Human Impact Project

Olga Perez, a 47-year-old translator of a rare Mayan dialect who arrived in the U.S. in 1997 after Guatemala's civil war, self-deported in July 2026 after her asylum case was dismissed and efforts to stay were rejected by immigration courts. She had been detained since November 2025 at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona following a traffic stop, and her husband had been taken into ICE custody two months earlier while working a landscaping job. Perez said goodbye to her children—Eliza, 21, Jessica, 18, Romeo, 15, and Cynthia, 13—at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, with the eldest daughter continuing to run the family's landscaping business to support her siblings. Perez had no criminal record and had worked with police departments, courts and nonprofits across Florida, including helping clear a Guatemalan immigrant of criminal charges in a 2024 case.

Francisco Chan Reyes, a 25-year-old U.S. resident with lawful status, was detained by ICE agents during a traffic stop on the west side of San Antonio on January 26, 2026, while returning home from a market with three cousins. Video shows agents breaking his car window, pepper-spraying him, and holding him facedown on the pavement without identifying themselves. Despite Reyes showing agents his Texas driver's license and work permit, they initially refused to accept these documents and told his wife he was in the country illegally. After approximately four hours in custody, including DNA swabbing and fingerprint processing, fingerprints confirmed his lawful presence and he was released. He sustained a head injury and pepper-spray burns. His three cousins were deported to Mexico the following day. Immigration attorney Marlyn Moreno noted that a Texas driver's license should have been sufficient proof of lawful presence, as the state only issues them to people who demonstrate citizenship or lawful presence. He and his wife plan legal action.

Two Azerbaijani men, Fazal and Alikhan, who immigrated legally to the U.S. and were married in Charlotte, were detained by ICE after a routine immigration appointment in January. Alikhan was moved to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia where he became ill and received inadequate medical care until a U.S. Senator intervened. Unable to face prolonged detention, Alikhan announced in February he would self-deport rather than continue fighting his case, with Fazal planning to follow.

Approximately 50 Cuban nationals detained by ICE accepted deportation believing they would return to Havana. Their plane landed at Guantánamo Naval Base instead. The men have been at the U.S. military facility since before Christmas. Due to Cuba's restrictions on flights from the base to the island's interior, U.S. authorities must transfer them back to U.S. territory before handing them over to Cuban authorities, extending their detention for weeks.

Mireya Lopez-Sanchez and her two-month-old son Juan Nicolas were held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The infant developed bronchitis while in ICE custody, and medical treatment was reportedly denied. A judge ordered their deportation to Mexico, and the family lost contact with relatives after being discharged from the hospital.

A 57-year-old father was detained by ICE on January 29, 2026, during a traffic stop at a Home Depot parking lot while out with his son to purchase materials for a home project. ICE agents ran plates and targeted the father's truck. During the stop, agents pushed the father down, causing him to dislocate his shoulder when he fell. He had no criminal record. The father was deported two days later on Monday, February 2, 2026.

NPR reporter Adrian Florido witnessed federal immigration agents arrest Jesús González, an undocumented fruit vendor he had been buying from for seven years in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. González was apprehended at his fruit cart stand and subsequently deported to Tijuana, Mexico after agreeing to be removed rather than face detention.

Darwin Maldonado left Honduras at eight years old to join his mother in the United States, where he raised four daughters in Southern California. In late January 2026 he was forced onto a bus at the Nogales port of entry alongside about 40 other detainees, many of whom had been held for nearly a week in overcrowded hangars at Arizona's Mesa Gateway airport without being allowed to shower. After two nights and three days on the road, the bus arrived at Tapachula's Siglo XXI migration center on January 28, where deportees were handed a document giving them ten days to seek refugee status or leave Mexico, then told to "figure it out." Maldonado and Venezuelan journalist Roberto Betancourt, who had sat beside him on the bus sharing stories about their children, split the cost of a cheap hotel room.

Roberto Betancourt, a Venezuelan journalist who fled to Miami with his wife in 2014 after years of armed attacks and death threats from pro-government colectivos over his political reporting, produced political analysis of Latin America in the U.S. alongside exiled journalist Patricia Poleo. An immigration judge granted him deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture in 2024, barring his return to Venezuela. Under a February 2025 DHS directive to re-detain people with CAT protections for third-country removal, ICE took him into custody on July 14, 2025, and over six months transferred him between 12 detention facilities, holding him in shackles for up to 25 hours and in rooms so cramped detainees took turns lying down. Agents tried to push him across the border at Tijuana in December 2025, then tried to force him onto a plane to Venezuela at Arizona's Mesa Gateway airport until a U.S. Marshal intervened. On January 26, 2026, four armed agents at the Nogales port of entry told him "they'll deport you with punches if it's necessary"; he refused to sign the removal notice but was forced onto a Mexican bus and arrived at Tapachula's Siglo XXI migration center on January 28, where deportees were given ten days to seek refugee status or leave Mexico. He later won permission to travel to Mexico City, where he applied for refugee status and launched a sports journalism platform while his wife, seven-year-old son, and ten-year-old daughter remain in Miami. As of September 2026, he remains in Mexico still awaiting resolution of his case, which is among roughly 20,000 third-country removals to Mexico carried out under the policy. "I need to find a way to guarantee stability for my family, for my kids," he said.

