Human Impact Project

On August 10, 2026, ICE agents detained at least 33 people across the Capital Region of New York, including Albany, Schenectady, and Colonie, in more than 15 separate incidents over roughly six hours. Among those detained was an Ecuadoran family of four — parents Kevin Ushiña and Veronica Saquillo and their children, ages 5 and 9 — who had lived in Albany for two years and had withdrawn from the asylum process the previous year over fears of detention at a check-in. The mother and children are being held at the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, while the father is held in a facility in western New York. Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs said she was “deeply unsettled” by the increased ICE activity and met with local advocacy coalitions supporting affected families.

Iliana Noeli Lick, 30, an Argentine national who legally entered the U.S. on a tourist visa and was awaiting an asylum interview with USCIS, was arrested by ICE at Philadelphia International Airport on July 11 while attempting to travel to Kansas City to watch the Argentina national team play in the World Cup quarterfinal. Lick has worked as a nanny caring for three young children in South Philadelphia for two years and has no criminal record. She was transferred between multiple ICE detention facilities in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico, where she was held with nine others in a small cell with one window and one toilet. After one month in custody, Lick was released on a $10,000 bond and required to surrender her passport and license and wear an ankle monitor. She is awaiting a court date to determine whether she will be deported or allowed to remain in the country.

Gabar Choli, a 40-year-old Kurdish filmmaker and activist, has described being shackled, wrestled to the floor, and force-fed twice daily through a 60-centimeter nasal tube while held in a solitary confinement medical cell at the Port Isabel detention center in Texas. He said the daily procedure involved five staff members restraining him and inserting the tube, causing pain and internal bleeding during his hunger strike protesting detention conditions after his asylum application was denied. Choli said the ordeal led to a mental and physical collapse so severe that he wrote what he called an apology letter to his own body. A Guardian investigation found ICE obtained court orders for involuntary medical treatment for 18 hunger strikers between January 2025 and August 2026; Choli was later deported and now lives in Canada.

A Ravenswood parent was detained by immigration in July in front of their family's home and transferred to an out-of-state detention facility. The family, facing constant stress and fear of ICE involvement, decided to self-deport together rather than pursue an uncertain legal path and risk lengthy detention. An attorney is representing the family through the self-deportation process to ensure they are treated fairly and arrive together in their destination country.

A Santa Ana car wash worker and 33-year U.S. resident who supported his three kids was arrested by ICE agents during a shift in August 2025 and held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center for two months. During detention, he slept on cold floors without blankets, toothbrushes, or basic medical care. His wife Alejandra reported agents treated him "worse than a common criminal, with chains binding his legs, arms and waist." He refused to sign deportation papers and is fighting to remain in the United States, a process that has drained his family emotionally and financially. He was one of seven workers detained that day but the only one released. At least 373 car wash workers have been detained across Southern California since raids began in summer 2025, with agents raiding at least 106 car washes region-wide. He said the experience left him traumatized, noting his life is no longer the same.

An estimated 71 Nigerian, African, and other foreign nationals were expelled from the United States on a 26-hour ICE deportation flight on July 31, routing through Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, and Ghana. Passengers, including Mohamed Barry, said GEO Group-contracted guards subjected them to verbal and physical abuse, bound at least two detainees in full-body straitjackets, and refused to let them use the lavatory. Barry said he witnessed an ICE agent instruct a foreign official to return detainees to their home countries despite protection orders barring such removal, a practice known as chain refoulement that violates U.S. and international law.

Jack Chung, a lawful permanent resident and asylee who fled China after participating in pro-democracy protests, was taken into ICE custody on August 8 following what his family describes as a retaliatory report from a business associate. Chung, a father of three including a newborn, was transferred through Washington State and Virginia before being detained at a facility in Natchez, Mississippi, thousands of miles from his wife and children in Alaska. His wife Mojo is now caring for their newborn and two young sons alone in Alaska without his income, and the family is raising money for legal representation to fight the detention.

