Human Impact Project

Ana Kikabidze and her children, ages 11 and 14, were detained for months at the Dilley immigration detention facility in South Texas before an immigration judge ordered their deportation to Georgia, warning that an appeal could take months longer in detention. More than 66,000 parents and children have been detained and deported since the Trump administration began requiring immigrants to remain locked up while their cases are decided, according to an analysis by Relevant Research. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee found the administration had repeatedly violated the Flores Settlement, citing prolonged detention and inadequate medical care at Dilley, and appointed an independent monitor to oversee conditions for detained children there and at other facilities.

A 24-year-old Afghan man identified in court records as Khalil, who had previously been granted legal protection against removal to Afghanistan by a U.S. immigration judge due to the threat of Taliban persecution, was deported to the Central African Republic despite his protected status. His attorney, Alma David, said his family faced direct threats from the Taliban because of his brothers' history of supporting U.S. military operations: one brother, who lives in the United States, served in the Afghan National Army, while another, trained as a pilot by the U.S. military, was killed by the Taliban. He was among 12 Afghans on a flight that arrived in Bangui, alongside eight Iranians and individuals from Nepal and Nicaragua. It was the second deportation flight to the Central African Republic since June, when roughly two dozen migrants, including an Iranian woman fearing persecution, were sent there under similar arrangements.

A man was taken into ICE custody on August 14, 2026 and held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) in Tacoma, Washington. Proceeding pro se, he filed a habeas corpus petition on August 26, 2026, and the court ordered that he be given seven days' notice before any transfer out of the district. The next day, however, ICE transferred him to a facility in Richwood, Louisiana in violation of that order. After a relative alerted the court to the transfer, ICE made four failed attempts between August 31 and September 4, 2026 to fly him back to Tacoma before he was finally returned to NWIPC on September 8, 2026. He then filed an emergency motion alleging he was subjected to severe physical cruelty while away and that his mother suffered a cardiac emergency due to the stress of his disappearance, seeking proof of life, an independent medical evaluation, and release, as well as appointment of counsel. The court denied both motions, finding he failed to address the required legal factors for a TRO, that conditions-of-confinement claims cannot be raised in a habeas petition, and that he had not shown financial eligibility for appointed counsel.

The petitioner is an asylum seeker from Guatemala who entered the United States around July 27, 2023. He was previously apprehended and released on $2,000 bond under an Order of Release on Recognizance in August 2023, complying with required ICE check-ins. He has a pending asylum application, with his merits hearing scheduled for April 2029. In June 2026, he was arrested in Concord, California, and charged with DUI and driving without a valid license, his first and only criminal arrest, with the case still pending and unresolved. When he appeared for a scheduled ICE interview at the San Francisco Field Office on August 14, 2026, he was detained without notice, with ICE alleging he had violated his release conditions. He filed a habeas petition and TRO motion, arguing his detention violated substantive and procedural due process since he had not been convicted of any crime and posed no flight risk or danger. The court agreed, finding the government's justification insufficient, and ordered his release under a TRO that was converted into a preliminary injunction barring his re-detention or removal without notice and a pre-deprivation hearing before a neutral decisionmaker.

Maria Perez, a Guatemalan asylum-seeker fleeing domestic violence, was arrested by ICE agents at her Nashville home on May 19, 2026, while preparing to take her two young children to a doctor's appointment. Attorneys said agents had come to serve a warrant on her husband but detained her instead, despite ICE policy generally barring detention of nursing mothers absent extraordinary circumstances. She was breastfeeding an infant and had a toddler with Down syndrome requiring ongoing medical care; the children were left in a neighbor's care without a formal plan, causing them to miss medical appointments. Perez, who has no criminal history, passed a credible fear interview, and had complied with immigration requirements since entering the U.S. in 2022, was held nearly 700 miles from home at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, where her sudden separation from her nursing infant compounded her diabetes. Advocacy groups including Sanctuary of the South, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, ACLU of Louisiana, Amnesty International, and the Kennedy Human Rights Center filed a civil rights complaint with DHS seeking her release. She was released on August 14, 2026, reunited with her children, and continues pursuing her asylum application.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a husband and wife outside the Cumberland County courthouse in Portland after they left the building on Tuesday, in what ICE described as a "targeted enforcement operation." According to ICE, both are from African countries and had entered the U.S. legally approximately 10 years ago but overstayed their authorized periods of stay. Court records show one of the two had been indicted earlier this year on a theft charge for allegedly taking items from a Walmart in late 2025 and early 2026, and was scheduled to be arraigned that afternoon. The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition said the arrests, captured on video, were the first it was aware of occurring outside the Cumberland County courthouse; officials confirmed ICE agents had been inside the courthouse that morning reviewing the public docket, though the arrests themselves occurred off courthouse property and local police said they had not been notified beforehand.

