Human Impact Project

Diana Butnarciuc, a Moldovan immigrant who arrived in the U.S. legally in 2008, was arrested by ICE agents on February 13, 2026, during a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interview for a permanent resident card in Las Vegas. Butnarciuc, who is married to Marine veteran Patrick Baja and has two children, has no criminal record, works, and pays taxes. Although she faced a 2018 deportation order after her asylum claim was denied, her marriage to Baja made her eligible for a green card. Her attorney stated that Butnarciuc entered the U.S. legally and should be entitled to permanent resident status. She is being held at Henderson Detention Center, and her husband is seeking her release.

A judge dismissed the deportation case of Narciso Barranco, an Orange County landscaper and father of three U.S. Marines, who was detained by Border Patrol agents in June 2025. Video showed agents pinning him to the ground and punching him during the detention in Santa Ana. The judge ruled Barranco is eligible for lawful status due to his three sons serving in the military, and his attorney is now working to secure permanent residency and a work permit.

On August 13, 2025, DHS agents deployed tear gas and fired less-lethal bullets from the roof of an ICE facility at 4310 S Macadam Ave in Portland, targeting civilians peacefully demonstrating on the public sidewalk. A U.S. military veteran was violently attacked from behind, assaulted, and pinned to the ground while being exposed to tear gas for approximately two minutes by three DHS agents. On January 31, 2026, federal agents deployed tear gas on a densely packed crowd of peaceful anti-ICE protesters during a labor union-led rally and march near the ICE facility. The crowd included children, elderly people, and pets who marched from Elizabeth Caruthers Park before being trapped in lingering tear gas plumes. Agents used tear gas again on February 3. The ACLU of Oregon filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of five plaintiffs: Jack Dickinson (known as "the Portland chicken"), Laurie Eckman (84), Richard Eckman, Mason Lake, and Hugo Rios. Laurie Eckman was shot in the head with a crowd control munition without warning; her husband was tear-gassed and had a munition fired at his walker. Dickinson was repeatedly assaulted and bombarded with chemical munitions. Independent journalists Lake and Rios were shot with pepper balls, tear-gassed, had lights pointed at them to interfere with recording, and Lake was sprayed with bear mace. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon issued a temporary restraining order on February 3 pausing tear gas or crowd control munitions use on non-violent protesters and journalists unless targeting a specific imminent threat. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed an amicus brief supporting the lawsuit.

Steven Saari, a Marine Corps veteran, was detained by federal immigration agents at the scene of Alex Pretti's killing in Minneapolis on February 3, 2026. During his six-hour detention at a federal building, agents collected his biometric data, forced a DNA sample, and copied his cell phone without a warrant or authorization. Saari was denied access to an attorney despite repeated requests and was released without charges.

Approximately 50 Cuban nationals detained by ICE accepted deportation believing they would return to Havana. Their plane landed at Guantánamo Naval Base instead. The men have been at the U.S. military facility since before Christmas. Due to Cuba's restrictions on flights from the base to the island's interior, U.S. authorities must transfer them back to U.S. territory before handing them over to Cuban authorities, extending their detention for weeks.

U.S. Army Captain Josie Guilbeau, a 17-year veteran and decorated Intelligence Officer, was arrested for peacefully protesting ICE outside Greg Bovino's hotel. The arrest occurred while she was protesting alongside community members using non-violent methods such as banging pots, blowing whistles, and honking horns.

William Vermie, a 39-year-old Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient, was tackled and detained by ICE agents while standing on a public sidewalk in Minneapolis observing agents detain two young men during an operation the government called Operation Metro Surge. He was taken to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building and held for eight hours without being allowed to contact an attorney or his family, despite repeatedly requesting legal representation and his wife having already secured a lawyer on his behalf. DHS said Vermie was arrested for allegedly assaulting a law enforcement officer. Four attorneys told ABC News they were denied access to clients held at the same facility, with multiple attorneys reporting similar complaints from others arrested in recent Minneapolis ICE operations and alleging violations of Fifth and Sixth Amendment due process and right-to-counsel protections.

A man named Julio, an ImmDef Law Center client and father of a U.S. military servicemember, died on February 25 after his health rapidly declined following ICE detention. Despite having a lawful pathway to permanent residency and being medically vulnerable, ICE refused to release him and he was handcuffed to a hospital bed during his final days. His attorney secured his release but the damage to his health was irreversible.

ICE agents detained Jose Martinez, a U.S. citizen and Coast Guard veteran, while he was sleeping in his cruise ship cabin during a Carnival cruise in the Caribbean. Agents tackled his wife Tamara Verhas and confiscated her phone to prevent recording. The couple was eventually released but forced to delete all photos and video documentation of the incident.

Joey Martinez, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and U.S. citizen, was mistakenly detained by CBP officers aboard a Carnival Cruise Lines ship in Miami after being identified by name match with someone else who had outstanding warrants. Despite only his name matching and his other identifying information not aligning with the warrant, Martinez was forcefully removed from his stateroom, handcuffed, and held in an immigration cell until he could verify his identity with official documents. He was eventually released without charges, compensation, or an apology, and Carnival Cruise Lines did not inform him of the name issue before the ship's arrival despite allegedly being aware of it.

