Human Impact Project

Malunda Destino has been detained by ICE in New Hampshire since August 2025 while his asylum case is pending. A federal court ordered him to receive an individualized bond hearing due to due process concerns. Destino has been separated from his newborn son and family, and ICE attempted to deport him but a stay was obtained after community fundraising paid for appellate representation. Destino has also reported degrading treatment by ICE agents while in detention.

A 50-year-old Mexican man named Jesús died in late February after avoiding hospital care out of fear of ICE detention and deportation. His wife attributes his death to harsh U.S. immigration policies. He remained bedridden at home despite declining health and was only taken to a hospital when it was too late. He left behind four children, including one minor.

Ariadna Zumba, 18, a native of Spain who has lived in the United States since she was nine and holds Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, was detained by ICE on April 9, 2026, while walking near her home, without agents presenting a warrant or immediately notifying her family. She was held for 53 days at Delaney Hall in Newark, run by the GEO Group, missing her senior prom and high school graduation, before being released June 1, 2026, after filing a habeas corpus petition. She later received her diploma at a mid-August ceremony at Orange High School. Zumba described moldy food, overcrowding, inadequate medical care and early-morning room checks at Delaney Hall, said she joined a hunger strike over conditions before stopping after officers threatened additional charges, and helped other detainees with translation and paperwork; she has no criminal record, was accepted to Essex County College, and plans to study social sciences before transferring to Montclair State University and eventually attending law school, though she has another ICE appointment scheduled for January.

Hayam El Gamal, a mother of five detained at the Dilley Immigration Detention Center in Texas, was taken to the emergency room on April 9 after weeks of being denied medical care for an abnormal chest growth, despite a facility doctor recommending a CT scan in mid-February. She rated her pain as 11 out of 10, and the ER scan revealed fluid around her heart (pericardial effusion); DHS, ICE, and CoreCivic subsequently denied a follow-up ultrasound recommended by the ER doctor. According to her attorney, Eric Lee, three independent physicians who reviewed her case, Dr. Amy Zeidan, Dr. Virginia Reddy, and Dr. Christopher Merrick, have called for further testing for possible cancer, autoimmune disease such as lupus, and heart complications, warning that ICE and CoreCivic are systematically denying her care in a way that poses an urgent threat to her life. El Gamal and her four minor children have been detained at Dilley for over 10 months, far exceeding the 20-day legal limit for detaining children.

Washington state won a federal court ruling in November 2025 allowing health inspections at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, operated by private contractor GEO Group. However, state inspectors have been denied entry nine times since 2023, including after the court ruling. Advocacy groups report over 3,500 detainee complaints including concerns about religious accommodations during Ramadan, food quality, and medical care.

Brandon, a U.S. citizen, was detained for eight hours at the Whipple building during Operation Metro Surge and reported appalling detention conditions including unresponsive guards, unsanitary facilities, and interrogations. After his release, he was hit with pepper balls and exposed to tear gas and flash bangs as ICE agents confronted a protest outside the facility.

A Chinese woman, a petitioner detained at Desert View Annex Detention Facility following a routine immigration check, filed for immediate release from custody through a habeas corpus petition. She argued her ongoing detention constitutes constitutional deprivation and feared potential transfer to another facility would impair her access to counsel. The court denied her emergency application for temporary restraining order but ordered the government to show cause why habeas relief should not be granted under an expedited briefing schedule.

A Chinese national, detained at Imperial Regional Detention Facility, filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his prolonged immigration detention without a bond hearing as a due process violation. The government conceded and the court ordered a bond hearing within seven days where the government must prove by clear and convincing evidence that he poses a danger or flight risk. The court declined to order immediate release.

U.S. Rep. André Carson visited Miami Correctional Facility and spoke with detainees who reported systemic issues including a nonfunctioning intercom system, delayed medical care, inadequate healthcare, barriers to legal services, and lack of access to basic necessities. Two detainees, Lorth Sim and Tuan Van Bui, died in custody in February and April 2026. Carson is calling for a full investigation into both deaths and for the closure of the ICE detention center.

Stephanie Kenny-Velasquez, a 25-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker married to 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 about four months, reporting overcrowding with roughly 60 women, lack of privacy, inadequate food, anxiety attacks, and limited medical care. A federal judge found due-process violations in her case and ordered her release within 48 hours, allowing her to continue pursuing her asylum claim outside detention.

Lydia Rabara Swinburne, a 39-year-old Filipino national, was detained by ICE on April 7, 2026, during a green card interview after local authorities arrested her on domestic violence charges that were later dropped. On May 2, while in custody at the California City ICE facility, she suffered a medical emergency after being given unrecognized medication; her husband alleges a medication error occurred. A federal judge ordered her release on May 18 after her family filed a habeas corpus petition challenging her detention.

According to reporting from SA Current, a pregnant woman named Juana was ordered deported by ICE when she was near her due date. Medical professionals and airlines told ICE she was too pregnant to safely fly, but ICE continued seeking officials willing to authorize her travel anyway. The case highlights failures in ICE's own policies protecting pregnant detainees.

