Human Impact Project

A 61-year-old Canadian green card holder was deported from Florida to Toronto on April 15, 2026, after 62 days in ICE custody, including nine days at the Dade-Collier "Alligator Alcatraz" facility before it closed, followed by time at Glades County Detention Center. He had pleaded no contest to tax evasion in 2022 over about $12,000 in unpaid Florida sales tax tied to his shuttered Tropical Smoothie shop in Port Charlotte, which closed during the pandemic. Now living in Montreal and staying with his sister-in-law while he regains his identification documents, he is working as a DoorDash driver to get back on his feet. He remains separated from his wife, children and grandchildren, who stayed behind in Naples, Florida, and has reflected on the death by suicide of a 19-year-old fellow detainee he met during his detention.

On August 27, 2025, Vasquez (49) and Ramirez (40), a married couple from Mexico, were arrested by ICE during a traffic stop in Tulsa despite having pending U visa applications and federal deportation protections as crime victims who assisted law enforcement in prosecuting a serial rapist. Ramirez was held for four months at Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Texas, where she was denied access to seizure medication for her epilepsy. Vasquez was detained for over seven months at a CoreCivic facility in Cushing, Oklahoma, and attended 13 immigration court hearings before winning a habeas corpus lawsuit granting him a bond hearing. The prolonged separation and detention resulted in job loss, eviction from their home in Broken Arrow, and approximately $12,000 in accumulated legal debt. Vasquez was released in April 2026 on deferral of removal grounds, followed by Ramirez's release. Both remain without legal status and are working to recover financially while awaiting U visa hearings.

S.M.H., a 16-year-old Los Angeles high school student and aspiring tennis player, was detained by ICE in April 2026 along with his parents, Maryam and Eissa Tahmasebi—both educators, with Maryam a professor at Los Angeles Pierce College—after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the family's green cards. Lawyers say the family, all permanent residents, is being punished because Eissa's mother, at age 19, served as a spokesperson for the student group that held Americans hostage in Iran in 1979, calling it unprecedented "bloodline punishment" for actions preceding their births. S.M.H. and his mother have been held for more than 120 days at the Dilley family detention center—far exceeding the 20-day Flores settlement limit—while his father is detained separately, with the family limited to 10-minute biweekly phone calls. In a letter published in The Nation, Maryam described the ordeal as an "unendurable, unending nightmare," while immigration lawyer Hassan Ahmad said he has not seen foreign policy grounds used to detain people based solely on family relationship rather than individual conduct.

Everlee Wihongi, a New Zealand citizen and long-term U.S. resident with a green card, was detained by ICE in early April after returning from New Zealand. She was held for more than 70 days because of a 2016 cannabis conviction that was later thrown out by the courts in June. During her detention at facilities in California, Arizona, and Texas, Wihongi described dehumanizing conditions including being referred to by her bunk-bed number rather than her name, extremely early meal times (3:45 a.m. in Arizona), shackling during transit, and witnessing children and pregnant women being shackled and moved between facilities. She has since been released and returned to Wisconsin with her family.

Melona fled Eritrea and sought asylum in the United States but was deported to Panama under a formal U.S. government agreement, a country where she has no ties and speaks no language. She was held in a hotel with hundreds of other migrants and asylum seekers without explanation or information about her future. The U.S. government is conducting deportation flights to Panama and Costa Rica as part of formal policy agreements. Melona's case represents a systemic pattern rather than an isolated incident.

Dy, a Vietnamese refugee with an order of supervision, was arrested by ICE in November 2017 during a home visit and detained for five months and twenty-one days before being released following public attention and a habeas corpus petition. In fall 2025, during Trump's second term, Dy was arrested again after attending an ICE check-in appointment at the Atlanta field office, where he was sent on what he describes as a trap involving confusing directions between floors. He was transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, where he remained in detention as of April 2026. Dy is a former incarcerated person who turned his life around, became a Christian, married Tammy, and together they own a home and are raising three children with a fourth on the way. His wife and community have organized to support him, including celebrating a gender reveal party during his detention via video call with commissary materials.

Genaro Gonzalez-Uribe, a 72-year-old undocumented man, was detained by ICE on March 30, 2026, while driving to work in Lodi, California. He was pulled over by unmarked vehicles and transferred to a detention facility in Kern County. His family reports he has no criminal history, prior deportations, or removal orders. They also expressed concerns about his health and access to medication while in custody and are seeking legal assistance as he faces removal proceedings.

Ali and Adel, an Iranian gay couple in their late 30s and early 40s, fled Iran in 2021 after being arrested by Iran's morality police for their relationship. They entered the United States at the El Paso, Texas border in early 2025 seeking asylum, but their claims were denied. The men are now separated in ICE detention facilities—Ali in Arizona and Adel near El Paso—facing deportation under a Trump administration policy reversing decades of allowing Iranians fleeing persecution to remain in the country. Adel has suffered severe organ damage and medical deterioration in detention, including significant weight loss and fainting episodes. Court orders have so far prevented their deportation, though both men have been moved to deportation staging facilities multiple times, and the Trump administration has not clarified whether deportation flights to Iran will resume.

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56-year-old nearly blind Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who spoke little English and relied on a cane to walk, was released from Erie County jail on February 19, 2026, after Border Patrol agents determined he was ineligible for deportation. Agents dropped him off at a Tim Hortons north of Buffalo without notifying his family or attorney. Surveillance footage contradicted DHS claims that the location was safe and open, showing the store was closed except for its drive-thru. Alam went missing for several days before his body was found on February 24 near KeyBank Center, about four miles from where he was left. Local officials ruled his death a homicide, caused by complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer worsened by hypothermia and dehydration. Governor Kathy Hochul later cited his death as an example of harm caused by federal immigration enforcement.

