Human Impact Project

Carlos Tellez Sanchez, a 35-year-old Venezuelan man who fled to Dallas, Texas in 2021, worked days at a car dealership and nights delivering for Uber Eats to support his family. He held a 2021 Withholding of Removal order protecting him from deportation to Venezuela and had no criminal record beyond civil immigration violations, but was detained by ICE in December 2025 during what he believed was a routine check-in appointment. After nearly eight months in detention, he was flown in handcuffs to Liberia on August 20, 2026, along with 19 other deportees, nearly 6,000 miles from his wife and newborn U.S. citizen son, whom he has only seen via video calls since the boy's birth. His brother, Juan Tellez, described him as 'a good person and hard worker' who 'doesn't deserve what happened to him.' He said returning to Venezuela is not an option because he fears for his safety there, and he is now staying at a hotel in Liberia while deciding whether to seek asylum there or travel elsewhere.

Carlos Rodríguez López, a 35-year-old Cuban man who lived in Miami Gardens after 16 months in ICE detention, was placed on an August 20 deportation flight to Liberia under a U.S.-Liberia removal agreement. He and other detainees refused to disembark, arguing Liberia was not their country and would endanger them; Liberian authorities also refused to accept them. Instead of returning to the U.S. as expected, the plane was diverted to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where Rodríguez López and roughly 40 other deportees were met by masked police, searched, and taken to a hotel without passports or legal assistance. His wife, Igrayne Ribot Hernández, a U.S. citizen who runs a family business in Miami Gardens and has a nine-year-old daughter with him, said he had rebuilt his life after serving an 11-month sentence for a prior conviction and called the deportation to a country with no ties to him unlawful and inhumane. A habeas corpus petition filed in November 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana remains unresolved, and Rodríguez López told Univision by video call that he considers the diversion an illegal deportation.

Daniel Fúnez, a Honduran roofer who had lived in the United States for 15 years, was deported and arrived at the Ramón Villeda Morales airport in La Lima, Honduras on August 19, 2026. Fúnez, who moved to the U.S. at age 12 and settled in Hanover, Pennsylvania, said he was linked to a crime committed by a friend and spent five months in a federal prison in Philadelphia before immigration agents took him into custody, moved him to a detention center near Harrisburg, then to Louisiana, and deported him. He left behind his wife, a U.S. citizen daughter of Salvadoran immigrants who was eight months pregnant at the time of his deportation, and said he plans to work in roofing in Honduras while his wife considers joining him there or in El Salvador.

Diana Vera, a 27-year-old Ecuadorian woman, was detained by ICE agents on August 6 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport while traveling with her husband, a U.S. citizen, to celebrate his birthday. According to her mother, Mercedes Espinoza, agents approached Vera by name and detained her, citing an existing deportation order, despite the couple presenting their marriage certificate and evidence of an ongoing process to regularize her status after she entered the U.S. legally on a visa. The Department of Homeland Security told CNN it has intensified screening at airports using data from the Transportation Security Administration to prevent people without legal status from taking domestic flights. The family has launched a fundraising campaign to cover legal costs while seeking her release on bail.

Two U.S. citizens were physically assaulted by ICE agents in the Bensenville suburb of Chicago, Illinois while observing and filming an immigration enforcement action. One woman said she repeatedly told agents she was a U.S. citizen, but they yanked her to the ground while trying to grab her phone and then shot her with a taser. A second U.S. citizen was taken by ambulance to the hospital in critical condition, with a witness saying he had been hit repeatedly.

Keiber Alexander Esposito Martinez, a Venezuelan asylum seeker who entered the U.S. legally in 2023, was detained by ICE while driving to or from his job in Buffalo. Over three years he rose from dishwasher to sous chef at Casa Azul restaurant in the Allentown neighborhood, holding legal work authorization and a New York driver's license with no criminal record. Restaurant owner Zina Lapi called him a 'model citizen' and said his detention caused other asylum-seeking employees to quit out of fear. Martinez, who is married to a U.S. citizen, is being held at the federal detention facility in Batavia. His attorney, Matthew Borowski, filed a federal lawsuit seeking his release, saying the family received no explanation for the detention and alleging visibly Latino or Bangladeshi individuals are being targeted.

