Human Impact Project

A 42-year-old Guatemalan man who has lived in the United States since 2004 was detained by ICE on March 13, 2026, while attending a court hearing for the dismissal of a criminal offense. He is engaged to a U.S. citizen and is the father of three U.S. citizens. Following his detention, he was transferred to the San Bernardino Sub Office and held at Adelanto Detention Facility. On March 31, 2026, he filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus seeking immediate release or a bond hearing within seven days, raising claims of unlawful denial of a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), violation of Fifth Amendment due process rights, and violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. On April 13, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted his Petition for Temporary Restraining Order, finding that he is entitled to an individualized bond hearing as a member of the Bond Eligible Class established in Bautista v. Santacruz. The court ordered respondents to either provide evidence that he received a bond hearing or release him from custody within 48 hours, with no release restrictions such as electronic monitoring unless deemed necessary at a future bond hearing.

Virginia Lissbeth Pineda Lemus, a 21-year-old Salvadoran woman who crossed the U.S. border as an unaccompanied minor at age 16, was arrested on domestic assault charges in January 2026 and taken into ICE custody after posting bond on those state charges, which were later dismissed. She was held at Lincoln County Jail on an ICE hold for two months before U.S. District Judge John Gerrard ordered her outright release on March 13, 2026. Pineda described her detention as traumatizing, saying she was treated "more like an animal than a person." She remains in deportation proceedings but has reunited with her boyfriend and is building her case outside of jail.

Alejandra Juarez, a Mexican immigrant and wife of decorated Marine combat veteran Temo Juarez, was deported during the first Trump administration, leaving behind her husband and two school-age daughters. In 2021, after lawmakers' intervention, President Biden granted her humanitarian parole to reunite with her family. However, her parole expired in June 2025, and she has no path to citizenship. She signed a document as a teenager that permanently barred her from legal status. With the administration ramping up immigration enforcement and ending parole programs, Juarez sees no viable legal option and must leave the country by July 4 to celebrate her younger daughter's 16th birthday before departing.

Habiba Soliman, 18, and her four younger siblings (ages 4-16) were detained at Dilley Immigration Processing Center for more than nine months following their father's arrest in connection with a firebombing attack at a Jewish event in Boulder, Colorado. DHS arrested the mother and children and investigated their alleged involvement in the attack, though they denied any connection and publicly disavowed their father's actions. An arrest warrant reported that their father stated he never discussed his plans with family. An immigration judge initially determined the family posed no danger or flight risk and granted bond, but later reversed the decision after ICE appealed. Soliman was subsequently separated from her younger siblings and moved to an adult section of the facility.

A pregnant woman reported being shot in the stomach with a rubber bullet by a federal agent while observing an anti-ICE protest in downtown Los Angeles on a Saturday night.

Celia, a single mother of five, was arrested by ICE at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on March 12, 2026, while boarding a flight to San Diego after attending her stepson's military graduation. She had a pending U-visa application certified by the U.S. Attorney General's Office after coming forward with claims of sexual abuse by a former officer at Federal Correctional Institution Dublin in California, where she had been incarcerated. Despite informing ICE agents of her pending U-visa and assisting in the federal investigation, supervisors told agents to proceed with her deportation regardless of her pending immigration relief. She was sent to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, and was deported to Mexico about a week later. Her attorney, Susan Beatty, characterized the action as "a slap in the face."

Lorenzo Chavez Rascon, a 22-year-old Utah man, was arrested on February 23, 2026, on suspicion of selling drugs, but the substances were determined to be dried pinto beans. He was released from initial criminal custody but subsequently detained by ICE based on a detainer, despite holding deferred action status from a pending U-visa petition. On March 11, 2026, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking his deportation and ordered the government to explain why he should not be released, ruling that his continued detention violated his constitutional due process rights. As of March 14, he remained in federal custody.

A 14-year-old Brazilian national was detained by ICE agents in Marlborough, Massachusetts on March 10, 2026, during an operation targeting suspected gang members. She was transferred to a juvenile detention facility in New York without following proper legal procedures. A federal judge ordered her immediate release on March 12, 2026, finding the detention and out-of-state transfer violated constitutional protections and questioning why she was not turned over to state child welfare authorities instead. She was reunited with her aunt and uncle in Massachusetts but received a notice to appear in immigration court and now faces deportation to Brazil. Her attorney plans to challenge the deportation and petition for special immigrant juvenile status.

Lucia Vasquez-Gonzalez, a mother from Venezuela, appeared at the Cook County domestic violence courthouse in March to address a misdemeanor domestic battery charge stemming from a dispute with her roommate. She was arrested by ICE agents after the hearing, and the criminal charge was later dropped, but she was transferred to the Campbell County Jail in Newport, Kentucky, where she has remained in custody without receiving a bond hearing. Vasquez entered the United States in 2023 near Brownsville, Texas, with her then-minor daughter and had settled in Chicago while her case proceeded. In April 2026 she filed a federal habeas corpus petition challenging her continued detention without a bond hearing, and the case remains pending in federal court.

ICE officers abducted a mother dropping her child off at Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor, Michigan

ICE agents detained Reginald Toussaint, a Haitian with Temporary Protected Status, while he was picking up his wife from work in Birmingham, Alabama. Agents approached multiple unmarked vehicles and removed Toussaint from the family's minivan in front of his children. Toussaint stated he had valid TPS status. He was charged with impersonating a U.S. citizen based on an alleged pistol permit application from August 2025 where he marked the citizenship box. His wife disputes this characterization.

