Human Impact Project

Zia S., 35, an Afghan immigrant and father of five who served as a translator for U.S. troops for five years, was detained by ICE agents in July outside a USCIS office in East Hartford while submitting biometric information for his green card application. He was released from ICE custody on Oct. 14 and reunited with his family in Connecticut, according to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal's office. Zia, his wife, and children fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, fearing retribution for his work with U.S. forces, and arrived legally in the U.S. in October 2024 on humanitarian parole with approved Special Immigrant Visa applications. Blumenthal said he will continue pushing for Zia to secure a clear pathway to permanent legal status for himself and his family.

On July 15, 2025, ICE agents arrested two men in a Walworth County, Wisconsin courtroom during traffic court proceedings. Court Commissioner Peter Navis demanded to see a warrant from sheriff's deputies before allowing the arrest, citing lack of lawful authority and a court order requiring warrants be presented before detention. Following the incident, three county judges confronted Navis over his handling of the arrests, told him he had misstated their position, and gave him an ultimatum to resign or be fired. Navis subsequently resigned.

Barbara Stone, a 71-year-old U.S. citizen and volunteer legal observer with Detention Resistance, was handcuffed and detained by ICE agents for more than eight hours at San Diego's Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building on July 8, 2025. The detention began after an agent accused her of pushing during an enforcement operation, an allegation Stone denied; no criminal charges were filed. Stone said her phone and purse were confiscated, she was questioned by officers from multiple agencies, and she requested to speak with an attorney roughly 15 times without being granted access.

ICE agents arrested a Guatemalan asylum seeker identified as Juan on July 8, 2025, minutes after he completed his immigration court hearing at the John E. Moss Federal Building in downtown Sacramento. The man had been complying with all court requirements, had no criminal record, and had not missed any previous hearings or check-ins. Despite receiving a new court date scheduled for October, he was detained by ICE immediately following his hearing. Volunteers from NorCal Resist assisted his family member in locating legal resources and using the federal detainee locator system.

A stateless man born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents entered the United States on September 5, 1982 with an F-1 student visa. He was ordered removed on July 18, 2007, with his removal order becoming final on December 12, 2007 when the Board of Immigration Appeals denied his appeal. He was designated for removal to Kuwait with Egypt as an alternative destination. After being released from ICE detention on July 3, 2008, he was re-detained on July 7, 2025 at a routine ICE check-in without notice or opportunity to contest the revocation of his release. Over nine months of continued detention, ICE made only one documented effort to secure travel documents—a letter sent to Egypt in January 2026, six months after his re-detention, with no response received. The court found no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future and granted his habeas corpus petition, ordering his immediate release on the same conditions as before his re-detention, with protections against re-detention without a pre-detention hearing and restrictions on removal to a third country without due process.

N.M.Z., a 6-year-old Honduran boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was arrested by ICE agents along with his mother and 9-year-old sister outside a Los Angeles immigration courtroom on May 29, 2025, following an asylum hearing. He missed a scheduled medical appointment for worsening leukemia symptoms and was transported with his family to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where he developed easy bruising, bone pain, and loss of appetite during roughly a month in custody. Attorneys from Columbia Law School and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a lawsuit arguing the arrests violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. ICE released the family without a court order, transferring them to a South Texas shelter before flying them to Los Angeles on July 2, 2025, where they reunited with relatives. The Department of Homeland Security said the boy had been examined multiple times in custody and denied medical neglect, while attorneys said public pressure contributed to the release; after returning home, the child showed severe trauma symptoms, including hiding from strangers and fear of anyone in uniform.

Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old stateless Palestinian woman who has lived in the U.S. since age 8 and is married to a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE in February 2025 upon returning from her honeymoon at St. Thomas Airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She was under an order of supervision and had a pending green card application at the time of her arrest. During her roughly five months in custody, the government attempted to deport her twice, including once despite a federal court order blocking her removal. Sakeik described conditions in ICE facilities as overcrowded with inadequate food. She was released from ICE custody on July 2, 2025, and has since advocated for other detainees.

Outside San Francisco's immigration court, federal agents drove a vehicle through a crowd of protesters, with one protester clinging to the car before being flung into the street and nearly run over. Video also shows agents in body armor clashing with demonstrators and using pepper spray before the vehicle left the scene. One protester, who gave her first name as Sorin, said she was cut and bleeding after falling from the vehicle's hood.

A man fluent only in Mam, a Mayan language, muttered to himself and could not answer basic questions, including his home address, during his hearing before Immigration Judge Patrick O'Brien in San Francisco. O'Brien denied a Department of Homeland Security attorney's request to dismiss the case, which could have led to expedited removal, and instead granted a continuance so the man could find a lawyer. Within minutes of leaving the courtroom, he was arrested by ICE agents. His arrest was one of at least three that morning and part of more than 30 arrests by ICE at or near San Francisco's immigration court in recent weeks, including cases where judges had not approved dismissal or removal.

