Human Impact Project

ICE agents detained six people at a home on 79th Avenue near Hillside Street in East Oakland on August 12, 2025, including a 17-year-old minor and someone with a severe disability. According to Nikolas De Bremaeker, immigrants' rights managing attorney at Centro Legal, no arrest warrants were issued for any of the detainees. The minor was initially held in a hotel before being transferred to the San Francisco ICE Field Office, where all six remain detained. De Bremaeker stated he pressed ICE on the illegality of detaining a child under these circumstances. Centro Legal and the Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership's rapid response hotline are providing legal support to the detainees. This was the first confirmed ICE sighting in Oakland verified by the county's rapid response hotline.

Hugo Elias Sanchez Trillos, a Colombian construction worker, was arrested in late June after ICE raided his home looking for someone else. He was held at 26 Federal Plaza for nearly three weeks (with a three-day break at Nassau County jail between June 26 and July 14), wearing the same clothes and never bathing. He lost nearly 20 pounds due to limited food access, receiving only two meals daily served cold in plastic bags. His sworn affidavit is part of a lawsuit seeking to improve conditions at the facility.

ICE served search warrants at agricultural firms including Christensen Farms in Minnesota and Nebraska, and in Las Vegas. The 15-month investigation targeted companies allegedly knowingly hiring undocumented workers. Criminal warrants were issued for 17 individuals in a conspiracy involving fraud and money laundering. 133 workers were administratively arrested.

Sabrina Medina, a 28-year-old pregnant U.S. citizen and mother of four, has been repeatedly detained by ICE agents searching for her undocumented husband, Jorge. On June 12, 2025, ICE conducted a heavily armed raid on her Huntington Park home, with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem present, arriving in about a half-dozen tactical vehicles and showing Medina a warrant with her husband's incorrect first name; agents removed Medina and her children during a room-by-room search but left empty-handed. Medina says ICE agents have since tracked her down four times, including an August 7 arrest while she was leaving a pregnancy clinic, during which she experienced abdominal pain. She said the August arrest stemmed from a 12-year-old shoplifting warrant. Medina expressed fear about her family's financial future and said she and her children would likely join her husband in Mexico if he is deported.

ICE agents conducted a search warrant operation on February 2, 2026, at a residential property in the 600 block of North Rural Drive in Monterey Park, California, approximately 0.1 miles from Mark Keppel High School. Multiple migrants were taken into custody, with the operation occurring early in the morning. The Monterey Park city government confirmed the federal enforcement action but noted that local police did not participate, consistent with California state law and local policy prohibiting municipal involvement in immigration enforcement.

Jaime Alanís Garcia, a 56-year-old farmworker at Glass House Farms, died from blunt-force head and neck injuries sustained during a July 10 ICE immigration raid. His wife and daughter filed wrongful death claims against ICE alleging agents used excessive force including rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun guns, causing Alanís to fall 30 feet from a cannabis greenhouse roof. The family is seeking $47 million in damages per claim and answers about what transpired during the operation that resulted in 361 arrests.

US Border Patrol agents conducted a raid outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles's Westlake neighborhood using an unmarked yellow Penske rental truck, with masked officers jumping out and arresting 16 people from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The operation, called 'Operation Trojan Horse,' occurred despite a federal court order prohibiting indiscriminate raids in the region due to evidence of racial profiling and targeting based on appearance, language, and location. Penske said it was not informed its truck would be used in the operation and did not authorize it, citing a policy against transporting people in vehicle cargo areas. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass's office said it is gathering information and considering legal options, calling the use of rental trucks in raids 'un-American.'

A former corrections officer at a detention facility in Florida described conditions including hundreds of detainees held in cages with no sunlight, backed-up toilets, and minimal shower access. The officer, who worked at the facility for about a week in July 2025, stated that detainees had no clocks, limited access to showers, and endured water leaks and mosquito infestations. She was subsequently fired after catching COVID and claims she was never paid for her work.

Jesus Cruz was detained by ICE agents on June 9, 2025, at a Westchester car wash in Los Angeles while working polishing luxury vehicles. His wife, Noemi Ciau, could not locate him in ICE's online system or get communication for days afterward. At least 26 car wash workers were detained across the Los Angeles area during that week's immigration raids, with advocates reporting difficulty locating people held in temporary facilities. Cruz was later deported to Mexico, and in August he briefly reunited with Ciau and their four children during a visit to his hometown of Kini in the Yucatán Peninsula. Cruz said his eldest daughter stopped sleeping well and quit piano, and his youngest son began acting out since his deportation. The family, with Ciau working at LAX and the children in school in Inglewood, is weighing whether to relocate to Mexico or remain in California amid a lengthy reunification process.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducted an unannounced raid at a home in North Charleston, South Carolina on July 30, arresting Franklin Arce. Ring camera footage shows an ICE agent pulling a gun on Arce's partner Celeste Hernandez and shoving her back into the house while Arce was being arrested. Arce's family claims the officers never showed a warrant or provided their names and badge numbers, and Hernandez stated Arce was working toward legal citizenship with a court hearing scheduled.

LA County Department of Animal Care and Control has taken in 28 animals from deported or detained families since June 2025, with pet surrenders nearly doubling after a series of summer raids. Children have come to the Carson Animal Care Center for painful goodbyes with family pets including Coco, a pug-beagle mix, and Bruce, a Labrador mix, after their families were ordered to leave the country.

