Human Impact Project

A family of six asylum seekers from southwestern Africa — parents Josefina and José and their four children, ages 13, 10, 5 and 11 months — were held in a single windowless cell at a CBP facility in Blaine, Washington for about a month starting in April 2025, according to an ACLU complaint. Josefina, who was five months into a high-risk pregnancy, was hospitalized twice during the detention after CBP staff allegedly kept her in unsafe conditions despite hospital warnings, and she suffered pregnancy complications. The children reportedly went weeks without mental stimulation or physical activity, and the 13-year-old was allegedly handcuffed when taken to shower. The ACLU of Washington filed a federal claim seeking $15 million in damages from the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, one of 54 such claims filed nationwide in July under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

Jose Hermosillo, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from Albuquerque, was detained by Border Patrol agents near Nogales, Arizona, on April 8 after approaching an officer for help during a medical emergency. He was held for 10 days at Florence Correctional Center on suspicion of illegally entering the country, despite being a U.S. citizen. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Hermosillo said he had crossed the border without authorization and was a Mexican citizen, but Hermosillo disputes this, saying he cannot read and did not understand the document he signed. His family searched for him and ultimately provided his birth certificate and social security card to officials. A magistrate judge dismissed the case on April 17, and Hermosillo was released that night.

In Louisiana, ICE detained two mothers during routine check-ins and deported them within days to Honduras with their children. Three of the children — ages 2, 4, and 7 — were U.S. citizens, including a 4-year-old with Stage 4 kidney cancer who was deported without his medication or a chance for doctors to advise on his care. The mothers, identified by pseudonyms Rosario and Julia, have since filed a federal lawsuit in Louisiana alleging they were given no choice in whether their children would be deported with them and were blocked from contacting attorneys or family to arrange care. The suit seeks a jury trial, damages, and a ruling that the arrests and removals were unlawful, along with the families' return to the United States.

Tim, a Nigerian man, was transferred to the Batavia ICE detention facility in April 2025 after suffering a major concussion from a fall while finishing a federal prison sentence. He was discharged from a Massachusetts hospital with nine prescribed medications and orders for inpatient physical therapy. At Batavia, he went at least a month without medication and received only one physical therapy session before being deported in summer 2025. He now requires a walker and reports severe mental health issues and insomnia.

Petronila Elizabeth Poma Perez, a 24-year-old from Guatemala also known as "Heidy," died after falling about 30 feet from the U.S.-Mexico border wall near San Diego in March, with another person injured in a similar fall. Body-worn camera footage released by Border Patrol shows she called for help for roughly 24 minutes before falling, as agents waited for fire department assistance rather than using a nearby ladder and a fire engine was initially led to the wrong location. She was pronounced dead at the scene after striking her head on a concrete platform at the base of the fence.

Three migrants died in two separate incidents in the Otay Mesa/Otay Mountain Wilderness area near San Diego during a winter storm with near-freezing temperatures, rain, and snow. In the first incident, Border Patrol agents found a deceased woman near Cuchama Truck Trail and rescued another adult woman who had called for help. In a second incident less than an hour later, agents discovered two deceased men and rescued a 16-year-old girl, the daughter of one of the deceased men. All of the individuals had crossed into the U.S. illegally and became lost, suffering hypothermia symptoms amid the severe weather.

Fabian Schmidt, a German-born electrical engineer and green card holder who was detained by CBP officers at Boston Logan Airport on March 7, 2025, and interrogated for days before being transferred to ICE custody at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Rhode Island, was held for a total of two months before his release. He now lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he has married his partner, Bhavani Hodgkins, with whom he has an 8-year-old daughter. Schmidt is paying roughly $60,000 in legal fees and related costs stemming from his detention, and says he is pursuing U.S. citizenship and writing a book about his experience. The German embassy had previously confirmed it was in close contact with U.S. authorities and the family during his detention.

