Human Impact Project

Valentín, a hardworking family man, was detained by ICE for more than seven months in inhumane conditions. During his detention, he endured days without meals and was served cold or contaminated food, including food with worms. He was separated from his family with minimal meaningful communication and was unable to be present when his daughter gave birth, learning only later in custody that he had a newborn granddaughter. After his eventual release and reunification with his family, Valentín faces significant accumulated debt as he works to rebuild their lives.

Migrant children as young as six were detained at the Homestead facility adjacent to Homestead Air Reserve Base, a Superfund site with roughly 16 pollution sources including arsenic and lead, according to over 20,000 pages of records released in federal litigation. The records link the contamination to risks of cancer, kidney and liver damage, immune-system harm and developmental delays, and show no documented environmental assessment, cleanup or hurricane plan at the site. The facility, which closed in 2019, also exposed children to constant noise from F-16C fighter jets, with some detainees separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Earthjustice sued the Air Force, DHS and ICE in 2021 to obtain the records, and the federal government has agreed to pay legal fees now that the litigation has concluded; officials declined to comment.

Edwin Jovanny López Cornejo, a Salvadoran national who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, died August 1, 2026, at University Hospital in Newark following a medical emergency at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. He suffered from epilepsy, diabetes, and high blood pressure requiring daily medication, and leaves behind a 12-year-old U.S. citizen daughter, Ashley. ICE arrested him June 18, 2026, in Plainfield, New Jersey, reviving a 2006 deportation order, though his family said he held a valid work permit. His mother, Maria Cornejo, said he called her feeling very ill with numbness in his face and hand after seeing a facility medical provider, and described him as hardworking and a good father, saying, "I lost him to the hands of immigration authorities." His family alleged he did not consistently receive his medication and called for an independent investigation, while ICE said facility and medical staff called 911 and that he received appropriate care, with the cause of death pending further examination. His death was the second at Delaney Hall since it opened in May 2025, following months of detainee complaints and lawsuits alleging denial of medication, and prompted Governor Mikie Sherrill and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to call for the facility's closure.

Claudia Carolina Rodríguez Caglianone, a 28-year-old Venezuelan who entered the U.S. on a student visa in January 2017, was detained by ICE agents at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on July 17 after passing through TSA security while boarding a domestic flight. She had a pending asylum application and previously held Temporary Protected Status, and had earned bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, where she also captained the women's soccer team. She was held for eight days at the Miramar processing facility, describing overcrowding, moldy food, and lack of access to showers, before being transferred to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach for nine more days, during which she lost about 15 pounds. On August 3, an immigration judge set bond at $5,000 and she was released; Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz publicly supported her and conducted an inspection of the Pompano Beach facility.

Claudia Rodríguez, a 29-year-old Venezuelan immigrant who earned her master's degree in business administration from St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, was detained by ICE at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in July while attempting to board a flight to North Carolina. Rodríguez arrived in the U.S. legally in 2017 on a tourist visa, applied for asylum within six months, and was granted Temporary Protected Status in 2023 while her asylum case remains pending. She was transferred between two South Florida detention facilities, spending eight days at the ICE office in Miramar in severely overcrowded conditions—sleeping on floors in a cell with 75 people, unable to shower or change clothes, and losing 15 pounds. Her cousin Gabriel Domínguez described her as an exemplary athlete with no criminal record. U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited the Miramar facility to advocate for her release, calling the detention "unacceptable." Rodríguez was released on Monday evening.

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.

Carlitos Ricardo Parias, detained at the Adelanto ICE facility near Los Angeles, revealed video footage showing a bottle of drinking water apparently contaminated with worm-like creatures or larvae. The footage emerged weeks after a federal judge ordered ICE to ensure 24-hour access to clean drinking water at the facility in response to a class-action lawsuit alleging dangerous conditions including inadequate food, contaminated water, and poor medical care. Parias preserved the contaminated water as evidence after staff distributed it to detained residents.