Valley View Elementary School in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, where two-thirds of students are Latino, was heavily impacted by ICE enforcement operations in early 2026. At least 30 parents and four students were detained. School staff provided support to affected students through counseling and joy-focused activities. The detentions caused widespread fear and disruption in the school community.

Approximately 6,000 Cuban nationals have been deported from the United States to Mexico under an agreement between the Trump and Sheinbaum administrations. Most deportees arrive in Mexican cities including Tapachula and Villahermosa with no advance notice or state support. Many are elderly individuals who spent decades building lives in the U.S. and are unable to return to Cuba or re-enter the United States. The deportees face extreme poverty and homelessness while attempting to survive on the streets and seeking humanitarian visas to remain in Mexico.

A Cuban citizen who entered the United States from Mexico on March 24, 2022, was issued a Notice to Appear for removability under immigration law. She was released on her own recognizance and complied with all conditions of her release. She filed applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture; an immigration judge denied her asylum application, and her appeal remains pending. On April 3, 2026, local police in Odessa, Texas arrested her for an alleged local ordinance violation, and ICE took her into custody on April 6, 2026, transferring her to the Otero County Processing Center. The petitioner, who is approximately ten weeks pregnant and has been diagnosed with diabetes during detention, filed a habeas corpus petition challenging her continued detention without a bond hearing. The U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico granted her petition, finding that 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) governs her detention and that continued detention without a bond hearing violates her Fifth Amendment due process rights. The court ordered her immediate release and prohibited re-detention without a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral Immigration Judge.

California House members Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs conducted an unannounced oversight visit to the Otay Mesa ICE detention facility in San Diego on May 11, 2026, following a federal court ruling that struck down a Trump administration policy requiring seven days' notice for congressional visits. During their visit, ICE handed Levin a letter outlining a new policy requiring two days' advance notice and written consent from detainees before members of Congress can speak with them. Levin criticized the new restrictions as an attempt to obstruct congressional oversight, stating that advance notice allows the facility time to prepare and conceal actual conditions.

A Government Accountability Office report found that Camp East Montana, the nation's largest immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, wasted $11.5 million on meals when no detainees were present and suffered performance issues due to a rushed opening. The watchdog's findings follow an earlier ICE inspection on April 2, 2026, that identified 49 deficiencies, including inadequate suicide prevention measures, unsecured equipment, staffing shortages, and failure to isolate a detainee with tuberculosis symptoms, which the GAO confirmed led to a tuberculosis outbreak. The facility, which has housed nearly 3,000 detainees daily since opening in summer 2025 and has recorded at least three deaths, received an acceptable rating despite the violations. The GAO recommended changes to ICE, the Army, and the Department of Homeland Security to prevent further issues.

A woman was detained by ICE in March 2025, one day before her scheduled ankle surgery, and held at the Eloy Detention Center until April 2026 with a broken ankle. She was told she had been referred for surgery but never received it in over a year, reporting severe pain and weakness, and used a medical boot and a wheelchair. When she asked guards for help pushing the wheelchair she was told there was nobody available and that she should be nicer so someone would volunteer. Diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension and supposed to be on a diet for health, she never received one; she described meals of rice, pasta, bread, and powdered potatoes, fresh fruit only on weekends, and chicken about once every five weeks.

Yesenia Mejia-Valesquez (a pseudonym used in the report) was detained at the Eloy Detention Center while pregnant and was scheduled for her first OBGYN appointment in January 2026, over a month after she was detained, but missed it and the ultrasound because ICE transported her late. She was not taken to an off-site OBGYN until March, three months into detention, and still did not get an ultrasound because of a scheduling mix-up. Her release request for lack of appropriate medical care was denied in March, and she asked for a deportation flight out of fear of being forced to give birth in ICE custody. When she finally had an ultrasound at the end of March she learned she was about seven months pregnant; in April she was told she had preeclampsia and that the baby has a heart condition that will require surgery after birth. She was released to her family at the end of April, at approximately eight months pregnant.

Ramon Mendez-Tum (a pseudonym used in the report), a 24-year-old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was detained by ICE at a traffic stop while a passenger in a car on his way to a chemotherapy appointment, and held at the Florence Detention Center from October 2025 through April 2026. Before receiving specialty care he developed an infection at his PICC line. While receiving chemotherapy he was constantly chained by the leg or handcuffed and watched 24/7 by guards; on multiple occasions he was hospitalized for 3-4 weeks at a time, shackled to his bed, and barred from any contact with family or legal counsel, and even hospital social workers were denied private conversations with him. Back at the facility he was held alone in medical isolation. His lawyers at the Florence Project could not speak with him for over three months, about 10 of his court hearings had to be rescheduled, and ICE denied multiple release requests despite a measles outbreak in the facility. An immigration judge finally released him after six months.