A Venezuelan immigrant detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection near the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel attempted to take his life by hanging himself in early March 2025. CBP officers intervened and transported him to a hospital for evaluation before transferring him to ICE custody on March 15. The incident is part of a larger pattern where advocates report 213 immigrants were detained in Detroit between January and March 2025, with approximately 90% having accidentally taken the wrong lane onto the Ambassador Bridge or tunnel while attempting to return to the U.S.

Issa Salma Baouna, a 49-year-old green-card holder from Niger, was denied reentry to the United States at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 6 after CBP determined he was inadmissible due to a prior removal order from 2022. Baouna had been ordered removed following an arrest for assault and visa overstay, and was paroled back into the country multiple times in 2023. After voluntarily returning to Niger, he contracted malaria that led to kidney failure. His wife left the U.S. with their two children to reunite with him.

Genry Ruiz Guillén, a 29-year-old Honduran man with schizoaffective disorder, was transferred to ICE custody in October 2024 and held at Krome North Service Processing Center in Florida. While detained, he suffered seizures, dizziness, fainting spells, confusion, and loss of consciousness. In December 2024, during a phone call, he told his mother three times that he was about to faint and did not feel well; she was unable to reach him afterward. He was hospitalized for acute psychosis and later transferred between three Larkin Health System hospitals for psychiatric care and treatment of rhabdomyolysis, a life-threatening muscle breakdown condition. He died in custody; his mother traveled to the detention center seeking information and was notified of his death weeks later, and his body was repatriated to Honduras. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner ruled his cause of death as 'complications of schizoaffective disorder,' but medical experts, including a former New York City chief medical examiner, questioned this finding, citing concerns about multiple medications in his system and the unresolved rhabdomyolysis. He was one of seven migrants who died in ICE custody during the first three months of the Trump administration.

Maksym Chernyak, a 44-year-old Ukrainian man who fled Russia's invasion and entered the U.S. legally under a humanitarian parole program in August 2024, was arrested in January 2025 on a domestic battery/assault charge and transferred to ICE custody at the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County. In the days before his death, he reported fever, chest pain, an irregular heartbeat, and blood in his stool, but went several days without seeing a doctor and his elevated blood pressure went untreated. On February 18, while held in an overcrowded room with about 30 other detainees, he suffered a stroke with multiple seizures and became unresponsive; staff reportedly took 15 to 40 minutes to call 911 and initially accused him of drug use, though toxicology later showed no intoxication. He was hospitalized at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, where doctors confirmed a hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage, declared him brain dead, and he died two days later. His wife said he had been in good health before detention and was pressured to sign documents without a translator. Medical experts reviewing his case for Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights concluded that delays in emergency response and higher-level care likely contributed to his death, and his case was examined as part of a broader look at rising ICE detention deaths.

Sering Ceesay, a Gambian man with serious heart conditions, was detained by ICE on February 19, 2025, after showing up for a routine immigration appointment in New York City. He was shackled and transferred to the Batavia facility, where he went two weeks without his heart medications. He subsequently suffered a stroke-like syndrome. A physician noted that without strict adherence to his medications, he faced risk of recurrent heart attacks, worsening peripheral artery disease, and strokes. A U.S. District Judge later ordered his release.

Domingo Juan Juan, a 49-year-old immigrant from Guatemala living in the U.S. without legal status, was detained by ICE on Feb. 12, 2025, in connection with a March 2024 crash near Seymour, Indiana that killed 27-year-old Brad Castner of Holton. Jackson County Prosecutor Jeffrey Chalfant said he contacted ICE to request Juan's detention, and deportation proceedings have since been initiated. Juan, who had never obtained a driver's license, was charged only with driving without a license; his detention was carried out under the Laken Riley Act, which mandates ICE custody for individuals facing charges tied to crimes resulting in serious injury or death. Castner's family attended a news conference on the case but did not speak.

