Human Impact Project

A statewide surge of immigration enforcement in West Virginia in January involved state and local cooperation with ICE through the 287(g) program, resulting in 1,831 arrests (1 in 10 of the state's noncitizen population). Over half were collateral arrests with minimal violent crime convictions; more than three-quarters had only immigration-related violations. A federal judge ordered two detainees released, citing constitutional concerns. As of February 2026, sheriffs in Berkeley, Cabell, Hampshire, Harrison, Jefferson, Mineral, Morgan, Putnam, Summersville, Upshur and Wood counties, along with Summersville and Village of Clearview police, the West Virginia National Guard and State Police, are participating in ICE's Task Force Model, while the state's Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation participates through the Warrant Service Officer model.

Jose Argueta, a 37-year-old Maryland resident, was detained by ICE for about a month after reporting his stolen vehicle to police. According to his attorney, D.C. police coordinated with federal immigration agents, calling Argueta to the Fifth District police station to pick up his recovered car, where he was then taken into ICE custody. The arrangement is alleged to have violated D.C.'s Sanctuary Values Act, which restricts local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Argueta spent Christmas in an immigrant detention center. The incident is under investigation by D.C. police internal affairs and the Office of Police Complaints.

Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio, a 23-year-old Honduran asylum seeker living in Wendell, North Carolina, was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents at an HVAC construction job site in Cary/Raleigh as part of a statewide enforcement sweep called Operation Charlotte's Web that led to at least 370 arrests. A co-worker's video captured agents handcuffing her and placing her into a van. Velasquez-Antonio came to the U.S. alone at age 14 after her father was killed by a gang and her mother later died of cancer; she graduated high school, held a valid work permit, had no criminal record aside from two traffic violations, and had recently bought a home in Wendell with her boyfriend with plans to start a family. She was held overnight at the New Hanover County jail before being transferred to the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, leaving her family without information on her whereabouts. After more than a month in custody, a federal immigration judge ruled that her detention violated a settlement agreement governing unaccompanied minors who arrived in the U.S. as children, and she was released and returned to North Carolina on December 23, 2025. Her case remains pending.

A confrontation occurred in south Minneapolis when dozens of residents gathered as ICE agents operated near Lake Street and Pillsbury Avenue; federal agents used pepper spray and at least one Taser on observers as the crowd tried to prevent the arrest of a woman reported to be pregnant, and local law enforcement assisted ICE agents in leaving the scene. In a later incident in the neighborhood's Powderhorn Park area, agents detained three people, including two observers, after a crowd of more than 100 gathered during door-to-door operations near East 34th Street and Park Avenue. Agents smashed a car window to remove one woman from her vehicle and deployed pepper balls and chemical irritants on the crowd; a state lawmaker present said agents pushed her and struck another detained man's head against the pavement.

Benny, a 30-year-old musician from Guinea who arrived in the U.S. in 2011 on an H1B visa as a dance instructor, was detained by ICE on December 15, 2025, after going to a police station in Vineland, NJ to file a harassment report. An ICE agent at the station gave him a deportation form while falsely claiming it was a harassment report; Benny, who did not understand the legal language, signed it and was taken into custody. Over the past 12 years, Benny has built a life in the U.S., working in restaurants, getting married, renovating a house in Queens, and starting a farm in New Jersey where he raises goats. He has a 1-year-old daughter and has collaborated with an audio engineer to record over 100 songs together, becoming fluent in nine languages. As of the fundraiser, Benny has been incarcerated for 225 days at Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center, has lost over 50 pounds, and his next hearing is scheduled for September 1, 2026. Despite his own food insecurity, he has shared his meals with other detainees.

Santiago Zamora Perez, a 17-year-old Detroit student at Western International High School, was arrested by ICE on Sunday after Fraser police pulled him over for driving under the speed limit and called federal agents. Zamora and his mother were detained; he is a Venezuelan asylum seeker who entered the U.S. last year. At least four Detroit teens are currently held in ICE detention facilities.

State-funded Operation Prairie Thunder saturation patrols jailed 75 people across Huron, Belle Fourche, and Yankton — 42 on drug charges and 33 on non-drug charges. Twenty-five people were interviewed on behalf of ICE, with 21 held for the federal agency. The patrols, part of Gov. Larry Rhoden's two-pronged initiative announced in July, generated concern in Huron's Hispanic community, with some residents believing ICE rather than state police conducted the operations.

Federal agents, including more than 200 CBP and ICE officials led by Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, carried out the 'Catahoula Crunch' operation in New Orleans and Kenner beginning December 3, 2025, lasting several weeks and resulting in 560 arrests, the vast majority of people detained having no criminal records. The raids slowed business at Hispanic-owned stores and reduced attendance at some schools and churches, after agents arrested people fleeing a Lowe's parking lot, patrolled a heavily Hispanic neighborhood, and surrounded a home during a standoff. On January 26, 2026, U.S. House Democrats held a hearing at New Orleans City Hall where Mayor Helena Moreno and other officials testified that fear persists among immigrants, saying agents had targeted predominantly Hispanic groups before identifying individuals. The hearing also referenced the recent fatal shooting of a Minneapolis nurse by Border Patrol agents, which lawmakers said reflected similar enforcement tactics.

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.

Elder Chavez, an 18-year-old from Honduras who was granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) in September 2024, was detained by ICE in December 2024 after Alabama state police pulled him over for speeding and driving without a license. Despite presenting documentation proving his legal protected status, officers contacted ICE and took him into custody. Chavez came to the United States in 2022 at age 14 to live with his older sister Maryuri after being abandoned by his parents in infancy. A high school junior excelling in welding and carpentry classes, Chavez was transported to Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, where he has remained detained for seven months facing deportation and unable to continue his green card application process. His English teacher Carmen Bahena, sister Maryuri, and local pastors Andy Yarnell and Beth Johnson have described him as kind, hardworking, bright, and gentle; since his detention, Chavez has missed prom, the birth of his nephew, and months of school.

