Human Impact Project

Arnulfo Bazan, a Mexican immigrant from Michoacán living in Houston, was detained by masked federal immigration agents on October 23, 2025, while driving his 16-year-old U.S. citizen son, Arnoldo, to school. Agents in an unmarked vehicle chased the pair into a restaurant-supply store, where Arnoldo was tackled and choked, leaving him with bruises and welts on his neck that required hospitalization. Arnoldo was released after questioning and returned to family in Houston, including a sister who helps care for him. Immigrant rights group FIEL Houston said Arnulfo was intimidated into signing a voluntary departure form and was subsequently deported to Reynosa, Mexico, calling the treatment of the family 'cruel and unjust.'

Omar Huerta Cisneros, a 54-year-old green card holder with schizophrenia who has lived in the U.S. since childhood, was stopped by agents in Chicago's Chicago Lawn neighborhood while walking to a grocery store in October 2025. Agents zip-tied his hands and put him into an unmarked vehicle, which witnesses described as a red minivan. His family learned of the detention from a Facebook video and spent 10 days searching for him, repeatedly calling DHS offices to explain he urgently needed his medication, but no agency could tell them where he was. After 10 days, the family found Huerta wandering the streets of Franklin Park disoriented, dirty, and hungry. Based on what Huerta could recall, the family believes agents released him without a phone call or transportation home.

Four U.S. citizens were arrested and held at 26 Federal Plaza for nearly 24 hours without any federal charges during a joint ICE enforcement operation on Canal Street in Manhattan's Chinatown on October 21, 2025. The operation, described by ICE as targeting criminal activity related to counterfeit goods, also resulted in the detention of nine undocumented immigrants. The families of the arrested citizens filed missing persons reports with the NYPD before the four Americans were released approximately 30 minutes after Congressman Dan Goldman held a press conference about the arrests.

A 57-year-old Mexican father of four was detained at Broadview Processing Center for four days in severely overcrowded conditions before signing a voluntary departure form, unaware his attorney had secured an emergency hearing that could have allowed him to stay. He was deported to Mexico the following day after waiving his right to appeal. The case illustrates concerns among immigration attorneys that voluntary departures may not be truly voluntary, with immigrants reporting coercion due to language barriers and lack of legal knowledge.

Ali Faqirzada, a 31-year-old Afghan refugee and Bard College student, fled Afghanistan in 2021 after he and his family received death threats from the Taliban. He had been waiting since 2022 for a decision on his asylum case, and every other member of his family had already been granted asylum. On October 14, 2025, an Asylum Officer found Ali had a viable asylum claim, but the Department of Homeland Security terminated his application and placed him in expedited removal proceedings. ICE then arrested and detained him despite his having passed the initial asylum screening. He was held in detention for six months before being released and reunited with his family in New Paltz.

Jude Jasmine Jeannine Allard, 28, and Jenaro-Ernesto Ayala, 43, day-laborer advocates, were arrested by federal Border Patrol at a Home Depot parking lot in Van Nuys on suspicion of interfering with immigration enforcement operations. They are facing additional felony charges for allegedly placing homemade tire spikes to disable law enforcement vehicles. Ayala is a U.S. citizen and outreach coordinator at the Van Nuys Day Labor Center who helps connect workers with resources and jobs. After their arrests, attorneys Cal Soto and Colleen Flynn attempted to meet with the detainees at the Federal Detention Center on Alameda Street in Downtown Los Angeles but were denied access, with federal authorities citing ongoing "processing" and inability to locate where the detainees were being held.

Juan Barbosa Gomez, a 60-year-old Mexican national with a valid work visa and clean criminal record, was arrested by ICE officers on October 15 in Portland, Oregon. His family claims the arrest was wrongful and says he has lived and worked legally in the U.S. for over 30 years. Since his arrest, Barbosa has been transferred between multiple detention facilities across three states and does not appear on ICE's online detainee locator, leaving his family unable to locate him or mount a legal defense.

