Human Impact Project

Laura Rojas Ortiz, a 21-year-old mother, has been detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley for more than 40 days while pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy. She was detained during a mandated ICE check-in in Dallas while applying for a U visa after she and her young son were struck by a stray bullet in their neighborhood, despite regularly attending check-ins while wearing an ankle monitor. Two days before her detention, she had gone to the ER with miscarriage symptoms and was diagnosed with a high-risk obstetric condition; a physician at Dilley later determined she needed to see a specialist, but the facility has not scheduled the consultation. Now approaching her third trimester, she reports persistent abdominal pain and bleeding and says she has not received an ultrasound, blood tests, or an OB-GYN visit. Her mother, Paola, said facility staff moved her to a medical room during a congressional visit and removed her afterward, and that her toddler son, who is lactose intolerant, was given whole milk at the facility. The advocacy group Each Step Home has provided commissary support so she can buy food for her children.

Arelys Barahona-Martinez, a 40-year-old Honduran national, was detained by ICE on June 10 during a routine, scheduled check-in appointment at an ICE office in Dallas, where she had checked in without incident for years. She was transferred to a detention facility in Oklahoma and faces deportation under a removal order issued in 2005, after having entered the U.S. without authorization more than 20 years ago and again in 2018, reportedly to seek medical care for her son. She is married to retired Staff Sergeant Wilmer Trujillo, who served 20 years in the U.S. Army and Texas National Guard with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan; the couple's household includes his daughters and her 20-year-old son, a U.S. citizen with neurofibromatosis. Trujillo says she has no criminal record and that they have been working with an attorney to correct her immigration status. Her attorney argues she is eligible for permanent residency through marriage to a U.S. citizen and may qualify for a parole-in-place program for military families, though USCIS rejected her application in November 2024. She was later granted bond but remains in custody pending payment; advocates say she is one of at least 52 parents and spouses of active-duty service members detained since the administration took office.

A college freshman and her father were detained by ICE agents on a Tuesday evening while she was on her way to college orientation and he was accompanying her. The family has a pending case with USCIS and says they were carrying up-to-date legal documentation, which agents refused to review before arresting them and sending them to separate detention centers. Relatives created a fundraiser to help cover immigration attorney fees and seek the family's release from detention.

Johnny Jules was arrested by ICE on September 15 in Columbus, Ohio after reporting for a mandatory check-in, even though he was pursuing a green card through his U.S.-citizen wife, Lourdes Miya Dorsonne. The couple, married since 2024, has a 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter who Dorsonne said keep asking where their father is. Jules survived a 2022 boat capsizing in the Mona Passage that killed 11 women, was later released from ICE custody with periodic check-in requirements, and was deported to Haiti on the same flight as Augustave despite having submitted marriage-based adjustment documents to ICE.

Maureen Wanjiru Ngure, a 38-year-old public health nurse from Concord, California, was detained by ICE on August 14 during a routine check-in at the federal immigration office in San Francisco. Ngure came to the U.S. from Kenya in 2006 on a visitor's visa, became a nurse, married, had two children, and volunteered with Contra Costa County's COVID-19 response team, never missing a check-in in nearly two decades. She and her husband, Peter Mang'ara Muchendu, both U.S. citizens raising their children in the Bay Area, had been planning to relocate the family to Canada after she was offered a healthcare job there. Following her detention, she was transferred through facilities in California, Arizona, and Louisiana, at times sleeping on floors and losing her ID, phone, and wallet. She was served a third-country deportation order and ultimately deported to Kenya. "I felt depressed, I felt confused, I was asking the question: why," Ngure said.

Jose Rafael Alambarrio, a Venezuelan national who fled political persecution and arrived in the U.S. in 2023, was detained on January 15, 2026 during a routine annual check-in at the Dallas ICE office while applying for a green card and pursuing asylum. He had no criminal record and had faithfully attended all previous check-ins. He was initially held at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, before being transferred without notice to an ICE facility in Mississippi. His wife, a McKinney teacher and U.S. citizen, has publicly pleaded for his release and continues to fight for him from a distance. Nine months later, Alambarrio remains in detention while appealing the denial of his asylum application, with a decision on his residency process still pending.

Marta was taken into ICE custody after arriving for a routine biometrics appointment at the USCIS office in Gardena, California. Video showed her being seated in a room before ICE agents detained her shortly afterward. Her nephew, Victor Jimenez, started a GoFundMe campaign titled "Help Bring Marta Home" to help cover her bills and provide family stability, noting she may lose the job she worked hard to get. The family says they are heartbroken and uncertain how long she may remain detained, and are asking the community to donate or share the fundraiser.

