Human Impact Project

Ahmed Bin Hassan, a Somali American Uber driver and U.S. citizen, was accosted by over a dozen Border Patrol and ICE agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The agents approached him citing his accent, which Bin Hassan later characterized as evidence of racial profiling. During the viral confrontation, Bin Hassan remained defiant, refusing to provide identification and questioning the agents' authority, before they ultimately walked away.

Jose 'Joey' Martinez, a U.S. citizen and Coast Guard veteran, was detained by CBP officers aboard a Carnival Cruise Lines ship in Miami after his name matched that of someone with outstanding warrants, despite other identifying information not aligning. He was forcefully removed from his stateroom while sleeping, handcuffed, and held in an immigration cell until he could verify his identity with official documents. His wife, Tamara Verhas, was tackled by agents who confiscated her phone to stop her from recording, and the couple was later forced to delete photos and video of the incident. Martinez was eventually released without charges, compensation, or an apology. Carnival Cruise Lines reportedly knew of the name issue but did not inform him before the ship's arrival.

ICE agents arrested Mubashir Hussen, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Somali descent, in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood during Operation Metro Surge in December 2025. Video footage documented agents slamming him against a door, placing him in a chokehold, and handcuffing him despite his repeated statements and multiple displays of his U.S. passport and identification. He was released after approximately two hours once agents confirmed his citizenship status. Hussen subsequently became the lead plaintiff in a class-action ACLU lawsuit, Hussen v. Noem, which documents a broader pattern of ICE and CBP detaining U.S. citizens, legal residents, and individuals with pending legal status across Minnesota. The lawsuit, supported by 29 sworn declarations, found that 100% of documented cases involved individuals with legal status, with Somali and Latino communities apparently systematically targeted based on appearance during Operation Metro Surge.

Angel Camacho, a Venezuelan asylum seeker with temporary protected status and a valid work permit, was arrested by Border Patrol agents at a Dania Beach station on January 6, 2025, despite being cleared and approved to perform IT work there. Camacho is married to a U.S. citizen, has American-born children, and was in the process of applying for permanent residency at the time of his detention. He spent 30 days detained at an Everglades detention facility before being released on bond.

A 5-year-old girl who is a U.S. citizen was taken into ICE custody along with her mother in the Oak Hill area of Austin after police responded to a disturbance call. Officers identified that the mother had an outstanding ICE administrative warrant and notified federal authorities, who then took both mother and daughter into custody. The family says no effort was made to contact relatives or involve Child Protective Services before the child was transferred into ICE custody. Relatives have since been unable to locate the child in government databases and are seeking custody arrangements so she can stay with family while her mother remains detained.

A Houston man who is a third-generation U.S. citizen says he was stopped by ICE agents on January 1 while driving to work near Veterans Memorial Drive and Beltway 8. The man, David Flores, believes he was racially profiled based on his work truck and was surrounded by eight ICE agents in multiple vehicles. After showing his passport and refusing to provide his Social Security number, the agents left abruptly when Flores began recording the encounter.

Carlyn Williams and her spouse Polyxenia Pantos were threatened by a caller claiming to represent the Department of Homeland Security after Pantos filmed ICE agents during a January 2026 enforcement operation in South Portland, Maine. The caller warned that people who film such activity "might get added to a domestic terrorism watchlist." The couple joined a federal lawsuit, originally filed by two other Maine residents, alleging DHS illegally collected data and threatened observers in violation of their First Amendment rights; DHS has denied operating any such database, and a judge denied the plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order in March. In an amended complaint, the couple's attorneys say that on March 16, while returning from a trip to Quebec City, Williams and Pantos were detained for an hour at the border by a Customs and Border Protection agent who requested registration information for Williams' vehicle despite the couple traveling in Pantos' car, which they argue indicates they were placed on a government watchlist.

Two brothers, both U.S. citizens, were arrested in January 2026 without being asked about their immigration status during warrantless enforcement operations across North Carolina. They are among five plaintiffs — including a naturalized citizen, a landscaper, and a cook holding a U visa — in a federal class-action lawsuit filed in February 2026 against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, ICE, and CBP, alleging widespread warrantless arrests without probable cause. The suit cites a sharp rise in ICE arrests statewide in 2025, a November enforcement operation in Charlotte that led to mass school absences, and a January 2026 ICE memo it says encouraged broader use of warrantless arrests. It asks a judge to block the practice in North Carolina.

Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino stated to Fox News that his agents have arrested U.S. citizens on charges of assaulting federal officers. The article also details allegations of excessive force by Border Patrol and ICE agents, including a November incident in Chicago involving Bovino during 'Operation Midway Blitz.'

Immigration officials detained two U.S. citizen siblings in a Mission Bay parking lot in late December. The siblings were held in the basement of the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building for most of the day before being released to their father. The family believes the incident was a case of racial profiling and reports that officers used physical force during the arrest.