Evelyn, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen, was pulled from a car and detained by ICE agents on October 10, 2025, in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Video showed an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer throw her to the ground and kneel on her neck and upper back as she screamed that she was a citizen and not resisting. According to her aunt, Evelyn and two friends had been following and honking at agents' vehicles to warn neighbors of ICE activity before being chased and detained. She and her friends were held for hours in the Hoffman Estates Police Department parking lot without explanation before being released without charges; Evelyn was later taken away in an ambulance. Her parents, Jazmin and Gerardo, said officers ignored their daughter's pleas of citizenship, with Gerardo saying 'I couldn't protect my child.' Evelyn told the Chicago Tribune, 'I don't like the way they're treating everybody... it's not about race or ethnicity — we're all humans.' A DHS spokesperson falsely claimed the video showed a year-old, unrelated Chicago burglary arrest, a claim PolitiFact rated False after confirming the footage depicted the October 10 incident. The family is considering legal action.

Border Patrol agents pursued a vehicle for 18 minutes through Chicago's East Side neighborhood on October 14, 2025, ignoring supervisor orders to stop the chase. The vehicle crashed after agents blew a tire, not from an authorized immobilization technique as DHS claimed. Following the crash, an agent pointed his weapon at bystanders in a nearby Walgreens, claiming they charged at him despite video evidence contradicting this account.

A 15-year-old boy with autism and special needs, Emmanuel González Garcia, went missing on October 4, 2025, after wandering away from his mother Maria García's fruit stand in Houston. Houston Police Department located him the next day but did not connect him with the existing missing person report due to a name discrepancy (Manuel vs. Emmanuel). HPD contacted ICE and transferred the boy to federal immigration custody. García was without knowledge of her son's whereabouts for nearly a week until an immigration attorney intervened. The teen is now in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody and is facing emergency appendix surgery. An investigation into the Houston Police Department's procedures was initiated following the incident.

Guilherme Lemes Cardoso E Silva, a 35-year-old Brazilian visual artist and former attorney based in Sausalito, was detained by ICE agents on July 11, 2025, while driving on San Juan Island, Washington, to pick up his 4-year-old daughter. His wife, Rachel Leidig, who is an American makeup artist 7 months pregnant with their first child due in October, says ICE agents surrounded Silva's car with approximately six unmarked vehicles, refused to show a warrant, confiscated his phone while he was recording, and used physical force during the arrest, pushing him against the car and handcuffing him. Silva, who entered the U.S. on a valid six-month visa eight years ago and overstayed his status, had no criminal record and was in the final stages of applying for a green card through an I-130 petition filed by his wife after they married in April 2025. ICE agents claimed to have found illicit images on Silva's phone and charged him with possessing depictions of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Silva was held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, where according to Leidig he was subjected to invasive searches, made to sleep on the floor with 35 other detainees, and shackled during transport. On July 29, a judge ordered Silva's release on bond, which Leidig paid in full, but ICE transferred him to Whatcom County without explanation, complicating his legal representation. On September 12, after 63 days in custody, Silva was released on personal recognizance. On October 6, a judge dismissed the criminal charges against him without prejudice, four days before the birth of his newborn son, Isidore. The Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney indicated charges could be refiled pending investigation completion. Leidig speculated that the detention may have been related to a custody battle Silva was involved in.

ICE detained numerous asylum-seekers and migrants at the San Diego federal courthouse basement between October 9-21, 2025, after summoning them for routine check-ins. Detainees reported being held in crowded cells for up to four days in conditions they described as inadequate, including limited bedding (yoga mat-like mattresses), no privacy for bathroom use, cold temperatures, fluorescent lights kept on all night, inedible food, and lack of medical attention. Families were denied proper goodbyes, and detainees were not searchable in ICE's locator system. Some were subsequently deported or transferred to other detention facilities without proper legal proceedings.

Sunny Naqvi, a 28-year-old U.S. citizen from Skokie, was detained at O'Hare Airport after returning from a work trip to Turkey and held for nearly 30 hours at ICE facilities in Illinois and Wisconsin before being released. Federal agencies provided conflicting accounts of her detention, with CBP claiming she was released within 90 minutes while her family and elected officials reported she was transferred to multiple detention centers. Her case is part of a broader pattern, with ProPublica documenting over 170 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents in recent years and advocacy groups reporting increased airport encounters in 2026.