Chang Yeon Cho, 71, a Gardena, California resident known as 'Auntie Jo' who ran a clothing alteration business with her husband Jongs Soo Kim, was detained by ICE in June during her permanent residency interview despite having no criminal convictions. Her detention reportedly stemmed from an old, uncharged arrest linked to a dispute with a customer over unpaid alteration fees. Cho, who speaks Korean and Portuguese but not English after years living in Brazil, was physically restrained on her first night in custody following a communication breakdown, then collapsed and was hospitalized for eight days; the Korean consulate attributed this to low blood pressure and vomiting caused by stress and unfamiliar food. She is held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, where her bond request was denied on August 25 and she received a final order of removal. The Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles has visited her multiple times, and a GoFundMe campaign has raised over $20,000 toward a $24,000 goal for her legal expenses.

Marta was detained by ICE after attending a routine biometrics appointment at the USCIS center in Gardena, California. She was seated in a room when she was seen on video being taken away by immigration officers. Her nephew Victor started a fundraiser to help cover her bills and provide family stability, noting she may lose the job she worked hard to get while she remains detained.

Jihoon Yang, a golf instructor from Lewisville, Texas, was detained by ICE agents while attending a marriage-based green card interview at a USCIS office in Irving. His wife, Jennifer Oh, said two agents entered mid-interview without presenting a warrant and verbally told him he was being arrested for failing to comply with a deportation order. ICE said Yang had received an in absentia removal order after missing a court hearing, but his family disputes ever being notified of that hearing. Yang is currently held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, and his family has retained a new attorney while the South Korean consulate looks into the case.

A Honduran mother and her son, who entered the United States in 2012 when he was one year old, have remained under an Order of Supervision and complied with reporting requirements for over a decade. The mother also has two other children who are U.S. citizens. In May 2026, she and her attorney submitted a written request seeking referral to an asylum officer based on her fear of returning to Honduras, but the government never scheduled an interview. When she tried again in person in September 2026, an ICE officer refused to discuss the request and instead instructed her to appear with travel tickets for herself, her son, and her two citizen children, warning that the family would be detained and deported if she failed to comply. No formal notice revoking their release was ever provided. The mother and son filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and an underlying habeas petition to halt their removal. The court found they showed a likelihood of success because the government failed to follow regulations requiring notice and an informal interview before revoking supervised release, and found they would suffer irreparable harm without relief. The court granted a temporary restraining order barring removal pending resolution of the habeas petition and ordered the government to respond by September 16, 2026.

The petitioner, born in a Philippine refugee camp to parents who fled Laos, entered the United States as a refugee at one month old and later became a lawful permanent resident. He has lived in the U.S. for over 40 years, is the primary breadwinner for his family as a certified glazier, and cares for his U.S. citizen partner, her three children, their shared five-year-old autistic son, and his elderly disabled U.S. citizen mother. After a 2002 robbery conviction, he was ordered removed to Laos in 2017 but released on an order of supervision because Laos would not accept him as it does not recognize stateless former refugees as citizens; he complied with ICE reporting requirements without further arrests for nearly nine years. In March 2026 a state court vacated his underlying conviction as unconstitutional, and he filed a pending motion to reopen his immigration case. On September 3, 2026, he was abruptly re-detained at a routine ICE check-in after Laos reportedly issued a travel document that ICE refused to show him or his attorney, and he was denied a proper informal interview before being served a removal warrant. He filed a habeas petition and TRO motion the same day seeking immediate release and protection from removal, and the court granted the TRO, ordering his immediate release, barring re-detention without notice and a hearing, and prohibiting his removal pending further proceedings, with a preliminary injunction hearing set for September 21, 2026.

Hasan Besharat, an 81-year-old Iranian immigrant who came to the U.S. legally on a student visa in 1974 and earned an engineering degree in Nashville, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in in late February despite decades of compliance with an order of supervision. He was held at the CoreCivic-run West Tennessee Detention Center in Mason, where his attorney said his health declined; he is 81, weighs barely 100 pounds, and has high blood pressure. His legal team filed multiple petitions, including two writs of habeas corpus, and Tennessee State Sen. Raumesh Akbari and community members advocated for his release. Besharat, who has a U.S. citizen brother and two U.S. citizen sons, is scheduled to be released and reunited with his family.

Joseph Andrey Londono Rodriguez, a six-year-old Deaf student at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, was detained by ICE along with his mother, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, and younger sibling during what the family believed was a routine check-in appointment in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rodriguez Gutierrez, an asylum seeker who fled domestic violence in Colombia, had lived in Hayward for four years working as a cleaner and child care worker with no criminal record. Instead of a routine visit, agents fingerprinted the family, pressured her to sign an unexplained document, and rushed them onto a deportation flight within minutes. Her attorney said she repeatedly pleaded with agents to let a relative bring Joseph's hearing aids and cochlear implants, but the devices were never provided and the family was deported without legal representation. California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and members of Congress have called for an investigation and humanitarian parole to allow the family to return so Joseph can resume school and services in American Sign Language. Joseph's case is one of more than 650 children detained by ICE in California during Trump's second term, 61% of whom were ultimately deported.

