Human Impact Project

Luzvin Garcia Moran, a 28-year-old noncitizen from Guatemala, was arrested by Arlington County Police on April 12, 2026, for attempted sexual assault. According to ICE, Garcia approached a woman waiting for a rideshare, made sexually explicit comments, grabbed and pushed her into a wall, and physically assaulted her. The victim briefly escaped but he approached and assaulted her again before two bystanders intervened and called police. Garcia fled but was quickly apprehended by responding officers. ICE lodged a detainer requesting he not be released from custody. According to the agency, Garcia has an arrest record spanning 2020 to 2026 that includes charges for public intoxication, assault and battery, disorderly conduct, and probation violations.

Juan, a Honduran national who came to the U.S. seven years ago seeking asylum, was arrested by ICE during a traffic stop on a Virginia highway while driving to work. He had an active asylum case, work permit, and marriage petition to a U.S. citizen at the time of his arrest. After spending one month detained at Farmville Detention Center, Juan was released on bond following a habeas petition but now faces an uncertain asylum process with declining approval rates under the current administration.

Mirna Yesenia Alvarado Benitez, a citizen of El Salvador who entered the U.S. in July 2024, was initially detained and then released with conditions. On March 5, 2026, she appeared for a routine ICE check-in appointment, at which point the government placed her in expedited removal proceedings and detained her. The court granted a temporary restraining order preventing her removal while her habeas corpus petition is pending. Mirna Benitez, a Salvadoran woman who had been living in the U.S. for nearly 13 years and working as a school custodian, was detained by ICE after attending a scheduled appointment at an ICE office in North Chesterfield on December 7, 2025. Despite having attended regular ICE check-ins for years, applied for asylum with legal representation, and obtained a temporary work permit, Benitez was taken into custody without warning. She was transferred through multiple detention facilities—Riverside Regional Jail in Richmond, an ICE facility in Texas, and another in Louisiana—over 10 days, during which she reported mistreatment by officers, inadequate medical care, unsanitary conditions, and denial of access to legal counsel. She ultimately chose to accept deportation to El Salvador rather than remain detained, departing before Christmas.

A U.S. District Judge in West Virginia issued a final notice to the federal government regarding continued unlawful detention of immigrants without individualized custody determinations. Judge Joseph R. Goodwin ruled that the government has repeatedly violated the Fifth Amendment by detaining immigrants without proper legal procedures. The judge warned of legal consequences for state and federal officials if the unlawful detention practices continue.

Olman, a father of two from Central America who fled gang violence and death threats in his home country, was detained at an ICE voluntary check-in in Richmond in June 2025 and held at Caroline Detention Facility for nine months despite having no criminal record. His application for withholding of removal was denied, but he appealed. A federal judge ruled in March 2026 that the government unlawfully detained him beyond six months and noted that DHS appeared to falsify a notice claiming it was served before his detention. The judge ordered his release, and Olman was reunited with his wife Leyla and their two children in Staunton. His wife's asylum case was also opposed by DHS, and they were ordered to self-deport by April, though they appealed and remain in the country in a precarious legal situation. Olman has since returned to construction work but experienced psychological trauma during detention and fears an upcoming ICE check-in later in the year.

A statewide surge of immigration enforcement in West Virginia in January involved state and local cooperation with ICE through the 287(g) program, resulting in 1,831 arrests (1 in 10 of the state's noncitizen population). Over half were collateral arrests with minimal violent crime convictions; more than three-quarters had only immigration-related violations. A federal judge ordered two detainees released, citing constitutional concerns. As of February 2026, sheriffs in Berkeley, Cabell, Hampshire, Harrison, Jefferson, Mineral, Morgan, Putnam, Summersville, Upshur and Wood counties, along with Summersville and Village of Clearview police, the West Virginia National Guard and State Police, are participating in ICE's Task Force Model, while the state's Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation participates through the Warrant Service Officer model.

A family is calling for the release of an Arlington man detained by ICE, citing the health condition of his son.

Dulce, a Guatemalan mother without legal status in Virginia, had her 8-year-old son placed in federal shelter after he was detained during a traffic stop while visiting family in another state in summer 2024. Although she had previously passed sponsorship requirements and reunited with him within weeks of his initial border crossing, resettlement officials required her to repeat the entire application process. After eight months, she recovered her son in February 2025 following a lawsuit filed by his attorneys. Dulce feared attending an ICE office for an identification interview and avoided her home for days due to fear of deportation.

Elias Perez-Zuazo, a Panamanian national, was detained by ICE in December 2025 during a scheduled check-in appointment at a Chantilly, Virginia office that he had previously attended without incident. Perez-Zuazo entered the U.S. in November 2021, was processed at the southern border, and married his U.S. citizen husband Jonathan Blanco Gallegos in February 2024. They had begun applying for a green card when Perez-Zuazo was taken into custody without warning. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia has issued an order barring ICE from removing him from the judicial district while the court reviews the legality of his detention, which his attorney is challenging via habeas corpus petition.

