Human Impact Project

Pastor Luis Morales Pérez, a Venezuelan Seventh-day Adventist pastor who oversees four congregations in the Houston area and is a father of two daughters, was detained by ICE agents at George Bush Intercontinental Airport while traveling with his wife, Karina, for a vacation to New York. According to Karina, agents approached the couple shortly after they entered the airport, called Morales by name, and took him into custody. Morales held valid employment authorization to serve with the Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and had a pending asylum claim. His Temporary Protected Status, granted in December 2023, was revoked after DHS ended TPS for Venezuelan nationals, a move the Supreme Court allowed to take effect; ICE said he remained in the country after the revocation took effect on November 20, 2025. He is being held at Livingston Detention Center. Church leaders described his "commitment to our mission and the families he serves" as "unwavering" and asked congregants to pray for his family.

Luis Morales, a Venezuelan pastor who leads four Adventist churches in the Houston area, was detained by ICE agents at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Aug. 6 while preparing to fly to New York with his wife to visit their daughters. Morales came to the U.S. with his wife, Karina, and their two daughters in 2020 and the family has lived in Houston since 2023. His wife says his Temporary Protected Status was revoked in November 2025, but the family's asylum case remains pending, and they had not received any deportation orders. Morales remains held at an ICE detention center in Livingston, Texas, while his family awaits answers.

A Venezuelan woman living in Eagle Pass, Texas, who holds Temporary Protected Status and asylum, is seeking help to free her father, mother, and younger brother, who were detained by ICE within days of each other. Her father was detained at a checkpoint while driving a truck and is now held at the Pearsall detention center; the family has work permits and Social Security numbers. Her mother and brother were later detained while returning from Laredo to Eagle Pass and are held at Dilley. Her brother, who is about to graduate high school and wants to be an engineer, has struggled emotionally in detention, losing interest in eating and sleeping most of the day. According to the family's attorney, the parents have been building an asylum case with supporting evidence and have strong prospects for release, as both have no criminal history.

Four construction workers were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday, August 6, 2026, following a traffic stop conducted by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers outside Austin City Hall. DPS troopers, who are federally certified Designated Immigration Officers under the 287(g) program, pulled over a vehicle at Guadalupe Street and César Chávez Street after observing it driving the wrong way on a one-way street just before 9:30 a.m. The driver did not have a valid driver's license. After determining that all four occupants were not lawfully present in the United States, troopers contacted ICE agents, who arrived within three to four minutes and took the individuals into custody, confiscating their phones. The detention occurred while the Austin City Council was holding a budget meeting, and community members expressed outrage during public comment. By Thursday evening, family members did not know where the detainees had been taken. City Council members, including Mike Siegel, condemned the operation, with Siegel characterizing it as "state-sponsored kidnapping" and criticizing the collaboration between DPS and ICE.

ICE and the San Saba County Sheriff's Office arrested Emiliano Martinez Perez, a 54-year-old Cuban man, on August 5, 2026, under a 287(g) partnership. He has had a final order of removal since 2000 and is currently facing local criminal charges. ICE has lodged an immigration detainer to take him into custody once his criminal case concludes.

José Eliezer Martínez-Andino, a 20-year-old Honduran man who crossed into the U.S. alone at 14 in 2020, was deported to Honduras in April 2026 after being stopped by Border Patrol in Montana over an alleged forged license plate, despite holding Special Immigrant Juvenile Status granted in 2023. He said he signed a voluntary departure form out of fear during detention but repeatedly tried to rescind it while being moved among at least six facilities, a claim DHS disputes, saying he received full due process. He had been living in Raleigh with relatives and is the father of a three-year-old U.S.-born child. In June 2026, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered DHS to return him and restore his legal status; he came back on August 5, 2026, but was sent to a detention facility in Harlingen, Texas, where he remains held awaiting relief.

The Guardian's investigation found at least 10 cases since January 2025 in which ICE subjected detained immigrants to involuntary force-feeding through nasogastric tubes. Three cases are detailed: an Afghan man force-fed daily for nearly six months at Port Isabel in Texas starting September 2025, after a federal judge ordered the treatment eight days into his hunger strike without a hearing or his input; a Ukrainian man with severe bipolar disorder, whose attorney intervened to stop his force-feeding at Krome Service processing center in Miami after 44 days on hunger strike; and a Saudi Arabian woman who went on hunger strike in Louisiana in June 2025 and was transferred to Texas, where ICE sought permission to force-feed her before she broke her strike. A doctor overseeing the Afghan man's case described him as frail and using a wheelchair after months without food, said he was restrained by a use-of-force team during feedings, and called the continued treatment "medically necessary." In six of the 10 cases reviewed, detained immigrants lacked legal representation during court proceedings.

Paola Vanessa Prieto Valles was detained by ICE, creating emotional and financial hardship for her family. Described as a caring family member and dear friend, her absence has deeply affected those who love and depend on her. Her family is raising funds to cover legal representation, court-related expenses, communication costs, and other essential needs during her detention.

Erick Lopez, a 29-year-old Honduran citizen with no criminal record, was stopped by Houston police for a traffic violation on June 17, 2026. According to his lawsuit, officers detained him for more than two hours after the traffic stop, prolonging it until ICE agents arrived to take him into custody. Lopez, who worked in tile and flooring and was supporting a girlfriend and her two children, was deported to Honduras on June 27. He has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the City of Houston alleging that police violated his constitutional rights by unlawfully extending the traffic stop solely to facilitate his arrest by federal immigration agents, and seeking damages and an injunction against the practice.

