Human Impact Project

Manuel Chairez-Montes was deported from Texas after his alleged attacker was indicted for aggravated assault. With the case in limbo, the defendant Adan Yanez Porras was released on bond.

In August, photos and videos showed ICE arresting a man who owns a snack shop in Laguna Heights while he and another person were painting a home. His wife had been deported earlier in the year. The arrest occurred just hours before a protest at the Port Isabel Lighthouse, one of four demonstrations against ICE activity held in the area since July.

José Ángel, 17, was detained by ICE agents in Edinburg, Texas on August 25 while on his way to retrieve a truck left behind after his uncle's earlier detention. According to José and his sister Regina, 19, who spoke with N+ Univision, their uncle had been detained by ICE while with one of his children, who managed to escape. Their mother asked them to go pick up the abandoned truck, and José was preparing for school when he and Regina went to the location where he was detained.

Isabella García, a Mexican woman, said her U.S. tourist visa was canceled after she tried to cross into Eagle Pass, Texas, from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, with her 3-month-old son, a U.S. citizen. She said she was held for nearly seven hours and questioned by immigration agents about her son's birth, how she paid for the delivery, and her income, and that agents took her DNA, fingerprints, and photographs. She said she was told a new law applied to her case and that she could reapply for a visa in a year, and that anyone accompanying her son into the U.S. in the future would also face scrutiny. Her case comes amid increased government scrutiny of so-called "birth tourism," including efforts by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to investigate hospitals allegedly offering maternity packages to foreign women.

Sarah Shaw, a New Zealand national living in Washington State and an employee of the state's Department of Children, Youth, and Families, was detained along with her 6-year-old son Isaac after attempting to re-enter the United States from Canada. Shaw had crossed into Canada to drop off her two older children before trying to return home, but officials cited an issue with her travel paperwork, saying she lacked proper advance parole documentation for re-entry even though her son had valid travel documents. The pair were transferred to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, where they were held without access to their personal belongings.

Pedro Mariano Salgado, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan national, was arrested by ICE on August 4, 2025, at approximately 7:30 a.m. in Austin, Texas, as he left his home for work. According to his wife, two ICE vehicles followed him from his residence. Salgado has lived in the United States for over three years and works remodeling apartments. His wife states that the family has an open asylum case and an immigration court hearing scheduled for 2027. The couple has four children, including a newborn who is two months old. Salgado is currently detained at a detention facility in Pearsall. His wife, who says he is the family's primary breadwinner, is requesting assistance to pay for legal representation and cover her children's basic needs while seeking his release.

Jose Angel Rodriguez Loa was detained by ICE on August 4, 2025, after a traffic stop on I-10 and Culebra in San Antonio. He was placed in an unmarked black SUV and transferred to an immigration detention facility. His family hired an immigration attorney and is fundraising to cover legal fees, with hopes he may be allowed to stay.

Daysi Munoz and her husband were arrested by Burleson, Texas police on suspicion of shoplifting while back-to-school shopping at a Walmart in August 2025, leading to their transfer into ICE custody and deportation to Honduras about 40 days later. Their two U.S. citizen daughters, 19-year-old Dulce Zepeda and 13-year-old Maria, were left on their own in Fort Worth, with Dulce cooking, driving her sister to school, working at McDonald's, and selling her mother's jewelry to cover bills. After nearly a year living alone, the emotional and financial strain became overwhelming, and Dulce sold their parents' truck to help Maria return to Honduras to reunite with their parents, while Dulce has remained in Texas.

The Trump Administration opened Camp East Montana, the largest immigrant detention facility in the country, at Fort Bliss military base in West Texas in August 2025. Detainees initially arrived at an active construction site with non-functioning toilets, sporadic running water, and no outdoor recreation, and ICE withheld facility location information from families and lawyers. In May 2026, the ACLU, ACLU of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project and a law firm sued ICE, citing at least three detainee deaths including a homicide, a nearly monthlong measles outbreak, and nearly 50 detention standards violations found by ICE's own inspectors. The groups also allege medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse by officers, and denial of meaningful attorney access; ICE replaced the facility's prime contractor in March 2026, but advocates say conditions have continued to deteriorate, while DHS has called the allegations categorically false.

An anonymous woman who says she is a U.S. citizen reported that ICE agents mistreated her and her husband near FM 495 and Stewart Road in Mission, Texas. She said agents had their feet near or on her husband's head while restraining him, and that she stepped in because she feared for his safety. She alleges the agents then struck her and continued treating her aggressively. The account has not been independently verified.

