Human Impact Project

A Guatemalan national with familial ties to the United States was taken into ICE custody on June 7, 2026, based on a reinstated 2014 removal order. Despite expressing fear of returning to Guatemala due to widespread violence, ICE failed to provide the mandatory reasonable fear interview required under 8 C.F.R. § 241.8(e) during his one month of detention. The court granted a preliminary injunction ordering ICE to immediately refer him to an asylum officer for a reasonable fear determination within three days and to file a compliance status report.

Gerardo Reyes Gonzalez, a 44-year-old father, was arrested on March 14, 2026, during a traffic stop in San Marcos while sitting as a passenger in his 17-year-old son's truck. Police initiated the stop based on an emergency call about a vehicle matching the truck's description, though the reported incident never occurred. He was charged with Interference with Public Duties after allegedly trying to prevent his son from being removed from the vehicle. Reyes Gonzalez was transferred to ICE custody and detained for over two months. The Hays County District Attorney dropped the criminal charge on May 11, and a federal judge granted his habeas corpus petition on June 1, ordering his release. The San Marcos Police Department was found to have committed multiple policy violations, including making inaccurate statements in court documents and failing to verify facts before arrest. His daughter Lupe Sarinana credited community activism and a petition with over 200 signatures for his release.

A Honduran woman who had lived in the United States for nearly three years gave birth to her U.S. citizen daughter in Brownsville, Texas in February 2026. Shortly after giving birth, she sought emergency shelter due to abuse by her partner, but was arrested on a misdemeanor charge in March 2026 (later dismissed) and separated from her five-week-old breastfeeding daughter, who was last seen with the abusive partner. She was taken into ICE custody at the Laredo Processing Center and remained detained during her ongoing removal proceedings. Her counsel submitted a humanitarian parole request in August 2026 citing her postpartum and nursing status, requesting electronic monitoring as a release condition, but received no substantive response from ICE. She filed a habeas corpus petition arguing her detention violated the Accardi Doctrine and Fifth Amendment because ICE failed to follow its own directive on detaining pregnant, postpartum, or nursing individuals. The court found she qualified as postpartum and nursing, that ICE had failed to conduct required weekly custody reevaluations, and that she was prejudiced by being unable to arrange care for her infant or continue breastfeeding, ultimately ordering her immediate release under reasonable conditions.

A federal judge in California had ordered the government to take a man showing signs of prostate cancer to a specialist for diagnosis and treatment. ICE lawyers told the judge that officials missed the appointment due to an "internal scheduling error," and CoreCivic, which operates the facility, declined to comment on the litigation. A court-appointed monitor has since found that the California City facility, the state's largest immigration detention center, failed to comply with the judge's orders to provide adequate healthcare to detainees.

Andrea Pedro-Francisco, a 23-year-old Guatemalan asylum seeker who fled to the U.S. with her mother in 2019, was arrested on February 5, 2026, by federal agents during a traffic stop while driving to work in Minnesota. She was immediately transferred to Camp East Montana, a tent detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, where she was held for nearly four months in crowded conditions. Pedro-Francisco had a golf-ball-sized ovarian cyst that required surgery before her arrest; nine independent physicians concluded the procedure was medically necessary to prevent serious complications including infertility and potential death. ICE repeatedly denied approval for the surgery and provided only over-the-counter pain relief despite a doctor's opioid prescription. Her mother, who has two younger U.S. citizen children, was released at the scene. Following legal motions, advocacy by U.S. Representatives Angie Craig, Greg Casar, and Veronica Escobar, Senator Tina Smith's intervention with DHS, and sustained efforts by lawyers and organizers, Pedro-Francisco was released in early June 2026 with GPS monitoring and her case transferred back to Minnesota for a July hearing.

Marvin Godoy Calderon, a 45-year-old Peruvian immigrant with valid work authorization through 2030, was arrested outside his Sunnyside home on May 27, 2026, while sitting in his parked car waiting to go grocery shopping with his roommate. ICE agents removed him from the vehicle without showing a warrant and pressed him facedown on the asphalt, with multiple agents striking him across the back and head while pinning his arms and placing knees on his shoulders and neck. Calderon works two jobs as a janitor and dishwasher to support his four children in Peru. After being detained for approximately 13 hours in a cold metal cell at immigration court, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order mandating his immediate release, prompted by video footage of the arrest and legal advocacy. Medical evaluation at SF General Hospital revealed a head injury and fluid in his left knee from the arrest. Following his release, Calderon raised $900 through selling pollada (a Peruvian chicken dish) to make rent after losing his restaurant job shifts, and continues working and attending church while awaiting a June 10 hearing.

