Human Impact Project

Federal and state lawmakers toured the newly constructed Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in Florida's Everglades on July 12-13, 2025. The facility, built in eight days on an isolated airstrip, houses nearly 1,000 detainees with plans to expand to 4,000 capacity. Democratic lawmakers reported seeing detainees in cages with harsh conditions including extreme heat, insects, and inadequate sanitation facilities, while Republican officials characterized the facility as clean and well-functioning. The tour followed earlier Democratic attempts to visit the remote facility.

U.S. Border Patrol agents raided Don Chilaquiles food stand in La Puente on December 3, 2025, detaining three workers. Video footage shows agents seizing a cash box from the stand and placing it in an unmarked vehicle. One worker fled to a nearby firetruck during the operation, and an accident occurred between an agent's vehicle and another car at the scene.

Federal ICE agents raided Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria, California on July 10-11, detaining 361 adults and 14 minors. Hundreds of community members and family members of farmworkers gathered to protest, throwing rocks at enforcement vehicles while agents deployed tear gas, smoke bombs and pepper bullets, injuring protesters including at least one city council member. Workers inside the facility, fearing separation from their families, hid in underground water tanks and on rooftops during the raid. A 56-year-old farmworker died after falling 30 feet from a greenhouse roof, and the FBI opened a search for a man reported to have fired a gun at the scene. Judith Ramos, a 22-year-old certified nurse assistant, was sprayed with tear gas when she arrived to support her father, a detained farmworker. Rep. Salud Carbajal was denied entry while attempting congressional oversight, and National Guard troops in military vehicles also responded. Three men—farm worker Santiago, security guard and Iraq veteran George Retes, and professor John Caravello—were arrested during the operation.

Sandra, an asylum seeker from South America, was arrested by ICE during a routine check-in appointment at the agency's San Francisco field office on July 11, 2025, and has been held in a detention center awaiting updates on her pending asylum case. She met her husband Roberto online in 2017 and undertook a months-long journey through Central America and the Darien Gap to reunite with him in San Francisco, where they married in early 2025. Sandra was taking English classes at City College and the couple was planning to start a family when she was detained. Roberto, who recently obtained legal status and received a promotion at work, was present during the appointment. Sandra continues to wait for her first court date, with her attorney fighting for her pending asylum application while she remains in detention.

Vanessa Valdez, a Ventura-based attorney and legal observer, was shot six times with rubber bullets and exposed to tear gas during a raid at Glass House Farms in July 2025, despite identifying herself as a legal observer. The raid, conducted by ICE and Border Patrol agents, resulted in more than 360 arrests at farm sites in Carpinteria and Camarillo, northwest of Los Angeles. Valdez reported severe pain, sleep disruption for three weeks, inability to see, and crawled on all fours to escape. She has filed a tort claim against the federal government seeking compensation for hospital visits, lost wages during recovery, anxiety medication, and mental health treatment.

Mitch Lillie, a volunteer with grassroots organization VC Defense, was at the Glass House Farms facility in Camarillo when federal agents raided the site on July 10, 2025. Lillie was shot in the temple with a rubber bullet during the operation. He witnessed workers trapped in the facility and family members distraught on their phones.

ICE agents arrested a Guatemalan asylum seeker identified as Juan on July 8, 2025, minutes after he completed his immigration court hearing at the John E. Moss Federal Building in downtown Sacramento. The man had been complying with all court requirements, had no criminal record, and had not missed any previous hearings or check-ins. Despite receiving a new court date scheduled for October, he was detained by ICE immediately following his hearing. Volunteers from NorCal Resist assisted his family member in locating legal resources and using the federal detainee locator system.

Anastasio Sanchez, a 51-year-old man who had operated a taco truck in East L.A. for five years and lived in the U.S. for over 20 years with a work permit, was detained by federal agents on July 6, 2025, near Whittier and Atlantic boulevards. He had paused his business due to ICE raids in the area but reopened out of financial necessity to support his wife and five children. He was held at Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A., where his daughter visited and brought him diabetes medication, before being transferred to Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County.

An undocumented single mother was arrested during a workplace raid at a cannabis farm in Southern California in July 2025. Her 10-month-old US citizen child was left with family friends as a result of her arrest and detention.

ICE conducted raids on cannabis farms near the California coast in summer 2025, arresting 361 workers and detaining 14 teen minors; more than a dozen US citizen children were left without parents. In one case, a 15-year-old was left alone with his two younger brothers, ages 8 and 9, after their mother was deported to Mexico three days after the raid, while a 10-month-old was left with family friends when her mother was arrested. During the raids, federal agents used riot gear, flash bang grenades, and smoke bombs, and a worker fleeing the facility fell 30 feet from a greenhouse roof and died. Months later, nonprofits report roughly half of those arrested have been deported, many remain in federal custody with only a few released on bond, and federal officials have denied requests for information about the detainees' whereabouts.