Ana Granados Sanchez, a 49-year-old Salvadoran national held in ICE's Eloy Detention Center, was deported while still having a nephrostomy tube (urine-collection tube) attached to her body, three months after it was surgically placed. Her urologist at Banner Desert Medical Center had advised against deportation until the tube could be removed, and Granados Sanchez requested to see her specialist in person to have it taken out before leaving the country, citing concerns about medical care availability where she was being deported. While in ICE custody, she did not receive recommended follow-up care. During her detention, she was held in a processing facility with about two dozen other people and forced to use a shared toilet with no privacy, and was not given water at the initial processing center—conditions her urologist said may have contributed to her kidney problems. Advocates' efforts to appeal to ICE to delay her deportation were unsuccessful. The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project opposed the deportation, citing medical neglect and danger to her health.

Paul, an Indian national with an order withholding his removal based on Convention Against Torture protections, was detained by ICE officers at Dulles Airport after returning from a family trip to Hawaii. As he was being processed at an ICE field office in Virginia, Paul suffered a heart attack, was hospitalized and treated, then released back to ICE custody. He was subsequently released under a preexisting ICE supervision arrangement with his next check-in scheduled for September. His attorney, Jay S. Marks, noted that Paul has protection from removal to India but could be deported to a third country.

Jose Eliezer Martinez-Andino, a 20-year-old mechanic from Raleigh, North Carolina, and father to a U.S.-citizen daughter, was deported to Honduras in April after agents detained him in Montana, denied him contact with attorneys for about ten days, and had him sign a voluntary-departure form despite his Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and work permit. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found the removal denied him due process, calling the circumstances "coercive," and ordered the government to return him; he said he had been afraid in Honduras due to childhood abuse by his father. He flew back to Texas on Aug. 5 after about five months abroad, was held in CBP custody, and was then transferred to ICE custody at the Port Isabel Processing Center, where he awaits a bond hearing to determine whether he can continue proceedings closer to Raleigh. DHS has disputed his account, saying he entered the country without authorization and was released by the Biden administration, and denies he was blocked from contacting legal counsel.

Luis Alberto Ramirez Zavala, a Chicago-area man who had spent most of his life working as a ranch hand in rural Illinois, was detained by ICE during a routine appointment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Missouri on July 18, 2026, regarding his pending application for legal status. He had no criminal record and had been following the immigration process for years to adjust his status. Ramirez Zavala was detained based on a removal order issued more than 30 years ago. He was transferred from a county jail in Missouri to an ICE detention facility in Texas and deported to Mexico approximately two weeks after his arrest. His daughter, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Wendy Gbeve, was present at his USCIS appointment and has been advocating for his release. Ramirez Zavala was married for 30 years to a legal permanent resident. His family expressed being heartbroken by the separation and sought funds for legal defense and support.

A crew of five Ecuadorian roofers, several of whom had come to the U.S. during the Biden administration to seek asylum and were still in that process, were driving to a job site in Vermont when they were pulled over and detained by ICE agents. All five were transported to a detention center out of state, but with legal help they secured bond hearings before an immigration judge and were ultimately released.

Diana Rodríguez Pardo and Jairo Alzate Elejalde, a Colombian couple with Spanish citizenship, were detained by ICE agents immediately after landing at Las Vegas International Airport, where they had traveled from California to celebrate a birthday. The couple had entered the U.S. legally about two years earlier under a visa waiver program and later filed for asylum before their 90-day authorization expired. They were separated and sent to different detention facilities—Jairo remained in Nevada while Diana was transferred first to Arizona and then to Denver, Colorado. Their two children, ages 8 and 16, are now being cared for by relatives, and the family is seeking an immigration attorney and raising funds to cover legal costs while pursuing a possible bail release.

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.

Mohamed Barry, 52, a truck driver from Guinea who had lived in the U.S. for 25 years and held a withholding of removal order protecting him from deportation to his home country, was captured by Border Patrol outside his home in Brownsburg, Indiana on July 1 and later placed on a July 31 ICE charter flight to Africa carrying an estimated 71 detainees. Barry, who has five U.S. citizen children including a nine-year-old daughter, said ICE-contracted GEO Group guards drank alcohol, refused to let shackled passengers use the lavatory, and placed at least two people in restraint devices during the 26-hour flight to Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, and Ghana. After being held under armed guard in a Ghana hotel for three days, Barry agreed to return to Guinea despite his protection order, then fled across a border into a neighboring country where he is now in hiding without identification and with a dwindling supply of heart medication. "I can't tell you how heartbroken I am leaving my younger girls," Barry said. "I'm the one who takes them to the bus stop."