Ederson Galicia Alva, 11, was first separated from his mother in 2018 as a toddler under Trump's first-term family separation policy. After legal intervention and reunification, the family rebuilt their life in Florida. In June 2025, federal agents arrested his mother Mirsy Maricela Alva López during an immigration enforcement action, and she was deported to Guatemala while Ederson and his sister were separated again. After approximately 11 months, a federal judge ordered the family's return to Florida in late May 2026. An Associated Press investigation found that dozens of children covered by the Ms. L v. ICE settlement—a 2018 agreement meant to prevent family separations and protect over 11,800 family members—have been re-separated from their families during the second Trump administration despite legal protections.

Connor Michael Read, 29, a British national who came to the U.S. at age 9 and was a DACA recipient, was detained by ICE on June 3, 2026, during a green card interview in Tampa, Florida. Read, who runs a pressure-washing business called Refresh Florida and has lived in the country for over 20 years, was separated from his American wife Jaelin and their three-year-old twin sons Ryder and Ozzie during what agents described as a private interview. Read reported that agents bound his hands and tied his ankles during transport to a local jail, then to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center. He described detention conditions as "horrible" and "dirty," and reported becoming ill with headaches, chills, and fever. His wife discovered their I-130 petition for permanent residency had been approved the same day he was detained. His wife told media they are considering relocating the family to the United Kingdom if he is deported. An ICE spokesperson cited a 2011 removal order and stated Read violated the terms of his F-2 dependent visa after his parent's F-1 student status ended.

Mohammad "Daniel" Hussain Ahmadi, a former Afghan army intelligence officer and member of the Hazara ethnic minority, was paroled into the U.S. in May 2024 and complied with all immigration conditions for nearly two years. On March 2, 2026, he was detained by ICE after appearing for a routine immigration check-in, with the government claiming his original parole was an error. On June 3, 2026, Chief Judge Peter Welte granted Ahmadi's habeas corpus petition, finding the detention violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights and ordering his release unless an immigration court granted him a bond hearing within one week.

The Andre family—Carine, an activist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and her three children Estafania, Olivia, and Joel—fled persecution and were initially vetted and released in 2022 to await asylum hearings. After deportation and denied entry to Canada, they were returned to the U.S. and detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley beginning in November 2025, violating the Flores Settlement requiring prompt release of children. Carine and Joel (17) were released in March 2026 after nearly four months in detention; Olivia (19) was released in June 2026 after over five months. Detainees reported inadequate conditions including contaminated food and water, mold, and sleep disruption.

Mirsy Maricela Alva López, a 39-year-old Guatemalan mother, was first separated from her son Ederson in 2018 when she was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and he was placed in government custody as an unaccompanied minor for nearly five months before a federal court order reunified them in the Ms. L v. ICE case. In June 2025, while traveling to a landscaping job near Mar-a-Lago, federal agents stopped her, transferred her through two Florida jails to ICE custody in Louisiana, and deported her to Guatemala despite being a protected Ms. L class member with legal status, work authorization, and a court-ordered pathway to residency and asylum. She was not given the opportunity to speak with immigration officials about her legal protections before deportation. Her son Ederson, who had been in fifth grade in Florida, suffered nightmares and had to repeat fourth grade in Spanish during the family's 11 months in Guatemala. After a federal judge's order in May 2026, Mirsy and her children returned to Florida, though she remains under ankle monitoring and required to attend ICE check-ins every two weeks.

Roberto López Falcón, a Cuban-born fifth-grade ESL teacher at Hart Elementary School in Austin, was detained by ICE on September 3, 2025, during a routine check-in appointment in San Antonio. He had entered the United States from Cuba in March 2022 seeking asylum after clashing with Cuban government officials over his refusal to promote Communist Party ideology while teaching civics. Employed full-time by Austin ISD and recognized as a Campus Teacher of Promise, López Falcón's sudden disappearance devastated his students and families, with at least one student diagnosed with depression. His asylum case was denied in October 2025 with rejection rates between 80-93%, and he remained in detention at Karnes County Immigration Processing Center for 297 days while appealing. A federal judge ordered his release in late June 2026 after ruling his detention illegal, despite an immigration judge's earlier denial of bail. During confinement, López Falcón read 37 books and worked in the detention center library, maintaining his focus on returning to teaching.

A Honduran man who entered the United States in 2014 and has been living in the country since that time was detained by immigration officials on June 1, 2026, and is currently being held at the Farmville Detention Center. The government sought to detain him under the mandatory detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2), arguing that because he entered without inspection, he remained an "applicant for admission" subject to mandatory detention. He challenged his detention through a habeas corpus petition, arguing that as someone already present in the country for over a decade, he should be governed by the discretionary detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), which would entitle him to a bond hearing. The federal district court granted his petition, finding that the Supreme Court's decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez established that § 1226(a) is the default rule for noncitizens already in the country in removal proceedings, while § 1225(b) applies only to those actively seeking admission. The court ordered that he be provided a bond hearing before an immigration judge within seven days and enjoined immigration officials from denying him bond solely on the basis of § 1225(b)(2) detention.