A Guardian investigation found that ICE officials attempted to subject at least 10 hunger strikers in immigrant detention to involuntary medical procedures, including force-feeding, between 2025 and 2026. At least three detainees were definitely force-fed and two more probably underwent the procedure, while five others ended their strikes before it began; one Kurdish asylum seeker at Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas was force-fed for eight months, and another detainee there for six months. In six of the cases reviewed, the detainees had no legal representation, and judges reportedly issued the required emergency court orders quickly, before immigrants could object. DHS disputes reports of abuse and maintains detainees receive adequate care, while Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dismissed the hunger strikes as involving only a “handful” of detainees protesting over food preferences.

Curtis Wright, a 40-year-old Edmonton-born permanent resident who moved to Houston as a child and worked in the oil and gas industry, was detained by ICE at a Houston-area airport in November 2025 after returning from a work trip to Mexico. Authorities cited a drug possession conviction from when he was 17, involving Xanax tablets found in a car he was in, for which he had already completed community service. During nearly nine months in detention across several Texas facilities, including the South Texas ICE Processing Centre, Wright described freezing cells, contaminated water, poor food, and being denied medication for a chronic condition. His attorney pursued appeals and a habeas corpus request, but a judge ultimately ordered his deportation, and Wright gave up further legal fights. His fiancée Kayla Thomsen said their toddler daughter learned to walk during his absence, while his two older sons, ages 8 and 11, remained in Texas with their mother. Wright was deported to Canada and is now staying with his parents in Kelowna, B.C., planning an eventual move to Edmonton.

A U.S.-born teenager and his father allege they were beaten by ICE agents during a traffic stop in Houston. The teen, a citizen, states that he and his father were subjected to physical force during the encounter with federal immigration enforcement officers.

Emely Charloth Suaza Chambo, a 16-year-old student at Churchill High School in San Antonio, was detained by ICE while on her way to church. ICE agents told her father, Fernando Suaza Ortiz, who was employed at the Hilton Garden Inn, to pick her up or she would be sent out of state. When he arrived at the location to collect his daughter, he was also taken into ICE custody. Both have pending asylum cases and are being held at the Dilley detention facility in Texas. Congressman Joaquin Castro shared their story on social media.

Mario Alfonso Rivera Santiago, detained at Rio Grande Processing Center in Laredo, Texas, filed a pro se Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 against the Department of Homeland Security and the Warden of Rio Grande Detention Center. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ordered respondents to submit their response by August 7, 2026, with Rivera Santiago able to reply by August 21, 2026. The court also ordered respondents to notify it at least five days before any anticipated transfer or removal of Rivera Santiago outside the Southern District of Texas.

An immigrant detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas filed a habeas corpus petition. The court ordered respondents to provide information about when the petitioner entered the United States, whether the petitioner was previously apprehended and released by immigration authorities, and the status of the petitioner's immigration and removal proceedings. The court ordered respondents to file a response within 7 days of electronic service.

Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, 51, a Mexican citizen who has lived in the U.S. since 1998, was riding as a passenger in a van driven by his boss, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, when an ICE officer fatally shot Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop in Houston's Magnolia Park neighborhood on July 7, 2026. Rojas Pliego has no criminal record and is in a common-law marriage with a U.S. citizen, with whom he has several children and stepchildren. He was detained without an individualized bond hearing at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center in Conroe, and in a sworn statement disputed ICE's account of the shooting, calling it "a lie." U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ruled that his continued detention violated his due process rights and ordered his release, which occurred on July 29, 2026. Rojas Pliego has a pending U visa application as a crime victim and now wears an ankle monitor while his removal case proceeds.

A Nepali national filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus challenging the constitutionality of his detention in federal immigration custody. He is currently detained at the Rio Grande Processing Center. The petition names Miguel Vergara (ICE-ERO Field Office Director), Markwayne Mullin (Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security), Todd Blanche (U.S. Attorney General), and the Warden of the Rio Grande Processing Center as respondents. On August 3, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ordered respondents to file a response to the petition by August 10, 2026, with evidence from his A-file. The court directed notification to the U.S. Attorney and ordered respondents to notify the court and his counsel of any planned transfer or release.

Diana Avila's 20-year-old brother, who has autism since childhood and is described as intelligent, generous, and a good student, was arrested by ICE during an ongoing legal process and transferred between states. He is currently detained in Texas, where he reports being denied blankets, medicine, and adequate food. He developed a stomach infection and is experiencing high fevers but says staff insults and threatens him when he requests medical care, pressuring him to sign deportation papers. His family is unable to afford legal representation and fears for his safety.

Aurora, 24, and her six-year-old daughter were detained by ICE and sent to a family detention center in Texas. The daughter had arrived at the U.S. border alone and spent more than six months in a child migrant shelter before reuniting with her mother in late March. The detention occurred after the Office of Refugee Resettlement shared information about unaccompanied children, their sponsors, and household members with ICE.

Nepthali Zozaya Saucedo and Cinthia Sarai Cardona Otero, assistant pastors at Comunidad Cristiana Emanuel in Edinburg, Texas, were detained by immigration agents on Thursday while boarding a flight to a Billy Graham Evangelistic Association retreat—their first time away from their three children. The married couple was released on Saturday. During a Sunday worship service and press conference, they revealed that immigration agents allegedly mocked them and threatened family separation to coerce them to sign voluntary departure papers. DHS claimed they had overstayed a visa that expired in 2022, but faith leaders disputed this, saying the couple held valid religious worker visas. The couple must report to ICE in person in 6 months and call in monthly, with their immigration cases to be heard by an immigration judge.