Human Impact Project

Over three days in late June, ICE detained 14 people at the Chesterfield County Courthouse while they were attending court proceedings on criminal charges. Six people were detained on June 20, six more on June 23, and two additional people on June 24, according to Chesterfield County Sheriff Karl Leonard. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin defended the detentions as part of a statewide collaboration between Virginia State Police, ICE, and other federal agencies, stating that the detainees were in the country illegally.

Caroline Dias Goncalves, a 19-year-old University of Utah nursing student from Brazil, was detained by ICE on June 5, 2025, following a traffic stop by a Mesa County Sheriff's deputy on Interstate 70 near Fruita, Colorado. The deputy shared information about her in a group chat used for drug interdiction efforts, which ICE agents then used to target her for immigration enforcement. Goncalves, who immigrated to the U.S. at age 7 and has a pending asylum application, was held at an ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado for 15 days, where she reported receiving poor quality food and confusing schedules, and observed differential treatment based on English proficiency. She was released on bond on June 20, 2025, and became a named plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against ICE leadership.

ICE agents detained an estimated 12 to 15 people in Danbury on June 17, 2025, in what Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants described as a significant enforcement operation. According to witnesses, one woman was removed from her car (which contained children's toys) on a residential street, and at least one man was taken from outside the Danbury Superior Courthouse. The detentions, which occurred across 5th Street, Moss Avenue, and White Street near the courthouse, sparked fear in the community and prompted a rally organized by immigrant advocacy groups. The operation was part of stepped-up immigration enforcement across Connecticut in recent days.

On June 11, 2025, ICE agents coordinated with Chatham County police to conduct traffic stops targeting immigrant workers near a mobile home park outside Savannah. Eight immigrant laborers were apprehended during two traffic stops. Body camera footage reveals ICE agents proposing ongoing collaboration with local police, with one agent offering to respond to future stops.

Federal immigration agents conducted coordinated raids beginning in June 2025 at car washes and Home Depots across Los Angeles County, with armed, masked agents surrounding businesses and detaining workers, leading to family separations and lost income. According to the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, at least 373 car wash workers were detained across 106 car washes in Southern California between June 2025 and January 2026, with some businesses later closing. One worker, detained last August after 33 years in the U.S., described being held for two months in a detention facility where he slept on a cold floor without a blanket, toothbrush or medical care. Advocates say fear and lingering trauma persist among workers and families even as media attention on the raids has faded.

On June 5, 2025, ICE agents conducted a sweep of the Rio Rancho Walmart parking lot, detaining approximately a dozen delivery drivers from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, and elsewhere. The operation was prompted by calls to ICE hotlines from American-born delivery drivers reporting the locations of immigrant workers. Sandoval County Sheriff's Office provided support to the operation. At least three of those detained remain in custody, though none have been confirmed deported.

Reyes's husband, an undocumented construction worker, was detained last June when Florida Highway Patrol stopped his car over a plastic cover obscuring his license plate. He was charged with unlawful alteration of vehicle registration and driving without a license, then transferred to ICE custody and held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. Reyes, who had been a stay-at-home mother of two children (ages eight and twelve), began working as a babysitter and selling homemade food to support the family and pay for her husband's legal fees, which totaled approximately $13,000. The family nearly faced eviction before relatives contributed $5,000 in back rent. After about one year in detention, an immigration judge granted her husband bond of approximately $1,500 in July 2026. A non-profit group outside the detention center and El Pueblo Unido provided additional funds for his plane ticket home. He arrived in Sarasota in the middle of the night, and for the first time in a year, reunited with his children. The family continues to fight his deportation case amid mixed emotions of relief and uncertainty.

Edgardo David Campos, a 55-year-old Salvadoran man who has lived in the United States for 30 years, was arrested by ICE agents in tactical gear at a gas station in South Nashville in early May on his birthday. A Tennessee state trooper was present during the arrest, which was captured on video by bystander Dinora Romero, who helped locate his family and return his vehicle to his home. Campos is a construction and tire installation worker and devoted family man married with a wife. His cousin Laura Campos described him as "the first to arrive and the last to leave" at his church, always willing to volunteer and help others. The Nashville Catholic Diocese and local parishioners rallied around him, with a parish petition describing him as the "heart of our parish" who has faithfully served in multiple church ministries for years. The arrest was part of "Operation Flood the Zone," a coordinated week-long effort between Tennessee state police and ICE targeting Latino neighborhoods, during which over 600 vehicles were stopped and ICE claimed nearly 200 arrests. Campos was held at Putnam County Jail over the weekend with no charges filed, then transferred to Knox County Jail where charges remained unfiled. Spanish-speaking parishes in Nashville saw a 50% drop in Mass attendance following the operation.

Nestor Alejandro Umana Barquero, a 23-year-old Honduran citizen, was arrested by Durham police in May 2025 on misdemeanor charges, none of which required notification to ICE under North Carolina's new referral law. He was nonetheless referred to ICE, which issued a detainer on May 8, 2025, and he remained in the Durham County jail for more than 60 days. His attorney filed a habeas petition arguing he was being held on an improper judicial order; the same day the petition was filed, prosecutors dismissed the charges against him, but the judge denied his habeas petition. He was later confirmed to be in ICE detention in Texas before disappearing from the detention system, and could not be reached for comment.

Early one Sunday in May, Tennessee Highway Patrol, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security conducted a joint operation dubbed "Operation Flood the Zone" in South Nashville, pulling over roughly 150 drivers for alleged traffic violations and transporting detainees to a federal facility in Louisiana. Advocacy groups, including Hijos de Immigrantes and the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition, said officers targeted people over minor infractions like broken taillights and tinted windows in immigrant communities, calling it racial profiling. A six-month investigation by Lighthouse Reports, Mother Jones and partner newsrooms, based on ICE documents, court records and police footage, found that about 75 percent of the roughly 200 people ICE said it arrested had no criminal record, despite the agency's claim it had detained "the worst of the worst." Nine months later, Nashville residents say they still have little information from state or federal officials about who was detained and deported in the operation.

