Human Impact Project

A noncitizen who has continuously resided in the United States since August 2023 was taken into ICE custody on June 6, 2026, and detained at the West Tennessee Detention Facility. He challenged his detention without an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge. The court stayed his transfer and ordered the ICE respondent to respond within two business days, requiring them to either distinguish the case from Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft or consent to the issuance of the writ if detention was under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A).

A Honduran woman who had lived in the United States for nearly three years gave birth to her U.S. citizen daughter in Brownsville, Texas in February 2026. Shortly after giving birth, she sought emergency shelter due to abuse by her partner, but was arrested on a misdemeanor charge in March 2026 (later dismissed) and separated from her five-week-old breastfeeding daughter, who was last seen with the abusive partner. She was taken into ICE custody at the Laredo Processing Center and remained detained during her ongoing removal proceedings. Her counsel submitted a humanitarian parole request in August 2026 citing her postpartum and nursing status, requesting electronic monitoring as a release condition, but received no substantive response from ICE. She filed a habeas corpus petition arguing her detention violated the Accardi Doctrine and Fifth Amendment because ICE failed to follow its own directive on detaining pregnant, postpartum, or nursing individuals. The court found she qualified as postpartum and nursing, that ICE had failed to conduct required weekly custody reevaluations, and that she was prejudiced by being unable to arrange care for her infant or continue breastfeeding, ultimately ordering her immediate release under reasonable conditions.

A federal judge in California had ordered the government to take a man showing signs of prostate cancer to a specialist for diagnosis and treatment. ICE lawyers told the judge that officials missed the appointment due to an "internal scheduling error," and CoreCivic, which operates the facility, declined to comment on the litigation. A court-appointed monitor has since found that the California City facility, the state's largest immigration detention center, failed to comply with the judge's orders to provide adequate healthcare to detainees.

Andrea Pedro-Francisco, a 23-year-old Guatemalan asylum seeker who fled to the U.S. with her mother in 2019, was arrested on February 5, 2026, by federal agents during a traffic stop while driving to work in Minnesota. She was immediately transferred to Camp East Montana, a tent detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, where she was held for nearly four months in crowded conditions. Pedro-Francisco had a golf-ball-sized ovarian cyst that required surgery before her arrest; nine independent physicians concluded the procedure was medically necessary to prevent serious complications including infertility and potential death. ICE repeatedly denied approval for the surgery and provided only over-the-counter pain relief despite a doctor's opioid prescription. Her mother, who has two younger U.S. citizen children, was released at the scene. Following legal motions, advocacy by U.S. Representatives Angie Craig, Greg Casar, and Veronica Escobar, Senator Tina Smith's intervention with DHS, and sustained efforts by lawyers and organizers, Pedro-Francisco was released in early June 2026 with GPS monitoring and her case transferred back to Minnesota for a July hearing.

A non-citizen man was stopped based on an alleged traffic violation on June 4, 2026, and subsequently detained by ICE. He is currently being held at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana. Proceeding pro se, he filed a Petition for Temporary Restraining Order asking to be immediately released under appropriate conditions of supervision and asking that respondents be enjoined from 're-detaining' him. The court found that the bare allegations he raised were insufficient to show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits. Accordingly, the court denied his Petition for Temporary Restraining Order.

A Nicaraguan national was arrested and re-detained on June 4, 2026, while attending a routine ICE check-in in Los Angeles. He had been released on supervised release in 2024 after the Immigration Court granted him withholding of removal to Nicaragua, but was arrested without prior notice explaining the basis for revocation. ICE indicated he could not be removed to Nicaragua but would be sent to an unspecified third country. The court issued a temporary restraining order on June 13, 2026, blocking his removal from the United States pending resolution of his habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of third-country removal.

Ederson Galicia Alva, now 11, was first separated from his mother Mirsy Maricela Alva López in 2018 when she was detained at the border and he was held as an unaccompanied minor for nearly five months before being reunited under the Ms. L v. ICE settlement. The Guatemalan family rebuilt their life in Florida until June 2025, when federal agents stopped Mirsy while she was traveling to a landscaping job near Mar-a-Lago, transferred her through Florida jails to ICE custody in Louisiana, and deported her to Guatemala despite her protected status as a Ms. L class member with work authorization and a court-ordered path to residency and asylum. She was not given a chance to raise her legal protections before deportation. Ederson, previously a Florida fifth-grader, suffered nightmares and had to repeat fourth grade in Spanish during the family's roughly 11 months in Guatemala. In late May 2026, a federal judge ordered the family's return to Florida, where Mirsy now wears an ankle monitor and reports to ICE every two weeks. An Associated Press investigation found dozens of other children covered by the same 2018 settlement, protecting over 11,800 family members, have been similarly re-separated during the second Trump administration.

A Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. in July 2015 and resided here for nearly 11 years without interacting with immigration authorities was arrested by local police during a routine traffic stop on June 3, 2026, and transferred to ICE custody. He was held at Central Valley Annex Detention Facility and challenged his detention without a pre-deprivation hearing. The court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding his detention violated due process rights, and ordered respondents to conduct an initial custody determination within 48 hours and provide a substantive bond hearing within 10 days if continued detention was deemed appropriate.

Mohammad "Daniel" Hussain Ahmadi, a former Afghan army intelligence officer and member of the Hazara ethnic minority, was paroled into the U.S. in May 2024 and complied with all immigration conditions for nearly two years. On March 2, 2026, he was detained by ICE after appearing for a routine immigration check-in, with the government claiming his original parole was an error. On June 3, 2026, Chief Judge Peter Welte granted Ahmadi's habeas corpus petition, finding the detention violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights and ordering his release unless an immigration court granted him a bond hearing within one week.

A Salvadoran man who has lived in the United States since around July 2005 was arrested and detained on or around June 2, 2026, after ICE agents and a local police officer determined he was unlawfully present in the country. He is currently held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. He filed a habeas corpus petition and a motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing he is subject to discretionary detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) rather than mandatory detention under § 1225(b)(2), entitling him to a bond hearing. He also alleged he had not received adequate medical care for serious medical conditions while detained, though the government stated he had attended at least seven medical appointments and had a general surgery appointment scheduled. The court agreed that his detention is governed by § 1226(a) and ordered that he receive an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge within 30 days. The court denied his request for a temporary restraining order without prejudice, finding he had not shown irreparable harm was more likely than not absent emergency relief. The case was closed on the docket without prejudice, with the court retaining jurisdiction over further proceedings.

A Honduran national who entered the U.S. as a minor in June 2023 seeking asylum was arrested by ICE on June 2, 2026, after reporting to the ERO Dallas Office for a routine check-in. He was transferred to Central Valley Annex Detention Facility in McFarland, California. The court found his re-detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause and ordered his immediate release, enjoining respondents from re-detaining him without seven days' notice and a bond hearing before a neutral arbiter.

Elvira Benitez-Suarez, 51, fled sexual assault and domestic violence in Mexico at age 15 and has lived in Wisconsin for over 35 years, raising four U.S. citizen children with no criminal record. After she accidentally crossed into Canada during a family road trip in July 2025 and reentered the U.S., an immigration judge ruled in fall 2025 that deporting her would cause exceptional harm to her children, canceled her deportation order, and approved her green card application, leading to her release in December. On March 10, 2026, ICE agents detained her again during a routine check-in at the Milwaukee DHS office after the Department of Homeland Security appealed the ruling on the final day allowed, transferring her to Campbell County Detention Center in Kentucky. Her family and local activists held a press conference calling for her release, and her attorney filed a habeas petition. A 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against mandatory detention policy opened the door to a bond hearing, and on May 21, 2026, an immigration judge granted her $1,500 bond. She was released and checked in at the Milwaukee DHS office on June 1, 2026, with continued check-ins required while the Board of Immigration Appeals considers DHS's appeal.

Roberto López Falcón, a Cuban-born fifth-grade ESL teacher at Hart Elementary School in Austin, was detained by ICE on September 3, 2025, during a routine immigration check-in in San Antonio. He had entered the U.S. in March 2022 seeking asylum after clashing with Cuban officials over his refusal to promote Communist Party ideology while teaching civics. Recognized as a Campus Teacher of Promise, his sudden detention upset his students and their families, with at least one student diagnosed with depression. His asylum claim was denied in October 2025, and he remained at the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center for 297 days despite appealing, during which he read 37 books and worked in the detention center library. A federal judge ruled his detention illegal and ordered his release in late June 2026, after which he sought to return to the classroom. At least five Austin ISD employees have been detained amid broader immigration enforcement actions, according to the local teachers' union.