Beaubrun Charles Ardouin, a naturalized U.S. citizen who drives for a transportation company shuttling workers, was pulled over near Topre America in Springfield, Ohio, in what DHS called a 'targeted enforcement' stop. Ardouin said he showed officers his ID and told them he was a citizen, but they demanded identification from his five Haitian passengers and threatened to break his van's windows if he didn't unlock them. All five men, who said they had pending asylum applications, were detained and booked into Butler County Jail under ICE holds; jail records identified them as Canot Monnimat, Albert Francois, Nero Adrien Toussaint, Cadet Vixama and Wislain Fenelon. The stop occurred amid broader ICE activity across Springfield, including arrests near a car wash in an area with several Haitian-owned businesses, with some detainees' mugshots showing them still in work uniforms. Butler County Jail held 17 people listing Haiti as their birth country under ICE detention as of one recent Monday, as many of Springfield's estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian residents became vulnerable to detention after a federal judge lifted a stay on the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti. Legal experts questioned whether officers had reasonable suspicion for the traffic stop, and DHS said several of the detained men have since been released or transferred.

Marcos Gaspar-Da Silva, a general contractor and former attorney from Brazil living in Bridgton, Maine, was detained by ICE on January 20 after being pulled over in Portland during an enforcement operation. He had a pending asylum case, no criminal record, and a marriage-based green card petition filed by his U.S. citizen wife, Alessia. Over nearly seven months in custody, he was transferred through facilities in Massachusetts, Louisiana and Arizona, where he and his wife described overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and inadequate medical care, including going untreated for a toothache until the tooth was pulled and losing more than 26 pounds. U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree's staff supported Alessia and helped expedite his petition while pressing officials about his medical care. In August, an immigration judge granted him adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident through his wife's petition, and he was released on August 13, reuniting with his wife and 11-year-old daughter, though he described lasting emotional numbness and difficulty eating and sleeping.

Jaime Rodriguez, who has lived in the U.S. for over a decade, was detained by immigration officers at a checkpoint near Fort Polk military base in Louisiana while completing a delivery order with his 3-year-old daughter. His wife, Abigail Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen, said officers accepted her ID but rejected her husband's matrícula consular and asked him to step out of the vehicle before handcuffing him, despite him not driving. Abigail said she overheard an officer say to take her husband because "he's illegal," and was herself told she could be taken as well because she did not appear in their database as a citizen, though she was ultimately allowed to leave with her daughter. Family members describe Jaime as a hardworking father who has never been in trouble, and say his children are heartbroken and want him home.

A group of U.S. citizens returning to Miami International Airport from Cuba, where they joined more than 1,500 delegates from 63 countries at an August 10-13 colloquium marking the 100th anniversary of Fidel Castro's birth, were held and questioned by U.S. officials over the weekend of August 15-16. Some travelers were required to surrender their cell phones, laptops, tablets and other electronic devices for inspection, according to U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press. Everyone was later released and allowed to enter the United States, with no criminal charges filed, though officials said travelers who had conducted business with Cuban government entities, such as hotels or restaurants, could still face legal consequences if a subsequent investigation finds they violated U.S. sanctions.

Suspected federal immigration agents smashed the windows of a truck and pointed firearms at the driver and passenger during a forcible vehicle stop in Langley Park, Maryland, escalating from verbal commands to breaking the window within about 10 seconds. The driver indicated that ICE had just detained his father, and agents reportedly dragged both occupants from the vehicle at gunpoint. Video of the incident, showing the shattered windshield and an agent reaching toward the occupants with a firearm drawn, was posted to Reddit on August 14 and circulated widely. The caption states it is another instance of suspected ICE agents drawing firearms on U.S. citizens.