Attorney Vanessa Valdez, identifying herself as a legal observer, was shot six times with rubber bullets and exposed to tear gas during an ICE raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, part of a broader operation that day resulting in more than 360 arrests at two Southern California farms. The injuries caused severe pain, rib damage, and sleep disruption lasting weeks, leading to hospital visits and ongoing mental health treatment costs included in her Federal Tort Claims Act claim. The Department of Homeland Security disputed her account, saying agents used pepper balls rather than rubber bullets, and only after protesters attempted to breach the perimeter. Her claim is one of roughly $260 million in aggregate claims filed by people affected by the raid campaign.

Federal officials confirmed that 37 people were detained during immigration enforcement operations at three Home Depot locations in Los Angeles on June 30, 2025: 14 in Cypress Park on Figueroa Street, 11 in North Hollywood, and 12 on Sunset Boulevard. A witness said agents arrived in marked Border Patrol vehicles at the Cypress Park site and attempted to enter a day laborer center before workers locked the gates. A separate raid at the same Sunset Boulevard store on June 19 reportedly resulted in about 30 detentions, including at least one U.S. citizen, prompting protests, while operations in Corona and Chino the same week led to at least ten additional detentions.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted enforcement operations at the Chesterfield County courthouse, resulting in the arrest of undocumented immigrants. Activists and community members gathered to protest the arrests at the courthouse.

Fernando Diaz, 23, was arrested in Huntington Park after police found a loaded firearm, official-looking Homeland Security and CBP documents, and other law enforcement paraphernalia in his vehicle. Diaz denies claims that he told officers he was a former Border Patrol agent, though police continue investigating whether he was impersonating a federal officer.

A mother named Marisol and her 11-year-old daughter hid in their Minnesota home for two months to avoid ICE raids, surviving on donated food. When provisions ran out, the mother ventured out to purchase food for her daughter and was detained by ICE agents. The daughter, now being cared for by an activist, has a pending asylum case and is advocating for her mother's release.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested two women outside the Los Angeles Airport Courthouse on Tuesday after they appeared for a hearing in a local criminal case involving organized retail theft charges. The agents waited in the courtroom and detained the defendants without advance notice to the court, defense attorneys, or prosecutors.

Adrian Martinez, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen and Walmart employee, was detained by federal agents on June 18, 2025, during an immigration enforcement operation at a Pico Rivera Walmart parking lot. When agents began detaining an elderly maintenance worker, Martinez intervened by blocking the agents' vehicle with the worker's cart in an attempt to help. Agents shoved him to the ground twice. Federal officials initially claimed Martinez punched agents, but security camera footage from the store showed no punches were thrown and that agents initiated the physical contact. Martinez was charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, a felony, rather than assault. He spent three nights in jail following his arrest. A federal judge ordered his release on a $5,000 bond.

ICE agents detained a gardener working in Long Beach's University Park Estates neighborhood who told agents he was a dual citizen and showed identification. A video of the incident shows the man claiming U.S. citizenship and stating he was born at Memorial Hospital in Long Beach. Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson condemned the operation as an "abduction," stating ICE was not given prior notice and criticized the enforcement as rooted in "fear and intimidation."

A video circulating online allegedly shows ICE agents in Harlingen, Texas following a family in an unmarked vehicle, making contact with their car, pulling the father out, and striking him while his children were present. The incident was posted on Instagram with hashtags related to ICE and immigration enforcement.

Narciso Barranco, a 5'7", 150-pound landscaper who has lived in the United States since the 1990s, was detained by ICE and Border Patrol agents on June 21, 2025, during a workplace enforcement action at an IHOP in Santa Ana, Orange County, California. Video footage of the arrest shows multiple masked federal agents repeatedly punching Barranco in the head and neck and tackling him to the ground in a busy intersection as he was pinned by three officers. His oldest son, Alejandro, a 25-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran with two active-duty Marine brothers, said his father was scared when plainclothes armed agents approached him and expressed concern about the excessive force used by multiple larger officers. After speaking with his father by phone the following day, Alejandro reported that Barranco was injured, had not received medical attention, was very thirsty, and had not eaten. Barranco is being held by ICE at a detention center in Los Angeles. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Barranco swung a weed whacker at an agent and refused to comply with commands, though videos show him running with the tool and attempting to open a car door before being tackled.