A Cameroonian citizen who entered the U.S. in December 2022 was arrested on June 1, 2026, by ICE agents in the lobby of the Sacramento ERO office after an Immigration Judge denied his asylum application and ordered his removal. He was transferred to Golden State Annex Detention Facility in McFarland, California. The court granted his habeas corpus petition on July 8, 2026, finding his detention violated due process because his removal order was not administratively final—he had timely appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals on June 16, 2026—and ordered his immediate release.

A commercial truck driver who entered the United States on April 29, 2022, was initially taken into custody by DHS and subsequently released on his own recognizance pending removal proceedings. For approximately four years, he complied with all release conditions while working lawfully as a commercial truck driver. On June 1, 2026, ICE officers re-detained him while he was at work without providing pre-deprivation notice or a hearing. The court granted his petition for habeas corpus, finding that respondents violated Fifth Amendment due process protections and ordered his immediate release with constitutional safeguards for any future detention.

Elvira Benitez Suarez, a 51-year-old from Sheboygan Falls who emigrated from Mexico as a teenager, was detained by ICE after accidentally crossing into Canada during a family road trip in July 2025 and reentering the U.S. A federal judge ruled her eligible for a green card in fall 2025, but she was arrested again during a check-in at the Milwaukee DHS office in March 2026 while the agency appealed. A 6th Circuit appeals court ruling on mandatory detention allowed her to file for bond, which was granted at $1,500 on May 21, 2026. She was released and checked in at the Milwaukee DHS office on June 1, 2026, with continued check-ins required as a bond condition while the Board of Immigration Appeals considers DHS's appeal.

Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a 44-year-old Mexican immigrant from Puebla living in South Los Angeles, built a TikTok following of over 340,000 documenting ICE enforcement activity and received a Los Angeles City Council certificate of recognition for his community reporting. On October 21, 2025, federal agents attempting an immigration arrest boxed in his car near Santee High School; agents said he rammed their vehicles, and video showed 11 shots fired, striking Parias in the elbow and wounding a deputy U.S. marshal by ricochet. Councilmember Curren Price called him 'a pillar of our community, a fearless citizen journalist,' and his attorney described him as a hardworking, pacifist father of two U.S.-citizen children with no criminal record. He was charged with assault on a federal officer and property damage, then detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center; a federal judge later dismissed the indictment with prejudice, citing denial of counsel and missed evidence deadlines, but ICE returned him to custody afterward. After more than 300 days in detention, Parias' injured arm reportedly became discolored and atrophied without adequate treatment, with his congresswoman warning he may need amputation, and his attorney said he remains in pain.

ZOR, detained for eight months at Camp East Montana, had three teeth broken after being beaten by another detainee while guards watched, and says a guard threw his crucifix in the trash and that he has not had enough food, causing recurrent respiratory and skin problems. Four days after arrival, officers shackled and drove him to the Mexican border, falsely claiming he had been granted asylum, without showing papers or allowing attorney contact, and officers have since attempted to deport him about six times despite a court order barring removal to his country of birth. ZOR and three other detainees, including Gerald Akari Angye and a man identified as Navdeep, have filed a class action lawsuit with ACLU representation against ICE and DHS in federal court in El Paso, alleging abuse, including beatings and isolation, at the detention center.

Jose Yugar-Cruz, a Bolivian citizen and torture survivor, entered the U.S. through Arizona in summer 2024 and was immediately detained by border officials. Although his asylum application was denied, a federal judge granted him withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture, which prevents his deportation to Bolivia. While detained, DHS attempted to send him to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, and Canada. After filing a writ of habeas corpus, he was released and began rebuilding his life in Iowa. On April 8, 2026, during what he believed was a routine ICE check-in, officers re-detained him and placed him on a manifest for deportation to the Democratic Republic of Congo—a country experiencing war and an Ebola outbreak where he had no ties and was scheduled for removal on April 15. His attorney filed an emergency motion the same day; a federal judge barred DHS from removing him outside the country pending further notice, and he was released on May 29, 2026. At his next ICE check-in, over 250 supporters, including activists, clergy, and elected officials, attended to prevent further detention.

Miguel Angel Tercero Raudes, a Salvadoran national who had been living and working legally in the United States for over a decade with a 2023 Withholding of Removal court order, was detained at a routine ICE check-in on May 29, 2026. He is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of two U.S. citizen daughters. The government has indicated plans to remove him to a third country where he has no family or legal status, in apparent violation of his court-ordered withholding of removal protection.