Carlos, a Venezuelan national with withholding of removal and work authorization, was detained on January 28, 2026, during a routine monthly check-in at the Kansas City ICE office where he was required to report under the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. Despite his judge-approved protection, valid work authorization, clean six-year record, and pending permanent legal status applications with his wife, ICE detained him. After a chaotic series of transfers across Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Arizona—during which he was held in overcrowded conditions—Carlos was deported to Mexico on a tarmac in Arizona, where he remains separated from his wife and children.

Anderson Tumin-Rivas, a 24-year-old Guatemalan national living in southern Arkansas, was detained by ICE after showing up for a scheduled immigration check-in appointment in Little Rock on January 22, 2026. He is now held in Winn Parish, Louisiana, awaiting deportation to Guatemala. Tumin-Rivas had been living in the U.S. under the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program and was married with a young son.

Hagop Chirinian, a non-citizen surfer, was released after being detained for four months following an accidental trespass onto Camp Pendleton beach. A federal judge ordered ICE to release him, ruling the agency violated its own protocols by detaining him despite knowing he could not be deported, as Lebanon refused to accept him. Chirinian had been living under an order of supervision with a work permit for nearly 30 years without additional convictions.

Fong Khang, a Cambodian immigrant, was pardoned by the Minnesota Board of Pardons on January 20 for convictions from nearly 20 years ago. Less than 24 hours later, ICE detained him, threatening his ability to remain in the United States. The article also describes the case of Sithy Yi, a Cambodian genocide survivor and refugee, who was detained by ICE after 10 years of compliance with immigration instructions.

Iván Guzmán, head cook at El Cubano To Go restaurant in Shoreline, Washington, was detained by ICE agents on Aurora Avenue North on January 25 while driving his 2-year-old son to daycare. The toddler was left alone in the vehicle, surrounded by armed agents, for roughly 30 to 40 minutes. Community volunteers arrived at the scene to document the incident and support the child until a family friend picked him up and took him to Guzmán's workplace; the child is now with his mother. Guzmán was subsequently deported to Mexico, his country of birth. Restaurant owner Verónica Castañeda described him as 'my right hand, a hardworking man, dedicated to his family.' A GoFundMe campaign was launched to raise funds for legal assistance, childcare, and food.

A protester was arrested outside an Orlando ICE facility during a rally against mass deportation after placing their hand on a vehicle at the facility's entrance. Witnesses reported law enforcement tackled and arrested the protester. The demonstration was related to concerns over ICE's authority to enter homes without judicial warrants.

ICE agents have been leaving cards on the vehicles of undocumented immigrants, often containing messages implying threats of imminent deportation. In Colorado, immigrant rights group Voces Unidas reported that family members discovered customized ace of spades "death cards" bearing the address of the ICE Denver field office after agents detained 10 Latino community members. According to the report, agents used fake police lights to pull over the vehicles, then left them abandoned with doors open, engines running and hazard lights flashing.

Johny Merida Aguilara, an undocumented immigrant detained by ICE in September 2024, accepted deportation to Bolivia after nearly five months in custody. His wife, Gimena Morales Antezana, and their three U.S. citizen children plan to depart with him this month. The family's decision comes after financial hardship and the need to care for their 5-year-old son who has brain cancer, autism, and severe feeding difficulties. Aguilara's family lawyer won a temporary deportation stay in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, but the family chose voluntary departure amid mounting economic pressures and uncertainty over pending asylum and T visa applications.

Cecil Elvir-Quinonez, a 25-year-old Honduran national who has lived in the U.S. since 2014, was arrested on New Year's Eve 2025 after being stopped for speeding in Louisiana. She was separated from her two American-born children, including a five-month-old still breastfeeding at the time of arrest. While in ICE custody, Elvir-Quinonez discovered she was pregnant with her third child. She experienced heavy bleeding and cramps but received limited medical care beyond one emergency room visit. Her youngest child has been repeatedly sick since her arrest, and her five-year-old has developed new speech difficulties. Advocacy groups including the ACLU and National Immigration Project report that Elvir-Quinonez's case is part of a documented pattern: more than a dozen women have suffered medical neglect and mistreatment while pregnant in ICE custody, including cases of women shackled during miscarriages, denied prenatal care, and given inadequate nutrition. The advocacy coalition has urged ICE to release all pregnant detainees.

Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, one of seven people charged with stealing millions in jewelry, diamonds, emeralds, gold, rubies and designer watches in 2022, was allowed to self-deport to South America by federal immigration authorities before facing trial. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges prior to his deportation.

Yannier Vazquez Hidalgo, a Cuban man working at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Central New York, was ordered deported to Ecuador by an immigration judge. Hidalgo fled Cuba and married his husband in the U.S., requesting asylum based on persecution fears as a gay man. He was detained by federal agents in October during a routine ICE appointment in Mattydale. Though he passed an immigration test demonstrating a credible threat to his life in Cuba due to his sexual orientation, the judge ordered his deportation to a country where he has no ties and where he argues he will face persecution for being gay and Cuban.