Marco Uriel Rodriguez Hernandez, an immigration detainee, had won a finding that the government was unlawfully denying him a bond hearing. He was then transferred out of the privately run Aurora detention center to an unknown location and later found to be held in Texas. After his attorney, Skylar M. Larson, filed a new habeas petition, Colorado's Chief Federal Judge Daniel D. Domenico issued a temporary restraining order barring ICE from removing him, and the order was emailed to federal prosecutors. Despite this, ICE deported Rodriguez Hernandez to Mexico the following morning without allowing him to contact his attorney. Government attorneys said officials in Texas who carried out the removal were unaware of the court's order and said they 'greatly regret the error.' Domenico ordered the government to take all available steps to facilitate his return to the United States.

A leaked video filmed by a detainee inside the River Center ICE Detention Center in Louisiana shows 76 people held together in a single crowded space. Detainees allege exposure to outbreaks of tuberculosis, flu, and conjunctivitis, and say sick people are being placed in punitive isolation cells instead of receiving medical care. The detainee who filmed the footage asked media outlets for help publicizing the conditions.

Daniel Palencia arrived in the United States in 2016 at age 11 with his mother, crossing the Mexico-U.S. border at El Paso, Texas, where they turned themselves in to immigration authorities and sought legal status. He was detained for three months in deplorable conditions, including cold rooms where temperatures dropped at night and blankets were confiscated, and overcrowded holding areas he described as "cages" designed for 4-5 people but sometimes holding 40 individuals where "we were sleeping on top of each other." After being transferred to JK Airport in New York for additional detention, his family hired a lawyer and obtained asylum status. Palencia moved to Southold to live with his grandparents, attended local schools, and has worked for Marcello Masonry for two years. Reflecting on his experience and that of detained coworker Hugo Leonel Ardon Osorio, he stated: "There are bad people out there. But you can't arrest everybody for the way they look or if they speak Spanish. You can't arrest hard-working people who are trying to support their families."

Juan Carlos Maspache, a detainee at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California, documented evidence of a cockroach found in his detention cell and shared the video with L.A. TACO. His documentation is part of mounting claims from detainees about inhumane conditions at the facility.

Aminata (Amina) Seck, a 26-year-old graduate student and basketball center for Kentucky State University from Dakar, Senegal, was detained by ICE on Aug. 7 at Louisville's Muhammad Ali International Airport while preparing to fly with her team to an HBCU tournament in New York. Seck entered the U.S. on a student visa in 2019 and was ordered removed after missing an immigration hearing; her attorney, Sadiqa Reynolds, said Seck never received notice of the hearing and missed the deadline while recovering from back surgery and an ACL injury. Wearing a leg brace at the time of her arrest, she has since been moved between at least four detention facilities in Kentucky and Chicago as well as a hospital over 48 days, reportedly experiencing seizures and limited access to phone calls, visitors, or basic medical care. Seck started most games last season, averaging more than 11 points and 7 rebounds, and earned All-Conference and SIAC Elite 16 academic-athletic honors. Her head coach, Amani Williams, has advocated on her behalf, and U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey said he is monitoring her situation.

Eduardo Aguirre Esparza, a 53-year-old Mexican national and small business owner who has lived in the United States for over 20 years, was arrested by ICE on July 23, 2026, while working on a home remodeling project in West Seattle. Approximately 20 ICE agents in unmarked vehicles surrounded him, allegedly physically pushing him and threatening him when he refused to sign a voluntary departure form; he requested his lawyer instead. Without appearing before a judge or having contact with his attorney, Aguirre Esparza was transferred between multiple ICE facilities over three days and flown to El Paso, Texas, where he is detained at ERO El Paso Camp East Montana. His wife, Stacey Fitzpatrick, a U.S. citizen attorney, disputes ICE's claim that he has a 2005 DUI arrest from Kansas, noting he has never lived in Kansas and background checks show only a resolved 2015 traffic citation. Aguirre Esparza has a pending green card application and is married to a U.S. citizen with deep community ties. Community members organized rallies and fundraisers in West Seattle to raise awareness and support for his family, and Senator Patty Murray called the arrest "fundamentally wrong and un-American."

