Human Impact Project

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.

Two U.S. citizen children, ages 5 and 4, were deported to Mexico after their mother was lured to an immigration processing appointment under false pretenses. The mother, who was told she would be eligible for asylum and a work permit if she appeared for a routine check-in, was instead deported to Reynosa, Mexico along with her three children. The two youngest children are U.S. citizens who were deported without proper legal process or opportunity for informed consent from their mother.

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.

Patricia Vázquez Topete, a DACA recipient who lived in California for 20 years, left the U.S. in May 2025 amid uncertainty over DACA's future and immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. She had come to the U.S. at age 12 after fleeing abuse in Mexico, was raised by an uncle in the Central Valley, worked in the strawberry fields of Salinas, and earned a scholarship to Fresno Pacific University before building a career in global banking. She has since settled in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, and is preparing to pursue a master's degree in international business in Spain.

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.

As the Trump administration accelerates deportations, child welfare advocates have stated concerns about potential violations of children's rights. Cases include a 2-year-old kept in U.S. custody after her mother was deported to Venezuela.

After a Guatemalan woman gave birth at Tucson Medical Center in Arizona while in Border Patrol custody, she was told she faced immediate deportation and would have to decide whether to take her U.S.-citizen newborn daughter with her. Agents stationed at the hospital refused to let her attorney access her so that she could sign a G-28 form. After public pressure and intervention from local officials and counsel, the mother and baby were released into the care of a nonprofit in Phoenix.

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.

The Trump administration has expanded immigration detention by moving hundreds of immigrants to federal prisons run by the Bureau of Prisons, including facilities in Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, Berlin, and Leavenworth, where detainees report moldy food, overcrowding, denial of legal access, and being cut off from attorneys and families. At Miami's Federal Detention Center, detainees, their lawyers and relatives describe cockroach infestations, broken toilets overflowing with waste, extreme heat, and medical complaints being ignored, conditions corroborated by a prison employee. ICE data show an average daily population of 460 at the Miami facility as of early April, with numbers rising after detainees were relocated there following fires near the Krome detention center. The Bureau of Prisons said it was addressing air conditioning issues, while families say many detainees had already completed sentences for past convictions before entering immigration custody.

Daniel Flores Martinez was detained by ICE agents on Mother's Day 2025 after federal officers in unmarked cars surrounded his vehicle as he, his wife Kenia Guerrero, their three children (ages 3, 12 and 14) and his mother-in-law drove to church. Agents, who never identified themselves or their agency, broke the car window, dragged Flores Martinez out, and slammed him to the ground while his children screamed; Guerrero, who along with her children is a U.S. citizen, was restrained against the vehicle when she tried to intervene. Flores Martinez and Guerrero have since filed a federal lawsuit against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, alleging the agents used illegal "smash and grab" tactics in violation of constitutional protections.

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.

America Perez Ramirez, 52, was ordered by DHS to check in at an ICE field office and bring airline tickets for deportation to Mexico with her 11-year-old U.S. citizen daughter Yoselin, who has Maple Syrup Urine Disease, a life-threatening rare genetic disorder. Yoselin requires her mother's care to survive and her University of Florida doctor stated she cannot live without current treatment. Perez Ramirez, who came on an H2-B labor visa and was trafficked by her employer, had received four previous stays of deportation under prior administrations, but was denied another stay this time.

A pregnant mother and her 2-year-old U.S. citizen daughter were deported to Honduras after the mother was given less than two minutes on the phone with her husband to decide the child's fate. Attorneys say ICE denied the family contact with lawyers and each other throughout the process. ICE produced a one-page note in Spanish claiming consent, but her attorney states she was forced to write it and did not willingly consent to the deportation.

A 16-year-old unaccompanied immigrant girl in Washington state was visited by ICE officials for a "welfare check" earlier in April. During the visit, the frightened girl messaged and called her legal representative expressing fear that her life would be upended. The visit was characterized by her attorney as causing terror and trauma, illustrating the impact of ICE's targeting of unaccompanied minors under the guise of welfare checks.

Alfredo Linares, an undocumented immigrant, and his American wife Raegan Kline relocated to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico after 20 years in the United States. Linares had worked as a cook at a Michelin-star restaurant and operated a catering business with his wife. The couple left the United States due to concerns about ICE detention and deportation under President Trump's immigration enforcement policies.

Multiple U.S. citizen children have been deported to Honduras alongside their undocumented mothers during immigration enforcement actions, according to PBS NewsHour reporting. In one case, a 2-year-old girl identified only by the initials VML in court filings was deported with her mother. In another case reported by correspondent Laura Barrón-López, a Texas family's two U.S. citizen siblings, ages 4 and 7, were deported with their mother within 24 hours of being detained; the younger child has late-stage cancer and was sent without his medication. The mother in the Texas case had a removal order dating back years, issued after she failed to appear at a hearing following her arrival in the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, and said she was unaware of the order. Attorneys say these cases are part of a broader pattern of U.S.-citizen children being removed alongside their parents during enforcement actions.

ICE deported an immigrant mother of an infant and three U.S. citizen children, according to lawyers. The woman had four children who are U.S. citizens at the time of her deportation.

ICE deported at least two families including three U.S. citizen children aged 2, 4, and 7 from New Orleans in early morning operations on April 25, 2025. The families were held without legal access. One child with metastatic cancer was deported without medication and a pregnant mother was deported without prenatal care arrangements. The deportations occurred after ICE reversed course and expedited the process before courts reopened. A habeas corpus petition had been filed.

A 4-year-old U.S. citizen child with Stage 4 cancer and his 7-year-old sister were deported to Honduras with their mother on Friday morning. ICE was aware of the child's active cancer treatment in the United States but deported him without his medication. Attorneys say the mother did not sign or write any consent, did not speak with lawyers or family before deportation, and wanted to make alternative arrangements for her U.S. citizen children.

A 2-year-old U.S. citizen was apparently removed to Honduras on Friday with her mother, who had been ordered deported, according to a federal judge in Louisiana. The child's mother, a Honduran national, was seized by ICE on Tuesday morning in New Orleans while attending a scheduled check-in appointment with an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office. During approximately three days in ICE custody, the mother and her two daughters were separated from family and legal counsel. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty wrote that the child was sent to Honduras "with no meaningful due process" and expressed "strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen." The mother's attorney stated that ICE mischaracterized the removal as the mother's voluntary choice and that she was pregnant and prevented from contacting lawyers or family to make arrangements.