Human Impact Project

Victor Salgado Araujo, 44, was detained by ICE on July 7, 2026, after witnessing an ICE agent fatally shoot his brother, Houston homebuilder Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, while the two drove their construction crew to a job site. He was held for 54 days at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center, where he missed his brother's funeral. The three detained witnesses filed habeas petitions and sought U visas, and reported pressure from ICE to self-deport while in custody. Victor was released in late August 2026, the last of the three witnesses freed, and reunited with his family. His attorney said he is expected to testify before the Harris County grand jury investigating the shooting while pursuing a U visa and facing separate removal proceedings.

Jesús Bracho, a San Antonio father, and his 9-year-old daughter Katherine, a student at Bonnie Ellison Elementary School, were detained near Loop 410 and U.S. Highway 90 in San Antonio. Bracho said ICE agents arrested him during a traffic stop, then released him and forced him to lure Katherine out of their home so agents could detain her as well. The two were held together for more than a month at the South Texas Immigrant Processing Center in Dilley. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro visited the family and said Bracho was moved to tears with guilt, believing he was responsible for his daughter's detention. Their case drew concern from family members, activists, and Katherine's classmates before the two were released together from Dilley.

Marili Tomas was livestreaming on Facebook when ICE agents and Florida Highway Patrol officers smashed her car window and pulled her from the vehicle in Fort Myers, Florida. The live video cut off abruptly during the incident and remained her last Facebook post as of the following day. She was taken to Lee County Jail and charged with two counts of resisting an officer; she was not placed in ICE custody, and her bond was set at $3,000. ICE agents in Florida operate with local and state law enforcement under the 287(g) program, which has reportedly been used to target people documenting ICE activity.

Austin Connell, a concrete business owner who posts about politics online, was visited at his home in Carrollton, Virginia by Secret Service agents who had obtained screenshots of his private Instagram direct messages. Connell said he does not know how the agents accessed the private messages, which included anti-ICE content, and noted he had also publicly criticized ICE. "I'm for law enforcement—just not corrupt law enforcement," he said.

A man believed to be Haitian, who neighbor Sara Vanhoose said regularly drove through her neighborhood obeying traffic laws, was pulled over and arrested outside her Sherman Avenue home by officers in three unmarked vehicles wearing ICE vests. When Vanhoose, a U.S. citizen, questioned the officers and told them the man was 'not doing anything wrong,' an ICE agent told her she would become their next target if she did not stop asking questions. Vanhoose said the man's vehicle was later towed and she was left upset that a neighbor she described as never having caused problems was taken away.

A construction worker was detained by ICE agents while on the job at a construction site near Esperanza Homes in the Texas Heights area of Weslaco, Texas. A coworker told the agents he was from the area, but agents ignored him, entered the property without a warrant, and took the worker away. As the coworker filmed the encounter, agents reportedly threatened to accuse him of 'impeding' for documenting the incident.

Linda Wolff, a 72-year-old fashion stylist and longtime immigrant rights supporter from Manhattan, was pepper-sprayed in the face by a masked ICE agent while filming federal officers near Inwood Hill Park during what officials referred to as 'Operation Rotten Apple.' Wolff said she had learned of ICE's presence via social media and was recording from a distance, never touching or acting aggressively toward officers, when an agent approached and sprayed her without provocation. She said her eyes and skin burned afterward but continued documenting ICE activity in the neighborhood and said she would not be deterred from doing so again. DHS said agents used pepper spray to control an 'unruly, combative' crowd while recovering a vandalized government van, describing their response as appropriate and within training. Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the incident as part of a pattern of aggressive federal immigration enforcement tactics against New Yorkers, and Wolff's attorney filed a claim against ICE under New York's newly enacted Bivens Act, calling it one of the first tests of the statute and describing the pepper-spraying as 'purely punitive.'

