Human Impact Project

A Guatemalan national identified as O.C.G. who was deported to Mexico has been returned to the United States following a federal judge's order. O.C.G. had sought asylum after experiencing violence in Guatemala and during border transit. He is now in ICE custody while his case challenging third-country deportations proceeds through the courts.

Dong Van Nguyen, a 64-year-old Vietnamese refugee who fled to the U.S. in 1980, was detained by ICE on May 21, 2025 during a scheduled check-in appointment at the Burlington ICE office. He was enrolled in the alternatives to detention program. Greater Boston Legal Services filed a habeas corpus motion to challenge his detention. Nguyen now faces deportation to Vietnam after 45 years in the United States.

Sara Lopez Garcia, a 20-year-old student at Suffolk County Community College with a 3.9 GPA, was arrested by ICE agents on May 21 during a raid on her family home in Mastic. She claimed she had special immigrant juvenile legal status and a valid work permit. She was detained for over two months and subsequently deported to Colombia in August.

Luis Miguel Lopez-Ramos, a Guatemalan national previously deported from the United States following a 2011 Texas drug conviction, was detained by ICE after being booked into Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on a DWI charge. He is charged with illegal reentry after removal following a felony conviction, a federal immigration offense. Court records show he made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge and was detained pending a detention hearing.

V.M.L., a 2-year-old U.S. citizen born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on January 4, 2023, was detained by ICE on April 22, 2025, during a routine check-in at an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office in New Orleans. She was apprehended alongside her undocumented mother and 11-year-old sister. When her father provided citizenship documents and his attorney filed emergency motions for habeas corpus and a temporary restraining order to prevent deportation, an ICE officer told the father they would deport his family anyway. The child and her mother were deported to Honduras on April 25, 2025, before the court could rule on the legal motions. The mother was held in an undisclosed location, cut off from family and counsel, and reportedly coerced into accepting deportation under duress. Federal Judge Terry Doughty expressed strong suspicion that the government deported a U.S. citizen "with no meaningful process" in violation of due process protections and scheduled a hearing for May 16 to investigate.

Iris Dayana Monterroso Lemus, a Guatemalan woman, lost her son to a stillbirth while detained by ICE at Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana. The Trump administration publicly disputed her account, claiming she received full prenatal care, but federal documents later obtained by The Intercept show a lack of prenatal care and no record of a scheduled OB-GYN visit or ultrasound. Ten days after the stillbirth, Monterroso Lemus was shackled, put on a plane, and deported to Guatemala, causing her postpartum visit to be canceled. An OB-GYN physician who reviewed the records said the administration's denial appeared aimed at covering itself, while a senator called the treatment of pregnant women in custody unconscionable.

A 33-year-old South Sudanese man was released on discretionary parole from Nebraska prison custody on May 2, 2025, and arrested by immigration authorities six days later. He was one of eight men, from six different countries, placed on a deportation flight to South Sudan on July 4, 2025, after being held for weeks at a U.S. military base in Djibouti. On February 25, 2026, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued an 81-page ruling declaring the entire third-country deportation program, including his removal, unlawful, finding the government violated due process and the Convention Against Torture by giving detainees less than 16 hours' notice. He represented himself in his appeals.

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.

Rodolfo Hernandez-Yanez, 56, was arrested by ICE agents on May 6, 2025, in a rideshare parking lot along Highway 50 near Carson City while driving his children, aged 17 and 18, to school. He had attempted unauthorized entry in 2005, was turned away, and later entered illegally. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2014 and received a deportation order in 2019; his appeals were denied in March 2023 and his petition for review was dismissed in May 2024. He was processed for deportation to Mexico as part of a broader ICE enforcement operation that arrested 33 people across northern Nevada in two days.

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.

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.

During a May 2025 joint THP and ICE operation in Nashville, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a vehicle for a broken light and shared the driver's immigration status with an ICE agent, resulting in the driver's detention and deportation. The week-long operation resulted in more than 100 arrests, separating families and leaving relatives behind in Nashville. Body camera footage from one traffic stop shows how the operation unfolded, with the ICE agent detaining the driver after learning of his undocumented status. Nearly a year later, families of those deported continue experiencing the operation's impacts.

An undocumented landscaper known as Esdras was detained during a May 2 traffic stop by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents while driving to a landscaping job with his coworkers. Video footage shows officers pulling him out of the van by his leg and neck, forcing him to the ground while he was rigidly resisting, and tasering him twice in the stomach despite no indication of a threat. He spasmed and fell crying to the pavement. Esdras was transferred to the Krome Detention Center in Miami and faces deportation proceedings, though he has been released on bail.

An evangelical pastor, construction business owner, and father of five U.S.-citizen children was detained at a routine ICE check-in in Florida despite having a stay of removal and years of regular reporting. He was deported to Guatemala weeks later.

A 25-year-old Australian woman and former New South Wales police officer was detained by U.S. border officials at Honolulu's airport in May 2025 while visiting her husband, a U.S. Army lieutenant stationed on Oahu. It was her third visit since their December 2024 wedding. During secondary inspection, officers questioned her about her tattoos and the legitimacy of her marriage, then subjected her to fingerprinting, a DNA swab, and a strip and body cavity search before holding her overnight and deporting her to Australia.

After months in ICE detention in Tacoma, Rakesh Rakesh volunteered to self-deport to India but was mistakenly placed on a flight to Sitka, Alaska instead of New York. Alaska Airlines staff assisted him with meals, lodging, and rebooking at no charge. Upon his return to Seattle, ICE re-detained him at the Northwest ICE Processing Center for an additional 16 days before completing his deportation, prompting him to conduct a hunger strike to protest the situation.

19-year-old Javier Salazar, a Venezuelan who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2022, was arrested in Maryland and detained by ICE on suspicion of gang membership based on a photo showing what may have been a toy water pistol. A Supreme Court intervention blocked his deportation to El Salvador hours before he was to be removed. His legal battle continues as the Trump administration seeks to expedite his removal.

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.