A man who was granted voluntary departure by an immigration judge in 2017 but never left the country, causing that order to automatically convert into a final removal order under federal law. In June 2025, he was detained after law enforcement executed a search warrant at his place of employment, and he was held for nearly a year at the Montgomery Municipal Jail under a material witness warrant. On May 22, 2026, a magistrate judge dismissed the material witness warrant and ordered his release, but he was not released and remained in custody for reasons unknown to the court. He filed a federal habeas corpus petition on July 31, 2026, seeking release or a bond hearing before an immigration judge. Respondents indicated that ICE had only lodged a detainer at the time the petition was filed and did not take physical custody of him until August 4, 2026, after which he was transferred to a facility within the Northern District of Alabama. The court dismissed the petition without prejudice, finding both that Petitioner failed to comply with a show-cause order and that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because he was not in ICE custody at the time of filing, noting jurisdiction now lies only in the district of his current confinement.

Arístides Fernández García, a 37-year-old Cuban trucking company owner who fled Cuba in 2021 after being kidnapped and robbed in Mexico, was living in South Florida under an I-220A release order when ICE arrested him following a Miami immigration court hearing on January 6, 2026. He spent about seven months in detention at facilities including Krome, 'Alligator Alcatraz,' and centers in Louisiana and Texas. On July 30, he was shackled and flown roughly 22 hours with about 80 other detainees, including Cubans, an Ecuadorian, and a Honduran, to Bangui, Central African Republic — a country under the U.S. State Department's highest 'Do Not Travel' advisory due to risks including unrest, crime, kidnapping and terrorism. He said he was not told the destination until mid-flight and was stripped of his identification, money, and phone upon arrival, now confined to a guarded building without legal status, a passport, or embassy support. "I paid taxes, I never got a traffic ticket. I did everything right," he said, and described feeling "kidnapped," saying "we are prisoners here, they won't let us leave or go anywhere... they have violated all the rights that exist in life, because we are human beings." He said he still wants to pursue his asylum claim, while immigration attorney Morella Aguado said there is no legal basis for sending migrants to a country not designated by an immigration judge.

A man was detained by ICE in Fairbanks, Alaska on July 31, 2026, despite being in the United States legally and actively working toward permanent resident status. His sister describes him as hardworking and honest, someone who pays taxes, works steadily, and helps support their mother and his grandchildren. Within 24 hours of his detention in Fairbanks, he was transferred to Anchorage; his family fears further transfers out of state will make it increasingly difficult for them to communicate with him, secure legal representation, and advocate for his rights. The family is raising funds to cover immigration attorney fees, legal filings, travel, and communication costs necessary to fight for his release.

A Honduran citizen who entered the United States through the southern border in 2021 and was briefly detained by ICE before being released. He subsequently settled in New Jersey. On July 31, 2026, ICE apprehended him in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and detained him at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. On August 6, 2026, ICE transferred him to Moshannon Valley Processing Center and detained him under Section 1225 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides for mandatory detention. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention. The federal court granted his petition, holding that Section 1226(a)—not Section 1225(b)(2)—governs the detention of noncitizens who have entered without admission but have long resided in the interior. The court ordered his immediate release and a temporary seven-day enjoinder against re-detention. If the government seeks to re-detain him after that period, it must first provide him with a bond hearing before an immigration judge.

Elton Purvis, a 55-year-old lawful permanent resident, Rastafarian priest, and father of nine U.S. citizen children from Trinidad and Tobago, was detained by ICE at Boston Logan Airport on May 13, 2025, while returning to attend his sons' graduations. A community fixture for more than 30 years, Purvis had malaria and Type 1 diabetes when detained; he said ICE officers confiscated his insulin and malaria medication, and he was hospitalized about a week into detention before receiving malaria treatment. During roughly seven months in multiple facilities, including the Geo Group-run South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas, Purvis filed over 100 grievances, suffered hypoglycemic crashes, dehydration and malnutrition, and became unresponsive in his cell at least three times due to low blood sugar. Staff also refused to accommodate his strict vegetarian diet required by his religion and medical condition. He was deported to Trinidad and Tobago on December 6, 2025. The ACLU filed a federal tort claim on his behalf seeking $10 million in damages, part of a nationwide effort that filed more than 50 claims across 17 states and Washington, D.C., alleging neglect of detained immigrants' medical and food needs.