Carmen, a woman who fled domestic violence and obtained a restraining order against her abusive husband, applied for a U-Visa in March 2025 after he was deported. Despite having a pending U-Visa application and valid work authorization, she was detained during a June 2025 immigration check-in and deported in July 2025 along with her 8-year-old son. Upon arrival in her home country, her husband was waiting for her at the airport. She is now controlled by him—he confiscates her passports and phone, forbids her from leaving the house without permission, and she lives in constant fear.

Marvin Isaac Caceres Maradiaga, a Honduran citizen with a 2023 removal order, was surveilled at his Tampa home by ICE agents who suspected his residence. When ICE confronted him, relatives emerged and an altercation began. ICE agents entered the home without a judicial warrant, obtaining only verbal "consent" after threatening to break down the door. Caceres fled but was later apprehended.

A Paraguayan asylum seeker who fled persecution in 2023 was arrested by masked ICE agents in July 2025 as he left a scheduled immigration court hearing in Manhattan, during which one of his two U.S.-citizen sisters was knocked to the ground. He had lived with his sister in Flushing, Queens, worked in construction, attended church, and had no criminal history in any country, regularly attending his court dates and filing an asylum application in January 2025. He was held for several days at 26 Federal Plaza in overcrowded conditions, where an ICE officer mocked a photo of him weeping and told him "it's a new government" when he asked why he was being arrested. A federal judge later granted his habeas corpus petition, ruling his detention unlawful and ordering his release.

Kenia Perez, who had lived and worked in Texas for 10 years, was deported to Honduras by ICE after her arrest, leaving her three children without a caregiver. Her 14-year-old son, Isaac, could not immediately join her because he lacked a passport, so he later traveled to Honduras on his own about a month after her deportation. Her two younger children, both US citizens, eventually obtained passports and also joined their mother in Honduras.

A single mother of three granted legal status under the child separation settlement was deported to Honduras in July 2025 along with her children, despite possessing protections under the federal settlement agreement. According to court records, she has received death threats from local men seeking to extort money since her return.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted enforcement operations at the Chesterfield County courthouse, resulting in the arrest of undocumented immigrants. Activists and community members gathered to protest the arrests at the courthouse.

Fernando Eduardo Artese, 63, a dual Italian-Argentinian citizen working as a security camera technician, was stopped during a routine traffic stop on June 25, 2025, while driving with his family in a camper van. Officers discovered an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court for a driving violation. Artese had been living legally in the US since 2018 under the Visa Waiver Program and was planning to self-deport and relocate to Argentina with his family. He was detained and transferred to the ICE facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades, where his family reports he has been denied information about his case and access to legal representation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested two women outside the Los Angeles Airport Courthouse on Tuesday after they appeared for a hearing in a local criminal case involving organized retail theft charges. The agents waited in the courtroom and detained the defendants without advance notice to the court, defense attorneys, or prosecutors.

Over three days in late June, ICE detained 14 people at the Chesterfield County Courthouse while they were attending court proceedings on criminal charges. Six people were detained on June 20, six more on June 23, and two additional people on June 24, according to Chesterfield County Sheriff Karl Leonard. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin defended the detentions as part of a statewide collaboration between Virginia State Police, ICE, and other federal agencies, stating that the detainees were in the country illegally.

A petitioner in immigration proceedings challenged his detention without an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge. On May 15, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) ordering respondents to immediately release him from detention and enjoining them from continuing to detain him or placing any new restrictions on his liberty, such as electronic monitoring, unless he received a proper bond hearing with reasonable notice and opportunity to prepare before an immigration judge pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). On May 29, 2026, the court held oral argument on whether to issue a preliminary injunction. At the hearing, respondents consented to the adoption of the TRO's terms as a final judgment and permanent injunction. The court granted the petition and permanently enjoined respondents from detaining him or restricting his liberty without proper process.

Claudia Alvarenga España, a Guatemalan woman living in Manassas, Virginia, with her husband Jhoan Mesen and four U.S.-born children, was taken into ICE custody on June 3, 2025, during a required check-in at an ICE office in Chantilly while pursuing withholding of removal protection. She fled Guatemala in 2010 to escape domestic abuse and human trafficking, has no criminal record, and was in compliance with her order of supervision. Despite a federal judge's order prohibiting her removal, she was deported to Guatemala on June 10 but returned to the U.S. the next day after a Guatemalan official informed her of a pending hearing. She has since requested voluntary deportation and remains in ICE detention in Texas with no clear timeline for processing her request. Unable to endure continued family separation, her husband announced in mid-June that the family has decided to voluntarily leave the United States and relocate to Costa Rica to reunite with her, ending their 15-year residence, and has begun preparations to sell their home.