Human Impact Project

Luis Villalobos, a legal permanent resident who has lived in El Paso most of his life, was arrested by ICE agents on May 27 as he left his driveway for work. Agents claimed there was a warrant but refused to provide documentation. His family is struggling with legal fees and bills.

A father and grandfather were detained by ICE in the same operation. The family cannot afford legal representation and has lost their primary income source, as the father was the sole earner. The family is seeking $3,000 to hire a lawyer to investigate the case.

Luis Fernando Cabrera, an 18-year-old senior at Northeast Early College High School in Austin, was detained by ICE on May 1, 2026, after a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper pulled him over for expired vehicle registration. Body camera footage shows the trooper photographed Cabrera's school ID and used the encrypted messaging app Signal to contact federal immigration agents, receiving a message instructing him to "detain." Cabrera, who had an active pending asylum case dating to 2019 with no deportation order or criminal history, was transferred to Karnes County Immigration Processing Center over 100 miles away. His detention sparked protests from classmates and community members, with support from his school and St. James Episcopal Church. On May 20, a federal judge ordered ICE to release Cabrera, barring deportation and allowing him to graduate and take his final exams.

In March 2025, ICE agent fatally shot 23-year-old U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez on South Padre Island, Texas. Bodycam footage shows the vehicle with brake lights engaged when three shots were fired through the window. Martinez was removed from the car and restrained before receiving medical care, but died at a Brownsville hospital. The agency's involvement was not publicly revealed until nearly eleven months later. A grand jury declined to indict the agent, and ICE stated the shooting was justified. Martinez's family is pursuing a tort claim for wrongful death.

Border Patrol's Targeting Unit, Homeland Security Investigations, and ICE conducted a targeted operation at a home in El Paso on May 26, 2026, and arrested two individuals alleged to be members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Both were found to be in the country without authorization and are scheduled for removal. Authorities have not released the identities of the suspects or additional details about the operation. The arrests are part of a broader multi-state federal enforcement campaign against alleged Tren de Aragua members announced by the Department of Justice in early May.

Jose Danilo Diaz Sandoval, who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years and was in the process of obtaining a green card, was detained and deported by ICE in January 2026. His granddaughter Malani, whom he was raising, is a survivor of the 2022 Uvalde school shooting. Diaz's wife is a U.S. citizen. After spending four months in Honduras, he returned to the United States following legal efforts by his family.

Sofia, 35, an undocumented woman with no criminal record who was brought from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso as a child, was surrounded by masked ICE officers pointing guns at her outside her Central El Paso workplace on May 22, 2026, while leaving during a shift break. She was handcuffed and taken to the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico, where she was held for about 50 days before being released on bond with a GPS monitor and required check-ins with a deportation officer. Her mother said Sofia is now raising her two children, ages 11 and 16, after her husband died in a car accident six months earlier, and that the family cannot afford a private attorney for her upcoming removal hearing.

A Venezuelan man who fled to the United States in November 2021 was granted humanitarian parole and settled in Ennis, Texas with his wife and child, where he applied for asylum and temporary protected status. On May 22, 2026, ICE officers detained him after he was arrested and charged with assault causing bodily injury, a charge that remains pending. He was offered a custody redetermination hearing on August 14, 2026, but allegedly refused to sign the hearing request form. He filed a habeas corpus petition and motion for a temporary restraining order in federal court seeking release, arguing he was denied due process before his parole was revoked. The government argued his detention was governed by a different statute in light of recent Ninth Circuit precedent and that a material change in circumstances justified his continued detention. The court found he has a protected liberty interest but concluded that, given the pending assault charge, a post-deprivation bond hearing rather than immediate release was appropriate. The court ordered that he receive a substantive bond hearing within 14 days, with the government bearing the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that he poses a danger or flight risk.

Yenniffer Natalia England, a 32-year-old DACA recipient and nurse's assistant with valid work authorization through 2027, was detained by Texas state troopers on February 16, 2026, after a traffic stop for a suspended driver's license stemming from an unpaid speeding ticket. She was arrested while driving her brother and daughter to get tacos. ICE agents were tipped off by county jail staff and transferred her to El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas. During her nearly three-month detention, her two daughters, ages 12 and 14, remained without her care. Her brother Francisco De La Rosa stated: "This is just tearing us apart. She's like the glue that keeps our family together." Community supporters from La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) organized protests calling for her release. An immigration judge initially denied her bond and issued a deportation order despite her legal DACA status and 28-year residence in the United States. On May 21, 2026, a federal judge granted England a writ of habeas corpus, ordering her release on the condition of wearing an ankle monitor.

Rogelio Cortez, 50, was arrested during a traffic stop initiated by Texas Department of Public Safety near a West Side library. State troopers said Cortez had an outstanding vehicle burglary warrant. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including ICE, responded to the scene. Bexar County officials stated Cortez was not a voter and the incident did not affect polling site access or voting operations.