Miguel Angel Ponce Jr., a U.S. citizen from Texas, was detained by ICE agents who mistakenly identified him as a wanted violent offender. He was handcuffed and held for approximately 90 minutes to two hours before agents compared his tattoos to a photograph and realized their error. After his release, agents allegedly suggested he shave his beard to avoid future confusion, a request Ponce found disrespectful and said he would never comply with. Miguel Angel Torres, a 14-year resident of Austin who worked as a cook, was detained by ICE on February 12, 2017, after dropping off their three daughters at school in Pflugerville. His wife, Irma Perez, says ICE officers in an unmarked van mistakenly sought to arrest her brother, Jose Manuel Perez, but detained Torres instead when he said he was not her brother. The family, including Torres's undocumented wife and three U.S. citizen daughters, abandoned their home and dreams of opening a food truck after the detention.

K.N., a minor U.S. citizen, was arrested along with his sisters while approaching a construction site raid. Federal agents drove K.N. to his mother's home and held him outside the fence while asking him if his mother was "illegal," then threatened to take him into federal custody while demanding his mother produce identification. According to MALDEF's Federal Tort Claims Act claim, agents used K.N. as "bait" in an attempt to lure his mother, a lawful permanent resident, into the street to investigate her immigration status. MALDEF seeks $2.5 million in damages for personal injury and emotional distress.

Sorayda Noyola, 31, and her siblings Claudia, 19, and a third sibling were arrested by ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents during a construction site raid near their mother's home in Texas. Sorayda was documenting the raid when an agent grabbed her arm and attempted to seize her cell phone; when she objected, agents tackled all three siblings to the ground, handcuffed them, and arrested them. Sorayda and Claudia were detained for hours at the ICE Field Office in Harlingen, and agents confiscated both of their phones without returning them. MALDEF filed a Federal Tort Claims Act administrative claim seeking $2.5 million in damages for personal injury and $2,000 for the lost phone for each sibling, alleging unlawful assault, arrest, and detention in violation of their constitutional rights.

Hector González, a 38-year-old construction worker, was crushed to death by falling building materials on July 21, 2025, during construction of Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss. OSHA cited three subcontractors in January for safety violations involving powered industrial trucks, while declining to cite prime contractor Acquisition Logistics; one of the cited subcontractors, Base International, is owned by Nathan Albers, a Trump campaign donor whose companies had prior infractions including employing undocumented workers and violating wage laws. A report released by the watchdog group Public Citizen detailed the violations and noted the camp has since been linked to the deaths of three detainees in December and January amid allegations of inhumane conditions. ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics with Amentum Services as the facility's prime contractor last month.

U.S. Border Patrol agents raided Don Chilaquiles food stand in La Puente on December 3, 2025, detaining three workers. Video footage shows agents seizing a cash box from the stand and placing it in an unmarked vehicle. One worker fled to a nearby firetruck during the operation, and an accident occurred between an agent's vehicle and another car at the scene.

Nicolle Orozco Forero, her husband Juan Sebastian Moreno Acosta, and their two sons were detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas in June 2025 after arriving for a routine ICE check-in appointment. The family, who had been living in Seattle for two years, were separated by gender during their three-week detention. Their son Juan David, who had a serious kidney condition requiring medical treatment including a recommended biopsy, was denied adequate medical care by ICE officials. Despite legal efforts and community mobilization including support from U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro, the family was eventually deported.

Nine anti-ICE protesters were tried for their roles in a July 4, 2025 demonstration outside an ICE detention facility in Prairieland, Texas. Eight defendants were convicted of material support for terrorism charges, with prosecutors arguing that wearing black bloc clothing assisted in the shooting of a police officer by protester Benjamin Song. Song was convicted of attempted murder for shooting the officer in the neck and faces up to life in prison, while other defendants face up to 15 years on the terrorism charges.

Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juárez's wife, Cristy Maryori Villafranca Trejo, was detained outside a Walmart near Fort Bliss, Texas in July 2025 after missing an immigration court appearance, with the couple's 6-year-old daughter present. She has since been held at Camp East Montana, a detention facility on Fort Bliss, where Turcios said she developed an infection and went about a week without clean clothing. In August 2026, authorities attempted to deport her but removed her from the flight after a legal appeal was raised; Turcios said neither he nor his lawyer have received updates on her case from immigration officials.

Kenia Perez, who had lived and worked in Texas for 10 years, was deported to Honduras by ICE after her arrest, leaving her three children without a caregiver. Her 14-year-old son, Isaac, could not immediately join her because he lacked a passport, so he later traveled to Honduras on his own about a month after her deportation. Her two younger children, both US citizens, eventually obtained passports and also joined their mother in Honduras.

Svetlana Romanova, a 59-year-old Russian woman who fled to the U.S. after protesting Russia's war in Ukraine, has spent approximately eight months detained at the CoreCivic Houston Processing Center despite her deteriorating mental and physical health. Islam Musaev, a 28-year-old Kyrgyzstani man who was granted asylum by an immigration judge in March, remains detained after the Department of Homeland Security appealed his case. Data shows detainees at Houston-area facilities are being held significantly longer since the start of Trump's second term, with average stays more than doubling at some facilities.