Harpinder Singh Chauhan, a 56-year-old British entrepreneur and father of two on an E-2 investor visa who had lived in the United States since 2016, was detained by ICE on February 11 despite lawful presence and serious medical conditions including diabetes, pancreatitis, asthma, and heart issues. He was shackled and transported seven hours to Krome North, where he spent nearly four days in overcrowded, freezing processing cells with no beds, showers, or privacy. ICE officers confiscated his insulin and asthma inhaler, which his family had delivered to the facility, and denied him prescribed medications and his dietary regimen. He contracted a respiratory illness amid an uncontained tuberculosis outbreak. At FDC, officers locked him in a cell without a functioning toilet or air conditioning and threatened him when he requested to move. On April 20, after nearly a week without insulin, Chauhan collapsed while standing in a dinner line at BTC and was hospitalized with signs of cardiac distress. His son Aaron could not obtain information from facility staff and discovered his father had been admitted under an alias name, "Hank Campbell." Officers transferred Chauhan back to BTC after three days in the hospital. Throughout detention, when he repeatedly asked about his personal possessions including his passport, staff responded with hostile all-caps messages. An officer mocked his name during roll call; the officer was briefly suspended with pay but returned to duty. In mid-May, facility staff informed Chauhan that his passport had been lost, further delaying his deportation. He was deported to the United Kingdom in June.

Arbella Rodríguez Márquez, who has chronic lymphocytic leukemia and held a valid green card for two years before it was revoked, has now spent more than a year in ICE detention at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. State legislators, including members of the LGBTQIA caucus, and U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari have called for her humanitarian release, citing weight loss of 60 pounds, anemia and vomiting blood. ICE has disputed claims of inadequate care, stating she has been seen by medical professionals 13 times and has an upcoming offsite medical appointment.

Chidi Nwagbo, a Nigerian migrant who had lived in the U.S. for 37 years, was detained at the Buffalo Federal Detention facility in Batavia on February 10, 2025, after attempting to cross into Canada. He arrived at the facility with frostbite and was under doctor's orders to see a specialist at Kessler Burn and Trauma Center in Rochester within a week. ICE staff never took him to the appointment. By the time he saw a doctor 16 days later, portions of six fingers had to be amputated due to untreated frostbite.

Arbella "Yari" Rodríguez Márquez, a 47-year-old lawful permanent resident with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, has now spent more than a year at Eloy Detention Center, where she has lost 60 pounds and reportedly experiences anemia and vomiting blood. Three dozen Arizona state legislators from the LGBTQIA caucus have asked ICE to release her on humanitarian grounds, and U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, who visited her in September, has written to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons seeking her release. ICE disputes claims of inadequate care, saying she has been seen by medical staff 13 times and has an upcoming offsite medical appointment. An immigration judge revoked her green card after her initial detention in February 2025.

Arbella "Yari" Rodríguez Márquez, a 39-year-old former legal permanent resident with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, has been detained by ICE at the Eloy Detention Center since February 10, 2025. She has not received proper medical care for her cancer. Her health has deteriorated, including coughing up blood and losing 70 pounds. Detention center staff have denied her requests to see an oncologist and specialist. U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari visited the facility and documented conditions. The representative has called for immediate medical intervention and her release.

Alfonso Garcia Vega, a 61-year-old man with health issues including a possible brain tumor, was arrested by ICE agents in a Sunnyslope neighborhood raid on Sunday. ICE deployed an armored truck with a battering ram, at least 12 unmarked vehicles, flash-bang grenades, and dozens of armed agents to arrest him. His son Marco Garcia stated that ICE officers showed his father a picture of a man named Alfonso, but it was not him, and that his father called from an ICE detention center saying the photo did not match his identity. Garcia said his father has multiple health issues and is seeking a diagnosis for a possible tumor. Neighbors described the operation as overly aggressive for a single elderly man.

A woman from Honduras was detained at Krome's processing room where she reported the one toilet in her cell was covered in feces. Despite repeated requests for cleaning supplies, officers told her sarcastically, 'Housekeeping will come soon.' No one ever came. She was denied pain relief for menstrual cramps and provided only a menstrual pad. After transfer to the Broward Transitional Center, she fell from her bunk in March. Although an X-ray showed no fracture, her ankle became swollen and bruised. She walked in pain for a week before receiving crutches, after repeated requests for some form of relief.