Federal agents arrested a teacher at a Chicago daycare in front of parents and children; the educator had a work permit and can be heard telling authorities she had papers. In a separate incident in Los Angeles, federal immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen during a Home Depot raid and drove away with his 1-year-old daughter still in the vehicle; the child and her grandmother are both U.S. citizens.

ICE agents stopped a U.S. citizen named Said Mohamed during a traffic stop and demanded he prove his citizenship. Mohamed repeatedly asked why he was being stopped. Agents cited the vehicle's possible connection to individuals without legal status. After showing his ID, Mohamed was allowed to leave. ICE agents confronted a woman outside her home and demanded she provide ID to prove U.S. citizenship. When questioned, agents claimed to have a warrant for an unspecified target at the address but refused to present it.

U.S. Army veteran Zahid Chaudhry, a green card holder and disabled veteran who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years, was released from ICE detention at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma after more than three months. A federal judge ordered his release following a habeas hearing on December 22, 2025, calling his detention "flat out wrong." Chaudhry had been detained since August 2025 after being taken into custody at a citizenship interview, during which time he was separated from his wife and two young children and lost vision due to untreated thyroid eye disease. The government acknowledged it had cited an incorrect statute but maintains the detention was lawful, and the case continues before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A Columbus, Ohio mother and her three daughters, ages 18, 15, and 11, were pepper-sprayed by ICE agents on December 21, 2025, while driving near Easton Town Center. The mother reported that her eyes burned and the children cried after agents deployed spray into their open car window without activating police lights. The mother said she made no threatening gestures. ICE stated that agents had been involved in an incident at a nearby Dollar Tree where anti-ICE demonstrators had blocked their exit, though the agency did not clarify why pepper spray was deployed in the moving vehicle. A retired FBI Special Agent in Charge reviewed ICE's use-of-force policy and raised concerns about whether agents followed proper protocols, noting that verbal remarks alone do not justify force deployment. The mother filed an assault report with Columbus police.

Miguel Garcia Pazaran and his wife Dulce Maria Trejo Segura were pulled over by immigration agents while driving to work in Hillsboro, Oregon and detained without proper clothing. The couple was taken to a detention center in Tacoma and deported to Mexico within eight days, leaving behind their 2-year-old daughter Sofía, who is a U.S. citizen.

ICE agents arrested a Honduran mother and her two children, including a 4-year-old U.S. citizen, at a check-in appointment on December 20, 2025. The family was detained in hotel rooms for 18 days across multiple locations, including near LaGuardia Airport and Alexandria, Louisiana, during which they had minimal contact with the outside world. They were briefly placed on a plane to Honduras before being taken off due to a federal judge's temporary restraining order blocking their deportation, and were eventually released on January 7, 2026.

Abdikadir Abdi Noor, a 43-year-old Somali-American citizen from Fridley, was pulled over and arrested by ICE on December 15 outside Karmel Mall in Minneapolis. He is a named plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit alleging ICE violated constitutional rights of observers and protesters during the agency's ramped-up raids in Minnesota targeting the state's Somali community.

Mubashir, a 20-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen of Somali descent, was detained by ICE agents while on his lunch break near Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Video footage showed agents forcibly removing him, slamming him against a door, placing him in a chokehold, and handcuffing him despite his repeated attempts to show identification, including his U.S. passport. He was held for about two hours at the Whipple Federal Building, where he alleged he was denied water and medical assistance, before being released once his citizenship was verified. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the detention amounted to wrongful, unconstitutional racial profiling based on his Somali appearance, and Governor Tim Walz called for a DHS review of ICE arrests of U.S. citizens in the city. ICE said its agents acted on reasonable suspicion.

Jesus Gutiérrez, a 23-year-old US citizen, was stopped by federal immigration agents in Chicago and handcuffed without identification. Agents used ICE's Mobile Fortify facial recognition app to scan his face, which verified his citizenship status. He was held for about an hour before being released. Federal authorities have acknowledged using this facial recognition technology across the country to verify citizenship and check for deportation orders.

Sue Tincher, a 55-year-old U.S. citizen and Minneapolis resident, was detained by ICE agents on December 9, 2025, while observing and filming an immigration enforcement operation near her home during Operation Metro Surge. Tincher said she was recording on her phone when an officer ordered her to back up, and when she remained to document the activity, agents tackled her to the ground, handcuffed her, and transported her to Fort Snelling's Bishop Henry Whipple Building. She was held for over five hours, including time in leg shackles, before being released after attorneys intervened, and was read her Miranda rights with an officer stating she would be charged with obstructing a federal agent. Tincher disputes that her actions obstructed the operation, while ICE officials countered that she was arrested for allegedly assaulting an agent, attempting to breach a security perimeter, ignoring lawful commands, and becoming violent. She is one of six Minnesotans who subsequently sued DHS, alleging ICE carried out an unprecedented attack on civil liberties.