Human Impact Project

Two men were detained by ICE agents in Waltham after one agent broke a van window during the encounter on Tuesday. A 16-year-old witness recorded the incident and informed the men of their rights. It remains unclear what charges the men face or the reasons for their arrest.

A small panga-style boat carrying migrants capsized off Torrey Pines State Beach near San Diego, killing four people including a 14-year-old boy and resulting in a 10-year-old girl missing at sea. The children's father is in a coma and their mother remains hospitalized. Five Mexican citizens have been charged with human smuggling resulting in death and other related crimes.

Denisse Parra Vargas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was stopped for expired tags in North Austin on Thursday and later instructed to report to a processing center in Pflugerville on Tuesday. When she reported with her three children, ICE arrested all of them. Two of her three children are U.S. citizens. The family was deported to Mexico within 24 hours.

On May 6, 2025, ICE and HSI agents conducted unannounced visits to more than 100 Washington-area businesses, including nearly a dozen well-known restaurants, as part of a Trump administration immigration enforcement crackdown targeting employers suspected of employing undocumented workers. Agents requested I-9 employment verification forms and issued Notice of Inspection documents requiring record production within three business days at establishments including Chef Geoff's, Pupatella, Millie's, Chang Chang, Jaleo, Clyde's and Cynthia. DHS confirmed more than 100 Notices of Inspection were served and said no arrests were made during the operations. Restaurant owners, managers and industry members commented on the visits to the local food community.

ICE agents conducted a multi-day enforcement operation across northern Nevada, making 17 arrests on Monday, May 5, 2025, and an additional 16 arrests by noon on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Reno, Sparks, Sun Valley, and Carson City. ICE officials stated that all arrested individuals had previous criminal convictions. Among those detained was Rodolfo Hernandez-Yanez, 56, who was taken into custody in a rideshare parking lot along Highway 50 near Carson City while driving his 17- and 18-year-old children to school in Incline Village; ICE said he had a 2014 involuntary manslaughter conviction and remained in the country after a 2019 deportation order was upheld on appeal. The operation prompted concerns from both the Nevada Immigration Coalition and the ACLU of Nevada about increased federal immigration enforcement in the state.

Early one Sunday in May, Tennessee Highway Patrol, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security conducted a joint operation dubbed "Operation Flood the Zone" in South Nashville, pulling over roughly 150 drivers for alleged traffic violations and transporting detainees to a federal facility in Louisiana. Advocacy groups, including Hijos de Immigrantes and the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition, said officers targeted people over minor infractions like broken taillights and tinted windows in immigrant communities, calling it racial profiling. A six-month investigation by Lighthouse Reports, Mother Jones and partner newsrooms, based on ICE documents, court records and police footage, found that about 75 percent of the roughly 200 people ICE said it arrested had no criminal record, despite the agency's claim it had detained "the worst of the worst." Nine months later, Nashville residents say they still have little information from state or federal officials about who was detained and deported in the operation.

ICE agents apprehended a man at a Sinclair gas station in Oxnard, California on May 4, leaving two children in his vehicle. A gas station attendant witnessed the arrest and reported that the children remained in the truck after the father was taken into custody. DHS stated that the man's 19-year-old son took possession of the vehicle and that ICE offered to relocate it, though advocacy groups contend the children were left unattended.

During a May 2025 joint THP and ICE operation in Nashville, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a vehicle for a broken light and shared the driver's immigration status with an ICE agent, resulting in the driver's detention and deportation. The week-long operation resulted in more than 100 arrests, separating families and leaving relatives behind in Nashville. Body camera footage from one traffic stop shows how the operation unfolded, with the ICE agent detaining the driver after learning of his undocumented status. Nearly a year later, families of those deported continue experiencing the operation's impacts.

Over a dozen U.S. citizens have been caught up in the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown, according to interviews, court records and news reports. Attorneys, civil rights advocates and immigration scholars have stated that citizens face vulnerability in a system with faster processing and fewer procedural safeguards.

ICE agents conducted a search warrant raid at an Oklahoma City residence as part of a human smuggling investigation. The warrant named suspects who no longer lived at the property. Agents forcibly removed a U.S. citizen mother and her three daughters, seized their phones, laptops, and cash savings, and ordered them outside in the rain. Homeland Security later acknowledged the family were not the intended targets of the investigation.

ICE agents detained Clemente Chilel Ramírez at his Phoenix apartment on April 29th after he returned from work, with his three children present during the operation. According to ICE, Ramírez had a deportation order issued in 2024 for illegally re-entering the United States after being expelled in 2016. Agents used a battering ram to enter the apartment, which ICE stated they had a search warrant for. Ramírez has no criminal record.