Petitioner, a national of Honduras, is currently detained at ICE's Washington Field Office in Chantilly, Virginia under 8 U.S.C. § 1231 pursuant to a final order of removal. An Immigration Judge previously granted her application for Withholding of Removal, which legally prohibits her removal to Honduras. Despite this protection, she remains in ICE custody and fears she may be removed to a third country instead. She filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 arguing that her continued detention violates her due process rights under Zadvydas v. Davis. She also filed a Motion for Temporary Restraining Order seeking to block her removal to a third country while her habeas petition is pending. The court granted the TRO, enjoining respondents from removing or transferring her from the district, and ordered respondents to show cause by August 17, 2026 why the habeas petition should not be granted, with any reply due by August 21, 2026.

The petitioner is a 23-year-old native and citizen of Russia who entered the U.S. with his parents and siblings in October 2022 and has remained continuously in the country since, complying with all reporting and immigration court requirements with no criminal history. He and his family applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. He suffers from moderate atopic bronchial asthma requiring inhaled medication and severe, recurrent leg cramps aggravated by confinement. After an immigration judge ruled against him and his family on August 3, 2026 (an appeal now pending before the BIA), he was instructed to report to ICE for a scheduled check-in, where officers took him into custody without prior notice or an opportunity to contest the detention, and denied his requests to contact family or obtain his medication. He was transported to and remains held at Adelanto Detention Facility without a bond hearing. He filed a habeas petition and TRO application seeking immediate release, and the government did not oppose the petition. The court granted the petition, ordering his immediate release and barring re-detention absent notice and a hearing showing materially changed circumstances.

Marco Uriel Rodriguez Hernandez, an immigration detainee, had won a finding that the government was unlawfully denying him a bond hearing. He was then transferred out of the privately run Aurora detention center to an unknown location and later found to be held in Texas. After his attorney, Skylar M. Larson, filed a new habeas petition, Colorado's Chief Federal Judge Daniel D. Domenico issued a temporary restraining order barring ICE from removing him, and the order was emailed to federal prosecutors. Despite this, ICE deported Rodriguez Hernandez to Mexico the following morning without allowing him to contact his attorney. Government attorneys said officials in Texas who carried out the removal were unaware of the court's order and said they 'greatly regret the error.' Domenico ordered the government to take all available steps to facilitate his return to the United States.

Luis (Kike) Espinoza, an Executive Chef who has lived legally in the United States since 2022 with a valid work permit, was detained by ICE during what was supposed to be a routine monthly immigration court hearing in Texas. Espinoza, who formerly worked as head chef at El Secreto de Rosita restaurant, moved to Texas to build a life and support his two children in Peru. His sister, Cinthia Espinoza, who works as a chef at Nabiha restaurant, is organizing a GoFundMe campaign to help cover legal costs as the family works with an attorney to seek his release. The community has described Espinoza as a beloved member who has given much to the people around him.

Eduardo Aguirre Esparza, a 53-year-old Mexican national and small business owner who has lived in the United States for over 20 years, was arrested by ICE on July 23, 2026, while working on a home remodeling project in West Seattle. Approximately 20 ICE agents in unmarked vehicles surrounded him, allegedly physically pushing him and threatening him when he refused to sign a voluntary departure form; he requested his lawyer instead. Without appearing before a judge or having contact with his attorney, Aguirre Esparza was transferred between multiple ICE facilities over three days and flown to El Paso, Texas, where he is detained at ERO El Paso Camp East Montana. His wife, Stacey Fitzpatrick, a U.S. citizen attorney, disputes ICE's claim that he has a 2005 DUI arrest from Kansas, noting he has never lived in Kansas and background checks show only a resolved 2015 traffic citation. Aguirre Esparza has a pending green card application and is married to a U.S. citizen with deep community ties. Community members organized rallies and fundraisers in West Seattle to raise awareness and support for his family, and Senator Patty Murray called the arrest "fundamentally wrong and un-American."

A Maryland federal judge held ICE in civil contempt for wrongfully deporting more than 50 unaccompanied minors in violation of a blanket court order barring their removal. The judge found that subsequent efforts to bring some of the minors back did not remedy the initial violation.

Ibrahim Mohammed, a 43-year-old Ethiopian national who legally entered the U.S. in 2014 and was granted asylum, was ordered deported following a child sexual abuse conviction, but ICE sought to send him to third countries rather than Ethiopia due to torture risk. U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles ordered Mohammed released from Angola's Camp 57 detention facility in February after finding ICE had no viable deportation plan, and ICE rearrested him twice more without properly serving deportation papers, most recently in Maryland in July. On August 20, deGravelles held an ICE field office director in contempt for repeatedly violating his orders, ordering officials to pay Mohammed's attorneys' fees and $180 in compensatory damages.

Brayan Omar Sánchez, a 26-year-old Honduran truck driver and owner of a pressure-washing and painting business who had lived in South Florida for nearly a decade after fleeing gang violence that killed his father and other family members, was detained by ICE agents on May 13 while heading to a job site. He was transferred through detention centers in Colorado, Arizona, California and Texas before being flown roughly 21 hours to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, on July 30 along with five other men — Cuban nationals Omar Rodríguez, Arístides Fernández, Yasmany Moreno and Daniel Lázaro Fuente, and Ecuadorian Mauricio Alvarado. Sánchez said he never signed deportation paperwork, believed he had asylum protection and a court order preventing removal, and said an ICE officer threatened the group with violence the night before if they refused to board the plane. He described arriving with only $20, which was confiscated by customs, and said he and the others are being held at a hotel in Bangui fearing for their safety. Sánchez is asking the Honduran government and members of Congress to help secure his return to the United States.