Samuel Gonzalez Terrones, 21, died by suicide at a railroad crossing in San Bernardino County two months after his mother, Minerva Terrones Dominguez, 54, was detained by ICE agents near a grocery store. After being diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia in May, Samuel began therapy and medication, but relied heavily on his mother to help him through mental health crises while his siblings and father worked extra shifts to pay for an immigration lawyer. His sister, Sari Gonzalez, 32, said their mother was the only one able to calm him during difficult moments while the rest of the family was at work or school. Attorney Arturo Burga had been pursuing a legal pathway called cancellation of removal, arguing Minerva's deportation would cause extreme hardship to Samuel, but the family never filed the paperwork before his death. In a note left before he died, Samuel wrote, "To the ICE agent who took away my mother: I hope it was worth it. I can't handle anymore injustices in this world." His family described him as a caring, generous person who loved video games, chocolate conchas, and dreamed of becoming a graphic designer.

Carolina Molina, a U.S. citizen and licensed mental health therapist who works with immigration lawyers, was confronted at gunpoint by a masked ICE agent on August 10, 2026, in a Falls Church, Virginia parking lot. Molina was distributing business cards for immigration legal services when she witnessed ICE agents detaining two Latino men and shouted at the officers from her car. ICE vehicles boxed in her car and an agent drew his firearm, pointing it at her through the driver's-side window while accusing her of trying to run officers over. Molina denied the allegation, saying she was turning her car to avoid drawing attention to the attorney's office, and recorded the encounter on dashcam and cellphone video that she later shared publicly. DHS claimed she was 'weaponizing her vehicle,' but no charges were filed. Democratic Representatives Don Beyer and Suhas Subramanyam called for accountability, with Beyer describing Molina as a mother and citing a pattern of DHS misconduct.

Eric Ornelas, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, says ICE detained him after he recorded an immigration enforcement operation. According to Ornelas, ICE used him as bait to apprehend his father. ICE has not responded to media inquiries about the specific details of Ornelas' encounter.

José, a car wash worker at La Cienega Car Wash in Los Angeles, was detained by ICE agents in August 2025. José's wife is a U.S. citizen, and he had a pathway to citizenship before his detention. After a federal judge ordered his release on bond, the car wash had shut down, leaving José without employment. Rev. Andy Schwiebert of Immanuel Presbyterian Church noted that the enforcement operation destabilized families, congregations, workplaces, and entire communities across the region.

An 18-year-old U.S. citizen in Norfolk was detained by ICE agents on Friday morning after arriving at the scene of an immigration enforcement operation involving her husband. According to the woman, she informed agents she was a U.S. citizen, but was detained anyway.

Two U.S. citizens were detained during an immigration enforcement operation in Norfolk, Virginia. The incident was among cases documented in a ProPublica investigation identifying more than 500 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents since January 2025.

Ángel Muñoz, known on social media as Ángel Muñeco, was detained by ICE on August 6. His wife Blondi, a content creator known for her height, confirmed the detention, saying she did not want to make a video about it but did so for his fans. The couple went viral roughly a year earlier after his marriage proposal, and their wedding was celebrated by thousands of followers online. Blondi says Ángel is legally in the United States and that their marriage is valid, but he now faces an administrative process that could result in deportation.

Mohamed Guezoui, born in Algeria, moved to the U.S. after marrying an American citizen. After his marriage ended, he found community through his friend Staci Tighe, whom he met at karaoke. Tighe was struggling through an illness at the time, and Guezoui visited her daily to offer support before his arrest. While working his shift at King Kabab restaurant in West Virginia, three masked ICE officers arrested him at his workplace. He was eventually deported. His detention marked the beginning of Operation Country Roads, a DHS enforcement sweep that resulted in approximately 600 arrests across West Virginia, primarily relying on local law enforcement cooperation.

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.