Juan Francisco Monroy Turuy, a 54-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who has worked as a restaurant remodeler in the U.S. for more than two decades, called 911 after witnessing a man fire a gun into the air in a Home Depot parking lot on West Sam Houston Parkway South. He stayed at the scene to help identify the suspect, but before Houston police finished interviewing him, ICE agents arrived and detained him over his immigration status. Houston Police Department said it had not contacted or coordinated with ICE, and Home Depot denied cooperating with the agency. He has been held for more than three weeks at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center in Conroe, and his attorney says no one has contacted him about pursuing a U-visa. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the detention could discourage witnesses from cooperating with police, and advocacy groups including FIEL, PSL, and CRECEN questioned how ICE located him so quickly. Monroy has long sent money home to support his wife, who suffered a stroke, and his three children; his son Wilmer said his father 'risked his own safety to help stop a criminal.'

Eric Ornelas, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, says ICE detained him after he recorded an immigration enforcement operation. According to Ornelas, ICE used him as bait to apprehend his father. ICE has not responded to media inquiries about the specific details of Ornelas' encounter.

An elderly woman, identified as Linda Wolff, a 72-year-old immigrant rights supporter, was pepper-sprayed by a masked ICE agent on July 30 while filming an enforcement operation in Inwood. She has since filed a federal tort claim against ICE and appeared with Gov. Kathy Hochul to highlight new New York laws barring local police from immigration enforcement and allowing people to sue individual ICE officers in state court. ICE said its officers "followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary."

In a smuggled video from the 1,000-bed South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, run by GEO Group, detained women describe abuse, medical neglect and family separation. Larina says ICE separated her from her five-month-old daughter after she called police during a domestic violence incident and was arrested instead of her husband; she says she has been ordered deported but has remained detained for three months. Other mothers at the facility say they do not know where their children were taken after being separated, and one Cuban woman remained detained even after winning her case because the Department of Homeland Security appealed. Kelly, a Venezuelan woman with one failing kidney, says the facility denies her testing, medication and specialist care, leaving her with painful urination and fluid retention, unsuitable frozen food and no clean water; other women describe a miscarriage, pregnancy without adequate care, an amputation, and say one detainee was placed in solitary confinement after recording video while others faced hitting and threats for speaking out.

Hunger strikers at the Adelanto detention center in California faced retaliation from ICE officials after staging protests, according to attorneys with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef). Detainees were zip-tied, threatened with teargas, placed in solitary confinement, and transferred to other ICE facilities. ICE officials denied that detainees were forgoing food and denied that retaliation was occurring, instead claiming that one detainee who led the hunger strike faced disciplinary actions for vague facility violations.

Adrián was detained by masked immigration agents outside his Chicago home on the morning of July 24 as he prepared to leave for the day, while his wife and children watched. According to his neighbor Sánchez, an immigration assistant who filmed the incident, agents emerged from several black vans, chased Adrián as he tried to return to his house, and subdued him on the ground with approximately six officers. During the detention, Adrián called out to his wife that he loved her and asked her to care for their children. Sánchez said one agent struck Adrián on the legs and another threatened him with an electronic device; when she asked whether agents had an arrest warrant, they said yes but did not show it. She said she was insulted while recording, and after roughly 15 minutes Adrián was transported to a processing center in Indiana.

Dr. Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow and peace scholar at Georgetown University, was arrested without a warrant by ICE agents in March 2025 after expressing pro-Palestinian views on social media. He was held in multiple detention facilities for nearly six weeks and subjected to conditions including denial of religious accommodations. A federal court ordered his release on bail. The Trump administration attempted to re-detain him, arguing federal courts lacked jurisdiction to review his case. In July 2026, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration's re-detention attempt, upholding habeas corpus protections that allow immigrants to challenge their detention in federal court.