The petitioner was re-detained by immigration authorities on August 5, 2026, after previously having been released on bond, conditional parole, or humanitarian parole. He was held at the Golden State Annex Detention Facility without being afforded a pre-deprivation bond hearing before a neutral arbiter. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 along with a motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing that his continued detention without such a hearing violated his due process rights. The government conceded there were no meaningful factual or legal distinctions between his case and several prior cases in which the court had granted similar relief, and did not oppose the court ruling on the petition without a hearing. The court found that his detention was governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) and that the Due Process Clause required a pre-deprivation bond hearing before re-detention. The court granted the habeas petition and TRO, ordering his immediate release under the same conditions that applied before his August 5 detention, and required at least seven days' notice and a bond hearing before any future re-detention.

Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh (JFCS) filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging policies push unaccompanied immigrant children toward deportation even when they qualify for legal status. The suit names six teen plaintiffs from Vietnam, Guinea, El Salvador and Guatemala, all described as victims of abuse, abandonment, neglect or trafficking. Among them is KTN, a 19-year-old from Vietnam who fled severe, repeated physical abuse by his father and was approved for Special Immigrant Juvenile status in May, yet was ordered deported in July. Another plaintiff, 17-year-old Guatemalan trafficking survivor FYCT, was ordered deported despite applying for T nonimmigrant status after being confirmed as a trafficking victim. The lawsuit alleges immigration judges have been instructed to deny children meaningful time to pursue pending applications, citing government data showing removal and voluntary departure orders against minors have nearly quadrupled. JFCS staff say hundreds of their young clients are at risk, and the filing coincided with two Pittsburgh-area members of Congress questioning the administration's decision to end a contract funding attorneys for roughly 20,000 unaccompanied children nationwide, including about 700 in Pennsylvania.

José Eliezer Martínez-Andino, a 20-year-old Honduran man who crossed into the U.S. alone at 14 in 2020, was deported to Honduras in April 2026 after being stopped by Border Patrol in Montana over an alleged forged license plate, despite holding Special Immigrant Juvenile Status granted in 2023. He said he signed a voluntary departure form out of fear during detention but repeatedly tried to rescind it while being moved among at least six facilities, a claim DHS disputes, saying he received full due process. He had been living in Raleigh with relatives and is the father of a three-year-old U.S.-born child. In June 2026, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered DHS to return him and restore his legal status; he came back on August 5, 2026, but was sent to a detention facility in Harlingen, Texas, where he remains held awaiting relief.

Jose Eliezer Martinez-Andino, a 20-year-old Honduran who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2020 and held Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, was detained by immigration officers in March while traveling through Montana for his job as an auto mechanic in Raleigh, North Carolina. Despite holding legal status that should have protected him from removal, he was held across multiple detention centers for over 10 days without access to his attorneys and was coerced into signing voluntary departure paperwork he says was never properly explained. He was deported to Honduras on April 10, separating him from his young U.S. citizen daughter. Federal Judge Beryl Howell found he had likely been denied due process and ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. He was flown to McAllen, Texas in August but was then held for weeks by CBP and ICE at the Port Isabel Detention Center before his lawyers reached a settlement securing his release, allowing him to return to Raleigh to reunite with his family.

Erick Lopez, a 29-year-old Honduran citizen with no criminal record, was stopped by Houston police for a traffic violation on June 17, 2026. According to his lawsuit, officers detained him for more than two hours after the traffic stop, prolonging it until ICE agents arrived to take him into custody. Lopez, who worked in tile and flooring and was supporting a girlfriend and her two children, was deported to Honduras on June 27. He has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the City of Houston alleging that police violated his constitutional rights by unlawfully extending the traffic stop solely to facilitate his arrest by federal immigration agents, and seeking damages and an injunction against the practice.

Kaitlyn Tracey, a 33-year-old Canadian citizen, was arrested on July 3, 2026, after allegedly slapping a teenage girl twice on the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk during Fourth of July weekend. The confrontation occurred after Tracey objected to the girl's sweatpants displaying political slogans and allegedly verbally harassed her about her clothing. Police documented the assault on video. Tracey had entered the U.S. on April 14, 2024, on a tourist visa that expired September 6, 2024, remaining in the country illegally. She was charged with simple assault, endangering the welfare of a child, harassment, and obstruction. On August 4, 2026, a federal immigration judge ordered her deportation to Canada after she pleaded guilty to assault; she received a one-day jail sentence credited to time served. Her husband, Matthew Geroni, a U.S. citizen married to Tracey for over three years, disputed the characterization of events and alleged the arrest was politically motivated, claiming the viral video had been taken out of context. He launched fundraising efforts and social media campaigns to secure her release, raising $4,857 toward a $10,000 goal.