Elías Pérez-Zuazo, a Panamanian national, was detained by ICE on December 10, 2024, during a scheduled appointment at an ICE office in Chantilly, Virginia, where he had checked in without incident in prior years. He and his husband, U.S. citizen Jonathan Blanco Gallegos, met in 2023 and married in Washington, D.C., on February 27, 2024; the couple had an approved I-130 family petition pending for his green card. ICE claimed a prior deportation order existed from November 2021, but his attorney contested this, questioning the legality of the detention. Pérez-Zuazo was held at Farmville Detention Center in Virginia, and a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia barred ICE from removing him from the judicial district while reviewing a habeas corpus petition; Blanco Gallegos has described the toll of the detention, saying his life has been paused and that he has a broken heart.

Prosecutors dismissed charges without prejudice against 54-year-old John Bennett, an assistant principal at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach, and his 59-year-old brother Mark Bennett. The two men had been arrested in November 2025 for allegedly threatening violence against local police and ICE agents.

Twenty-five Virginia and national organizations have called for the closure of Farmville Detention Center, a privately operated ICE facility, citing pepper spray misuse, medical neglect, withheld medication, improper solitary confinement and food contamination. Rep. Don Beyer, after an August 8 oversight visit, wrote to new facility owner CoreCivic detailing overwhelmed medical staff, unclear staffing numbers and detainees waiting days for basic medical requests, including a case his office had to personally intervene in to secure medication access. CoreCivic, which completed its purchase of the facility in July, said it is working with ICE to respond to Beyer's letter and affirmed that detainee health and safety remain a top priority.

Jaykie Funez-Andrade, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years, was detained by ICE agents during a traffic stop on Route 11 North in Harrisonburg, Virginia while driving her 16-year-old daughter to school. When she struggled to recite her Social Security number from memory, an agent tackled her to the ground; she then produced her work permit, Social Security card, driver's license, and vehicle registration, but was arrested anyway. Her daughter filmed the encounter and said officers left her alone on the roadside as they drove off with her mother, saying, "I want this video out there because I want my mother home." Funez-Andrade is being held at Rockingham/Harrisonburg Regional Jail with no criminal charges filed, reportedly as a 'courtesy' to ICE, and her family has started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees.

A Harrisonburg mother was detained by federal agents on Monday morning while taking her teenage daughter to school. A video of the incident was posted on social media.

A 24-year-old Honduran man, Josué Castro Rivera, died after being struck by a vehicle while fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Interstate 264 in Norfolk, Virginia. He was on his way to a gardening job when his vehicle was stopped by ICE as part of a targeted operation, and he fled on foot when agents attempted to detain him and his passengers.

Josué Castro Rivera, a 24-year-old Honduran man who had been in the U.S. for four years sending money home to family, died after being struck by a pickup truck while fleeing on foot from ICE agents who had pulled over his vehicle in Norfolk, Virginia, as he headed to a gardening job. His brother, Henry Castro, said Castro Rivera "had a very good heart" and is raising funds to return his body to Honduras for burial. DHS said the stop was part of a targeted operation and that Castro Rivera "resisted heavily and fled" before being struck; Virginia State Police confirmed he was pronounced dead at the scene and said the crash remains under investigation. His death follows those of a Mexican man fatally shot by federal agents during a traffic stop near Chicago and a farmworker who died after falling from a roof during an ICE raid in California.

On October 19-20, 2025, approximately 98 men detained at Farmville Detention Center reported finding worms in their food and refused meals due to health and safety concerns. When detainees reported the contaminated food to staff, they were threatened with loss of commissary access in apparent retaliation, according to advocacy group Free Them All VA. The detained men are demanding a meeting with CoreCivic, the private company that runs the facility, and ICE. CoreCivic disputed the allegations, stating facility leadership found no evidence of contamination and that staff, including the assistant warden, ate the same meal without incident, also denying any retaliation occurred. A coalition of 40 advocacy organizations cited the incident, along with a similar 2015 complaint at the facility, in renewing calls for its closure.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducted a raid at a construction site near CIA headquarters in Virginia. Construction workers fleeing the raid attempted to scale fences surrounding the CIA complex during the morning commute. ICE did not notify the CIA in advance of the operation. No workers breached security or posed a threat to the facility.

Immigration attorneys and relatives reported conditions at ICE's field office in Northern Virginia, including detainees receiving only one meal a day, 40-90 people in single rooms with no beds, and some held for up to seven days without bathing. The facility, designed as a temporary holding office, has become overcrowded due to increased immigration arrests in Washington D.C. since mid-August. Attorneys reported detainees are being denied legal representation, medical care, and basic hygiene access.

ICE arrested more than a dozen people who were found to be unlawfully present in the U.S. after responding to a request for assistance from the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office following the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Samuel Ojeda at a quinceañera. The sheriff's office said it asked local and federal law enforcement for backup to manage a crowd of more than 100 people so deputies could focus on the homicide investigation. ICE said some of those arrested had prior charges or convictions including illegal reentry, identity theft, and driving under the influence.