Human Impact Project

Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, who has served in the Army for more than a decade, was forced to take administrative leave from his job training soldiers at Fort Polk, Louisiana after his Brazilian wife, Maisa Lopes Eliaser, was detained by ICE in early July 2026 following a missed asylum appointment. Eliaser is being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana and faces deportation. Jaramillo now cares alone for their 5-year-old son, Noah, who is missing his mother. Jaramillo said the situation is "really overwhelming" without family support and emphasized that his wife "is not a criminal" and is "trying to do the right thing to get a better life." He has applied for legal protections available to spouses of active-duty service members. Immigration attorney Aaron Cash noted that while some protections exist for military spouses, "ICE or whomever seems to be ignoring that these days." Jaramillo's case is one of at least 52 parents and spouses of active-duty service members detained since Trump took office for a second term.

Victor Luna Lopez, a Mexican national residing in the U.S. since 2004, was detained by ICE while working as a roofer after agents observed workers on a private property roof using a drone and conducted document verification. Luna Lopez holds military parole status due to his daughter's active service in the U.S. military, which his family and attorney argue should protect him from detention. He is being held at El Valle Detention Center while his family pursues legal action and public support for his release.

Malton Lacerda, originally from Brazil and undocumented, was detained by ICE agents on June 28 while shopping at Walmart in Halifax with his son Victor Lacerda, a U.S. Navy veteran. The family's immigration attorney, Todd Pomerleau, says agents arrived without a warrant and acted aggressively, including drawing weapons; ICE denies that guns were drawn and says the operation was targeted and not based on racial or ethnic profiling. Malton has lived in the United States for roughly 25 years, works as a horse trainer providing therapy for disabled veterans, and was in the process of securing a green card through a veteran family member process when detained. He remains held at Plymouth County's ICE detention facility, and his legal team has filed court motions challenging the legality of his detention and seeking to block his transfer to another state without notice.

Enrique Martínez Chávez, a 32-year-old former Mexican military officer, was detained by ICE in Hawthorne, California on June 4, 2026, during an immigration enforcement operation. Martínez Chávez is wanted in Mexico for enforced disappearance in connection with the 2014 disappearance of 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. Mexican authorities have an active arrest warrant against him for forced disappearance charges. He is being held at a processing center in Adelanto, California, pending immigration proceedings and potential extradition to Mexico. Mexican President Sheinbaum clarified that he was arrested during a routine ICE immigration enforcement operation rather than a specific operation targeting him for the Ayotzinapa case.

ZOR (pseudonym used for privacy) has been detained at Camp East Montana for over eight months. He is a parent separated from his young children. He is a named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit challenging detention conditions including inhumane treatment, medical neglect, disease outbreaks, and family separation. He states the facility operates in a lawless manner despite guards being charged with upholding the law.

Navdeep was taken from his job and detained at Camp East Montana tent camp on the Fort Bliss military base. He is a named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit seeking accountability for inhumane conditions including medical neglect, disease outbreaks, violent treatment by guards, inadequate food, and dangerous living conditions. He expresses concern about the lack of oversight and potential cover-ups of deaths and abuses.

Gerald Akari Angye, a 35-year-old former high school teacher from Cameroon who fled after experiencing kidnapping and torture, crossed into the U.S. in December 2024 and sought asylum. After his asylum claim was denied, he was detained at Camp East Montana ICE detention center at Fort Bliss military base in El Paso for over a month. While detained, Angye was severely beaten by guards after requesting to speak with an attorney before signing documents, suffering injuries to his hands and wrists that required a brace and hospitalization. He was subsequently placed in solitary confinement for 15 days. The ACLU of Texas and partner civil rights organizations filed a federal class-action lawsuit against ICE on behalf of Angye and three other named plaintiffs, challenging severe conditions at the facility including violent use of force, medical neglect, disease outbreaks, excessive solitary confinement, and inhumane living conditions.

Erik Ivan Rodriguez was detained at Camp East Montana, a tent detention facility at Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. While detained, he experienced physical violence by officers who attempted to coerce him to sign deportation papers. Rodriguez and three other detainees filed a class-action lawsuit through the ACLU of Texas and partner civil rights organizations in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, challenging inhumane detention conditions including medical neglect, disease outbreaks, inadequate food, unsanitary living conditions, excessive solitary confinement, and violent use of force.

Annie Ramos, 22, the Honduras-born wife of Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, was detained by federal agents while trying to register for military benefits at Fort Polk, Louisiana, just days after the couple married. She was held over a removal order issued when she was 20 months old and was released after five days with an ankle monitor following widespread media coverage, though a DHS spokesperson said the government would continue pursuing her deportation. "All I have ever wanted is to live with dignity in the country I have called home since I was a baby," Ramos said in a statement.

Aniceto Hernandez-Reyna, who came to the United States from Guanajuato, Mexico at age 17, was detained by ICE officers at a gas station outside Phoenix in front of his two younger sons. His daughter, Army Spc. Jasmine Hernandez, was stationed 2,000 miles away at Fort Stewart, Georgia, at the time; she had enlisted in 2024 in part to protect her family and had filed a Military Parole in Place application on her father's behalf more than a year earlier, which was still pending when he was detained. An ABC News review of state and federal records found no record of violent crime for Hernandez-Reyna, who has had several traffic violations including a 2002 DUI. He remains held at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, and his daughter said she has only spoken with him once since his arrest, calling it 'a slap in the face' given her military service and describing the situation as a significant source of stress.

