Human Impact Project

The Trump administration attempted to repatriate 76 Guatemalan children from U.S. government custody in overnight operations. Children were woken from their beds and reported crying and vomiting. A federal judge temporarily blocked the removals after attorneys argued the government violated U.S. law protecting unaccompanied minors from deportation without due process. The children were returned to shelters after being placed on planes. Declarations indicated many had not requested to return and stated they feared danger if sent back to Guatemala.

Maribel Lopez, a Guatemalan mother of three who fled years of abuse in her home country, was detained in early September 2025 when federal agents raided the nutrition-bar factory where she worked in Central New York. Although her pending asylum appeal should have protected her from removal, she was deported to Guatemala within four days of the raid. Her 2-year-old son, Jorge, remained in the U.S. in the care of his two older siblings, who are barely adults themselves. Her case was profiled by The New York Times as part of a growing pattern of rapid deportations that bypass pending legal claims.

A 19-year-old man identified only as ELA was deported to El Salvador this week while detained at a Louisiana immigration facility awaiting a psychological evaluation for his asylum case, according to his attorneys. It was the second time this year he was removed from the U.S. in violation of court orders protecting a class of young asylum seekers who sued in 2019 for the right to have their claims heard while remaining in the country. He had previously been deported earlier this year but was returned to the Louisiana detention center after attorneys confirmed his class membership. A federal judge ordered the government to explain the removal and how it plans to rectify the error, and the Justice Department said it only learned of his removal after being alerted by class attorneys.

D.A., a political activist who was violently attacked in Nigeria and is married to a U.S. citizen, was granted protection from removal to Nigeria in June after a judge found he faced persecution there. He says ICE agents beat him when he refused to board a military cargo plane bound for Ghana, where he was flown with a dozen other West African men and women. After more than two weeks in Ghana's Dema Camp, where deportees faced heat, mosquitoes and unsanitary conditions, he was sent to Togo without travel documents and is now staying in a hotel room with other deportees, relying on money sent by his family in the United States.

Sergio Ayala Mejia, a 36-year-old who arrived in the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor fleeing MS-13 gang pressure in Guatemala, was detained by ICE in September 2025 while dropping off his sister at work, separated from his newborn daughter Ailany and two other children. He was deported to Guatemala without a court hearing despite a pending appeal to reopen his case—the same day an immigration judge granted his motion to reopen and rescinded his 2007 deportation order. After four months in Guatemala, he was brought back to the U.S. on humanitarian parole in December 2025 but re-detained in New York for three additional months before being released on bond in March 2026. Ayala Mejia now fears driving and worries about the lasting impact on his children, including his 3-year-old son who developed anxiety during his absence.

Manuel Chairez-Montes was deported from Texas after his alleged attacker was indicted for aggravated assault. With the case in limbo, the defendant Adan Yanez Porras was released on bond.

Jose Manuel Allende, a 58-year-old who came legally to the U.S. from Cuba through the Freedom Flights, was detained by ICE in his driveway in September 2025 due to a decades-old criminal history and lack of citizenship. His family secured a motion to stay and a motion to reopen his case, but he remains detained at the Federal Detention Center in Miami facing deportation on April 6 if not released, creating a legal standoff where he cannot complete his pending green card application while in custody.

Two workers assisting with wildfire firefighting in Washington state's Olympic National Forest were detained by Border Patrol agents on charges of unauthorized entry and reentry. One of the detainees had a pending U-visa application and a previous removal order. The detentions occurred while the workers were engaged in firefighting efforts on the Bear Gulch fire, an approximately 9,000-acre wildfire. Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Patty Murray and Representative Emily Randall, made statements regarding the operation. Randall was subsequently denied entry to the ICE facility where the men were being held.

A U.S. judge blocked the government from deporting Guatemalan children who had crossed the border without their families. The children were already on the tarmac awaiting deportation when the court order was issued.

Rodrigo Preciado, who had lived in the United States for 37 years and was awaiting a U Visa and green card, was detained by local police and transferred to immigration authorities. He was deported to Mexico without being given a court hearing or due process. His family, including his wife and four children, is seeking legal representation to fight for his return and financial support during his absence.

Seven deportees were transferred to Rwanda in early August 2025, with the Trump administration not announcing the transfer until August 28. No information has been disclosed about their identities, countries of origin, charges, or current whereabouts. Rwanda has agreed to receive up to 250 migrants from the United States. Their lawyers allege they are being held in high-security facilities in isolation, cannot communicate with anyone, do not know what crimes they are accused of, and fear torture given Rwanda's poor human rights record.