Despite having Convention Against Torture protection barring removal to El Salvador, C.O. was detained by ICE in May 2025 and pressured to accept removal to Mexico. After refusing, ICE transported him to the border and handed him to Mexican authorities, who drove him to Guatemala, which transferred him to El Salvador — all while shackled. Salvadoran authorities threatened to send him to CECOT. His family has had no contact since October 9, 2025.

Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Munoz was arrested outside the Broadview ICE facility on October 3, 2025, while protesting in a designated protest-free zone, and detained for about eight hours without being told why or what he was accused of. He testified on January 22, 2026, before the HART Truth-Telling Commission that then-Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino tackled him to the ground, that he was questioned by FBI agents without an attorney present, and that detainees had to share shoes taken from them during processing because conditions inside were unsanitary. Munoz said he was used as a backdrop for an interview Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem gave to a social media influencer, calling it propaganda, and said tactics he has observed used recently in Minnesota are likely a preview of what could come to Illinois. He is pursuing legal action over his treatment, which prompted a joint press conference from Oak Park's elected bodies denouncing his arrest.

Kyle Frankovich, a protester, was arrested outside the Broadview ICE facility on October 3 while demonstrating in a designated protest zone. Federal agents grabbed and threw him to the ground, zip-tied him, and detained him for approximately eight hours without explanation or charges, making him stand along a guardrail for 40 minutes as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem walked past with cameras and photographers. He was later released without documentation or charges, and the following week his fiancée Leigh Kunkle was shot in the face with pepper balls by federal agents during another protest at the same site; the couple's attorney has filed federal claims alleging wrongful detention and violation of rights. On the same day Frankovich was detained, federal agents took multiple other protesters into custody as a crowd grew outside the facility amid newly installed barricades, with Illinois State Police also deployed in riot gear; at least five protesters have since faced federal charges from clashes at the site, where agents have repeatedly used tear gas and pepper balls against demonstrators.

Michael James Garcia, a 39-year-old marine engineer with a valid crew visa, was interrogated by CBP agents aboard a Viking Ocean Cruises ship docked in Charleston on October 1, 2025. Agents claimed his email was linked to child pornography but never provided evidence or filed charges against him. Without a formal criminal proceeding or due process, his visa was revoked and he received a 10-year ban from entering the United States.

Catalina 'Xóchitl' Santiago, a 28-year-old DACA recipient and community organizer from El Paso, was detained by Border Patrol agents on August 3, 2025, at El Paso International Airport while traveling for work with her wife, Desiree Miller, a U.S. citizen whom Santiago married earlier in 2025. Despite holding valid DACA status since 2012—renewed seven times with her current renewal expiring in April 2026—Santiago was subjected to deportation proceedings. Originally from Mexico, Santiago has lived in the U.S. since age 8. On October 1, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that Santiago's arrest and detention violated her Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and ordered her release from the ICE El Paso Service Processing Center. Judge Cardone found that the government presented no evidence that Santiago endangered anyone during her twenty years at liberty, including her thirteen years under DACA, and failed to articulate any individualized reason for her detention. Santiago's brother Jose said the family was deeply affected by her detention and expressed relief at her release.

An unnamed Iranian man in his 40s, who participated in the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests against mandatory hijab laws, fled Iran in 2024 with his wife and another couple. He arrived at the U.S. border later that year; his pregnant wife was released on parole but he remained in ICE custody. On September 30, 2025, despite his resistance and pleas that he would be killed if returned, he was placed in a restraint jacket and forcibly deported on a flight from Alexandria, Louisiana. After the plane arrived in Tehran, ICE handed over his belongings—including his cell phone and communications with his lawyer—to Iranian authorities. The man, who is Kurdish, fled over 300 miles west to Iraqi Kurdistan that first night. His wife and newborn child, who remain in Kentucky, have not seen him since.

West Africans deported from the United States to Ghana under a deportation agreement were subsequently transferred to Togo without proper documentation or identification papers. Between six and ten individuals, including nationals from Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia, and Togo, arrived in Ghana via U.S. military plane in shackles after being detained in U.S. facilities. Despite some having legal protections against deportation, they were transferred across the border to Togo and left on the street. Their lawyers pursued legal cases arguing rights violations, though some legal challenges against Ghana's government were withdrawn.