Human Impact Project

Immigration agents arrested Kyungjin Yu, a South Korean immigrant, outside Camarena Elementary School in Chula Vista on Wednesday morning for overstaying her visa, which expired in 2017. Yu's children were in the car at the time of the arrest, though her ex-husband was called to take custody of them. She is being held at Otay Mesa Detention Center.

ICE agents conducted a search warrant operation on February 2, 2026, at a residential property in the 600 block of North Rural Drive in Monterey Park, California, approximately 0.1 miles from Mark Keppel High School. Multiple migrants were taken into custody, with the operation occurring early in the morning. The Monterey Park city government confirmed the federal enforcement action but noted that local police did not participate, consistent with California state law and local policy prohibiting municipal involvement in immigration enforcement.

ICE agents detained a woman in a white Tesla near Camarena Elementary School in Chula Vista during morning drop-off on August 6, 2025. The woman's two children, who were students at the school, were in the vehicle. According to ICE, an immigration judge had ordered the woman deported in absentia in July 2022, and the arrest was made off school property.

Two individuals were detained by ICE officers in front of Southwest Elementary School in the Roosevelt School District on August 5, 2025, the second day of the school year. One agent was observed escorting a student to the school's entry gate. Some parents subsequently kept children home or considered doing so.

In the San Diego area, a mother was arrested by federal agents outside an elementary school as students arrived. Her two children were in the car with her. The school district confirmed the children were students at the school.

Miguel Angel Ponce Jr., a U.S. citizen from Texas, was detained by ICE agents who mistakenly identified him as a wanted violent offender. He was handcuffed and held for approximately 90 minutes to two hours before agents compared his tattoos to a photograph and realized their error. After his release, agents allegedly suggested he shave his beard to avoid future confusion, a request Ponce found disrespectful and said he would never comply with. Miguel Angel Torres, a 14-year resident of Austin who worked as a cook, was detained by ICE on February 12, 2017, after dropping off their three daughters at school in Pflugerville. His wife, Irma Perez, says ICE officers in an unmarked van mistakenly sought to arrest her brother, Jose Manuel Perez, but detained Torres instead when he said he was not her brother. The family, including Torres's undocumented wife and three U.S. citizen daughters, abandoned their home and dreams of opening a food truck after the detention.

On July 15, 2025, ICE agents arrested Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a 38-year-old chiropractor, outside a Montessori preschool in Beaverton, Oregon, while he was dropping off his child. According to ICE, Khanbabazadeh lawfully entered the U.S. in 2017 but overstayed his student visa. His immigration attorney states he married a U.S. citizen who filed a green card application, and they were awaiting approval at the time of arrest. Video of the arrest by masked ICE agents was subsequently published. Khanbabazadeh was detained and held at an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington. The arrest marked the first confirmed case of an immigration enforcement action at an Oregon school.

Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a 38-year-old Iranian chiropractor, was detained by ICE on July 15, 2025, while dropping his child off at Guidepost Montessori School in Beaverton, Oregon. Video footage shows Khanbabazadeh pleading with ICE agents to allow his child to exit the car before his arrest. After he stopped cooperating, ICE officers broke his car window to take him into custody. Khanbabazadeh entered the U.S. on a student visa; ICE claims he overstayed it, while his family states he is married to a U.S. citizen and has already applied and interviewed for a green card. He is currently held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. His detention occurred as part of a broader surge in ICE arrests of Iranian immigrants under the Trump administration.

Philippe Kame, a Cameroonian national and former University of Michigan Taubman College graduate student and architectural designer, was detained by ICE for a second time on April 1, 2026, while on an approved leave of absence from the university. He had previously been held for about a month in 2025 after losing his F-1 visa status following the university's termination of his graduate student instructor position, a dispute he pursued through a grievance with support from the Graduate Employees' Organization and more than 1,300 community members. In the latest case, Kame was held at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, and was granted release on an $8,000 bond on April 27, 2026. The university said the detention occurred off campus and declined to share further details, citing federal law and privacy policy.

Department of Homeland Security agents attempted to speak with students at two Los Angeles elementary schools (Russell Elementary and Lillian Street Elementary) stating they were conducting welfare checks on unaccompanied minors. School principals denied the agents access. House Democrats have requested a briefing regarding the agents' claim of having parental permission and regarding four of the targeted students who were not unaccompanied minors.

Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama from Iran, was detained by ICE agents on March 25, 2025, around 3-5 a.m. at his home after the State Department revoked his F-1 student visa. Doroudi had entered the U.S. in January 2023 and his visa was revoked six months after arrival, though university international student services advised he could remain legally if he maintained student status. DHS cited national security concerns as the basis for the detention and visa revocation, but provided no specific allegations. Doroudi's immigration attorney stated he is unaware of any such concerns. He is being held at the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana.

Jose Guadalupe Jaimes, a 55-year-old Mexican national who had lived in the United States for 30 years, was arrested by ICE outside Arthur Middle School in Trenton, Michigan, after dropping off his eighth-grade son, who has Asperger's syndrome. Jaimes owns a painting business and has a valid work permit with no criminal record. His children, Ana and Hector (a college junior), described him as a devoted father who emphasized education and built a life in metro Detroit with his wife and five children. According to his son Hector, ICE agents approached with guns drawn during the arrest; an ICE agent reportedly told Jaimes, "I don't even know why you're here because you have no record, you didn't do anything bad." An ICE spokesman stated Jaimes had been "ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2014." He is being held in St. Clair County Jail pending immigration proceedings. His family expressed deep concern about surviving financially and emotionally without him.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and Palestine student leader who is a lawful permanent resident, was detained by immigration agents at his campus residence in March 2025. A federal appellate court reversed a lower court's decision releasing him in January 2026, and he remains in ICE detention as of the article date.

ICE agents detained Francisco Andrade-Berrera, a 37-year-old Mexican citizen, outside Soto High School in Chicago's Gage Park neighborhood on Wednesday morning while he was dropping off children. Two students were in the vehicle at the time; school staff escorted them into the building. Andrade-Berrera had prior convictions and had been deported twice previously.

On Feb. 21, 2025, a Border Patrol agent boarded a Las Cruces Public Schools charter bus carrying 12 swim team students and two staff members to the state championships in Albuquerque, after the Spanish-speaking driver could not answer the agent's questions in English. Coach Pamela Quiñones said the agent began yelling in Spanish and demanding documentation from all passengers without further questioning the adults, leaving students visibly shaken. Border Patrol called it a routine immigration inspection, noting the bus had no school decals and was treated as a standard charter vehicle, and said all passengers were confirmed to be legally present before agents left without incident. U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez criticized the stop, saying no student or coach should face intimidating enforcement actions and raising concerns about the checkpoint system's impact on civil rights.

ICE detained two parents, Reinaldo Chirino from Venezuela and Kris Estefany Pineda-Torregrosa from Colombia, after school drop-off on January 27, leaving their two young children (ages 12 and 4) in the care of a family friend. The couple had entered the country legally in 2022 under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans but lost their legal status when the Trump administration revoked TPS protections. They are being held at Otay Mesa Detention Center pending removal proceedings.