Francisco Hernandez-Corona, an undocumented immigrant who had lived in the U.S. for most of his life, self-deported to Mexico. He was married to a U.S. citizen, but a permanent bar from a childhood unauthorized entry prevented him from adjusting his status while in the country, leaving him with no legal pathway to remain.

Balbino Mayora, an Arizona resident of nearly 25 years and business owner, was arrested by Phoenix police over vehicle registration issues. After his court hearing on August 27, ICE agents apprehended him outside the courthouse and he was transferred to the Eloy Detention Center. Mayora, who entered the US legally on a visa but overstayed, is now in removal proceedings while his family fights for his release.

HSI and ICE agents chased a family in Indio, California, causing a couple to crash their vehicle. Agents removed the man from the scene in their vehicles. The children were left at the scene. An ambulance arrived for the mother and children.

Miguel Alvarado-Lopez, a worker at Moonshot Tavern in Portland, was apprehended by immigration enforcement agents on January 24 while sitting in his car at a gas station in Northeast Portland. He was transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, then to Arizona, and as of the report was awaiting deportation to Guatemala where his wife and son reside.

Maria Ursula Borja Valle, a 54-year-old Mexican immigrant who had lived in the U.S. for nearly three decades without a known criminal record, was detained by ICE on August 8-9, 2025, while attending a scheduled immigration appointment to apply for Parole in Place, a benefit for immediate relatives of active-duty service members. Valle, who suffered a stroke in 2021 and requires ongoing medication, is the mother of Marine Cpl. Jose Manuel Vilchis-Valle, who enlisted after recruiters told him military service could help protect his family from immigration enforcement. After being held at Broward Transitional Center and then transferred to a Border Patrol processing center in Texas, she was deported to Mexico by August 11, 2025. Her son, who completed four years of service and was honorably discharged shortly after her deportation, said, "I gave four years of my life to this country... but knowing that this country doesn't want my mother makes me feel terrible." His sister Mia, a nursing student, described their mother as "a very kind lady," while another sister, María Constanza, expressed concern for Valle's safety in Mexico since their parents have died and she has no family support there. The family hired an attorney who filed a motion to stay deportation and started a GoFundMe for legal costs; an AP investigation found more than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since Trump took office for a second term, with at least six deported.

Do Phi Long, 60, an Amerasian who left Vietnam in 1989 and lived in Orange County, California, had his green card revoked after a 2007 DUI arrest and lived for years under a deportation order that Vietnam initially declined to enforce. In January 2025, ICE agents arrested him at a gas station while he was filling his car, and on August 13, 2025 he was flown on a chartered deportation flight to Hanoi, leaving behind his wife and two sons. Long, who now runs a small coffee shop in Long Thanh, Dong Nai province, said he felt overwhelmed with sadness at how the US had treated him but has since found some peace being back in his home country.

Federal immigration enforcement officers arrested two undocumented immigrants inside the Stamford courthouse on August 11, 2025, forcibly entering a bathroom and breaking a door panel during the encounter. The arrest, which followed the Trump administration's reversal of a federal courthouse enforcement policy, sparked public outcry and led 21 Connecticut state senators to request in September that the state's highest court issue orders prohibiting arrests without judicial warrants in or near courthouses, citing concerns that facilities are being used as "mouse traps" rather than centers for justice. On October 27, 2025, agents arrested two more men in the courthouse's parking garage, including one who was sitting in a car with his wife at the time; bystanders filmed the encounter, and the video was shared thousands of times online. Advocates with Stamford Norwalk United For Immigrants said officers did not display badges or warrants, and the arrests occurred about a month after Connecticut began requiring a judge-signed warrant for ICE arrests at state courthouses.

Alejandra Juarez, a Colombian national who lived undocumented in Florida for 20 years, was deported to Mexico, leaving behind her 16-year-old U.S. citizen daughter Pamela and her husband Temo, a naturalized U.S. citizen and former Marine. Her deportation was initiated following a 2013 traffic stop that exposed her undocumented status. A 2001 citizenship petition was rejected after she was accused of making a false statement during an asylum claim in 1998. Juarez chose to self-deport rather than face forcible removal, settling in Merida in the Yucatan with plans for her younger daughter Estela to join her. Temo remained in Florida to care for Pamela and maintain their roofing business.

A 15-year-old Manhattan high school student, Roger Iza, was arrested by ICE at a check-in appointment on August 9, 2025, along with his father. The pair were transported to private hotels in Louisiana and Texas where they were held incommunicado without access to phones or the internet, prevented from contacting lawyers or the outside world. They were deported to Ecuador on August 14, 2025, after just five days of detention in hotels rather than standard ICE detention facilities.