Human Impact Project

Ariadna Zumba, 18, a native of Spain who has lived in the United States since she was nine and holds Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, was detained by ICE on April 9, 2026, while walking near her home, without agents presenting a warrant or immediately notifying her family. She was held for 53 days at Delaney Hall in Newark, run by the GEO Group, missing her senior prom and high school graduation, before being released June 1, 2026, after filing a habeas corpus petition. She later received her diploma at a mid-August ceremony at Orange High School. Zumba described moldy food, overcrowding, inadequate medical care and early-morning room checks at Delaney Hall, said she joined a hunger strike over conditions before stopping after officers threatened additional charges, and helped other detainees with translation and paperwork; she has no criminal record, was accepted to Essex County College, and plans to study social sciences before transferring to Montclair State University and eventually attending law school, though she has another ICE appointment scheduled for January.

Genesis, 11, and Denis, 6, students at Burton Magnet Elementary School in Durham, were detained and deported to Honduras along with their parents in April 2026. The family had lived in the United States for four years after seeking asylum from Honduras in 2022. According to Siembra NC, the family was detained during a regularly scheduled asylum administrative appointment and then deported. ICE stated the family failed to appear for an immigration hearing and had no pending asylum claims. State Senator Sophia Chitlik and advocacy groups argued the family's due process was violated and that they were doing everything required by the immigration system.

A 17-year-old Hispanic minor was detained by ICE agents at a Target store in Richfield, Minnesota, during Operation Metro Surge. Federal Judge Eric Tostrud concluded that the minor was detained solely because of his race or ethnicity, without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. The incident is part of an ongoing ACLU lawsuit challenging ICE's racial profiling practices in Minnesota.

Diego Cabrera Gonzalez, a 9-year-old with cerebral palsy, and his family from Ecuador face possible deportation after an immigration hearing scheduled for later in April. The family came to the U.S. in 2023 seeking medical care for Diego, who has undergone four surgeries and has improved significantly since arriving. Their legal case was jeopardized when they hired someone who failed to properly file asylum paperwork, but they have since secured new legal representation and are fundraising to cover legal fees.

A 35-year-old mother of two was detained by ICE agents in an unmarked van outside a New Jersey courthouse after testifying as a witness in a sexual assault case. She was subsequently forced to self-deport from the United States.

A pregnant Venezuelan woman was arrested by ICE while traveling to a medical center in Seattle. Her 10-month-old baby was also taken into ICE custody during the operation. According to local police, the arrest was executed by the Department of Homeland Security based on a criminal court order allegedly related to human trafficking allegations, not immigration violations.

A father of two disabled children was deported to Mexico after being pulled over by ICE while driving to his drywall installation job. The deportation occurred despite his family obligations and care responsibilities for his disabled children.

Cristina Mejia, 21, has assumed responsibility for her household in Waco, Texas, after her mother Elizabeth was detained by ICE on January 5, 2026, following an altercation. She now manages bills and cares for her two younger brothers, ages 16 and 5, while her mother awaits case updates at a detention facility in Houston. Mejia has limited contact with her mother through three daily phone calls and started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover family expenses during the separation.

Juan Chavez Velasco, a 35-year-old DACA recipient who arrived in the U.S. from Colombia at age 8, was detained by ICE agents on February 18, 2026, while driving to deliver breast milk to his premature daughter in a hospital NICU in Weslaco, Texas. Chavez Velasco holds two bachelor's degrees and works as a medical laboratory scientist with no criminal history. He is married to Stephanie Villarreal, a U.S. citizen, and has three U.S. citizen children. His DACA renewal application, submitted in November 2025, remained unanswered and his status expired on March 10, 2026, while he was in custody. DHS cited a 2005 removal order issued before his DACA approval in 2012, arguing that DACA does not confer legal status. He is detained at Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, Texas.

Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old Ecuadorean boy, and his father Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias were detained by ICE agents in the driveway of their Columbia Heights, Minnesota home on January 20, 2026, after Liam returned from preschool, and flown the next day to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered their release on January 31, criticizing the administration's pursuit of deportation quotas as 'ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented,' and Rep. Joaquin Castro personally escorted the pair home to Minneapolis on February 1, where Liam was reunited with his mother, Erika Ramos. Days later, DHS filed a motion to expedite the family's deportation, which their lawyer, Danielle Molliver, called 'retaliatory' and 'extraordinary'; the family's asylum hearing was moved up, and an immigration judge granted a continuance. On March 19, an immigration judge denied the family's asylum claim and ordered them deported to Ecuador, a ruling Molliver called 'misguided' and said the family plans to appeal. By April, Liam's parents said he continued seeing a psychologist, avoided classmates and certain activities, and grew fearful at the sight of police, telling his mother 'It's ICE, Mommy.' His father said he still does not understand why the family was targeted, calling it 'an injustice.'

According to reporting from SA Current, a pregnant woman named Juana was ordered deported by ICE when she was near her due date. Medical professionals and airlines told ICE she was too pregnant to safely fly, but ICE continued seeking officials willing to authorize her travel anyway. The case highlights failures in ICE's own policies protecting pregnant detainees.

