Human Impact Project

Bradley County constables working under ICE authority participated in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in the Heritage Walk neighborhood of East Brainerd on Tuesday morning that resulted in multiple arrests. The operation targeted construction workers, with at least eight workers detained according to immigrant rights organizations. Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett stated his office was not involved in the operation, which was conducted by ICE task force members including Bradley County constables operating outside their county.

Emmanuel Sackie, a Liberian-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was violently detained by ICE in a Family Dollar parking lot in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, despite possessing a driver's license and photo ID. He was taken to an unknown location and subsequently sent to the hospital. Sackie stated this was his first time in handcuffs and expressed that he was treated unfairly based on his race.

Two Iranian Christian converts have been held by ICE since December after appearing for a routine immigration check-in, despite being vetted at the border, receiving work authorization, and volunteering at a Houston church. One man had evangelized to Muslims in Iran, an offense that can carry the death penalty under Iranian law, and now faces deportation back to the country. Both are currently held at the Houston Contract Detention Facility. The Department of Homeland Security has stated that both men crossed into the U.S. without authorization in 2023 and 2024 and were released under the previous administration.

Doug Hayes, an 80-year-old criminal defense attorney, was pepper-sprayed and thrown to the ground by federal ICE agents in Santa Barbara after he intervened during the detention of a man in his 20s. Hayes said he approached the agents out of concern for the detainee, identified as 27-year-old Jack Randmaa, who was being arrested near the Santa Barbara County Probation Office on suspicion of vandalism after his tire was allegedly slashed. Witnesses said agents placed Randmaa in a headlock during the arrest, and when Hayes and other bystanders tried to intervene, agents pepper-sprayed Hayes and at least one other person. Hayes was not arrested or charged but said he plans to pursue criminal and civil rights lawsuits against the agents, alleging they interfered with his right to speak freely and violated his client's rights. Bystanders gathered to record and protest the encounter, which occurred on Carrillo Street outside the probation office.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested four people at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse on Tuesday. Three attorneys were present during the arrests and were accused of interfering, with one attorney attempting to physically stop the process. ICE warned that anyone impeding arrests in the future could face arrest themselves. Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether two ICE officers committed perjury by lying under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis. All charges were dropped against two Venezuelan men involved in the incident.

Joel Angel-Becerril, a 27-year-old DACA recipient from Omaha, was released from Sarpy County Jail on February 20, 2026, after nearly three months in ICE custody. His release followed a federal judge's mid-February order declaring his detention without a bond hearing unlawful. An Omaha Immigration Court judge subsequently dismissed his removal proceedings on Friday, February 24, 2026, finding that his DACA status provided protection against deportation. Angel-Becerril had filed a civil rights lawsuit with the ACLU of Nebraska, which intervened in the case.

Aldrin, a hardworking father and primary household provider, was detained by ICE in early January 2026 in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, after agents followed him and his wife home from work. His young daughters witnessed the detention from their home window. He was transferred out of state to El Paso, Texas, where he allegedly received poor conditions and was denied needed medical care, then moved to a detention facility in New Mexico. His wife has been unable to work out of fear of leaving their children parentless, creating severe emotional and financial hardship for the family.

An 11-year-old U.S. citizen girl recovering from a rare brain tumor was deported to Mexico on February 4, 2025, after immigration authorities detained her undocumented parents and siblings at a Texas Border Patrol checkpoint while the family traveled for her emergency medical checkup. The family was removed despite previously passing through the checkpoint with hospital and attorney letters. Since deportation, her health has deteriorated, with worsening seizures, muscle spasms, and loss of neurological functions, and she has received only one MRI instead of the recommended quarterly scans. Four of the family's five children are U.S. citizens, including an 18-year-old brother left to live alone in the family's Texas home for a year. The family has been living in an area known for kidnappings of U.S. citizens while awaiting a humanitarian parole decision filed through the Texas Civil Rights Project. Congressional members including Reps. Adriano Espaillat, Sylvia Garcia, and Joaquin Castro have advocated for the family's return, and the teenage brother attended the State of the Union as Espaillat's guest, describing his year alone as feeling 'trapped in a coffin.'

Anselmo Martin Matias, who had been released on $16,000 bond in 2019 during withholding proceedings, was detained by ICE on February 24, 2026, during his routine check-in. ICE told him he was being detained for "breaking the rules" due to his March 2025 guilty plea to reckless driving, which they incorrectly described as driving under the influence. The federal court ordered his immediate release, finding that due process requires a hearing before a neutral arbitrator when someone is re-detained based on alleged supervision violations.

A Nicaraguan man has been in immigration detention since February 24, 2026, after being arrested at a scheduled ICE check-in. ICE did not set bond and did not provide him with a custody review by an immigration judge as required under the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision in Matter of Yajure Hurtado. A recent DHS policy classifies anyone arrested within the United States and charged with being inadmissible under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) as an 'applicant for admission' subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), a change from prior policy that allowed for bond or conditional parole under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). He filed a habeas corpus petition and ex parte application for a temporary restraining order seeking to prohibit his removal, transfer outside the Central District of California, and continued detention without a constitutionally adequate bond hearing. The federal court granted the temporary restraining order, ordering respondents to either provide him an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) on or before April 7, 2026 at 9:00 a.m., or release him from custody by April 7, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. The court set a hearing on the preliminary injunction for April 16, 2026.