A noncitizen who entered the United States in December 2024 and resided here for over one year is at the center of this case. He was served with a Notice to Appear and paroled from custody into the United States. In June 2026, he was apprehended by immigration authorities and taken into ICE custody. An Immigration Judge ordered his removal, and he had until August 20, 2026 to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. He filed a pro se habeas corpus petition challenging his mandatory detention as violating his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. The court found that because he was previously paroled from custody and had established ties to the United States through his residency, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment guaranteed him an individualized assessment of his flight risk and dangerousness before detention. The court granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered his immediate release from custody under reasonable conditions, with a requirement that respondents submit a status report by August 11, 2026, and return all identification documents and personal belongings.

A Honduran man who entered the United States in 2014 and has been living in the country since that time was detained by immigration officials on June 1, 2026, and is currently being held at the Farmville Detention Center. The government sought to detain him under the mandatory detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2), arguing that because he entered without inspection, he remained an "applicant for admission" subject to mandatory detention. He challenged his detention through a habeas corpus petition, arguing that as someone already present in the country for over a decade, he should be governed by the discretionary detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), which would entitle him to a bond hearing. The federal district court granted his petition, finding that the Supreme Court's decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez established that § 1226(a) is the default rule for noncitizens already in the country in removal proceedings, while § 1225(b) applies only to those actively seeking admission. The court ordered that he be provided a bond hearing before an immigration judge within seven days and enjoined immigration officials from denying him bond solely on the basis of § 1225(b)(2) detention.

A native and citizen of Armenia who entered the United States in 2021 was arrested at a regular ICE check-in in June 2026 and remains detained at Adelanto ICE Processing Center. He has a final removal order, and an immigration judge denied his motion to reopen. He filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 on June 25, 2026, challenging the legality of his present detention primarily on due process grounds rather than seeking review of the removal order itself. The parties disputed whether he is subject to mandatory or discretionary detention and whether respondents complied with statutory, regulatory, and constitutional requirements governing his continued confinement. On July 15, 2026, respondents filed a Notice of Intended Removal, stating he was scheduled for transfer out of Adelanto on July 18, 2026, and removal from the United States on July 26, 2026. On July 17, 2026, the court granted in part his ex parte application for a temporary restraining order, enjoining respondents from moving him to a location outside the Central District of California during the pendency of the action, with the order remaining in effect for fourteen days or until the court's disposition of the petition.

A Cameroonian citizen who entered the U.S. in December 2022 was arrested on June 1, 2026, by ICE agents in the lobby of the Sacramento ERO office after an Immigration Judge denied his asylum application and ordered his removal. He was transferred to Golden State Annex Detention Facility in McFarland, California. The court granted his habeas corpus petition on July 8, 2026, finding his detention violated due process because his removal order was not administratively final—he had timely appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals on June 16, 2026—and ordered his immediate release.

A commercial truck driver who entered the United States on April 29, 2022, was initially taken into custody by DHS and subsequently released on his own recognizance pending removal proceedings. For approximately four years, he complied with all release conditions while working lawfully as a commercial truck driver. On June 1, 2026, ICE officers re-detained him while he was at work without providing pre-deprivation notice or a hearing. The court granted his petition for habeas corpus, finding that respondents violated Fifth Amendment due process protections and ordered his immediate release with constitutional safeguards for any future detention.

Randy Cordova Flores, a 36-year-old Peruvian landscaper and father of two children enrolled in the Allegheny Valley School District, was pulled over by Springdale Borough police for a traffic violation on February 10, 2026, and turned over to ICE agents. He had entered the U.S. without documentation in 2023 and was pursuing an asylum case with valid work authorization; ICE claimed he had missed an immigration hearing, but his family and legal representatives said he had been complying with check-in requirements. He was held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County and later transferred to Northern Regional Correctional Facility in West Virginia, where he was confined to a small cell 23 hours a day. After his family launched a legal challenge, he won release through a habeas corpus petition in June 2026, four months after his detention began, and was freed on bond with an ankle monitor while his case continues.

ZOR, detained for eight months at Camp East Montana, had three teeth broken after being beaten by another detainee while guards watched, and says a guard threw his crucifix in the trash and that he has not had enough food, causing recurrent respiratory and skin problems. Four days after arrival, officers shackled and drove him to the Mexican border, falsely claiming he had been granted asylum, without showing papers or allowing attorney contact, and officers have since attempted to deport him about six times despite a court order barring removal to his country of birth. ZOR and three other detainees, including Gerald Akari Angye and a man identified as Navdeep, have filed a class action lawsuit with ACLU representation against ICE and DHS in federal court in El Paso, alleging abuse, including beatings and isolation, at the detention center.