Human Impact Project

A 57-year-old Mexican father of four was detained at Broadview Processing Center for four days in severely overcrowded conditions before signing a voluntary departure form, unaware his attorney had secured an emergency hearing that could have allowed him to stay. He was deported to Mexico the following day after waiving his right to appeal. The case illustrates concerns among immigration attorneys that voluntary departures may not be truly voluntary, with immigrants reporting coercion due to language barriers and lack of legal knowledge.

An 18-year-old U.S. citizen was pulled from a vehicle and thrown to the ground by agents believed to be from ICE during a weekend enforcement operation in Hoffman Estates. She and two friends were detained for several hours before being released without charges. Video footage captured the agents restraining the teen on the ground. Her parents are demanding accountability and pursuing legal action, and there has been confusion over which federal agency was responsible for the arrest. The incident has prompted an investigation.

A 15-year-old U.S. citizen was detained by Customs and Border Patrol agents on Chicago's East Side after federal agents deployed tear gas at a crash scene. According to his attorneys, the teen was slammed to the ground, zip-tied, and held in a garage for five hours without being booked, read his rights, or allowed to contact his mother. DHS stated the teen was arrested for allegedly throwing an egg at an agent, taken to an FBI field office where he admitted to the action, and released without charges. A 16-year-old U.S. citizen born and raised in Chicago was arrested and body-slammed by federal immigration agents during the East Side operation. His mother, Juanita Garnica, reported receiving a call that her son had been beaten, body-slammed, and taken into custody, but was not informed of his whereabouts or status. He was among multiple people arrested during the federal operation and subsequent protest.

Fidel Rivera, an undocumented immigrant who worked in construction in North Carolina for over 20 years, self-deported to Mexico on October 13, 2025, to avoid potential immigration detention. His family, including his U.S. citizen wife and two daughters, are spending the holidays separated as Rivera must remain in Mexico for at least 10 years before he can reapply for legal status.

A 15-year-old boy with autism and special needs, Emmanuel González Garcia, went missing on October 4, 2025, after wandering away from his mother Maria García's fruit stand in Houston. Houston Police Department located him the next day but did not connect him with the existing missing person report due to a name discrepancy (Manuel vs. Emmanuel). HPD contacted ICE and transferred the boy to federal immigration custody. García was without knowledge of her son's whereabouts for nearly a week until an immigration attorney intervened. The teen is now in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody and is facing emergency appendix surgery. An investigation into the Houston Police Department's procedures was initiated following the incident.

ICE agents conducted an enforcement action at West Loop Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois during afternoon school pickup. Thirteen masked agents surrounded a car and removed two sisters who were DACA recipients and were eventually released after proving their legal status. One sister, Jocelyn, stated the agents did not have a warrant. The driver of the vehicle was also the other sister. A teacher exiting an Uber at the time recorded video of the incident after hearing children screaming.

Gustavo Santiago, a 13-year-old from Tamaulipas, Mexico, living in San Antonio, Texas, was detained with his mother on October 5, 2025, at a Border Patrol checkpoint. He has been sick multiple times in detention. When he had a fever, medical staff told his mother he was old enough to fight it off without medication. He was treated for a skin rash believed caused by poor water quality and suffered stomach pain and nausea attributed to unsanitary food preparation. He expressed fear of deportation and uncertainty about what he did wrong to be detained.

Emmanuel González García, a 15-year-old with intellectual disability, speech impediment, and partial deafness, went missing on October 4, 2025, after wandering from his mother Maria García's fruit stand in northwest Houston. Houston Fire Department found him the next day, but Houston Police Department failed to link him to his mother's missing-person report due to a name discrepancy and instead contacted ICE, which transferred him to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Maria had no way to know her son's location for five days until an immigration attorney called the missing-persons hotline on his behalf, and he underwent emergency appendicitis surgery while in custody. Emmanuel remained in federal detention for a total of 48 days despite his mother's pleas for his release, during which members of a local group, Autism Moms of Houston, held nightly vigils outside the facility in support.

On October 3, 2025, federal agents conducting an immigration enforcement operation in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood deployed tear gas near Funston Elementary School, exposing students, including first-graders, and traumatizing hundreds of children and families. Children playing on school grounds, eating at a nearby café, and walking home from school were affected, including toddlers as young as 14 months old at Luna y Cielo Play Cafe, where nannies rushed children to a back room as gas spread. Teachers, including Liza Oliva-Perez, were tear-gassed while protecting students, and parents like Molly Kucich abandoned errands to reach their children. Children have since shown signs of anxiety, nightmares, and fear of family separation, with some asking teachers and dolls whether ICE will come for them. The operation, part of a broader initiative dubbed 'Operation Midway Blitz,' also included a separate incident at 51st and Damen where agents threw a smoke bomb and detained a person, alongside reports of residential raids, helicopter operations, and use of pepper munitions against protesters.