An undocumented landscaper known as Esdras was detained during a May 2 traffic stop by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents while driving to a landscaping job with his coworkers. Video footage shows officers pulling him out of the van by his leg and neck, forcing him to the ground while he was rigidly resisting, and tasering him twice in the stomach despite no indication of a threat. He spasmed and fell crying to the pavement. Esdras was transferred to the Krome Detention Center in Miami and faces deportation proceedings, though he has been released on bail.

Kenny Laynez, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen born in West Palm Beach, was detained for six hours by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents on May 2 after being stopped while driving to a landscaping job with his mother and two undocumented coworkers. Video footage captured officers using physical force against Laynez, twisting his arms and pushing him face-down to the pavement, while tasering one of his coworkers twice. An officer told Laynez, "You have no rights here. You are a 'Migo,' brother," after Laynez asserted his citizenship. Laynez was eventually released from a Riviera Beach federal facility after agents confirmed his citizenship status, but was charged with misdemeanor obstruction without violence and entered a pretrial diversion program.

After months in ICE detention in Tacoma, Rakesh Rakesh volunteered to self-deport to India but was mistakenly placed on a flight to Sitka, Alaska instead of New York. Alaska Airlines staff assisted him with meals, lodging, and rebooking at no charge. Upon his return to Seattle, ICE re-detained him at the Northwest ICE Processing Center for an additional 16 days before completing his deportation, prompting him to conduct a hunger strike to protest the situation.

A Florida woman, Latrance Battle, impersonated an ICE agent and kidnapped her ex-boyfriend's wife from her workplace on April 10. The victim, who was in the process of becoming a legal U.S. resident, believed Battle was an ICE agent when approached. Battle took the victim to an apartment complex instead of the sheriff's office, where the victim escaped and contacted law enforcement. Battle was arrested and charged with kidnapping, robbery, impersonating a law enforcement officer, and felony probation violation.

Rubén González, a Venezuelan national who entered the U.S. in 2022 with a pending asylum case, was detained by ICE on March 22 following a traffic accident in Clermont, Florida. González held valid temporary documentation, work authorization, and a temporary driver's license at the time, and his sister confirmed he had been complying with legal procedures. After police reviewed his documents at the accident scene, he was transferred to ICE custody and taken to an immigration detention facility in Jacksonville. Immigration rights organizations and attorneys have questioned the legality of detaining someone with active protected status following a routine traffic accident.

On April 1, state and federal police raided a party at an Airbnb in an Austin suburb, arresting nearly 50 people including nine children. The FBI, ICE, Texas Department of Public Safety, and Hays County Sheriff's Office claimed they targeted individuals connected to a Venezuelan gang, but offered no substantiating evidence; ICE arrested 35 individuals on unauthorized entry charges, with many subsequently deported through civil immigration proceedings rather than criminal prosecution. Among those detained were three siblings, including a 16-year-old boy, whose mother holds Temporary Protected Status and says her children have no gang ties or tattoos, noting they attended the party because her daughter's boyfriend, a DJ, had been hired to perform. The mother and her attorney said the siblings were separated into different detention facilities, and that Austin police and the Hays County Sheriff's Office initially denied involvement when contacted about the children's whereabouts. Protesters later gathered outside a federal building in Austin in an attempt to block vans transporting detainees, including the 16-year-old, from leaving the facility.

Jeankey Jhonayker Castro Bravo, a 24-year-old barber from Caracas, Venezuela, was stopped while driving for DoorDash in the Austin area on April 1. After showing his Venezuelan passport, a DPS trooper called in ICE. DPS accused him of gang affiliation based on his tattoos and arrested him for drug possession. He was held in jail for six months before the felony ketamine charge was dropped in October. He was subsequently deported to Venezuela.

Antonio Vizcaino González, a dual Venezuelan-Spanish citizen, was stopped by Texas Department of Public Safety for ignoring a stop sign while driving near an Airbnb in an Austin suburb on April 1. ICE agents arrived and found narcotics in his inner waistband, leading to a ketamine possession charge. He bonded out into ICE custody but was deported to Spain in May. The drug charge was later dropped by prosecutors due to lack of cooperation from federal law enforcement.

Maksym Chernyak, a 44-year-old Ukrainian man who fled Russia's invasion and entered the U.S. legally under a humanitarian parole program in August 2024, was arrested in January 2025 on a domestic battery/assault charge and transferred to ICE custody at the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County. In the days before his death, he reported fever, chest pain, an irregular heartbeat, and blood in his stool, but went several days without seeing a doctor and his elevated blood pressure went untreated. On February 18, while held in an overcrowded room with about 30 other detainees, he suffered a stroke with multiple seizures and became unresponsive; staff reportedly took 15 to 40 minutes to call 911 and initially accused him of drug use, though toxicology later showed no intoxication. He was hospitalized at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, where doctors confirmed a hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage, declared him brain dead, and he died two days later. His wife said he had been in good health before detention and was pressured to sign documents without a translator. Medical experts reviewing his case for Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights concluded that delays in emergency response and higher-level care likely contributed to his death, and his case was examined as part of a broader look at rising ICE detention deaths.

Duran Valdivias, a Mexican citizen working for a local property manager, was arrested by ICE agents on February 13 after a Great Falls Police Department detective called an ICE agent to a suspected trespassing scene. According to court documents, ICE discovered that Valdivias had been detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol five times in 2012 and had been ordered to stay out of the country.