Adriana Laya, Miguel Alberto Caicedo, and their two children were detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas for two months following a routine ICE check-in in January 2026. The family, who entered the U.S. in 2024 under asylum parole, reported poor detention conditions including undrinkable water, constant lighting, and inadequate medical care for their son with kidney issues. Upon their release in mid-February, they discovered they had been evicted from their apartment in Las Cruces, New Mexico and lost their possessions, life savings, pet dog, and jobs. The family is now living in their car, their only remaining possession.

Ruben, 28, a Nicaraguan immigrant who had been living in San Francisco's Mission District with his brother Francisco since October 2022, was arrested on February 17 while arriving for his asylum appointment at the Sansome Street immigration court. Francisco and Ruben had worked together and lived as a unit for three years in the Mission, sharing meals and supporting each other as they built their lives in the United States. Ruben's prior immigration appointment had been changed without his notification, and he failed to file the necessary motion to explain his missed hearing, which proved fatal to his case. He was detained and transferred through multiple detention facilities—Mesa Verde in Bakersfield, a facility in Arizona, and Puerto Isabel in Texas—before being deported to Nicaragua on March 8.

Jose Ernesto Aparicio Almendarez, a 20-year-old Honduran citizen who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor seeking asylum, was detained by ICE after being stopped for driving without a license in Orlando, Florida. He had previously been released by ORR to a sponsor and has a pending asylum application. The court ordered his immediate release, finding his detention without a pre-deprivation hearing violated due process. Jose Alberto Cuellar, a 51-year-old landscaper from El Salvador who has lived in South Florida for 30 years, was detained by ICE agents during a traffic stop near Davie and Griffin roads early Tuesday morning. According to his son Justin, who was driving the landscaping truck, ICE agents approached the vehicle after it was pulled over for an allegedly obstructed license plate, and agents asked his father in Spanish whether he had papers or was "legal," using a racial slur. Cuellar has no criminal record and has worked as a landscaper six days a week for decades while attempting to legalize his immigration status since the early 2000s; his family has been unable to locate him in any detainee system and are raising funds for legal representation.

Psalm 'Sam' Behpoor, 42, manager of Pismo's Coastal Grill in Fresno, was detained by ICE on June 23, 2025, after reporting to a routine immigration check-in to reinstate his green card. He came to the U.S. from Iran as a toddler after his family fled the Iranian Revolution and had lost his green card over a non-aggravated burglary conviction from when he was 18, nearly 25 years earlier. He was held at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield without a scheduled hearing, separated from his wife, Lera Mirakyan, and their 3-year-old son, who repeatedly asked for his father. His employer, Dave Fansler, called him 'the best of the best,' and community members raised more than $30,000 for his family while Fresno councilmembers sent ICE a letter of support. Gov. Gavin Newsom pardoned his old conviction in November 2025, and after new legal filings corrected errors in his case, an immigration judge found he posed no danger or flight risk, granting him bond after about nine months in detention. 'Seeing my wife and my child again was everything,' Behpoor said, though further immigration hearings remain pending.

Mirna Yesenia Alvarado Benitez, a citizen of El Salvador who entered the U.S. in July 2024, was initially detained and then released with conditions. On March 5, 2026, she appeared for a routine ICE check-in appointment, at which point the government placed her in expedited removal proceedings and detained her. The court granted a temporary restraining order preventing her removal while her habeas corpus petition is pending. Mirna Benitez, a Salvadoran woman who had been living in the U.S. for nearly 13 years and working as a school custodian, was detained by ICE after attending a scheduled appointment at an ICE office in North Chesterfield on December 7, 2025. Despite having attended regular ICE check-ins for years, applied for asylum with legal representation, and obtained a temporary work permit, Benitez was taken into custody without warning. She was transferred through multiple detention facilities—Riverside Regional Jail in Richmond, an ICE facility in Texas, and another in Louisiana—over 10 days, during which she reported mistreatment by officers, inadequate medical care, unsanitary conditions, and denial of access to legal counsel. She ultimately chose to accept deportation to El Salvador rather than remain detained, departing before Christmas.

Hai Nguyen, a Vietnamese national who has lived in the U.S. since 1993 and worked in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, was detained by ICE during a routine appointment. His detention stems from a decades-old marijuana charge from college that was expunged from his record. He now faces possible deportation despite previously being considered non-deportable because Vietnam would not accept deportees who arrived before 1995.

Two separate ICE detention cases involved individuals serving critical caregiving roles. Maher Tarabishi was detained while being the sole caregiver for his son with Pompe disease, who is completely immobile and dependent on his father for all daily care. Josué, a day laborer from El Salvador, was detained by ICE agents and reported that his heart condition went unaddressed during detention, with medication withheld and inadequate medical attention provided despite his history of heart attacks.

Axel Pecero, 25, a former Los Angeles County foster youth and advocate for youth in child welfare and juvenile justice systems, was detained by ICE in August 2025 after being stopped by Burbank police. After nearly eight months of detention at Adelanto ICE Processing Center, an immigration judge denied his bond request. Pecero agreed to voluntary departure to Mexico, leaving behind his 4-year-old son in the United States.

Over 1,100 Afghan refugees, many of whom served alongside U.S. forces, are at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar. Since February 28, 2026, residents have experienced missile attacks and are housed in shipping containers. President Trump suspended their refugee resettlement program in 2025. The refugees remain in Qatar with unresolved immigration status.