Human Impact Project

The Trump administration is seeking to deport two men who witnessed the January 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at a Texas detention camp. The eyewitness accounts of the two men differ from the Department of Homeland Security's official account of the incident.

ICE deported a man who was apprehended in Utah. A judge has since ruled that the Trump administration must bring him back, indicating potential legal issues with the deportation proceedings.

Deportations of Brazilian citizens from the United States reached a historic high in 2025, with more than 3 million citizens forced to return to Brazil, nearly double the 2024 total. The Ministry of Human Rights confirmed a 99.8% increase in deportations compared to the previous year. The sharp increase reflects the zero-tolerance immigration policy adopted by President Donald Trump, which has intensified enforcement actions against undocumented immigrants.

Adayomi Ademuyiwa, a Dallas prison guard who had invoked his right to a speedy trial, was deported to Nigeria by ICE in January 2026 despite a federal judge having released him on conditions months earlier. His attorney, Paul Lund, asked the court to dismiss the federal indictment since the government's own action prevented him from appearing, but Chief District Judge David Godbey declined to do so at the March 2 trial date. The judge also denied the prosecution's request for a bench warrant should Ademuyiwa return to the U.S.

Gabriel Espinoza Diaz, a 22-year-old undocumented community college student who had lived in the U.S. since age 4, was detained by ICE after a confrontation with security at the Strat Hotel in Las Vegas in January 2026 following a disputed threatening text message. Although charges were dropped and a judge granted voluntary departure, ICE kept him in custody and deported him to Mexico. He was transferred to an Arizona facility in a pre-dawn transfer without family notification and left at the border in Nogales, Sonora. Now living in Tijuana, Espinoza has abandoned his dream of becoming a teacher in the United States.

Jorge Paredes, a Guatemalan national who lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was arrested by ICE in January 2026 and subsequently deported. He reports that when he received his belongings before his repatriation flight, he discovered that more than $1,300 he had when arrested was missing and not returned to him.

Khadija (also referred to by the pseudonym Abina), a bisexual woman from Ghana, fled her country fearing for her life after she and her family were persecuted because of her sexual orientation. She crossed the U.S. border in December 2024 to seek asylum and was detained at the Eloy detention center in Arizona. Denied eligibility for asylum only because of the "circumvention of lawful pathways" regulation, she proved to an immigration judge that she was a refugee and was granted withholding of removal in July 2025. Instead of releasing her, ICE continued to detain her and told her she would be sent to Cameroon — a country she had never been to and where homosexuality is also criminalized. When she requested a fear interview and refused to sign voluntary deportation papers, an ICE officer told her to "get the fuck out of my face." In January 2026 she was placed on a flight in shackles around her wrists, ankles, and waist, with stopovers in Louisiana and Senegal, and deported to Cameroon. There she lives in a crowded room with about ten other women and other third-country nationals, lacking clothing, sanitary pads, and basic hygiene products, and was told she has temporary authorization to remain for only two months. As of July 2026, she remains in limbo, afraid to go outside the building where she is housed and unable to return to Ghana, where she fears persecution.

Hugo Diaz, a 49-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who built a transportation business in Minnesota, was arrested by ICE in January 2026 and deported to Guatemala, leaving behind his wife Blanca Lara and two young sons in Burnsville. The family is among thousands separated by the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, including Operation Metro Surge, which resulted in over 3,700 arrests across Minnesota. Diaz's younger son has stopped eating since his father's departure, and both children struggle emotionally with the separation.

Jose Sanchez was detained by ICE in November 2025 and deported to Mexico despite having a pending citizenship case. He died in January 2026 while attempting to cross the Rio Grande to return to his family in San Antonio. His partner, Tiffany Barrera, is a U.S. citizen and mother of five.

Victor Rodriguez Ocampo Sr., 54, owner of La Playa Taco Shop in Mission Beach, was seized by ICE on October 31 and deported to Mexico after approximately two months at Otay Mesa Detention Center. Rodriguez, who operated the restaurant for about 30 years, was detained despite having minimal connection to Mexico. His son has established a GoFundMe fundraiser that has raised over $18,500 to support the family and cover legal expenses.