Valley View Elementary School in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, where two-thirds of students are Latino, was heavily impacted by ICE enforcement operations in early 2026. At least 30 parents and four students were detained. School staff provided support to affected students through counseling and joy-focused activities. The detentions caused widespread fear and disruption in the school community.

Kaleth, a 2-year-old boy, was detained at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas after his entire family reported to a routine ICE check-in appointment in California in March 2026. The family had never missed a required immigration appointment since seeking asylum in 2024. Kaleth's father was handcuffed and transferred to an adult detention facility in California, while Kaleth and his mother Joani were transported over 1,000 miles away to Dilley. Separated from his father, Kaleth became despondent and stopped eating for 12 days; facility staff attributed his refusal to eat to depression. When his mother tried to force him to eat, he vomited and eventually stopped having bowel movements. After two weeks in detention, ICE released Kaleth and his mother in April following legal intervention, reuniting them with his father. His legal representative reported that Kaleth had not eaten solid food during his entire detention; in the car from the airport, he devoured four packets of applesauce and has since recovered.

Protect Democracy, the ACLU, and partners filed suit against DHS, ICE, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center on April 2, 2026, challenging a secret internal memo that authorizes agents to forcibly enter homes using only an administrative form instead of a judicial warrant. The lawsuit names six individuals affected by the policy, including Teyana and Garrison Gibson Brown, whose home was raided January 11, 2026, and Noe Alfredo Salguero, whose home was entered January 14, 2026. The memo, titled "Utilizing Form I-205, Warrant of Removal," was issued in May 2025 and kept secret until whistleblowers leaked it in late January 2026. Plaintiffs seek to vacate the policy and declare it unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

Two sisters in Big Bear Lake are caring for their mother in hospice with stage 4 brain cancer after their father, Armando Gonzalez Procopio, was detained by ICE on March 31. ICE stated he was arrested for public order crimes and illegal entry, though the sisters dispute the characterization of his record, noting only traffic violations. Their father is scheduled to appear before a judge on April 10 for removal proceedings. The family is seeking his release so they can spend their mother's final days together.

Sinri Baltazar, a member of the Afro-indigenous Garifuna community from Honduras, was first separated from her then-5-year-old daughter in 2018 under the Trump administration's family separation policy. In 2024-2025, immigration officials presented her with a document they claimed would allow her family to stay together, but it actually facilitated their removal. She was deported with her three children, including one who is a U.S. citizen. Under a federal judge's order in April 2026, she was allowed to return to Louisiana with her three children. The family is currently living with an acquaintance from church while working to reestablish stable housing. Baltazar expressed gratitude that her children could seek a better life but emphasized the family's desire for a safe home of their own.

S.M.H., a 16-year-old Los Angeles high school student and aspiring tennis player, was detained by ICE in April 2026 along with his parents, Maryam and Eissa Tahmasebi—both educators, with Maryam a professor at Los Angeles Pierce College—after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the family's green cards. Lawyers say the family, all permanent residents, is being punished because Eissa's mother, at age 19, served as a spokesperson for the student group that held Americans hostage in Iran in 1979, calling it unprecedented "bloodline punishment" for actions preceding their births. S.M.H. and his mother have been held for more than 120 days at the Dilley family detention center—far exceeding the 20-day Flores settlement limit—while his father is detained separately, with the family limited to 10-minute biweekly phone calls. In a letter published in The Nation, Maryam described the ordeal as an "unendurable, unending nightmare," while immigration lawyer Hassan Ahmad said he has not seen foreign policy grounds used to detain people based solely on family relationship rather than individual conduct.

A 15-year-old was detained during an ICE raid at a clandestine club off San Pedro Avenue in San Antonio in November 2025, along with approximately 140 other people. Four months later, the teen remained in federal custody at a migrant children's shelter on San Antonio's South Side despite paperwork for his release being completed. The release process stalled after his father, who was handling the case, was detained while driving back from a job in Corpus Christi, creating additional complications as the family feared further detention if a parent came forward to secure his release.

A Honduran citizen who has lived in the United States for over twenty years. He is married and the father of United States citizen children, has maintained steady employment, filed federal income tax returns for many years, owns a home, and has no criminal history. He filed an application for asylum on July 14, 2023, which remains pending. On March 30, 2026, ICE arrested him at his residence in Fort Pierce, Florida, served him a Notice to Appear, and initiated removal proceedings; he has been detained ever since at the Aurora ICE Processing Center. He requested a custody redetermination hearing, which Immigration Judge Masters denied without addressing danger or flight risk. He filed a habeas corpus petition and a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction seeking immediate release or a new bond hearing before a different judge. The court found he was improperly detained under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2) because that provision applies only to noncitizens seeking admission at the border, not those residing in the interior. The court granted the habeas petition and ordered his immediate release on his own recognizance without onerous conditions, enjoined his re-detention absent a compliant bond hearing, and denied the TRO motion as moot.

A Hispanic mother was detained by immigration agents while working as a delivery driver. The post appeals for help and offers to share a GoFundMe link for those commenting.