Brayan Omar Sánchez, a 26-year-old Honduran truck driver and owner of a pressure-washing and painting business who had lived in South Florida for nearly a decade after fleeing gang violence that killed his father and other family members, was detained by ICE agents on May 13 while heading to a job site. He was transferred through detention centers in Colorado, Arizona, California and Texas before being flown roughly 21 hours to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, on July 30 along with five other men — Cuban nationals Omar Rodríguez, Arístides Fernández, Yasmany Moreno and Daniel Lázaro Fuente, and Ecuadorian Mauricio Alvarado. Sánchez said he never signed deportation paperwork, believed he had asylum protection and a court order preventing removal, and said an ICE officer threatened the group with violence the night before if they refused to board the plane. He described arriving with only $20, which was confiscated by customs, and said he and the others are being held at a hotel in Bangui fearing for their safety. Sánchez is asking the Honduran government and members of Congress to help secure his return to the United States.

A Guatemalan man who has lived in the United States since 2018 and works as a waiter in Baltimore, Maryland, was detained by ICE officials in Maryland on August 5, 2026. He was subsequently transferred to the Caroline Detention Center in Virginia, where he remained held for about three weeks. DHS classified him as an 'applicant for admission' under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(a), subjecting him to mandatory detention without bond under § 1225(b)(2). He filed a habeas corpus petition arguing this classification violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, his due process rights, and the Administrative Procedure Act, and sought release and a bond hearing. The federal court found that because he was already present in the U.S. rather than arriving at the border, his detention was governed by the discretionary detention provisions of § 1226(a). The court granted his petition, ordering his prompt release and a bond hearing before an Immigration Judge within 14 days, and enjoined the government from re-detaining him absent specified circumstances.

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.

Jose Eliezer Martinez-Andino, a 20-year-old Honduran who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2020 and held Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, was detained by immigration officers in March while traveling through Montana for his job as an auto mechanic in Raleigh, North Carolina. Despite holding legal status that should have protected him from removal, he was held across multiple detention centers for over 10 days without access to his attorneys and was coerced into signing voluntary departure paperwork he says was never properly explained. He was deported to Honduras on April 10, separating him from his young U.S. citizen daughter. Federal Judge Beryl Howell found he had likely been denied due process and ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. He was flown to McAllen, Texas in August but was then held for weeks by CBP and ICE at the Port Isabel Detention Center before his lawyers reached a settlement securing his release, allowing him to return to Raleigh to reunite with his family.

José Padilla, a 41-year-old car wash worker who had lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years, was detained by ICE on January 27, 2026 while working in Los Angeles, one of over 1,400 people detained in the LA area that month and among at least 373 car wash workers detained between June 2025 and January 2026. He was held in a downtown LA facility before being transferred to Adelanto and then California City Detention Facility, three hours from his Watts home. His wife, Alma Ramirez, described him as a present father who helped pay bills, did chores, and cared for their children — 17-year-old Alex, who has autism and relied on his father for daily bathing, homework help and school meetings, seven-year-old José Jr., and two-year-old Joaquin. The family struggled emotionally and financially in his absence, with two children starting therapy, while Padilla worked in the detention center kitchen to send money home. On August 4, 2026, he was released with help from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center and reunited with his family at Union Station; he continues fighting his immigration case, and the family has kept a GoFundMe open for legal fees.

Andrey Kalyakin, who entered the United States legally on a J-1 exchange visitor visa more than sixteen years ago and is married to a U.S. citizen, is being held by ICE at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana. In a letter, Kalyakin describes his years living in the U.S. and details conditions in detention, stating he has been denied basic medical care and given spoiled milk and brown tap water.

Kuya Rob, a Filipino migrant father, was detained by ICE in California and has been held for more than 400 days at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. His detention has separated him from his son and elderly mother. Advocates with the Tanggol Migrante Movement have organized a petition campaign, gathering over 439 signatures, citing detention conditions and what they describe as neglect by the Philippine Consulate.