ICE officers arrested dozens of delivery and rideshare drivers at the gates of Camp Pendleton military base in California as part of an "interagency security initiative" launched in May 2025. Many of those detained had temporary permission to work in the U.S. and were employed by apps like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and GrubHub. Federal judges have repeatedly found the detentions violated due process, yet the base and ICE continue the practice.

19-year-old Javier Salazar, a Venezuelan who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2022, was arrested in Maryland and detained by ICE on suspicion of gang membership based on a photo showing what may have been a toy water pistol. A Supreme Court intervention blocked his deportation to El Salvador hours before he was to be removed. His legal battle continues as the Trump administration seeks to expedite his removal.

ICE agents conducted an enforcement operation outside a Home Depot in Pomona, Los Angeles County on the morning of April 22, 2025, detaining between 10 and 20 day laborers who were waiting for work. The operation initially targeted one individual with an active arrest warrant and resulted in the detention of additional undocumented migrants. Three of the men, identified as Jesus Domingo Ros, Edwin Juarez and Johnny Garcia, were later transferred to ICE custody and held at a detention facility in Calexico. On May 6, community activists and immigration rights advocates held a rally outside Pomona City Hall demanding fair bond hearings and due process for the three men, coinciding with a scheduled court hearing in their cases.

Department of Homeland Security agents attempted to speak with students at two Los Angeles elementary schools (Russell Elementary and Lillian Street Elementary) stating they were conducting welfare checks on unaccompanied minors. School principals denied the agents access. House Democrats have requested a briefing regarding the agents' claim of having parental permission and regarding four of the targeted students who were not unaccompanied minors.

Juan Francisco Mendez, a 29-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, was released from the Strafford County Jail on May 15, 2025, after being detained for 30 days following his April 14 arrest in New Bedford. An immigration judge set his bail at $1,500, the lowest amount possible, and Mendez was released wearing an ankle monitor. ICE agents had smashed his car window with an ax during the initial traffic stop while Mendez and his wife waited for their lawyer. Mendez is now working toward reunification with his wife and 9-year-old son.

Eight undocumented immigrants were arrested by ICE agents at a Las Vegas worksite, according to Laura Martin, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. Plainclothes federal agents targeted the business, prompting immigrant advocates to warn of increased federal immigration enforcement activity in the Las Vegas area. The Nevada Immigrant Coalition, which includes PLAN, the Culinary Union, and ACLU of Nevada, organized a news conference and press briefing to alert residents and advise them on their rights during ICE encounters. Advocates noted that enforcement operations have been targeting workplaces, particularly construction sites. Undocumented immigrants make up 9% of Nevada's workforce, the largest share of any state.

A Florida woman, Latrance Battle, impersonated an ICE agent and kidnapped her ex-boyfriend's wife from her workplace on April 10. The victim, who was in the process of becoming a legal U.S. resident, believed Battle was an ICE agent when approached. Battle took the victim to an apartment complex instead of the sheriff's office, where the victim escaped and contacted law enforcement. Battle was arrested and charged with kidnapping, robbery, impersonating a law enforcement officer, and felony probation violation.

On April 1, state and federal police raided a party at an Airbnb in an Austin suburb, arresting nearly 50 people including nine children. The FBI, ICE, Texas Department of Public Safety, and Hays County Sheriff's Office claimed they targeted individuals connected to a Venezuelan gang, but offered no substantiating evidence; ICE arrested 35 individuals on unauthorized entry charges, with many subsequently deported through civil immigration proceedings rather than criminal prosecution. Among those detained were three siblings, including a 16-year-old boy, whose mother holds Temporary Protected Status and says her children have no gang ties or tattoos, noting they attended the party because her daughter's boyfriend, a DJ, had been hired to perform. The mother and her attorney said the siblings were separated into different detention facilities, and that Austin police and the Hays County Sheriff's Office initially denied involvement when contacted about the children's whereabouts. Protesters later gathered outside a federal building in Austin in an attempt to block vans transporting detainees, including the 16-year-old, from leaving the facility.

ICE conducted a raid on a paint business in El Cajon on March 27, 2025, arresting Jorge Lopez Leon and approximately 14 other workers. Lopez Leon, a father of four whose wife is a U.S. citizen and who was in the process of obtaining a green card, was detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center. The operation involved dozens of agents with weapons and resulted in the deportation of at least three workers who chose not to contest their cases in immigration court.