Genesis Valadez, owner of Las Pollitas food truck, captured footage on her business cameras of a federal raid on an unauthorized nightclub near Basse Road and San Pedro Avenue in San Antonio. The operation on November 17, 2025, involved 14 state, local, and federal agencies and resulted in the arrest of more than 150 people, including 27 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. Video from Valadez's cameras shows federal agents using flash bangs and smoke bombs, zip-tying detainees, and intentionally destroying a neighbor's surveillance camera. The raid also resulted in the seizure of three guns, cocaine, and approximately $35,000 in cash. Valadez and other lawful business owners operating food trucks in the area were forced to relocate due to community fear following the operation.

Nine people were detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents during an immigration enforcement sweep in the Raleigh area on November 19, 2025, and held overnight at New Hanover County jail in Castle Hayne. The nine detainees, consisting of one woman and eight men ranging in age from 24 to 59, were transferred to an undisclosed location on November 20, 2025. ICE officials did not disclose to jail staff the reasons for the detentions or the destination of the detainees. This operation was part of a broader U.S. Border Patrol enforcement surge that began in Charlotte over the weekend, which had resulted in more than 250 arrests by the time of this article.

Prosecutors dismissed charges without prejudice against 54-year-old John Bennett, an assistant principal at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach, and his 59-year-old brother Mark Bennett. The two men had been arrested in November 2025 for allegedly threatening violence against local police and ICE agents.

A 24-year-old Native American woman from Arizona, Leticia Jacobo, was subject to an ICE detainer issued by Polk County Jail in Des Moines. The detainer was intended for a different person booked at the same time but was erroneously placed on Jacobo's file. Her family provided tribal identification documents, and she was released before being transferred to federal custody.

Jaykie Funez-Andrade, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years, was detained by federal agents during a traffic stop on Route 11 North in Harrisonburg, Virginia, while driving her 16-year-old daughter to school. When she struggled to recite her Social Security number from memory, an agent tackled her to the ground; she then showed her work permit, Social Security card, driver's license, and vehicle registration, but was arrested anyway. Her daughter filmed the encounter, saying officers left her alone on the roadside as agents drove off with her mother, and pleaded, "I want this video out there because I want my mother home." Funez-Andrade is being held at Rockingham/Harrisonburg Regional Jail with no criminal charges filed, reportedly as a 'courtesy' to ICE, and her family has started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees.

Federal immigration agents, including ICE and Border Patrol personnel, deployed tear gas and other riot control weapons against protesters during enforcement operations in Chicago and Illinois beginning in September 2025. On October 14, 2025, Border Patrol agents pursued a vehicle on Chicago's East Side, using a precision immobilization technique (PIT maneuver) to stop it at the intersection of 105th and Avenue N, resulting in a collision. Two undocumented immigrants fled on foot and were arrested. When residents gathered to protest the operation, federal agents deployed tear gas, exposing 13 Chicago police officers to the gas. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on October 9 limiting crowd-control tactics, but subsequent court filings alleged violations occurring almost daily. An analysis of 28 protest events found seven instances of riot control weapons use without apparent threats and 19 instances of excessive force.

Arthur Berto, a 13-year-old Brazilian asylum seeker living in Everett, Massachusetts, was arrested by local police on suspicion of making a violent threat at school. When his mother, Josiele Berto, went to the police station to retrieve him, she learned ICE had taken him into custody instead, without informing her of his whereabouts or next steps. Authorities later transferred Arthur to a juvenile detention facility in Winchester, Virginia, without notifying his family or attorney. The Everett police chief said this was the first such incident in the city, and local officials disputed DHS claims that Arthur had an 'extensive rap sheet' and a firearm, stating no gun was found. His mother, whose family has a pending asylum application, has only been able to reach him through brief phone calls. A federal judge ordered the government to justify the arrest or provide a bond hearing, and a federal court petition has been filed arguing the detention violates due process.

Luisa Rodriguez, a Mexican national who immigrated to the U.S. over 30 years ago and worked in courts, was detained by ICE agents on September 28, 2025, at Camp Pendleton's gate while visiting her pregnant daughter, a newly enlisted U.S. Marine. Rodriguez and her husband Esteban Rios were initially released with ankle monitors but were taken back into custody at a subsequent ICE check-in appointment. Rodriguez was held at Otay Mesa Detention Center for nearly three weeks before being released on October 30. Her husband was deported to Tijuana on October 31. The family has pending green card applications and no criminal history.

A junior at Benito Juarez High School in Chicago was detained by federal agents on October 23, 2025, while on his way to school in the Little Village neighborhood. The student, who city leaders identified as a U.S. citizen, was zip-tied and taken into custody after federal agents conducted immigration enforcement operations at a shopping center at 26th and Whipple. He was released back to his family at approximately 3 p.m. that day. A second student was injured during the same operation but was not detained.

A Mexican immigrant father of five, who has lived and worked in the U.S. for two decades without a criminal record, was detained during an Oct. 19 ICE raid on a horse track near Wilder, Idaho, that swept up more than 100 people. He has since been held in Wyoming's Uinta and Sweetwater county jails, and his attorney is petitioning a federal judge for his release or a bond hearing while his immigration case proceeds. His daughter, a U.S. citizen who witnessed the raid while caring for her baby, said her father 'works his butt off' for the family and that her younger siblings, ages 15 and 11, were handcuffed with zip ties for hours and traumatized by the operation. A federal judge has since ordered the government to provide the man a bond hearing within seven days or release him.