Human Impact Project

Rafael Veraza and his 1-year-old daughter were allegedly pepper-sprayed by ICE agents in a Chicago suburb while the family was going grocery shopping. The incident occurred last week, and the family held a news conference to discuss the alleged use of force. The Department of Homeland Security has disputed the allegation.

ICE agents surrounded a car during a traffic stop on Kimball Street in Fitchburg on November 6, 2025, to arrest Juliana Milena Ojeda-Montoya, 24, an Ecuadorian national with a pending asylum claim and valid work authorization who was wanted for allegedly stabbing a coworker with scissors. During the arrest, her husband Carlos Sebastian Zapata, 24, a Fitchburg resident, appeared to suffer a seizure while holding their 1½-year-old daughter, whom Ojeda-Montoya breastfeeds. Zapata said an ICE agent pushed him, hit his ribs, and pressed on his neck, causing him to lose consciousness; video of the incident captured bystanders expressing concern and went viral. DHS disputed his account, claiming he faked the medical emergency to help his wife evade arrest and that medical personnel found no legitimate emergency. Ojeda-Montoya, who had previously been released on bond in March 2024, was ordered released on November 10 after a federal judge found her detention without a hearing violated her due process rights.

An ICE agent pointed a firearm at Sol, an unarmed community watch member, at the intersection of Santa Ana Boulevard and Shelton Street in Santa Ana on November 9, 2025. Sol had been legally observing and recording what appeared to be an ICE vehicle when the agent aimed his gun directly at her. A Fullerton Police officer was present at the scene; the agent identified himself as ICE and provided credentials, claiming Sol had been following him. The officer did not intervene, stating no crime had occurred, and Sol left the area.

Jaykie Funez-Andrade, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years, was detained by federal agents during a traffic stop on Route 11 North in Harrisonburg, Virginia, while driving her 16-year-old daughter to school. When she struggled to recite her Social Security number from memory, an agent tackled her to the ground; she then showed her work permit, Social Security card, driver's license, and vehicle registration, but was arrested anyway. Her daughter filmed the encounter, saying officers left her alone on the roadside as agents drove off with her mother, and pleaded, "I want this video out there because I want my mother home." Funez-Andrade is being held at Rockingham/Harrisonburg Regional Jail with no criminal charges filed, reportedly as a 'courtesy' to ICE, and her family has started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees.

Federal agents sprayed pepper spray from a moving vehicle at a line of cars exiting a Sam's Club parking lot in Cicero on Saturday morning, striking a 1-year-old child among other occupants. Video footage shows a masked federal agent firing chemical irritants through open car windows.

Waukegan Alderman Juan Martinez was briefly detained by U.S. immigration enforcement agents on Baldwin Avenue while stuck in traffic on November 7, 2025. Four federal agents drew guns on Martinez while he sat in his car with his hands raised, with one agent threatening to shoot him. The agents eventually left after community members identified Martinez as a city alderman, and he filed a police report with the Waukegan Police Department.

Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer at California State University Channel Islands, was arrested on July 10, 2025, during federal immigration enforcement raids at Glass House Farms cannabis facilities in Camarillo, Ventura County. He was charged with a felony count of assaulting an immigration agent with a deadly or dangerous weapon after allegedly throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement; some accounts indicate he was instead trying to dislodge a canister stuck under a wheelchair during the confrontation between agents and protesters. The broader raids, conducted across Southern California cannabis facilities between July 10-14, resulted in more than 360 arrests and the death of one farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof. Caravello was released on a $15,000 bond, and in November 2025 he pleaded not guilty in federal court to the charge.

Ousmane (a pseudonym), a West African man who had lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was among 19 people put on deportation flight N225AX from Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana to Ghana on November 6, 2025 — a country none of them had ties to. When he said he would not go, "I started getting beat up, having my face covered up, in front of all the other detainees, just to scare them," he said. He was reportedly placed in a full-body restraint device known as the WRAP. After landing in Accra, the deportees were held at a hotel, then taken by soldiers to the remote Bundase military camp and later to a detention facility at the airport, where they were pressured daily to contact their embassies for travel documents. Nearly a year later, the people on the flight told reporters they remain in limbo.

ICE agents pointed rifles at bystanders and attempted to break down doors while conducting an enforcement action at Salem Walk apartments in unincorporated Northbrook on November 5, 2025. The operation, which lasted approximately 50 minutes and involved over a dozen agents and an armored vehicle, resulted in the arrest of Alan Eduardo Garcia, who had a history of violent convictions. Residents and community members confronted agents and filmed the incident.

