Human Impact Project

Police in Worcester, Massachusetts restrained a 16-year-old girl on May 9, 2025 while ICE agents detained her mother. Video footage documents the incident. The girl was charged with reckless endangerment, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

Daniel Flores Martinez was detained by ICE agents on Mother's Day 2025 after federal officers in unmarked cars surrounded his vehicle as he, his wife Kenia Guerrero, their three children (ages 3, 12 and 14) and his mother-in-law drove to church. Agents, who never identified themselves or their agency, broke the car window, dragged Flores Martinez out, and slammed him to the ground while his children screamed; Guerrero, who along with her children is a U.S. citizen, was restrained against the vehicle when she tried to intervene. Flores Martinez and Guerrero have since filed a federal lawsuit against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, alleging the agents used illegal "smash and grab" tactics in violation of constitutional protections.

Loic Adandedjan, manager of Dottie's Coffee Lounge in Pittsfield, decided to self-deport to Benin in late April after living in the U.S. for a decade without permanent legal status. His decision was prompted by intensified anxiety over ICE enforcement, particularly after his coworker was detained by ICE on April 22. Adandedjan had initially come to the U.S. on a tourist visa for medical treatment and was working toward a green card when he chose to leave.

Juan Francisco Mendez, a 29-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, was released from the Strafford County Jail on May 15, 2025, after being detained for 30 days following his April 14 arrest in New Bedford. An immigration judge set his bail at $1,500, the lowest amount possible, and Mendez was released wearing an ankle monitor. ICE agents had smashed his car window with an ax during the initial traffic stop while Mendez and his wife waited for their lawyer. Mendez is now working toward reunification with his wife and 9-year-old son.

Fabian Schmidt, a German-born electrical engineer and green card holder who was detained by CBP officers at Boston Logan Airport on March 7, 2025, and interrogated for days before being transferred to ICE custody at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Rhode Island, was held for a total of two months before his release. He now lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he has married his partner, Bhavani Hodgkins, with whom he has an 8-year-old daughter. Schmidt is paying roughly $60,000 in legal fees and related costs stemming from his detention, and says he is pursuing U.S. citizenship and writing a book about his experience. The German embassy had previously confirmed it was in close contact with U.S. authorities and the family during his detention.

E.F.D., an Ecuadorian immigrant and resident of Milford, Massachusetts, was granted protection from deportation to Ecuador in 2018 under the UN Convention Against Torture after fleeing threats and a robbery tied to his refusal to transport drugs for Ecuadorian police. In March 2025, ICE detained him and his coworkers during an unsuccessful search for another individual, holding him at the Plymouth, Massachusetts ICE detention facility. He was released after the D.V.D. v. DHS lawsuit challenging third-country deportations was filed, in which he is a named plaintiff.

D.V.D., a Cuban immigrant living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, has had a final deportation order designating Cuba as his only removal destination since 2017 and has checked in regularly with ICE's Burlington, Massachusetts office since 2019. In March 2025, ICE required him to appear for another check-in only weeks after a previous one, raising fears he could be detained and deported to a third country instead of Cuba. He is one of four named plaintiffs in the federal class-action lawsuit D.V.D. v. DHS challenging the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy.