had been released on bond in March 2024.

Nine employees at Allston Car Wash in Boston—Hector Valladares, Felicita Valladares, Vanessa Vasquez Valladares, Clarisa Aguilon, Heidy Aguilon, Yuli Magali Mendez Luarca, Pablo Oseas Lopez, Dairo Preciado, and Jose P. Enriquez Sagastume—were detained by more than 22 ICE agents on November 4, 2025. All nine workers held valid work permits at the time of their arrest. According to business manager Jose Barrera, agents arrived with subpoenas and detained the workers before allowing them to retrieve their work permits from their lockers. Attorney Todd Pomerleau reported that detainees held at ICE's Boston field office in Burlington experienced mistreatment, including being denied food and shower access for several days, and that one detainee was allegedly transferred to Texas in violation of a court order. Seven of the detained workers subsequently filed a federal tort claim through Boston Lawyers for Civil Rights alleging unlawful arrest, racial profiling based on their Latino and Spanish-speaking status, and mistreatment in custody including shackling, transport to multiple detention facilities, and denial of access to phones, legal counsel, and medications. The complaint seeks $1 million in compensation per worker plus legal fees.

ICE agents surrounded a family's car in Fitchburg on Thursday morning to arrest Juliana Milena Ojeda-Montoya, who was wanted for allegedly stabbing a coworker with scissors. Video shows her husband Carlos Zapata, 24, appearing to have a seizure while holding their toddler daughter during the arrest. Zapata said agents pushed, hit him, and pressed on his neck, causing him to lose consciousness. DHS officials disputed his account, claiming he faked the medical emergency and stating medical personnel found no legitimate emergency.

A Cuban man who fled Cuba with his politically active family as a teenager lived in the U.S. for over two decades, raised six U.S.-citizen children and owned a business before being detained after attempting to cross into Canada out of fear of third-country deportation. He was held at the Plymouth, Massachusetts ICE detention facility, where his attorney, Sarah Sherman-Stokes of Boston University's Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Clinic, said she was not notified of his fear-of-return interview regarding removal to Mexico, which she believes violated his rights. He was deported to Mexico in November 2025, and his continuing legal challenge led U.S. District Judge William G. Young to reveal in a March 2026 order that the Department of Homeland Security has deported about 6,000 Cuban nationals to Mexico over the past year under an unwritten, standing agreement between the two countries. Young questioned the legality of the arrangement, noting it lacked any formal process beyond the government's own assertion that it was permissible.