Governor JB Pritzker and Democrats on two congressional committees are calling for investigations into a federal immigration raid in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood, where families reported children were zip-tied, separated from parents, and held for hours. Federal agents from Border Patrol, the FBI and ATF arrested 37 people during the Oct. 1 operation at 7500 S. South Shore Drive. Rodrick Johnson, a U.S. citizen, said agents broke down his door and left him zip-tied outside for nearly three hours, while a neighbor said she saw children removed from the building without clothing. Lawmakers have sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem demanding details on the warrants used, the number of citizens detained, and why children were restrained and helicopters deployed.

In Bowie, Maryland, federal agents arrested a father after he had just left home to drive his children to school in the family minivan. His three children — ages 6, 7, and 8 — were in the backseat as masked agents smashed his window, pulled him from the car, pinned him to the ground, pressed a hand on his neck, and pointed a Taser at him while he was pinned. The children later told their mother they saw agents point a gun at their father. He was detained one day after his wife said he had checked in for immigration supervision.

In Illinois, two men in a pickup truck were pursued by federal agents for nearly 10 minutes from Waukegan into Gurnee, colliding with at least three other vehicles and losing a tire, before driving onto the grounds of Warren Township High School as special education students were arriving for class. One man was detained in the parking lot and another was chased into a classroom and arrested in front of students; the school said neither man was a student or affiliated with the school. As agents walked the two men to vehicles, one pointed pepper spray at community members and staff who had gathered nearby, including a Lutheran pastor who was threatened twice for trying to record the event; the school's superintendent asked staff to keep the men and their families "in your thoughts and prayers."

LT, a 30-year-old Haitian asylum seeker, was detained at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, 1,500 miles from her 13-month-old daughter in Florida. Her baby, who is allergic to formula and has food sensitivities, vomited constantly and needed breastmilk. The government denied her petition to pump and mail breastmilk, denied bringing the child into detention, and refused bond. LT fled political violence in Haiti where supporters of an opposing party burned her house, kidnapped and raped her. She fears her daughter will end up in foster care.

Noemi Chavez, her husband Jaime Ramirez, and their children, 8-year-old Dasha and her 3-year-old son, were detained by federal agents without a warrant during a family outing at Chicago's Millennium Park on September 28, 2025. Witnesses and video showed Dasha crying and clutching a doll as heavily armed agents in camouflage took the family away in a white van while the children played in the water at Crown Fountain. Chavez said agents targeted them based on appearance; the family came from Guatemala in 2023 seeking asylum and has a hearing scheduled for October 2027. A neighbor whose son is in Dasha's third-grade class helped bring the family supplies and stayed in contact with Chavez via WhatsApp. The National Immigrant Justice Center filed a habeas corpus petition, and a federal judge ordered Chavez and the children protected from deportation; they were released from ICE custody. Ramirez remains detained at a Texas facility, where attorneys are seeking his release or a bond hearing, arguing he poses no danger or flight risk.

Stanley Minjale, who immigrated to the United States from Malawi in 2021 on a student visa initially valid through 2022, later received an extension through March 2027, but that status was terminated after he failed to enroll in a university as required. At the time of his detention in October 2025, he held a valid work permit and was employed full-time as a nursing assistant in Indiana. He has a nearly two-year-old U.S. citizen son, and during his nine-month detention at North Lake Processing Center he has missed several of the boy's milestones, including his second birthday. Minjale has received a deportation order but continues to appeal, describing life in detention as a difficult, repetitive routine without freedom.

On September 30, 2025, ICE and FBI agents conducted an operation at an apartment building at 7500 S. South Shore Drive in Chicago as part of Operation Midway Blitz, detaining approximately 37 people including Venezuelan migrants and at least one U.S. citizen. The operation involved helicopters, snipers, flash-bangs, and agents breaking down doors and zip-tying residents. The federal government has provided no public accounting of how many remain in custody, what happened to children present in the building, or whether any criminal charges were filed related to the raid.

Miguel García-Hernández, an undocumented immigrant awaiting intake at an ICE facility in Dallas, was shot on September 24, 2025, when a gunman opened fire outside the facility. He died from his injuries on September 29, leaving behind his wife Stephany Gauffeny and three children. García-Hernández had been in ICE custody following a DUI arrest and was working toward legal status through a Biden administration initiative when the shooting occurred.

Watchdog groups alleged in a court filing that children and families held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas face prolonged detention beyond legal limits, along with shortages of clean drinking water, chronic sleep deprivation, inadequate medical care, and lack of hygiene products. Legal experts filed accounts describing the facility environment and conditions for detainees.

Rosa, 12 years old, screamed as ICE agents arrested her father outside a New York immigration court on September 25, 2025. The incident was documented by photographer Carol Guzy as part of her ongoing documentation of families affected by the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

A federal judge ordered the immediate release of Paulo Cesar Gamez Lira, a 27-year-old DACA recipient and father of four U.S. citizen children who was detained by ICE for 42 days. Gamez Lira was detained on August 13 when federal agents surrounded his vehicle in Horizon City, Texas, with two of his young children present. He was held at the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico, separated from his family including a three-month-old infant with serious medical conditions. The federal government declined to oppose his release.