Maria Rocha-Martinez, mother of U.S. Naval Academy midshipman David Garcia, was detained by ICE on Aug. 25 while attending a scheduled green card interview at a USCIS office. She had previously been granted parole in place, a protection sometimes extended to family members of active service members, and was in the process of obtaining a green card. She was transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas and deported to Mexico despite efforts by Rep. Joaquin Castro, who had nominated Garcia for the Naval Academy, to intervene. DHS said Rocha-Martinez had a prior removal and unlawful reentry, but Castro described her as someone who was 'doing everything the right way' and 'raised a bright young man with good character who is serving our nation.' Castro said ICE denied his office's request to visit her in custody, citing a 48-hour advance notice requirement for congressional visits.

Loreto Javar, a 76-year-old Filipino national and green card holder who has lived in Fife, Washington since 1995, was detained by ICE during his U.S. citizenship interview in Tukwila. A retired hotel worker and married father of two who raised his family in the U.S. and had renewed his residency multiple times without issue, Javar has stage 4 prostate cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requiring multiple daily medications. ICE alleges he failed to disclose a decades-old conviction related to a fatal altercation in the Philippines when he applied for his visa in 1995, though his daughter, Daisy Javar, says he has no U.S. criminal record. He has been held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma for more than two months, missing oncology appointments due to delayed meals disrupting his medication schedule, and has developed a blood clot. Advocates with the Tanggol Migrante Movement have pressed the Philippine consulate in Seattle and pushed for his compassionate release, gathering more than 150 petition signatures. An immigration judge extended his case to September 20, which his daughter said will cause him to miss another cancer treatment appointment.

The Gámez-Cuéllar family—parents Luis Antonio Gámez Martínez and Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar López, and their three sons Antonio (18), Caleb (12), and Joshua (14)—were detained by ICE on February 25, 2026, during a routine immigration check-in in Edinburg, Texas. The family had legally entered the U.S. in May 2023 through the CBP One asylum app and were in active asylum proceedings with a final hearing scheduled for September. Antonio was separated from his family and shackled during transport to an adult detention facility in Raymondville, while his younger brothers and parents were held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. Two of the brothers are award-winning mariachi musicians with McAllen High School's Mariachi Oro band, which has performed at the White House and Carnegie Hall and won eight state championships. After approximately 13 days in detention, bipartisan congressional pressure from lawmakers including Rep. Monica De La Cruz and Rep. Joaquin Castro, combined with a successful parole request by their attorneys, resulted in the family's release on February 28, 2026. The parents were required to wear ankle monitors and restrict travel to 75 miles from their home.

A teenage asylum seeker identified in court records as E.L.A., now 19, was deported to El Salvador for a second time, prompting a federal judge to hold the Department of Homeland Security in contempt on September 25 for violating three separate court orders in the class-action case J.O.P. v. DHS. He had first been removed in March 2026 after missing biometrics appointments in April and October 2025, then returned to the U.S. in June after class counsel arranged for his asylum case to proceed. A July 29 court order found the government had breached the settlement, but he was deported again in September, less than three weeks after DHS issued internal guidance meant to prevent such removals.

A Venezuelan family, including a father, a mother who was seven months pregnant, and their 7-year-old son, was arrested by ICE during an interview for DHS's self-deportation program, according to Fwd.us president Todd Schulte. Rather than assisting the family in leaving the country as promised, DHS incarcerated them, and the mother has reportedly not received proper medical care while detained at the Dilley family detention facility.

Sae Joon Park, 57, a Korean-born US Army veteran awarded a Purple Heart after being shot in the spine during the 1989 US invasion of Panama, self-deported to South Korea last year after ICE threatened to detain him at a routine immigration check-in over old criminal convictions. Park, who moved to the US at age 7 to join his mother, later settled in Hawaii, where he raised his two adult children, cared for his elderly mother and worked at the Aloha Kia auto dealership before his removal order led to deportation. He developed untreated PTSD after his military service, leading to a crack cocaine addiction, a 2007 drug possession conviction in Queens, N.Y., and a later bail-jumping conviction after he was apprehended in Hawaii and extradited to New York. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned Park for the bail-jumping conviction last week, one of six pardons she granted after his legal team petitioned since January; his attorneys said the pardon does not guarantee his return, and Park remains in Busan, South Korea, separated from his family.