A Guatemalan national who entered the United States in 2008 at age 15 was taken into immigration custody on March 31, 2026. An immigration judge entered an Order of Removal on May 18, 2026, which he appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. He filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his continued detention as unlawful and unconstitutional, alleging inadequate medical care for cervical and lumbar spinal injuries, due process violations, and that less restrictive alternatives exist. The court denied his emergency motion for a temporary restraining order prohibiting removal but ordered respondents to file a sealed medical status report within 14 days.

Maria, a 38-year-old thyroid cancer survivor from Brazil, was detained at Delaney Hall ICE detention center for roughly two weeks where medical staff did not provide her prescribed daily hormone supplements and also provided incorrect medication, leaving her unable to urinate for at least four days. Her attorney filed an emergency letter to a federal judge on March 31, 2026, raising concerns about the possibility of irreparable harm including organ failure or sepsis. The judge ordered her release the next day, in part due to these medical concerns. Her case is among over 70 lawsuits filed by Delaney Hall detainees alleging medical neglect.

A 15-year-old was detained during an ICE raid at a clandestine club off San Pedro Avenue in San Antonio in November 2025, along with approximately 140 other people. Four months later, the teen remained in federal custody at a migrant children's shelter on San Antonio's South Side despite paperwork for his release being completed. The release process stalled after his father, who was handling the case, was detained while driving back from a job in Corpus Christi, creating additional complications as the family feared further detention if a parent came forward to secure his release.

Rudy Villeda Mejía, a 47-year-old Honduran roofing business owner who has lived in Washington state since 2010 after being kidnapped and held for ransom by Los Zetas cartel members, was arrested by ICE at Denver International Airport on March 30, 2025. He had attended routine immigration check-ins for years without incident and had a pending T visa application as a trafficking victim, which his attorney argued was his only lawful path to remain with his U.S. citizen wife, Mabel Shaffer, and her three children. During roughly four months in ICE custody in Aurora, Colorado, his health declined, including worsening Bell's palsy symptoms, back pain, and weight loss, while the family's roofing business lost contracts and his wife struggled to manage it alone. A federal judge initially denied his habeas petition, but later ordered his release under a court order barring detention of pending T visa applicants; ICE had already transferred him to Louisiana and released him there without his ID, passport, or work permit. His wife flew to Louisiana to drive him home, and his stepson said he immediately returned to work at the family business.

ICE lodged a detainer requesting that Charlotte authorities not release Angelvis Jesus Quintero Fernandez, a 22-year-old from Venezuela, who was arrested and faces felony charges including first-degree murder in two fatal shootings in Charlotte on January 24 and March 22, 2026. Quintero Fernandez allegedly entered the U.S. in July 2023 via the CBP One app.

A two-year-old boy who was held at the Dilley family detention center in Texas since March 19, 2026, and his mother Joani were released on April 2, 2026, after the boy spent 12 days refusing to eat while running a fever. His attorney, Columbia Law School professor Elora Mukherjee, said the situation amounted to a medical emergency. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security said detained individuals receive meals, water, and medical care, including access to a pediatrician. Rep. Joaquin Castro had publicly called for the boy's release and renewed criticism of the facility, which currently holds roughly 1,400 people, including about 400 children.

On March 28, 2026, a charter deportation flight carrying several dozen Russian citizens departed from Alexandria, Louisiana, and arrived in Moscow on March 29 via Newark and Cairo. The deportees were gathered from five or six immigration detention centers across the United States. Human rights advocates reported harsh transfer conditions including shackles and extended periods without seating. Some deportees faced FSB questioning upon arrival, and human rights organizations noted concerns about potential Kremlin reprisals against returnees, including those who had opposed the invasion of Ukraine.

A Trump-appointed federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against ICE for grave violations of detainees' Fifth Amendment rights during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. The court found that ICE isolated thousands of people at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building without access to attorneys and ordered the agency to provide legal aid contacts, interpreters, and free phone access within one hour of detention, as well as ban rapid out-of-state transfers within 72 hours.

Patience Gore, a 44-year-old Zimbabwean national who has lived in the U.S. for about 24 years, was seized by undercover plainclothes ICE agents at a United Airlines gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after a gate agent repeatedly called her name over the loudspeaker. Gore, who held a withholding of removal order, has sole custody of her 11-year-old U.S. citizen daughter and is married to U.S. citizen Olaoluwa Omotosho; she had been traveling home to Maryland with her partner after attending a friend's wedding. She was held for nearly two weeks across three Arizona detention facilities in what her lawsuit describes as degrading, squalid conditions, including sleeping on a mattress on the floor, being denied a change of clothes, and being denied sunglasses despite light sensitivity. The detention disrupted a time-sensitive IVF cycle, and a subsequent replacement cycle did not result in pregnancy. A federal judge granted her habeas petition and ordered her release on March 27, and she and her husband are now suing United Airlines, alleging it colluded with ICE to lure her to the gate.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in late March requiring ICE and the Florida Department of Emergency Management to provide detained people at the Everglades Detention Facility with access to legal counsel, confidential calls, and unscheduled attorney visits. The ruling was based on testimony describing systematic denial of access to attorneys and legal materials. The case, filed by the ACLU and immigrant rights advocates, could shape legal access standards at future ICE detention facilities.

Neysis was detained by ICE while six months pregnant with twins. When she began experiencing painful contractions, she was shackled to a hospital bed instead of receiving compassionate medical care. The incident has prompted calls for Congressional investigation into detention facility conditions.