A Houston man who is a third-generation U.S. citizen says he was stopped by ICE agents on January 1 while driving to work near Veterans Memorial Drive and Beltway 8. The man, David Flores, believes he was racially profiled based on his work truck and was surrounded by eight ICE agents in multiple vehicles. After showing his passport and refusing to provide his Social Security number, the agents left abruptly when Flores began recording the encounter.

U.S. Army veteran Zahid Chaudhry, a green card holder and disabled veteran who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years, was released from ICE detention at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma after more than three months. A federal judge ordered his release following a habeas hearing on December 22, 2025, calling his detention "flat out wrong." Chaudhry had been detained since August 2025 after being taken into custody at a citizenship interview, during which time he was separated from his wife and two young children and lost vision due to untreated thyroid eye disease. The government acknowledged it had cited an incorrect statute but maintains the detention was lawful, and the case continues before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez, a 43-year-old Mexican immigrant rights activist who has lived in the U.S. since 1997 and is the mother of four daughters (three U.S. citizens), was detained by ICE in a Target parking lot on March 17, 2025, the day after she marched in a protest against federal immigration policies. In 2011 an Immigration Judge denied her cancellation of removal but granted voluntary departure; she appealed, but in 2012 traveled to Mexico to see her dying mother, which was treated as a withdrawal of her appeal. She returned to the U.S. in 2013 without inspection and was later apprehended; ICE then issued a document purporting to reinstate her prior removal order. She filed a federal habeas corpus petition on March 18, 2025, arguing the reinstatement was procedurally deficient and that no valid removal order supports her detention, and a judge barred her removal from Colorado or the U.S. while the case proceeds. After nine months in custody at the GEO Group's Aurora facility, her attorney argued before Immigration Judge Brea Burgie that she was denied a bond hearing for 180 days because of the administration's disapproval of her activism and that she is not a flight risk given her daughters, one of whom recently joined the Air Force and had sought immigration relief on her mother's behalf, which the government denied. The judge did not rule immediately. Vizguerra has previously taken sanctuary in a Denver church and been named one of Time's 100 most influential people.

An Australian woman and wife of a Navy veteran was arrested by ICE agents during her green card interview on November 18, 2025, in the same enforcement operation as other military spouses. She was detained for eight days before an immigration judge ordered her release on bond on November 26, 2025. She has no criminal history and remains eligible to pursue her green card through her U.S. citizen spouse. Her attorney noted this was the first arrest of this type at green card interviews in over 12 years of practice.

José Barco, a 39-40-year-old decorated Iraq War veteran who received a Purple Heart after suffering traumatic brain injury in combat, was deported in November 2025 despite serving in the U.S. Army since age 4. After his release from prison in January 2025—following 15 years served for a 2008 shooting conviction—ICE detained him immediately. His 2006 citizenship application while stationed at Fort Carson was lost in the system. Venezuela initially ordered him deported there but refused to accept him at the Honduras border, citing documentation concerns. He was eventually deported to Mexico in November 2025, a country he had never visited, where he is now seeking asylum.

George Retes, a disabled American combat veteran, was detained for three days without access to a lawyer or ability to contact family during a July 2025 immigration raid on a Camarillo, California cannabis farm where he worked as a security guard. Agents broke his car window, pepper sprayed him, and tackled him, leaving him with a cut leg and pepper-spray burns; he was released without charges and missed his daughter's third birthday. In February 2026, represented by the Institute for Justice, Retes filed a lawsuit against the federal government over his detention, and he has since testified before Congress about the incident. The same raid resulted in more than 300 arrests, the removal of 14 children, and the death of farmworker Jaime Alanis Garcia, whose family has filed a $47 million wrongful death claim against ICE.

A veteran and U.S. citizen was detained by ICE. During detention, the individual was placed on suicide watch in a cell wearing a hospital dress on a concrete bed with a thin mattress. The cell had a light on continuously and officers were stationed outside with a glass door. A psychiatric nurse conducted one check per day. The individual was held in these conditions from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon when released.

An 84-year-old couple, including a Vietnam veteran, were violently pushed to the ground by federal officers during a peaceful protest at an ICE facility in Portland. The woman sustained a concussion from the assault. The couple had spontaneously joined the neighborhood protest after seeing the rally from their home.

Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against Dana Briggs, a 70-year-old Air Force veteran, who was arrested during a September protest outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Briggs was accused of assaulting a federal officer after being pushed to the ground during a scuffle, but prosecutors determined the charges should be dropped. Briggs had no prior criminal history.

Wesley Powers, a U.S. Navy veteran and U.S. citizen, was shot with chemical agent by ICE agents while protesting at Minnesota's Whipple Detention Center in January 2026. He was detained for 9 hours in an overcrowded cell, had his lawyer calls monitored, and was photographed by agents using personal phones before being released without charges. Powers reports subsequent incidents including vehicles at his home and lost work income.