Deisy Fidelina Rivera Ortega, wife of active-duty U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jose Serrano stationed at Fort Bliss, was detained by ICE agents on April 14, 2026, while attending a USCIS appointment in El Paso, Texas to apply for Parole in Place. A native of El Salvador who had lived in the U.S. for approximately a decade, Rivera Ortega held valid work authorization and a 2019 court order granting her withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture. Despite these legal protections, ICE arrested her based on a December 2019 removal order for illegal entry and indicated plans to deport her to Mexico under third-country removal procedures. After approximately one month in custody at the El Paso Service Processing Center, Rivera Ortega was released on May 15, 2026, following media reporting and personal intervention by U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and combat veteran who contacted the Department of Homeland Security on her behalf. She remains subject to GPS monitoring, mandatory ICE check-ins, home visits, and travel restrictions while facing potential deportation.

Annie Yaritza Ramos Alvarado, a 22-year-old Honduran-born immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a toddler in 2005, was detained by ICE agents on April 2, 2026, at Fort Polk military base in Louisiana while attempting to complete paperwork to move in with her spouse, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank, 23, whom she had recently married. Ramos was a college student with no criminal history who had applied for DACA status in 2020, though her application was never processed. She was working with a lawyer to adjust her immigration status through marriage, a process that typically allows spouses of U.S. citizens to obtain legal permanent residency. She had been subject to an outstanding removal order issued in 2005 after her family missed an immigration court hearing when she was 22 months old. After being held for nearly a week at an ICE detention facility in Basile, Louisiana, Ramos was released on April 7 and ordered to wear a GPS monitor while removal proceedings continue.

Stephanie Kenny-Velasquez, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national and wife of a U.S. Army Reserve Black Hawk pilot, was detained by ICE in Houston on December 5, 2025, during a routine check-in despite having been released in 2021 pending her asylum claim and consistently complying with all required appointments and hearings. She was held at the Houston Contract Detention Facility for approximately four months. A federal judge found due-process violations and ordered her release within 48 hours, permitting her to continue her immigration case outside of detention. Kenny-Velasquez reported poor conditions including overcrowding (60 women), lack of privacy, inadequate food, anxiety attacks, and limited access to medical care.

A woman who arrived in the U.S. at age 9 was detained by ICE and is facing deportation for overstaying her visa. She is married to a military veteran and has built her life in the country. Her family is raising funds to cover legal expenses.

Anton Smovzh was deported from the United States by ICE. Upon crossing the border into Ukraine following his deportation, he was immediately picked up by Ukrainian military draft officers and sent to a training center.

Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, an Afghan national who worked alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Paktika province starting in 2005, died in ICE custody at Dallas' Parkland Memorial Hospital shortly after his arrest. ICE agents arrested him outside his Richardson, Texas home on March 13, 2026, while he was driving his children to school; his wife's attempt to hand him his inhaler was reportedly rejected by agents. Paktiawal, who evacuated to the U.S. in 2021 after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and held humanitarian parole valid through 2029 with a pending asylum application, called his brother Naseer that evening saying he couldn't breathe and was shaking and sweating. Hospital staff later found severe tongue swelling and administered epinephrine, but he was pronounced dead shortly after. The Dallas County Medical Examiner ruled the death accidental, caused by anaphylaxis from an adverse drug reaction to an unidentified substance that exacerbated his asthma. DHS said he had been arrested over alleged SNAP fraud and theft, though no charges were filed. His family and advocacy groups are demanding release of the full autopsy report, with his brother asking, "If they know he is going through pain and he is asking for someone to help, what were they waiting for? The last breath?"

Over 1,100 Afghan refugees, many of whom served alongside U.S. forces, are at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar. Since February 28, 2026, residents have experienced missile attacks and are housed in shipping containers. President Trump suspended their refugee resettlement program in 2025. The refugees remain in Qatar with unresolved immigration status.

A Kazakhstani man who had been released on recognizance and enrolled in the Alternative to Detention program since 2023 was detained by security personnel at Fort MacArthur/Los Angeles Air Force Base after allegedly attempting to enter without authorization. ERO officers took him into immigration custody and transported him to Desert View Annex. The court ordered his release, finding his re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated procedural due process.

A woman in her 50s, adopted from Iran as a toddler by a U.S. Air Force veteran, is facing deportation proceedings after discovering she was never formally naturalized as a U.S. citizen. She entered the country on a tourist visa and was excluded from the 2000 Child Citizenship Act, despite growing up in the Midwest and having no criminal record. She fears deportation to Iran given her father's military service, her Christian faith, and her lack of family or language connections to the country.

A woman adopted from Iran at age 3 by a U.S. Air Force officer and raised in the Midwest for 53 years is facing deportation to Iran, a country with which the U.S. has no diplomatic relations and is currently at war. She was excluded from automatic citizenship under the 2000 Child Citizenship Act due to overstaying a visa as a 4-year-old in the 1970s, a discrepancy she discovered in 2008 when applying for a passport. Her adoptive parents legally completed her adoption with a birth certificate and U.S. citizen parents listed, yet she lacks proof of citizenship. She fears deportation to a country she does not remember and where she has no family or language connections.