Human Impact Project

Jose Rafael Alambarrio, a Venezuelan national who fled political persecution and arrived in the U.S. in 2023, was detained on January 15, 2026 during a routine annual check-in at the Dallas ICE office while applying for a green card and pursuing asylum. He had no criminal record and had faithfully attended all previous check-ins. He was initially held at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, before being transferred without notice to an ICE facility in Mississippi. His wife, a McKinney teacher and U.S. citizen, has publicly pleaded for his release and continues to fight for him from a distance. Nine months later, Alambarrio remains in detention while appealing the denial of his asylum application, with a decision on his residency process still pending.

Liliana and Jorge, a couple in their 30s from Michoacán, Mexico, believed they had until 2029 to find an attorney and prepare for their asylum hearing, but in mid-August 2026 they received notice that their hearing had been moved up to Sept. 11 at immigration court in Concord, California. Unable to find a lawyer on short notice, the couple appeared alone with their four children, ages 3, 6, 14 and 15. During the three-hour proceeding, Judge Michael Rapizo told Liliana her lack of evidence reflected a 'lack of diligence' rather than circumstances beyond her control, and said her claimed fear of her ex-partner, who she said is affiliated with a cartel in Michoacán, did not rise to the level of past persecution. 'I feel discouraged,' Liliana said afterward. 'We were not prepared.' An attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice said she has seen dozens of immigrants in recent weeks similarly forced into unprepared, fast-tracked hearings without lawyers.

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.

Julian David Palacios Obregon, a 27-year-old Colombian human rights activist and lawful permanent resident with ties to Canada, spent about 650 days in ICE detention at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. During his detention he suffered from a severe gastrointestinal bacterial infection causing vomiting, diarrhea and fecal incontinence that required him to wear diapers, saying he had no health problems before entering custody. Staff errors caused him to miss three scheduled colonoscopy appointments recommended by a gastroenterologist, forcing him to choose between receiving medical treatment and attending his asylum hearing. Representing himself, he filed two federal habeas corpus petitions and five humanitarian requests with ICE; a federal court had previously found his removal to Canada reasonably foreseeable but ordered he be given a chance to have his fear of removal reviewed by an immigration judge, while denying earlier requests for expedited release or bond. On September 11, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ordered his release, finding that the deficient medical care had made his detention 'punitive' in violation of due process.

Ayana, 40, was born in a refugee camp in Sudan to an Eritrean mother and Ethiopian father and lived legally in the United States since she was two years old, building a life in San Diego where she studied business and worked as a nursing assistant and mother. ICE agents detained her while she was renewing her residence permit, and she was flown to Cameroon in shackles, a country with which she has no personal ties or documentation. She said a US judge had found her fear of returning to her family's home countries credible, but she was nonetheless removed to Cameroon under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy, and now lives in fear and uncertainty in Yaounde with limited support.

Nelson Contreras-Gelves, a 35-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker who arrived in the U.S. in 2022, was detained by ICE in Philadelphia on June 27, 2026, just a week after his wedding reception with wife Ariel Whaley of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. He had been following all required immigration procedures at the time of his arrest. Contreras-Gelves worked as a distribution associate at Mighty Writers, a nonprofit in New Garden Township, where colleagues described him as 'irreplaceable' and part of their extended family. He was held for about three weeks at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia before being transferred to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, where he faced repeated bond denials and described scalding shower water, insect infestations, poor food, and inadequate medical care. A crowdfunding campaign raised more than $38,000 to help cover legal costs and household expenses. He was unexpectedly released on September 10, 2026, and now wears an ankle monitor, is restricted to travel within Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, and must attend frequent check-ins.

Min Khant Zaw, a Rohingya and Kaman activist and asylum seeker from Myanmar, was detained by ICE officers at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in July 2026 while returning from a West Coast trip visiting his grandparents. He spent seven weeks at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena before being released on Sept. 9 on a $40,000 bond. Zaw, a computer science graduate researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology, fled Myanmar in 2019 after his family, who are Rohingya political dissidents, warned him not to return amid violence against the Rohingya, and he filed for asylum in 2020.

Diego Mauricio Ospina Sanchez, a 41-year-old Colombian man, was detained by six plainclothes ICE agents at an Alaska Airlines departure gate at Portland International Airport while preparing to fly home to New Jersey with his boyfriend, Kewin, after a vacation in California and Washington. Ospina Sanchez had entered the U.S. legally in October 2024, later overstayed his visa and sought asylum, but said he never received notice of his first immigration court hearing, resulting in an in-absentia deportation order issued August 13, 2026. Kewin said agents surrounded the couple and demanded identification before taking Ospina Sanchez away, saying, "They hunt us as if we were bad people... as if you were a criminal or an animal." Left alone at the airport, Kewin contacted a local immigrant rights hotline and received help from community members. Since the arrest, Ospina Sanchez has been repeatedly transferred between detention facilities in Tacoma, El Paso, Louisiana, and Arizona, reporting poor sleep, poor appetite, psychological distress, and weight loss, and was denied his regular medical treatment on one occasion. Through a lawyer, Kewin has filed a motion to reopen the case and a stay of removal, spending more than $11,000 on legal fees. A DHS spokesperson said Ospina Sanchez received due process and that the agency is targeting travelers with expired visas as part of a new enforcement push, and the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition said it was the first known immigration arrest this year at the airport.