ICE conducted arrests at multiple locations in Redmond, Washington, including at Bear Creek Village shopping center, detaining seven people in total. One incident involved a man being detained outside a Panera Bread, with witnesses reporting that ICE agents broke a truck window and dragged out the occupant without showing a warrant. The Redmond Police Department confirmed it was not informed in advance of the operations and stated it does not participate in immigration enforcement. At least three of the arrests occurred less than a mile from the city's Flock Safety surveillance cameras, prompting Redmond police to suspend officers' access to the camera system amid concerns the data could be sought by federal agencies.

According to an Instagram post by L.A. TACO, a Border Patrol agent hit a child in the face with a ball during a raid. The child was subsequently driven away from the scene by Border Patrol but was later reunited with their mother in the afternoon.

Cole Sheridan, a 27-year-old hospitality worker, was arrested during an October 3 pro-immigrant protest at the Broadview, Illinois immigration enforcement facility after U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino accused him of pushing and swinging at him. Sheridan faced federal charges of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer, spent three days in custody, and said the ordeal cost him four days of work and a month of anxiety over potential imprisonment. An investigator noted Bovino took two weeks of leave citing a groin injury he claimed to have sustained in the encounter. After a friend located video footage from an October 31 news report showing Sheridan being pushed down and not near Bovino, prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges on November 3, though they could still refile. Sheridan said the footage proved there was no altercation as described in the criminal complaint, adding Bovino's account 'means nothing.' Other cases against Chicago-area protesters and immigrants involving similar discrepancies in Bovino's accounts have also been dismissed.

Berenice Garcia-Hernandez, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE for approximately seven hours after photographing unmarked ICE vehicles near a Chick-fil-A in Gresham. She was documenting the agents' presence to warn her community after seeing a Facebook alert. ICE agents broke her car window and removed her from the vehicle, though no criminal charges had been filed as of the article's publication.

Ricardo Rodriguez, a 53-year-old construction worker and father of two deaf teenagers, was arrested by federal agents on Sunday morning in Melrose Park, Illinois while riding his bicycle home from a grocery store. According to video footage, agents grabbed him in a stranger's driveway, pepper-sprayed him, placed him in a chokehold, and struck his head. He was gasping and saying 'Por favor, amigo' during the encounter. Rodriguez was taken to Gottlieb Memorial Hospital with head wounds and complaints of chest pains. While hospitalized, federal agents restricted visitation from his U.S. citizen sister and other family members.

In Adelphi, Maryland, Montgomery County Councilmember Kristin Mink filmed federal agents detaining a person near a school. She said an agent grabbed her arm, touched her face and reached for her phone while ordering her to leave, and two vehicles then drove toward her before leaving the area. Mink said she is considering legal options and plans to continue monitoring ICE activity in her community.

At an intersection in California, a plainclothes federal agent pulled his weapon on a woman following and recording him — until a local police officer driving by intervened, explaining to the federal agent that there was no crime being committed.

Immigration agents forcibly entered a family's apartment in November 2025 searching for the mother's cousin, breaking down the door and using force against the mother while her children hid. The 10-year-old boy, identified as J., witnessed agents point a gun at him and his sister as they tried to film the encounter on an iPad. Months later, J. continues experiencing nightmares and flashbacks, struggling to focus in school and fearing for his parents' safety. The incident is part of a broader pattern of immigration enforcement affecting children's mental health nationwide, with studies showing significant psychological impacts on minors in immigrant families.

Federal immigration agents, including ICE and Border Patrol personnel, deployed tear gas and other riot control weapons against protesters during enforcement operations in Chicago and Illinois beginning in September 2025. On October 14, 2025, Border Patrol agents pursued a vehicle on Chicago's East Side, using a precision immobilization technique (PIT maneuver) to stop it at the intersection of 105th and Avenue N, resulting in a collision. Two undocumented immigrants fled on foot and were arrested. When residents gathered to protest the operation, federal agents deployed tear gas, exposing 13 Chicago police officers to the gas. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on October 9 limiting crowd-control tactics, but subsequent court filings alleged violations occurring almost daily. An analysis of 28 protest events found seven instances of riot control weapons use without apparent threats and 19 instances of excessive force.

A CBP agent was recorded on video on October 31, 2025, repeatedly striking a 27-year-old Chicago man while he was pinned down near Oakton and Asbury in Evanston following a car crash and confrontation between agents and residents. Body-worn camera footage shows him telling officers he needed medical attention, which he did not receive during about five hours in federal custody. He was later charged with assaulting, resisting and impeding federal officers and was not required to post bond. Two other citizens detained in the incident were released without charges after a similar period in custody.

Jose Garcia-Sorto was shot by a federal ICE agent during a 4 a.m. traffic stop on Interstate 17 near Dove Valley Road in north Phoenix, after allegedly attempting to drive away. DHS said the agent fired twice because he was in the vehicle's path, but the Phoenix New Times reported photos showing damage to the driver's side window rather than the windshield, contradicting that account. Garcia-Sorto's wife said she has been unable to obtain information from authorities about his condition and that he is hospitalized under a different name.