Human Impact Project

Raúl Suárez Herrero, a 59-year-old Cuban man who moved to the U.S. at age 12 and lived there for nearly five decades, was detained by ICE during a routine annual check-in in July 2025. He was held at the 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention facility in the Florida Everglades, where he says guards locked him in a metal cage roughly the size of a phone booth for more than 15 hours after he prayed aloud for a fellow detainee having a seizure. Suárez said he was kicked hard enough to bruise his leg, denied food and medical care, and left unable to lie down while fearing snakes and mosquitoes entering the cage, an experience he described as leaving him psychologically 'shattered.' A former truck driver who built a business with his brother, a U.S. citizen who died of COVID in 2021, Suárez was deported to Mexico in February 2026 after a federal judge's deadline for his release or removal passed. A DHS inspector general report later confirmed the facility used such small cages, calling the practice 'highly unconventional,' though DHS disputes claims that conditions were inhumane.

Iryna Gorb, a 38-year-old Ukrainian photographer and barista who worked at Better Half Cafe in San Francisco's Polk Gulch neighborhood for over 15 years, was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents at San Francisco International Airport on July 22, 2026, as she returned from Portland. Video recorded by Richmond City Councilmember Doria Robinson showed agents pinning Gorb to the ground while she screamed for help; witnesses said the agents did not display clear identification. She was transferred to California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert, where DHS said she had overstayed a visa from 2010 and alleged she resisted arrest, though she has no criminal record. Her family home in Kharkiv was destroyed in Russian attacks, and friend Andy Eblin described her as 'fiercely loyal, always willing to help friends.' State Sen. Scott Wiener condemned the arrest, noting deportation would send her to a war zone. After seven weeks in detention, Gorb was released and still awaits an immigration court hearing; she thanked fellow detainees and said she plans to share proceeds from her GoFundMe, which raised over $47,000, with other detained women lacking similar resources.

Jesus Israel Garcia-Cobarruvias, a Mexican national who had previously been deported three times, was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations agents on September 17, 2026, in Martinez, California. The arrest followed an August 31, 2026 incident in which he allegedly accelerated his vehicle at his driveway as officers tried to detain him, crushing one officer's foot and damaging a government vehicle before fleeing. He has since been charged with assault on a federal officer, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison if convicted. During the September arrest, he refused commands to exit his vehicle, and agents used force to remove him and take him into custody.

A woman working at El Corralón, an immigrant-owned nightclub and restaurant in Memphis, was arrested during a pre-dawn ICE raid on August 30 dubbed 'Operation Corral Light' and, due to a prior removal order, was flown to Honduras within days, reuniting there with her husband who had been deported the previous year after a traffic stop. Her four U.S.-citizen children remain in Memphis with their grandmother, who said the youngest wakes up crying for his mother while a 16-year-old has taken on helping raise the younger kids; reunification is complicated because no power of attorney was arranged and the children lack passports. The raid, initially targeting illegal gambling and a Honduran national suspected of running criminal activity, resulted in 121 arrests after agents corralled patrons and employees, checked immigration status, and zip-tied them onto buses while children screamed for detained parents. Only five of those arrested had criminal histories, and advocacy group Vecindarios 901 said it is working to identify detainees and connect families with attorneys. The ACLU of Tennessee, a state representative, and Memphis's mayor questioned whether the operation exceeded the scope of its gambling and narcotics warrants, and advocates alleged agents beat two security guards.

Edgar Martinez, 33, was detained by ICE outside his West Phoenix home near 83rd Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road after agents allegedly posing as electricians cut power to his house to lure him outside. His partner, Marisol Lopez, said the agents wore construction-style vests, tampered with the exterior electrical box, never identified themselves or showed a warrant, and pinned Martinez to the ground before detaining him. Lopez said Martinez had no serious criminal record and was applying for a T visa as a victim of human trafficking, while ICE said he lacked lawful status and cited two prior domestic violence misdemeanors. He was being held at a detention facility in Florence, Arizona due to capacity issues elsewhere and was set to appear in immigration court. His sister-in-law, Clara Armenta Aguilar, launched a fundraiser for legal fees and bond, describing him as a devoted husband, brother, and son whose wife has been with him since they were 15-year-old high school sweethearts. The family said they previously experienced the deportation of another relative in June 2019 and are praying for his return.

ICE agents entered a laundromat in Lindenwold, New Jersey on September 15 without a warrant and detained customers inside, according to a social media post. During the encounter, agents maced a woman in the face while she recorded the interaction. The incident took place near an elementary school and a high school.

Zach Cosseboom, a 37-year-old UC Santa Barbara employee and U.S. citizen, was pepper-sprayed by a federal immigration agent while volunteering as an observer with immigrant advocacy group SB Resiste at the Santa Barbara County Jail. Cosseboom, a 12-year Santa Barbara resident, was watching ICE agents in the jail's lobby when an agent sprayed him at close range in an incident captured on video, also hitting his wife, Ana Garcia. He was treated at Cottage Health's emergency room afterward and described feeling 'a little helpless' during the incident.