Three undocumented immigrants—Ignacio Sosnava Rodriguez, Miguel Angel Gomez Alvarado, and Alejandro Villegas Angel—were detained by ICE after police stops in Taylor, Texas between November 2025 and February 2026. All three had lived in the U.S. for 14-22 years with no criminal records and were held without bond hearings. Federal judges ruled their detention violated due process rights and ordered their release. The Trump administration appealed, and their cases are now before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which will decide whether undocumented immigrants have constitutional rights to challenge their detention.

Dixuan 'Kai' Li, a 27-year-old Chinese woman who came to the U.S. in 2019 on a student visa, was detained by ICE officers without a warrant as she left her Arlington apartment with her husband in May and has since spent more than four months at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado. Li, who says she and her family faced religious persecution in China as Christians—her mother reportedly led a house church there for more than 30 years before later receiving asylum in the U.S.—has a bipolar disorder diagnosis and previously survived two suicide attempts related to depression. She married U.S. citizen Nathaniel Clemetson in February; he says she was pregnant at the time of her arrest and may have suffered a miscarriage in custody without adequate medical care, according to a family-run advocacy website. Li has a deportation order under appeal, and her family says legal costs have exceeded $25,000, prompting a GoFundMe campaign to help cover expenses.

Karla Soriano's husband was arrested and deported to Honduras five months prior to the article publication. Left to support two sons alone, Soriano has struggled to find stable employment—one employer threatened to call ICE when she asked to be paid. She is considering self-deporting to avoid potential detention, fearing she could be held in a detention center for five to six months.

Yanquiel Lima came to the U.S. from Cuba in 2023 under a humanitarian visa program that Trump ended in 2024. He was arrested shortly after the program's termination and denied a bond hearing under ICE's mandatory detention policy. He spent 10 months at Pearsall detention facility in a room with 64 other detainees sharing two toilets and three showers. He reported being served spoiled food and hearing racist comments from guards. He was placed in solitary confinement for six days after complaining about conditions.

Alvaro Barrera Leon, a Cuban national, was detained by ICE on November 13, 2025, after appearing for a scheduled check-in appointment despite having complied with all supervision requirements and having no criminal history. The petitioner filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of his detention under the Due Process Clause. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted the writ of habeas corpus, finding the petitioner's detention violated constitutional protections.

An Indian family of four — parents Jagdish and Gurwinder, and children Guri (12) and Manpreet (11) — were detained by ICE during a routine check-in appointment in February 2026 and held at the Dilley family detention center in Texas. The family fled Punjab, India, after Jagdish converted from Sikhism to Catholicism and faced persistent threats and violence. They arrived in the U.S. in 2022 seeking asylum and settled in Los Angeles. During detention, Guri developed bleeding in his stools without specialist referral, Manpreet lost 6 pounds after a week of vomiting she attributed to tap water, and Gurwinder's arthritis and diabetes worsened without proper medication — her daughter helps her out of bed each morning. Both children have shown behavioral changes: Manpreet is often angry, Guri has stopped listening to his parents. Manpreet celebrated her 11th birthday in detention with a makeshift cake from commissary snacks — she said if there had been candles, she would have wished for her family to leave Dilley. The family reported no meat-free options on the days their Sikh-Hindu faith requires vegetarian meals. Manpreet stopped attending classes because they were taught in Spanish, which she does not speak. Guri stopped attending after his mother's health declined.

Roswell Enrique Pérez Nieto watched as immigration agents detained his wife and 3-year-old son at an immigration court in San Antonio, Texas. The encounter was captured in footage obtained by Newsweek, which documented masked officers taking the family into custody.

A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped a white Volvo truck on Interstate 35 in Webb County on May 18 during Operation Lone Star and discovered 20 undocumented immigrants—16 adults and 4 minors from Mexico and Guatemala—hidden in the truck's sleeping compartment. The driver, 25-year-old Miguel Angel Velazquez Chavez, a Mexican national, fled on foot but was arrested and charged with evading arrest and smuggling people. All 20 migrants were turned over to U.S. Border Patrol.

Juan Nasario-Reyes, 43, from Beaver, Oklahoma, was arrested at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita after authorities discovered 42 undocumented immigrants in his tractor-trailer, which was sealed shut with no means of escape and an internal temperature of 92.5 degrees. He also faces charges for possessing approximately 16 grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. If convicted on smuggling charges, Nasario-Reyes could face up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine; drug charges carry a maximum sentence of 40 years.

Deisy Fidelina Rivera Ortega, wife of active-duty U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jose Serrano stationed at Fort Bliss, was detained by ICE agents on April 14, 2026, while attending a USCIS appointment in El Paso, Texas to apply for Parole in Place. A native of El Salvador who had lived in the U.S. for approximately a decade, Rivera Ortega held valid work authorization and a 2019 court order granting her withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture. Despite these legal protections, ICE arrested her based on a December 2019 removal order for illegal entry and indicated plans to deport her to Mexico under third-country removal procedures. After approximately one month in custody at the El Paso Service Processing Center, Rivera Ortega was released on May 15, 2026, following media reporting and personal intervention by U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and combat veteran who contacted the Department of Homeland Security on her behalf. She remains subject to GPS monitoring, mandatory ICE check-ins, home visits, and travel restrictions while facing potential deportation.