Human Impact Project

ICE detained a critically ill man who was traveling to receive medical treatment. Williams Javier Toro Enamorado, a 27-year-old Honduran man with end-stage kidney disease, was detained by ICE agents on November 19 while traveling to a dialysis appointment during an operation called "Charlotte's Web." He claims he was denied dialysis treatment and pressured to sign a voluntary deportation order, with officers allegedly telling him "If you want to leave, sign. If not, you're going to die here." He is being held at an ICE detention center in Folkston, Georgia, over 360 miles from his family in North Carolina.

Germán L., a 32-year-old Colombian man, was beaten by guards at Camp East Montana after simply standing up from a table to see what was happening during an argument. A lieutenant yelled at him in English, then sent a guard who grabbed him by the collar, yanked him from his chair, and slammed him on his back, hitting his head. The guard kicked his right side, then folded his body in half and dragged him to solitary confinement. Germán was given papers falsely claiming he had attacked an officer. He was held in isolation for at least 17 days at the time of his interview, with a 30-day punishment imposed. His appeals to ICE went unanswered. He repeatedly asked guards to review the camera footage.

Juan Barilla, 35, a peasant farmer from San Miguelito in Nicaragua's Río San Juan department, spent 29 months imprisoned after being kidnapped by paramilitaries in 2020, and was among 222 political prisoners the Ortega-Murillo government expelled to the United States in February 2023, stripping him of his nationality. He resettled in Louisiana with humanitarian parole and a work permit, but was arrested by local police on April 5, 2025 for driving under the influence; even after a judge ordered his release following his 112-day sentence, he was held because of an ICE appointment, and ICE took him into custody in July 2025. Representing himself without a lawyer through several immigration court hearings on his pending asylum case, he said he was never allowed to present notarized evidence of his imprisonment and torture in Nicaragua. In October 2025, prosecutors sought protection for him under the Convention Against Torture with removal to Honduras rather than asylum, and he was deported there on November 29, 2025, describing being shackled at the hands, feet and waist 'like a criminal.' He is now under temporary UNHCR protection in Honduras and says he fears transnational retaliation from the Nicaraguan regime.

Carlos, a Venezuelan man with temporary protected status, was detained by ICE at a New Mexico immigration office in December 2025 after being called for what he believed was a reunification meeting with his 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter. Federal officials had previously vetted Carlos and told him his custody case was complete. When he arrived at the ICE office, officers attempted to force him to sign documents he did not understand. After refusing to sign, officers stripped his clothes, seized his belongings, and chained him by the neck, waist, and legs. Carlos said he felt "tricked" and that ICE "used my children to grab me." His two children had been in a federal shelter in Texas for nearly a year after crossing the border to reunite with him. According to reporting, the Trump administration's Office of Refugee Resettlement has begun coordinating with ICE to arrest parents and caregivers seeking custody of unaccompanied migrant children, reversing Obama-era restrictions on data sharing between the resettlement office and immigration enforcement.

Alma Bowman, a 59-year-old Macon resident, was detained by ICE on March 26, 2025, during a routine check-in and held at Stewart Detention Center for 243 days until her release in late November 2025. Bowman claims U.S. citizenship as the daughter of an American Navy serviceman and was born in the Philippines. ICE asserted she was in the country illegally. This was her second detention; she had previously been held for three years (2017-2020) at Irwin County Detention Center following criminal convictions deemed deportable offenses. During her detention, Bowman reported inadequate medical care and overcrowded conditions. Her attorney argued the prolonged detainment violated her constitutional rights, and her citizenship status remained legally disputed throughout her custody.

Abdellatif (Latif) Hafraoui, a 60-year-old Moroccan immigrant who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 40 years and worked about 18 years as a Manhattan building concierge, was detained by ICE agents at Newark Liberty International Airport in August 2025 as he and his American wife, Sandra, prepared to leave for a Florida vacation. He was held 108 days, mostly at Delaney Hall in New Jersey but also at facilities in Louisiana and Arizona, based on a 16-year-old deportation order issued in absentia after a notice was sent to the wrong address and his lawyer failed to inform him of a hearing. Hafraoui said he was pressured to accept deportation, placed in solitary confinement for 10 days after refusing to sign documents or board a flight, and witnessed guards abuse other detainees; he said agents later falsely claimed a ticket to Morocco had been purchased and attempted to put him on a deportation flight to Qatar even after a judge voided the original order. U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez's office intervened to help locate him during the transfers and advocate for his return to New Jersey. He paid a $15,000 bond and was released the day before Thanksgiving, though the government kept his passport, and he must wear an ankle monitor and report regularly to authorities while his green card application remains pending; he has not returned to work, and Sandra said legal costs have depleted the couple's savings and that he seemed traumatized after visits.

A 23-year-old woman detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint was charged with assaulting a federal officer but the charge was dismissed in August after body-camera video revealed agents used a Taser on her while she was turning away to enter a holding cell. Court documents showed agents had found no evidence of criminal activity before the incident and that one falsely told her about deleted evidence on her phone. Nearly half of 22 assault-on-officer cases filed in San Diego during Trump's second term were later dismissed.