A West Virginia federal judge ordered the immediate release of Eduardo Tinajero Rodriguez from ICE custody, finding his detention violated federal law and the Constitution. The judge found serious procedural failures including ICE's use of a document showing marijuana convictions from 2009 when Rodriguez was only four years old. Rodriguez was detained following a traffic stop based on an illegible license plate and an officer's call to ICE due to a language barrier.

A class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of five individuals against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its agencies (ICE, CBP, USBP) for conducting warrantless immigration arrests across North Carolina. The plaintiffs include U.S. citizens and a visa holder who were arrested without legal justification during enforcement operations in Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh, and other communities. The lawsuit challenges the conduct of warrantless arrests.

Lorth Sim, a 59-year-old Cambodian national who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1983 and became a lawful permanent resident in 1986, died in ICE custody at Miami Correctional Facility in Miami County, Indiana on February 16, 2026. He had been arrested by ICE in Boston on December 30, 2025, and was transferred to Indiana to await deportation after an immigration judge ordered his removal to Cambodia. Sim was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead at 7:10 a.m.; the cause of death remains under investigation. His death was the seventh in federal immigration custody nationally in 2026. U.S. Congressman André Carson and other lawmakers have sought answers, and multifaith leaders held a seventh monthly vigil at Southside Christian Church in Kokomo calling for a thorough investigation and better treatment of detainees, citing concerns about medical neglect at the facility.

George Retes, a disabled U.S. Army veteran and combat survivor working as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California, was detained by ICE agents during a July 10, 2025 workplace raid despite repeatedly identifying himself as a U.S. citizen. Agents broke his car window, pepper-sprayed and tackled him, leaving him with a cut leg and chemical burns, then took him to a Navy base for DNA collection before holding him for three days at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles without access to a lawyer, phone calls, a shower, or a judge appearance. He was released without charges, having missed his daughter's third birthday. In February 2026, represented by the Institute for Justice, Retes filed a federal lawsuit challenging the government's claimed immunity for immigration enforcement officers, testified before Congress, and attended the State of the Union as a guest of Rep. Mark Takano. The same raid resulted in more than 300 arrests, the removal of 14 children, and the death of farmworker Jaime Alanis Garcia, whose family has filed a $47 million wrongful death claim against ICE.

The petitioner entered the United States without inspection in February 2004 and has lived here continuously since then, more than 20 years. He applied for a U-visa, was granted deferred action, and received employment authorization valid from March 2023 to October 2024 while seeking adjustment of status. On February 24, 2026, he was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for DUI alcohol, an allegation he disputes; the arrest did not result in criminal charges. Upon his release from county custody, he was detained by ICE and has been held at the Adelanto Detention Center for roughly six months. An immigration judge reportedly dismissed his removal proceedings on August 5, 2026, though records suggest a master hearing remained scheduled for September 2026. He filed a counseled habeas corpus petition arguing his detention without notice or a hearing violated procedural due process. The court agreed, finding the government's failure to provide pre-deprivation process unconstitutional, and ordered his release within 24 hours.

Ruben Arguera Lopez, 39, a cook who holds a U visa for crime victims who assist law enforcement, was arrested without a warrant by ICE and CBP agents during immigration enforcement operations in North Carolina. He has lived in Charlotte for 15 years and obtained humanitarian protection after helping law enforcement investigate a serious crime. He is one of five plaintiffs—including four U.S. citizens—in a federal class-action lawsuit filed in February 2026 against the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, CBP, and Border Patrol, alleging that agents made warrantless arrests without probable cause. The lawsuit covers arrests made between January 20 and October 15, 2025, during which ICE arrested 3,304 people in North Carolina, more than 2.8 times the total during the same period in 2024.

On February 17, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Sonia Espinoza Arriaga, a Mexican national, and her three children (ages 5, 16, and 18) in Soldotna, Alaska. The family had entered the United States in 2023 and declared themselves at the border seeking protection. Arriaga was married to a U.S. citizen and had been in regular contact with her immigration attorney, who believed no enforcement action would occur for 90 days. The detention followed Arriaga's missed immigration court hearing in January due to miscommunication about the date. Within 36 hours of detention, Arriaga and her two youngest children were deported to Tijuana, Mexico, while her 18-year-old son was transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. An immigration attorney filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of the detention, and the rapid deportation prompted an Alaska House Judiciary Committee investigation into ICE activity in the state.

Jorfrank Lugo, a Venezuelan father of two young children detained by ICE on February 23, 2026 during a routine check-in appointment, filed a habeas corpus petition seeking his release. On April 29, 2026, a federal district court in Missouri denied the petition, ruling that he is subject to mandatory detention under federal law and that his continued custody during removal proceedings does not violate his due process rights. He and his wife Daniela remain asylum applicants, and his removal proceedings are now underway. His detention has left his wife, who cares full-time for their two young children, without their family's sole source of income while she tries to fund his legal defense.

A Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. in 2004 as a teenager was arrested by ICE on February 23, 2026, after receiving a citation for driving without a license in Wilson County, Tennessee. He was detained without a bond hearing despite having significant U.S. ties including a U.S. citizen spouse and three U.S. citizen children. The court stayed his transfer and ordered ICE to respond to his habeas corpus petition, requiring them to either distinguish his case from Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft or consent to his release.

Court documents revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego conducted surveillance on activists through Operation Road Flare, targeting individuals who document ICE activities such as Jeane Wong and Arturo Gonzalez. The operation began monitoring activists on October 23, 2025, and documents describe confrontations at the 47th Street Trolley Station on November 18, 2025, where Wong was accused of throwing belongings at agents during a crowd altercation. Wong subsequently pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault on a federal officer and received home detention.