Marianela Pujol and Nelson José Díaz, a Venezuelan couple originally from Ciudad Ojeda, Zulia, were detained by ICE agents on the night of Sunday, September 6, while stopped at a Wawa charging station on 87th Avenue in Doral, Florida, to recharge their electric vehicle. The couple, who work as insurance agents, entered the U.S. legally in 2021 on a visa and have a still-pending asylum application. Their 21-year-old daughter, Daniela Pujol, said an officer told her mother there was no specific infraction but that she was being taken into custody because of the pending asylum case, leaving Daniela alone in the country. Family members said the couple has no criminal record, and Daniela has sought legal representation, appealed to a local council member and advocacy organizations, and started a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal defense costs.

Iara do Carmo Santana, a 29-year-old Brazilian woman working as a house cleaner, was arrested by Malden police after her fiancé, Gabriel Lemos, called 911 out of concern for her mental health following a recent miscarriage and related infection. She was booked, released from police custody, then detained by ICE, which accessed her information through a shared FBI database, and held for roughly four days at ICE's Burlington, Massachusetts field office. She said she received no medical evaluation upon arrival and was often denied her prescribed antibiotics, causing her infection symptoms to worsen. Federal judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her release on September 8, criticizing ICE for its failure to provide necessary medical care. She was reunited with Lemos, a legal permanent resident she plans to marry next year, and her 6-year-old son. Do Carmo Santana has a pending asylum case and holds employment authorization. "I was afraid that I was going to go crazy in there," she said. "I was really scared."

Angel Ivan Chavez Salas, a father of two who works as an HVAC technician in Decatur, Georgia, was arrested by ICE agents outside his home on August 16. He arrived in the U.S. lawfully on a visa in 2016 and applied for asylum after fleeing political persecution in Peru, regularly attending immigration interviews but never having had a hearing before a judge. His attorney, Peter Isbister, said Chavez Salas has no criminal history. He was held at the D. Ray James Processing Center in southeast Georgia awaiting a court date. Students at Decatur High School, including a friend of his son, organized an online fundraiser that raised nearly $20,000 from more than 300 donors to support his family. A judge later granted him a $10,000 bond, allowing his release while he continues fighting his asylum case.

Galina Bobreneva, a 40-year-old Russian national who entered the U.S. legally on a tourist visa in 2021, extended her stay after the war in Ukraine began, and applied for asylum in 2022, was detained by a plainclothes ICE agent at Burbank airport on July 13 while traveling with her husband, Brent Jindra, a technology salesman who says he voted for Trump three times. The couple married in December 2025, and Jindra had filed a marriage-based green card petition for her in April, with fingerprinting already completed; her lawyer maintains she was never out of lawful status, while DHS says she overstayed her visa and calls her 'an illegal alien.' She spent 16 days in detention, including a night on the floor of a basement holding cell in downtown Los Angeles and about two weeks at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility, where she said she was treated 'like a piece of meat, not like a human,' citing sleep deprivation, only four working showers for about 120 women, scarce drinking water, and denied healthcare. She was released on July 29 on a $35,000 bond and fitted with an electronic monitor, with an ICE check-in scheduled for September 7 and a court appearance set for October 22. 'A US citizen just watched his wife get dragged away and had no idea where she's going,' Jindra said. 'We are living in fear in my own country.'

A Honduran mother and her son, who entered the United States in 2012 when he was one year old, have remained under an Order of Supervision and complied with reporting requirements for over a decade. The mother also has two other children who are U.S. citizens. In May 2026, she and her attorney submitted a written request seeking referral to an asylum officer based on her fear of returning to Honduras, but the government never scheduled an interview. When she tried again in person in September 2026, an ICE officer refused to discuss the request and instead instructed her to appear with travel tickets for herself, her son, and her two citizen children, warning that the family would be detained and deported if she failed to comply. No formal notice revoking their release was ever provided. The mother and son filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and an underlying habeas petition to halt their removal. The court found they showed a likelihood of success because the government failed to follow regulations requiring notice and an informal interview before revoking supervised release, and found they would suffer irreparable harm without relief. The court granted a temporary restraining order barring removal pending resolution of the habeas petition and ordered the government to respond by September 16, 2026.

Ibrahim Topkaya, a 33-year-old medical doctor from Turkey working as a bioengineering researcher studying diabetes at Upstate Medical University, was detained by U.S. immigration officials after a GPS error rerouted him toward the Canadian border while he was returning from a trip to Niagara Falls with his visiting mother. Canadian border patrol turned him around with documentation confirming he never entered Canada, but U.S. officials detained him upon his return, and he is now held at the Batavia federal detention facility. His friend Omar Alsafadi said Topkaya has an approved asylum case, active work authorization, and a Social Security number, and described him as a well-respected researcher who has authored numerous medical papers. The Department of Homeland Security said Topkaya overstayed his authorized status after legally entering the country in June 2023. Topkaya has requested research materials to continue his work while detained, and his mother, visiting from Turkey for the first time in three years, has extended her stay while awaiting updates on his case.