Animal shelters across Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade counties are seeing a rise in pets surrendered due to immigration enforcement. Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control has received at least 19 pets this year as a direct result of immigration arrests, including an 11-year-old poodle who is sick and partially blind. Rescue organizations have taken in animals like Mud, a terrier mix found starving in a locked backyard weeks after a family was deported, as well as Nino, a dog returned to the shelter he was adopted from two years earlier, and Bruce, a pit bull mix left behind when his family was forced to leave. The Doral shelter has been operating at nearly double its designed capacity, and groups like Good Karma Pet Rescue and Lady Luck Animal Rescue say they have limited resources to keep up with demand.

More than 50 community organizers and residents rallied outside the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice in Philadelphia after ICE agents arrested a man leaving a court hearing on Wednesday. A video recorded by a Juntos ICE Watch volunteer shows plainclothes ICE agents, working alongside Philadelphia police, tackle the man as he exited the courthouse, with agents never identifying themselves or presenting a warrant despite onlookers' requests. Philadelphia police said their cooperation followed a 2016 executive order from former Mayor Jim Kenney permitting cooperation with ICE only under a judicial warrant, though it remains unclear if one existed in this case. Rally organizers, including Juntos director Erika Guadalupe Nunez, said the police involvement violated the city's sanctuary city status.

In mid-July, ICE agents conducted raids in Passaic, New Jersey, arresting dozens of residents, including Guatemalan national José Efraín Chajón Raxón, who was taken to the Delaney Hall detention facility. He died soon after suffering a medical emergency, becoming the second person to die connected to the facility within a month. The Department of Homeland Security says he was released from custody on July 22 and died weeks later, but reporting from Status Coup and ABC News, along with accounts from immigrant-rights organizers, indicates he was released almost immediately after being detained and died shortly afterward. New Jersey Congressman Rob Menendez has said ICE can avoid reporting a detainee's death if the person is released from custody beforehand. At least 75 people, including one U.S. citizen, were arrested by ICE in Passaic that month, with arrests spiking 4,200% compared to the previous year.

U.S. Border Patrol agents conducted an enforcement operation at a Home Depot parking lot in south Sacramento on July 17, detaining 11 undocumented immigrants and a U.S. citizen identified as Jose Castillo. Castillo, an immigration watch volunteer documenting the operation, was detained after agents alleged he damaged a vehicle tire during a brief chase in the parking lot; he was later released. A total of 11 people were arrested during the raid, which Border Patrol stated was a message that the federal government can enforce immigration law anywhere in California.

Jose Manuel Castillo Jr., a U.S. citizen and volunteer with immigrant advocacy group NorCal Resist, was charged with depredation of government property after allegedly puncturing a Border Patrol vehicle tire during an ICE raid at a Home Depot on July 17. According to the DOJ, Castillo was seen walking toward a Border Patrol SUV and agents heard a pop and hissing noise before finding the tire slashed; a pocketknife found on him matched the hole's width. Castillo's attorney and the advocacy group dispute the charges, claiming he was merely documenting arrests and was not obstructing operations.

ICE confirmed an active investigation at Trail King Industries, a trailer manufacturer employing about 500 people at its Mitchell headquarters and 770 total across plants in Mitchell, Yankton, and West Fargo, North Dakota. Tips surfaced about agents being seen at the facility. The company's VP of Human Resources declined to comment.

ICE raided four Colt Grill restaurant locations in Yavapai County, Arizona in mid-July 2025, detaining 28 undocumented workers on immigration violations. Restaurant owners Robert and Brenda Clouston and two undocumented employees, Luis Pedro Rogel-Jaimes and Iris Romero-Molina, were accused by federal prosecutors of smuggling undocumented workers from Mexico, paying below minimum wage, withholding overtime compensation, and creating a fake cleaning business to conceal payments. The raids resulted in approximately 200 job losses and closure of two locations; the owners' trial was scheduled for June 2, 2026 in federal court in Phoenix.

A 23-year-old woman who grew up in Cottonwood, Arizona since she was 4 months old, speaks English fluently, and graduated from Mingus Union High School was undocumented and ineligible for DACA after President Trump attempted to end the program during his first term; she worked two jobs to support herself and her family. On July 15, 2025, ICE raided Colt Grill restaurant where she worked, part of a broader raid on four Colt Grill locations in Yavapai County; federal prosecutors have indicted owners Robert and Brenda Clouston and two undocumented employees, accusing them of smuggling workers from Mexico and running a fake cleaning-company scheme to exploit them. During the raid, ICE officers used pepper spray to force workers out of hiding; she was questioned, arrested, and detained for months at multiple facilities including the Florence ICE processing center and Eloy Detention Center, where she reported harsh conditions including overcrowding, extreme cold, and an untreated rash. She was ultimately deported to Mexico, separated from her three U.S. citizen brothers and her family in the United States.

On July 15, 2025, federal agents raided four Colt Grill BBQ and Spirits restaurants in Yavapai County, Arizona, and a location in Foley, Alabama, arresting 28 undocumented workers on immigration violations. Restaurant owners Robert and Brenda Clouston, both 61, were arrested along with two undocumented immigrants, Luis Pedro Rogel-Jaimes, 33, and Iris Romero-Molina, 29. According to a May 27 federal indictment, the four defendants conspired to transport and harbor undocumented workers from Mexico, operating a fake cleaning business as a staffing front to conceal payments. The workers were paid below minimum wage without overtime compensation, and the defendants avoided proper employment taxes. Approximately 200 employees lost their jobs when the restaurants closed. The investigation spanned three years.