An Afghan man who worked as a U.S. military interpreter and cultural adviser during Operation Enduring Freedom was detained by ICE and FBI agents outside his St. Louis County home as he left for a morning run. He entered the U.S. legally in 2014 through the Special Immigrant Visa program and is a green card holder who built a life with his wife, Cata Estrada, and their children, including one born weeks before his arrest. A scientist with multiple degrees who hoped to become a doctor, he is also a plaintiff in a 2023 federal lawsuit over being placed on terrorist watchlists. ICE alleges he provided material support to a terrorist organization, citing a 2021 FBI search warrant linking him to a group associated with al-Qaida, and claims he lied on his 2019 naturalization application. He denies the allegations, says his rights as a permanent resident have been violated, and is seeking a jury trial. He is being held at the Ste. Genevieve County Detention Center in Missouri, with an immigration court hearing scheduled for Sept. 14 in Kansas City.

ICE agents detained five men in Montclair, New Jersey on Sept. 14, 2026, while they were on their way to a construction job, and detained at least one more man in neighboring Bloomfield the same day; a community group estimated about 10 people were detained across both towns. Witnesses said agents smashed a truck's passenger window and forcibly pulled one man from the vehicle by his leg while handcuffing the others against the truck. ICE said the driver had refused to comply with officers' commands, but attorney Joseph Fortunato filed habeas corpus petitions arguing the men were detained without individualized custody determinations. A federal judge signed an order Friday night blocking the transfer of two of the men to Louisiana, and they were returned to Delaney Hall in Newark; supporters are raising money through a community bail fund to pay a $7,500 immigration bond for one of the men, a 24-year-old construction worker identified as Kevin. Montclair Mayor Renee Baskerville said she found the enforcement activity "deeply disturbing" and stressed the need to recognize the men's humanity.

ICE agents detained several men in Montclair's Fourth Ward on the morning of September 14, 2026, stopping a pickup truck near Elm Street and Bloomfield Avenue as the men were driving to perform construction work at The Vestry, a luxury apartment building. Witnesses said agents smashed the truck's window, forcibly pulled one man out by his leg, and pushed others against the vehicle while handcuffing them, just a block from Charles H. Bullock Elementary School as children arrived for the day. One detained man, a 24-year-old construction worker identified as Kevin, was held on a $7,500 immigration bond, with community members raising funds through the Envision Freedom Fund. Two other men detained, Macedonia Merino-Maldonado and Jero Jimenez-Garcia, worked as kitchen staff at the local restaurant Raymond's and were on their way to work when they were detained; both were initially held at Delaney Hall in Newark before being transferred to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana. Mayor Renee Baskerville and Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Andersen said ICE had not notified local police of the operation. After attorney Joseph Fortunato filed habeas corpus petitions, a federal judge ordered two of the men returned to Delaney Hall in New Jersey after ICE had already placed them on a bus bound for a flight to a Louisiana detention facility.

A Latino man identified in court filings as J.M.R. alleges ICE agents pulled him from his car, threw him to the ground and shocked him with a Taser before detaining him. A federal judge later ruled his detention unlawful and ordered his release. He is among the named plaintiffs in a proposed federal class-action lawsuit, Guzmán v. DHS, filed Sept. 9 in U.S. District Court in Maryland challenging alleged warrantless ICE arrests.

Two 17-year-old U.S. citizens, including Luis Ochoa, were stopped by ICE agents at a stoplight in Alamo, Texas, on September 11 after pausing to observe an immigration enforcement action on their way to a Marine Corps recruiting office. One was pulled from the car, handcuffed and allegedly struck repeatedly by an agent, suffering a broken wrist, while the other, who was driving, was pepper sprayed. Both were held in ICE custody for about eight hours without their families being given information, until a local politician intervened to secure their release; DHS described the teens as anti-ICE agitators who obstructed agents.

A 16-year-old minor was chased by several ICE agents in Livonia, Michigan, and climbed onto a residential rooftop with his hands raised while an agent pointed a gun directly at him. Video shared by @metrodetroitnews shows additional agents then climbing onto the roof and taking him into custody.

Samson Birhane, 47, arrived in the US as an Eritrean refugee at age 13 and lost his immigration status after a robbery conviction in 1988, though he had already served his sentence and had been regularly checking in with ICE as required. A US immigration judge had previously ruled he faced a risk of torture if returned to Eritrea, but he was instead deported to Equatorial Guinea under a $7.5 million agreement between the countries. On September 11, 2026, Birhane and fellow deportee Ahmed Soliman, who grew up in Phoenix after his family fled Egypt when he was young, were arrested after helping document abusive conditions at Hotel Bamy, a site used to detain US deportees; officers covered their heads with bags, beat them, and pushed one down a staircase while demanding to know where phones were hidden, accusing them of breaking a mirror. Amnesty International said the men are now held in an overcrowded police cell without access to their attorneys and called for their immediate release, saying the arrest was retaliation for exposing authorities' efforts to coerce deportees into returning to their home countries; the group also cited a September 5 incident in which police pointed firearms at Soliman and other deportees.