Humberto Castro, a 59-year-old Venezuelan who has lived in Doral, Florida for eight years, was detained by ICE agents while driving to work. His daughter, Arianna Castro, said he holds a work permit valid until 2030 and has a pending asylum application, with no criminal record. He is being held at ICE offices in Miramar while his daughter tries to secure his release on bond. His case comes amid a wave of arrests of Venezuelans in South Florida that prompted two exile organizations to send Congress a report demanding oversight hearings and data on detainees with pending immigration cases.

Katsiaryna Bartko, a 33-year-old Belarusian asylum seeker and thyroid cancer survivor, is being held at the CoreCivic-operated Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, where her partner says her medical condition has severely deteriorated. Lab records show her thyroid-stimulating hormone level spiked to more than 31 times the normal range, with dropping calcium levels causing pain, spasms and voice loss, and she has not been seen by an endocrinologist despite a referral. Days before a federal court hearing on her medical care, she was moved to a solitary isolation room and staff allegedly attempted to confiscate legal documents she had prepared for the hearing. Bartko entered the U.S. legally in 2022 and applied for asylum in 2023 after speaking out against the Belarusian government and the war in Ukraine.

A Colombian woman who entered the United States on a B-1/B-2 visa in December 2020 was detained by federal law enforcement on September 4, 2026, while attempting to board a flight at the San Juan airport. She has a pending derivative asylum application tied to a petition filed by her father with USCIS. After her detention, ICE officers at the Guaynabo office reportedly told her that if she did not accept voluntary departure, a Notice to Appear would be filed; she declined and was placed in civil immigration custody at the San Juan Staging Facility in Guaynabo. She requested a bond hearing on September 7, 2026, but before it was resolved, ICE informed her she would be transferred to a detention facility in Florida. She filed a habeas corpus petition and a motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing her detention violated her Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and seeking to block her transfer and secure her release. The district court granted in part her TRO request, ordering that she not be transferred out of Puerto Rico and that she be given a bond hearing before an immigration judge by September 23, 2026, while denying her request for immediate release and holding the underlying habeas petition in abeyance.

Zoilo Viloria, a 66-year-old Colombian asylum seeker who worked in building maintenance in Tacoma, Washington, was detained by ICE agents in a McDonald's parking lot while stopping for coffee on his way to work. His daughter, Stephany Viloria, said agents had been scanning license plates to check drivers' immigration status and took her father away in handcuffs after he nervously handed over his documents. She described him as a hardworking man with no criminal record, not even a traffic infraction, who entered the U.S. legally in 2018 on a tourist visa and later filed for asylum after receiving threats in Colombia tied to his work in the transportation business. He held a valid work permit and driver's license and paid taxes while his asylum case was pending. Days after his arrest, he was transferred, shackled at the hands and feet, to a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, where he has struggled with cold conditions and uncertainty about his care. His daughter posted a video denouncing the arrest, drawing attention to the case.

Adnero Pinto Sebastiao, an Angolan national with a pending asylum application, was arrested by ICE agents as he returned from lunch to his job at a bank in the Lewiston area. He had entered the U.S. legally on a tourist visa in March 2024 before applying for asylum, and his immigration case remains pending. His attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus arguing the detention was an unlawful warrantless arrest lacking individualized assessment. A federal judge issued an indefinite injunction barring ICE from removing him from the U.S. or transferring him out of the District of Maine, and ordered the government to justify the detention. A DHS spokesperson said Sebastiao overstayed his visa and that a pending asylum application does not confer legal status.

More than 60 federal agents raided the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, New York in September 2025, herding roughly 160 workers into a breakroom and arresting 57 of about 100 people questioned, including pregnant women and mothers of young children. Body camera footage later released in a lawsuit showed agents breaking down a locked bathroom stall door to remove a female employee and separating workers by citizenship status, with some told they would be arrested if they asked for an attorney. Argentina Juarez-Lopez, 50, invoked her right to counsel, but an agent falsely claimed she confessed without one; a federal judge called the conduct 'grossly negligent' and suppressed the evidence, yet she was deported after her case was dismissed. Juana Castillo Avelar, a mother of three U.S. citizen children who had lived in the U.S. over 20 years, was granted $9,000 bond but was deported before ICE would release her, based on a false claim she had appealed. Only five of the 57 arrested faced criminal charges, mostly for illegal reentry, and no charges have been filed against the company. The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Worker Justice Center of New York filed a lawsuit alleging officers lacked arrest warrants, exceeded search warrant authority, and violated workers' Fourth Amendment rights; one deported plaintiff has since been allowed to reenter the country while attorneys for another seek his return.