Vicente Ventura Aguilar has been missing for over 45 days after suffering a medical emergency while in ICE custody in South Los Angeles. He and a friend were taken by masked agents, and his friend, who was deported to Mexico, last saw him fainting in ICE custody. Despite searches of hospitals, morgues, and government agencies, and DHS reporting no records of him, his whereabouts remain unknown.

A man appeared in court in Lebanon, Tennessee for a routine traffic violation when ICE agents in plain clothes detained him without showing identification. His U.S. citizen daughter intervened and was injured in the process. The man was taken away in a white van, and his family reports lacking clear answers about his whereabouts or status. Five people were detained by ICE after appearing in Robertson County General Sessions Court on November 19 to answer summons for misdemeanor traffic violations. All five had pleaded guilty to traffic offenses and paid their fines before being escorted to a private room and subsequently removed from the courthouse in handcuffs and leg shackles by masked ICE agents. The detainees, including Yanim Lopez and Aurora Leao, both originally from Mexico, were transferred to detention facilities in Knoxville and later Louisiana. ICE arrested 6,251 people in Tennessee between January 20 and October 15, 2025, with arrest rates rising throughout the year. Attorneys report that immigrants following legal requirements—including routine ICE check-ins—are now being detained and deported, a shift from previous practice. The article documents cases where immigrants with no criminal records are detained at check-ins, judges in some counties are contacting ICE, and immigration holds prevent bonded release, leaving immigrants in jail for months before court appearances.

Britania Uriostegui Rios, a Mexican transgender woman who entered the U.S. in 2003, was deported to Mexico on November 11, 2024, despite a federal judge's March order blocking her removal based on findings that she faced a substantial risk of torture. Uriostegui Rios is a trauma survivor who was sexually trafficked by cartels as a young person and faces significant threats in Mexico due to her transgender identity. She was deported without medications, identification, money, or a cell phone and went into hiding in Tijuana. ICE and Department of Justice officials acknowledged the deportation violated the immigration judge's order and was improper. The Trump administration offered to allow her to voluntarily return to the U.S., where she would be placed back in ICE custody while the government seeks an alternative country for deportation. Her legal team filed suit to prevent her return to federal custody and to secure her release under supervision, arguing the government cannot be trusted to follow court orders.

Border Patrol detained Moises Benitez Diaz, a 27-year-old Raleigh construction contractor, on November 18 during Operation Charlotte's Web. His wife Esmeralda Escobar, who is 8 months pregnant, is now managing the family business while he is held at a Georgia facility. Despite DHS claiming he was a criminal convicted of felony larceny, court records show his charges were dismissed and he completed a misdemeanor diversion agreement.

ICE agents surrounded a car during a traffic stop on Kimball Street in Fitchburg on November 6, 2025, to arrest Juliana Milena Ojeda-Montoya, 24, an Ecuadorian national with a pending asylum claim and valid work authorization who was wanted for allegedly stabbing a coworker with scissors. During the arrest, her husband Carlos Sebastian Zapata, 24, a Fitchburg resident, appeared to suffer a seizure while holding their 1½-year-old daughter, whom Ojeda-Montoya breastfeeds. Zapata said an ICE agent pushed him, hit his ribs, and pressed on his neck, causing him to lose consciousness; video of the incident captured bystanders expressing concern and went viral. DHS disputed his account, claiming he faked the medical emergency to help his wife evade arrest and that medical personnel found no legitimate emergency. Ojeda-Montoya, who had previously been released on bond in March 2024, was ordered released on November 10 after a federal judge found her detention without a hearing violated her due process rights.

Nine employees at Allston Car Wash in Boston—Hector Valladares, Felicita Valladares, Vanessa Vasquez Valladares, Clarisa Aguilon, Heidy Aguilon, Yuli Magali Mendez Luarca, Pablo Oseas Lopez, Dairo Preciado, and Jose P. Enriquez Sagastume—were detained by more than 22 ICE agents on November 4, 2025. All nine workers held valid work permits at the time of their arrest. According to business manager Jose Barrera, agents arrived with subpoenas and detained the workers before allowing them to retrieve their work permits from their lockers. Attorney Todd Pomerleau reported that detainees held at ICE's Boston field office in Burlington experienced mistreatment, including being denied food and shower access for several days, and that one detainee was allegedly transferred to Texas in violation of a court order. Seven of the detained workers subsequently filed a federal tort claim through Boston Lawyers for Civil Rights alleging unlawful arrest, racial profiling based on their Latino and Spanish-speaking status, and mistreatment in custody including shackling, transport to multiple detention facilities, and denial of access to phones, legal counsel, and medications. The complaint seeks $1 million in compensation per worker plus legal fees.

Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva, a 39-year-old Salvadoran immigrant and mother of four U.S. citizen children, was arrested by ICE upon arriving at Salt Lake City International Airport. She held a valid work permit approved in 2024 and said she was unaware of a 2020 deportation order, as the court notice had reportedly been sent to an address where she no longer lived. Her attorney says she was detained for nearly four months despite having an active appeal pending, during which she was transferred through multiple facilities, including jails in Salt Lake and Tooele counties, a Texas facility, two Arizona detention centers, and finally a Louisiana facility she described as having the worst conditions, with overcrowding, wet bedding, and untreated illness among detainees. She said she was cuffed at the hands, waist, and feet during every transfer, including her deportation flight, and repeatedly told agents she had lawful status. She was ultimately deported to El Salvador, leaving her four children behind.

Cole Sheridan, a 27-year-old hospitality worker, was arrested during an October 3 pro-immigrant protest at the Broadview, Illinois immigration enforcement facility after U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino accused him of pushing and swinging at him. Sheridan faced federal charges of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer, spent three days in custody, and said the ordeal cost him four days of work and a month of anxiety over potential imprisonment. An investigator noted Bovino took two weeks of leave citing a groin injury he claimed to have sustained in the encounter. After a friend located video footage from an October 31 news report showing Sheridan being pushed down and not near Bovino, prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges on November 3, though they could still refile. Sheridan said the footage proved there was no altercation as described in the criminal complaint, adding Bovino's account 'means nothing.' Other cases against Chicago-area protesters and immigrants involving similar discrepancies in Bovino's accounts have also been dismissed.

Maria Vargas, 6, was detained with her parents at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas after her family was arrested during a September immigration check-in. The family had fled Colombia in 2022 and settled in New York, where they applied for special visas for human trafficking victims. At Dilley, Maria experienced severe trauma including regression (bedwetting and accidents), loss of appetite and weight loss, a staff member's accidental eye injury, and persistent psychological distress. Her parents reported officers pressured them to abandon their visa applications by threatening to separate Maria. After two months, the family agreed to self-deport and was sent to Colombia in November 2026. Maria continues to suffer vision problems, headaches, and behavioral changes including fear of police.

A Cuban man who fled Cuba with his politically active family as a teenager lived in the U.S. for over two decades, raised six U.S.-citizen children and owned a business before being detained after attempting to cross into Canada out of fear of third-country deportation. He was held at the Plymouth, Massachusetts ICE detention facility, where his attorney, Sarah Sherman-Stokes of Boston University's Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Clinic, said she was not notified of his fear-of-return interview regarding removal to Mexico, which she believes violated his rights. He was deported to Mexico in November 2025, and his continuing legal challenge led U.S. District Judge William G. Young to reveal in a March 2026 order that the Department of Homeland Security has deported about 6,000 Cuban nationals to Mexico over the past year under an unwritten, standing agreement between the two countries. Young questioned the legality of the arrangement, noting it lacked any formal process beyond the government's own assertion that it was permissible.

Carlos Guerra Leon, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate from Spring Valley, New York, was arrested without a warrant by federal officers on August 9, 2025, and transferred to Jackson Correctional Facility in Louisiana despite holding approved Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) and deferred action status that protected him from deportation under the Biden administration. He came to the U.S. from Guatemala at age 10 after experiencing abandonment and neglect, and had built a stable life attending school and working legally in New York. The National Immigration Project, ACLU of Louisiana, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights filed a federal habeas petition challenging his detention. After nearly three months in custody over 1,000 miles from home, Federal Judge Terry Doughty issued a temporary restraining order on October 31 ruling Guerra Leon's detention unlawful and that his release "serves the public interest by ensuring that the Government adheres to its own laws." Despite the court order, ICE officials at the Louisiana facility initially refused to release him, claiming to have "no knowledge" of the ruling and forcing an emergency motion before he was finally released and returned home to New York.

Monica, an Ecuadorian child care worker seeking asylum, was pushed to the ground and shoved into a wall by an ICE agent outside a Manhattan immigration court on September 25, 2025, while agents detained her husband Ruben. The incident, which occurred in front of the couple's two young children and journalists, was captured on video and circulated widely on social media. Monica said she feared Ruben's deportation would amount to a death sentence. The officer, who reportedly had a history of aggressive conduct at the same location, was temporarily relieved of duty after DHS called the conduct unacceptable, but was reinstated days later following a preliminary review despite political calls for felony charges. In late October, a federal court ordered Ruben's release after finding he had been detained without explanation. The family of four has since been reunited, though their asylum cases remain pending.

M-J-M-A, a 45-year-old Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. legally in January 2025 and later overstayed her visa, was arrested by ICE on October 30, 2025 while on her way to work. At the Portland ICE facility, an officer pressured her to sign a Spanish-language document waiving her right to an immigration court hearing and requesting voluntary removal, despite her intention to seek asylum, telling her that refusing would delay her departure. When her attorney was finally able to meet with her roughly three hours later, the meeting was cut short after only about 10 minutes. ICE then shackled her and transferred her to a facility in Tacoma, Washington, leaving her without attorney contact for approximately two days.