Oriana Korol, 38, a clarinet player with the Unpresidented Brass Band and a child and family therapist, was pepper-sprayed twice in the face and tackled by federal officers moments after her band finished playing the "Ghostbusters" theme during a protest outside Portland's ICE facility on October 12, 2025. Video shows her dragged to the ground, her glasses and clarinet broken, as she pleaded that she has asthma and was struggling to breathe. She was transported across state lines to Clark County Jail in Vancouver, Washington, where she was held for roughly three nights before her husband learned of the transfer; she was reunited with her partner and 3-year-old child upon release. Prosecutors initially charged her with felony assault, alleging she kicked and bit an officer, which carried up to eight years in prison, while she maintained she acted defensively after being shoved and pepper-sprayed. Band founder Miles Thompson called the felony charge "absurd" and said he saw nothing warranting her arrest. After a trial in which she testified she never kicked or bit the officer, Korol later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for trying to kick an officer and faces sentencing with a maximum of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Emma Landis, a 22-year-old activist and artist, was shot in the right foot by Brandon Booth, a 42-year-old off-duty employee of GEO Group, which operates the Aurora ICE Processing Center in Colorado, during a protest outside the facility on July 17, 2026. The shooting occurred after a verbal confrontation when facility employees began mocking and threatening protesters on the sidewalk. Landis called 911 herself after Booth and his colleagues fled the scene and was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. She requires six to eight weeks of bed rest, which has prevented her from working and engaging in her hobbies. Despite her injury, Landis returned to protest at the facility on Sunday and told supporters she will continue to advocate for closing immigration detention in Colorado. Booth was arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon.

Federal ICE agents detained a man in St. Charles, Missouri. According to witnesses, an agent slammed the handcuffed man's face into a stone wall while he was restrained. The video also shows agents confronting a bystander who was recording from a public area, chasing him, pushing him backward, and pointing what appeared to be a taser in his direction. Courts have generally recognized a First Amendment right to record law-enforcement officers performing public duties.

Jacob Zapeta Castro, a Guatemalan immigrant and owner of El Quetzal bakery in Lake Worth Beach, was arrested by ICE and Florida Highway Patrol on July 9, 2026, after a traffic stop attempt. Approximately 25 to 30 federal and state officers surrounded his bakery for hours. His teenage children, ages 13 and 15, were present during the operation and were questioned by officers; family members and advocates described the children as being used as leverage to force his surrender. ICE alleged Zapeta Castro had prior deportations and a criminal history including DUI arrests, hit and run, and resisting law enforcement, and claimed he attempted to ram an ICE vehicle before fleeing into the bakery. However, his family, coworkers, and community advocates disputed these characterizations, describing him as hardworking and tax-paying. Employee Gilmer Zapeta, who has worked for Jacob for three years, stated that Jacob voluntarily surrendered. Community advocate Mariana Blanco of the Guatemalan Maya Center confirmed Zapeta Castro held a valid work permit and driver's license. Officers cited a federal offense of illegal re-entry after prior deportation.

A Venezuelan legal permanent resident who operates a food truck with his son in Miami-Dade was repeatedly confronted by a man posing as a high-ranking ICE official, according to a federal complaint. Prosecutors say Jonathan Christian Gonzalez Reyes, a 45-year-old Colombian national, used a badge, firearm, and a vehicle with police-style lights and sirens to convince the victim he worked for ICE, then demanded free food and money in exchange for help with immigration issues. When the food-truck operator refused, Gonzalez Reyes allegedly threatened to plant drugs in the truck and pistol-whip the owner's son, prompting the victim to call police. Gonzalez Reyes has been charged with falsely impersonating a federal officer.

David Streever, a Rochester resident and former journalist, sent a critical email to then-acting ICE director Todd Lyons in January 2026 criticizing federal immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis, including a fatal shooting by federal officers. Months later, while Streever was traveling in Finland with his daughter, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents visited his home and delivered an unsigned warning form to his wife, alleging the email may have violated federal law by threatening a federal official. After returning to the United States, agents tracked Streever to a hotel near JFK Airport and left a business card. Streever's attorney stated the email contained no threats and characterized the visits as an attempt to suppress his First Amendment rights to free speech and petition. On July 6, 2026, Streever's attorney filed a federal lawsuit through the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, arguing the email was protected political speech.