Human Impact Project

Flor Ivet Vargas-Loya, a DACA recipient and mother of two U.S. citizen children ages 17 and 19, was handcuffed and detained by ICE on Christmas Eve while shopping at a T.J. Maxx in Phoenix's West Valley. She and her husband operate the El Taco Loko restaurant and a food truck in Laveen, and she is the sole provider for her children following her husband's deportation. At the time of her arrest, she was awaiting a delayed DACA renewal, had no new criminal charges, and was wearing an ankle monitor after being released on bond following about a month in immigration detention earlier in the year. Her attorney said she had been fully complying with her orders, and she had a court hearing scheduled for 2028. She is being held at the Florence Processing Center. Arizona lawmakers called for her release, with state Sen. Analise Ortiz saying, 'People like Flor and her husband are entrepreneurs who contribute to their community.'

Immigration officials detained two U.S. citizen siblings in a Mission Bay parking lot in late December. The siblings were held in the basement of the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building for most of the day before being released to their father. The family believes the incident was a case of racial profiling and reports that officers used physical force during the arrest.

Malik Velimetov, 21, born in Turkmenistan but raised in Key West, was taken into custody by US Border Patrol on December 28, 2025, while traveling with his family on US 1 in Marathon. He was detained for a month at Florida's immigration detention center in the Everglades due to his pending asylum case and was released with an electronic monitor. His family, including his parents and 17-year-old sister, were also taken into custody and separated from him.

Federal agents arrested a teacher at a Chicago daycare in front of parents and children; the educator had a work permit and can be heard telling authorities she had papers. In a separate incident in Los Angeles, federal immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen during a Home Depot raid and drove away with his 1-year-old daughter still in the vehicle; the child and her grandmother are both U.S. citizens.

ICE agents detained a pregnant woman at Karmel Mall in South Minneapolis, holding her face-down on the ground while handcuffed. Witnesses reported that she was unable to breathe during the detention and shouted that she was pregnant. Bystanders protested the incident, with dozens of neighbors gathering at the scene and pelting agents with snowballs. Video of the encounter circulated on social media documenting the use of force during the detention.

Lucía Pedro Juan and Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, a couple married 25 years, were arrested during a traffic stop in Florida in September 2025 and transferred to Fort Bliss ICE detention facility in El Paso. They were held separately and ICE agents ordered them not to communicate during processing. Pedro Juan was deported to Guatemala on November 28 without being allowed to see her husband. Gaspar-Andrés died on December 3 at a hospital in El Paso after 10 weeks in custody. At least 30 people died in ICE custody during 2025.

Marcos Flores, bassist for local band Summer of Peril, was detained by ICE on December 23 while attempting to pick up a visitor's badge at Colorado Springs Air Force Academy. Flores, who was brought to the U.S. as a young child from Mexico, has been held at Aurora ICE Detention Center with his bond request denied despite community support and legal efforts. His case was affected by a federal policy memo reversing protections against no-bond detentions.

Miguel Garcia Pazaran and his wife Dulce Maria Trejo Segura were pulled over by immigration agents while driving to work in Hillsboro, Oregon and detained without proper clothing. The couple was taken to a detention center in Tacoma and deported to Mexico within eight days, leaving behind their 2-year-old daughter Sofía, who is a U.S. citizen.

ICE agents arrested a Honduran mother and her two children, including a 4-year-old U.S. citizen, at a check-in appointment on December 20, 2025. The family was detained in hotel rooms for 18 days across multiple locations, including near LaGuardia Airport and Alexandria, Louisiana, during which they had minimal contact with the outside world. They were briefly placed on a plane to Honduras before being taken off due to a federal judge's temporary restraining order blocking their deportation, and were eventually released on January 7, 2026.

A family is calling for the release of an Arlington man detained by ICE, citing the health condition of his son.

More than 560 students missed school in Willmar Public Schools on Monday due to rumors of an ICE enforcement operation. School officials quickly reassured families that schools were safe spaces and would not be entered by immigration agents. The rumors were based on federal authorities later identified as Homeland Security Investigations agents, not ICE, who had detained five or six people in the area over the weekend.

Families of immigrants arrested in a federal ICE surge in Maine are struggling to find basic information about their detained relatives as the government rapidly transfers them to detention facilities across multiple states. Erik Orellana-Mejia was arrested at his worksite on January 20 and has since been transferred to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Louisiana, and Missouri. ICE has been building out detention and deportation infrastructure in New England and across the country to support intensified enforcement operations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 24-year-old Vanessa Parrazal on December 17 outside Pinehurst Elementary School in Salisbury, Maryland, moments after she dropped off her child. The arrest occurred in the 400 block of Pinehurst Avenue, near but not on school property. A witness reported the arrest involved physical force.

A confrontation occurred in south Minneapolis when dozens of residents gathered as ICE agents operated near Lake Street and Pillsbury Avenue; federal agents used pepper spray and at least one Taser on observers as the crowd tried to prevent the arrest of a woman reported to be pregnant, and local law enforcement assisted ICE agents in leaving the scene. In a later incident in the neighborhood's Powderhorn Park area, agents detained three people, including two observers, after a crowd of more than 100 gathered during door-to-door operations near East 34th Street and Park Avenue. Agents smashed a car window to remove one woman from her vehicle and deployed pepper balls and chemical irritants on the crowd; a state lawmaker present said agents pushed her and struck another detained man's head against the pavement.

David Cardenas, 54, a Raleigh resident who fled Nicaragua and sought asylum in 2022, was detained by ICE during a routine yearly check-in appointment with USCIS in Charlotte. He suffered a medical emergency shortly after detention and was hospitalized at Atrium Health in Pineville, where ICE and the hospital initially blocked visits from his wife and children for a week. Following advocacy efforts and a press conference by immigrant rights groups and local leaders, ICE announced it would release Cardenas due to his severe health condition, potentially using alternative detention such as an ankle monitor.

Jose Gomez and his 13-year-old son were detained by ICE agents in unmarked SUVs in Eden Prairie on Thursday morning while moving their car after a snowstorm. The boy was tackled, handcuffed, and questioned about his legal status; he later required medical attention for an abnormal heartbeat triggered by the stress. Both are undocumented immigrants from Mexico; Gomez's family believes he was randomly targeted and says ICE lacked a warrant for his arrest. The boy was released to his aunt's house, but Gomez remained in ICE custody.

A man who had lived in the U.S. for 27 years and worked with a company for 17 years was deported after his wife was pulled over for a broken headlight. He had paid taxes, owned a home, and raised American-born children. The deportation occurred despite his lack of criminal conduct.

Santiago Zamora Perez, a 17-year-old Detroit student at Western International High School, was arrested by ICE on Sunday after Fraser police pulled him over for driving under the speed limit and called federal agents. Zamora and his mother were detained; he is a Venezuelan asylum seeker who entered the U.S. last year. At least four Detroit teens are currently held in ICE detention facilities.

Vilma Cruz, a 38-year-old Honduran national, was arrested by ICE agents in Kenner, Louisiana during an operation called "Catahoula Crunch." Her 18-year-old son, Jonathan Escalante, a U.S. citizen, is now the sole caregiver for his 9-year-old sister and worries about being detained himself despite being a citizen.

Jair Celis, a 29-year-old Utah father and soccer coach, was detained by ICE during his final green card interview despite being married to a U.S. citizen. The Department of Homeland Security posted on social media claiming Celis had a history of child sexual abuse, referencing sealed juvenile court records from when he was a minor. His attorneys plan to sue DHS for libel, arguing that juvenile cases are civil proceedings that cannot be used as convictions and should not be publicly disclosed.