Pietro Graza de Lima, a gay Brazilian man who lived in Orlando, Florida for about seven years running a small services business, fled Brazil after corrupt police shot him over his sexuality, an attack that cost him a kidney and left lasting physical damage. After his student visa expired and he was arrested for drug possession, ICE detained him for nearly two years, including time at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. On April 16, 2026, an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation to Brazil under the Convention Against Torture, but ICE continued holding him while seeking another country to deport him to. After he refused to sign a document accepting removal to Liberia, he was shackled for roughly 36 hours and flown to Liberia—where he and other detainees refused to disembark—and then to Equatorial Guinea, a country with which he has no ties. His attorney said he was denied the interview he was entitled to under CAT protections before being sent there. He and about a dozen other deportees have been confined at a decommissioned hotel, Hotel Bamy, in Malabo, where armed officers confiscated his phone on September 8, 2026 after he spoke with journalists, cutting off contact with his attorneys and leaving him unreachable since September 9, 2026.

James Mervil and Josselene Polidor were arrested by ICE agents near John Marshall Elementary School in the Chollas Creek neighborhood of San Diego minutes after dropping off their 2- and 5-year-old children. Witnesses said officers boxed in the family's car, and the mother ran barefoot into a nearby home under construction, where she was handcuffed while pleading with workers for help and explaining her daughter attended the nearby school. Construction workers reported that an officer unholstered his gun and threatened pepper spray when a supervisor tried to intervene, and that the officer entered the home without the owner's permission. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrests, stating the parents had overstayed their visas. San Diego Unified School District confirmed both parents were taken into ICE custody, said the children were not present and were doing well, and arranged for a family friend to pick them up, while also condemning ICE arrests near its campuses. Local elected officials, including Rep. Scott Peters and Mayor Todd Gloria, condemned the arrests, saying such actions traumatize children and families.

Kenis Alberto López (also reported as Adalberto López), a 44-year-old Nicaraguan man held in U.S. immigration detention for about eight months, was deported to the Central African Republic on a flight departing Aug. 28-29 from Texas. He alleges ICE agents shot him with rubber or pepper-ball projectiles, injuring him, then bound, hooded, and dragged him before tying him to a stretcher to force him onto the plane, restraining him for roughly 24 hours. He told the Los Angeles Times he pleaded with agents, saying, 'I'd rather die here than in Africa.' The flight carried around 100 deportees, including migrants from Iran, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, with López traveling alongside fellow Nicaraguans Luis Carlos Mendoza Santamaría and Isaac Cruz. López says he has no criminal record, had received a deportation stay in 2024, and cannot return to Nicaragua due to danger there, though DHS says he re-entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was later released under the Biden administration. He and the other Nicaraguan men are now confined under police custody in a housing complex in Bangui with roughly 40 other migrants, facing mobility restrictions and limited access to water and electricity. ICE has not responded to the mistreatment allegations.

ICE officers detained a mother and father near John Marshall Elementary School in San Diego's Chollas Creek neighborhood shortly after morning drop-off. Witnesses say officers boxed in the couple's Toyota Prius at an intersection, prompting the pair to flee on foot into a nearby house under construction, where the woman pleaded with workers for help, saying her daughter attends the school. A construction worker said the ICE officer unholstered his gun and drew pepper spray after the crew tried to intervene. San Diego Unified confirmed the parents' 2- and 5-year-old children attend a school program and were picked up by a family friend after both parents were taken into ICE custody.

Tareq Zakarneh, a 44-year-old Palestinian man who lived in Portland and Vancouver, Washington for more than a decade, has been in ICE detention since May 2024, mostly at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. He moved to the U.S. on a student visa in 2013 to attend Portland State University and later married a U.S. citizen, but lost his legal status after a divorce in 2017, when an immigration court found the marriage was not entered in good faith. Zakarneh said ICE agents beat him and broke his teeth on Sept. 9 after he refused to board a deportation flight to the West Bank via Tel Aviv, restraining him on the floor for four hours without access to water or a bathroom, leaving his hand and shoulder swollen and numb while he received only ibuprofen. Advocates and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden have raised concerns about his treatment and the danger he could face if deported amid escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Martin Soto, a Peruvian immigrant and father, was arrested by masked federal agents while out buying diapers for his children and detained at Delaney Hall, an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey. He helped lead a hunger and labor strike protesting poor food and inadequate medical care, and in the early morning of May 25, 2026, ICE agents broke through a protester blockade and transferred him overnight to solitary confinement at a facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His wife Gabriela, a U.S. citizen who was pregnant at the time, organized protests outside Delaney Hall on his behalf; she lost her pregnancy in July after an emergency C-section and said she had to deliver the news to her husband while he remained in solitary. Soto spent five months in solitary and nine months total in ICE custody before his lawyers obtained him a U-visa, and he was released and reunited with his family, fitted with an ankle monitor despite having no criminal record. ICE data obtained through a Deportation Data Project Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showed more than 700 detainees were transferred out of Delaney Hall, which advocates say was an attempt to break the strike; a Homeland Security spokesperson disputed the data's accuracy.