Arturo Rafael Brito Goncalvez, a 22-year-old Venezuelan pilot, was detained by ICE during a scheduled immigration appointment in Westerville, Ohio. His family claims he entered the country legally in 2023 with valid visas and employment authorization. He is fighting deportation and fears returning to Venezuela due to political persecution.

Marwan Marouf, a North Texas community leader who served the Muslim community for 30 years, was arrested by ICE on September 22, 2025, the same day his green card application was denied based on allegations from over a decade ago. He was transferred to Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, and the Muslim Legal Fund of America challenged the denial in immigration and federal court. After 60 days in detention, Marouf appeared before Immigration Judge Abdias Tida and accepted deportation rather than continue fighting his case.

Miguel Garcia Pazaran and his wife Dulce Maria Trejo Segura were pulled over by immigration agents while driving to work in Hillsboro, Oregon and detained without proper clothing. The couple was taken to a detention center in Tacoma and deported to Mexico within eight days, leaving behind their 2-year-old daughter Sofía, who is a U.S. citizen.

ICE agents arrested a Honduran mother and her two children, including a 4-year-old U.S. citizen, at a check-in appointment on December 20, 2025. The family was detained in hotel rooms for 18 days across multiple locations, including near LaGuardia Airport and Alexandria, Louisiana, during which they had minimal contact with the outside world. They were briefly placed on a plane to Honduras before being taken off due to a federal judge's temporary restraining order blocking their deportation, and were eventually released on January 7, 2026.

Families of immigrants arrested in a federal ICE surge in Maine are struggling to find basic information about their detained relatives as the government rapidly transfers them to detention facilities across multiple states. Erik Orellana-Mejia was arrested at his worksite on January 20 and has since been transferred to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Louisiana, and Missouri. ICE has been building out detention and deportation infrastructure in New England and across the country to support intensified enforcement operations.

Yessica Rivera Sanchez, who had lived in Las Vegas for over two decades, was detained by ICE agents at Honolulu airport on December 18 as she exited a plane with her husband and daughter during a family vacation. Her daughter Jessivet Sanchez, who turned 21 in September and had just filed an I-130 family petition on her mother's behalf, now suspects that filing may have inadvertently alerted authorities to a 2004 removal order tied to a 2003 asylum application, one the family says they never received formal notice of. After being transferred through detention centers in California, Texas and Louisiana, Sanchez was deported to El Salvador in late December, where she has since spoken by phone with her family and voiced concern for her husband and daughter's wellbeing. The family has hired an immigration attorney, launched a GoFundMe to cover legal fees, and says an immigration court is now reviewing the case as they work to bring her back.

A 20-year-old from Guatemala who received legal status in 2022 under the child separation settlement was arrested by ICE agents at a gas station in December 2025. He was detained in Florida before being transferred to Louisiana. On December 18, 2025, despite ACLU lawyers emailing Department of Justice officials to contend that an existing court order should prevent his deportation, Homeland Security placed him on a flight to Guatemala.

Jose Cadena-Velasquez, a 49-year-old Mexican national living in Fargo, was arrested by Border Patrol and ICE agents during a traffic stop after a months-long investigation based on a tip that he was in the country illegally and using fraudulent documents. When agents stopped his vehicle and asked him to exit, Cadena refused and locked the doors, prompting agents to break the window and use physical restraint techniques to extract him. He pleaded guilty to federal charges including possession of false immigration identification documents, use of a false Social Security number, and assaulting or resisting a federal officer, and now faces deportation. At sentencing, the judge described the immigration enforcement system as being in "a state of chaos."

Jesus Gutiérrez, a 23-year-old US citizen, was stopped by federal immigration agents in Chicago and handcuffed without identification. Agents used ICE's Mobile Fortify facial recognition app to scan his face, which verified his citizenship status. He was held for about an hour before being released. Federal authorities have acknowledged using this facial recognition technology across the country to verify citizenship and check for deportation orders.

Mohan Karki, a 30-year-old refugee born in a Nepal refugee camp whose family fled persecution in Bhutan in the 1990s, faces deportation to Bhutan by the U.S. government despite having no passport or birth certificate from that country. He has been detained for over eight months pending removal proceedings stemming from a teenage burglary conviction. His attorneys have stated that deportation could result in statelessness, as Bhutanese authorities have previously denied entry to other deportees.