Human Impact Project

Carlos, a Venezuelan national with approved Temporary Protected Status, was detained by ICE in February despite having valid TPS. He describes detention conditions as prison-like, with expensive phone calls and inadequate medical care. Nearly 48,000 people are currently in ICE custody, the highest number since 2019, as advocates demand releases and an end to mass detention expansion.

Armando Reyes Rodriguez, a 42-year-old Honduran national seeking asylum, was detained by ICE on Monday, April 16, 2025, after being called to an ICE office in Blue Ash, Ohio for what he was told would be a routine appointment to have his ankle monitor removed. Rodriguez arrived at the office accompanied by his church's assistant pastor. Instead of the removal, he was detained by ICE officers and transferred to Butler County Jail, which holds ICE detainees. Rodriguez was in full compliance with ICE requirements and is married with two young children (ages 8 and 3) who remain in Ohio. His family's asylum application from Honduras is pending. West Charleston Church of the Brethren, where Rodriguez is a member, organized multiple protests against his detention and called for his release, urging elected officials and Butler County commissioners to intervene.

A 52-year-old Chinese woman died by suicide while detained at the Yuma Border Patrol station in Arizona after overstaying her B-1/B-2 visitor visa. She was initially detained in California and transferred to Yuma. Surveillance footage documented the incident, showing she created a noose. CBP records indicate required welfare checks were not properly conducted or were falsely documented, and medical intervention did not occur for nearly two hours after she was found unresponsive. Representative Pramila Jayapal called for accountability regarding CBP's failure to follow detainee safety procedures.

Attorneys representing detainees at an Everglades facility alleged that guards beat and pepper-sprayed detainees following a protest over lost phone access on April 2. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on March 27 requiring improved legal access and expressed frustration with slow compliance efforts during an April 13 status conference. The state and federal governments are appealing the injunction while claiming efforts to comply.

During a transfer in mid-April, dozens of men were gathered into a cell early in the morning with feet shackled and hands tied behind their backs. They waited hours while food sat visible through bars. When lunch was provided at 7 p.m. — only after another guard protested — the men could not reach plates with their hands. 'We had to bend over and eat off the chairs with our mouths, like dogs,' one man said. At FDC, upon arrival and after visits including from legal counsel, officers forced detainees to undergo invasive visual cavity searches. A 21-year-old Guatemalan man described being ordered to 'get completely naked, turn around, bend down, and get on all fours and cough.' An officer later admitted ICE detainees did not need such procedures.

Tim, a Nigerian man, was transferred to the Batavia ICE detention facility in April 2025 after suffering a major concussion from a fall while finishing a federal prison sentence. He was discharged from a Massachusetts hospital with nine prescribed medications and orders for inpatient physical therapy. At Batavia, he went at least a month without medication and received only one physical therapy session before being deported in summer 2025. He now requires a walker and reports severe mental health issues and insomnia.

Cliona Ward, a 54-year-old Irish national who has legally resided in the United States for approximately 40 years, was detained by ICE after returning from a trip to Ireland where she visited her ill father. Ward, a green card holder, was questioned about criminal convictions from 2003-2008 related to drug possession charges. She claims these convictions were expunged. Ward is being held in an ICE facility in Tacoma, Washington, and is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge in Seattle to argue her case.

A Nicaraguan asylum seeker is a citizen and national of Nicaragua who has lived in the United States since September 2021. He is married and living with his wife in California. He fled Nicaragua after police beat him for participating in anti-government protests, fracturing his arm. He was detained by DHS upon arrival in the US but released in October 2021 on reporting requirements to ICE, which he never missed. On September 14, 2023, he applied for asylum and received work authorization. In April 2025, he reported for a routine ICE appointment and was detained without notice or hearing despite full compliance with check-in requirements. He was transferred between multiple detention facilities where he suffered inhumane conditions, including excessive heat in transport vehicles, contaminated food and water, and injury from handcuffs. An immigration judge released him on a $5,000 bond in June 2025, and he was placed in ICE's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. On July 13, 2026, the immigration judge denied his asylum application and ordered removal to Nicaragua. He timely appealed. The federal court granted his preliminary injunction, prohibiting ICE from re-detaining him without a pre-detention hearing where the government must prove by clear and convincing evidence that he is a flight risk or danger.

Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year-old Philadelphia man who arrived in the U.S. in 1990 through the Amerasian Homecoming Act, suffered a stroke and collapsed on April 1 at Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana, after being detained during a routine ICE check-in in Philadelphia the previous August and spending months at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. Fellow detainees said it took about 15 minutes for a guard to respond and 10 more minutes for medical staff to arrive, while an Iraqi detainee performed CPR; ICE said Bui had a history of asthma and hypertension and received appropriate medication, and the local coroner attributed his death to natural causes related to cardiovascular disease, though the exact cause remains under investigation. His family is asking that his body be returned to Philadelphia for burial and is calling for an independent investigation, noting that his wife suffered a stroke after he was detained. His death is among 50 in ICE detention since Trump took office in January 2025, a rate more than double the 2009-2024 average.

Jaime Cabriales-Carlos, a graduate student at UTSA, was detained by ICE on March 28th following a traffic stop in San Antonio and taken to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center. He came to the United States at age three, earned his undergraduate degree from UT Rio Grande Valley, and was pursuing a scholarship-funded master's degree at UTSA when detained. He is the oldest of four siblings, one of whom serves in the U.S. Army, and has an immigration court hearing scheduled for the coming week.

Franyeli Carolina Zambrano Manrique, 30, a Venezuelan with Temporary Protected Status, was arrested on February 8, 2025 during a traffic stop in Utah with her husband. Despite having valid TPS status, ICE officers accused them both of gang membership based on tattoos and refused to accept their denials. She was transferred to Henderson detention center in Nevada, then deported on March 15, 2025 despite a federal judge's order halting deportations. She was told she was being flown to Venezuela but was instead taken to El Salvador, where she was kept on the plane and sent back to the United States the same day. She was later deported to Venezuela on April 5, 2025, but her husband remains detained at CECOT in El Salvador.

Gladys Yoleida Caricote Tovar, 28, a Venezuelan with Temporary Protected Status and mother of three young children, was arrested in Colorado on December 10, 2024 in front of her mother and children. Her children were placed in foster care and only returned to their grandmother weeks later. On March 15, 2025, she was deported despite a federal judge's order halting deportations. She was told she was being flown to Venezuela but was instead taken to El Salvador, where she was kept on the plane and sent back to the United States the same day. Since returning from El Salvador, she has been held in a Texas detention center where she was beaten a few days ago, covered in bruises, and is locked in solitary confinement following a panic attack.

Scarleth Rodríguez, 21, a Venezuelan with Temporary Protected Status, was arrested in August 2024 after turning herself in to border authorities and held in detention for nine months without being allowed to leave. On March 15, 2025, she was deported despite a federal judge's order halting deportations. She was told she was being flown to Venezuela but was instead taken to El Salvador, where she was kept on the plane and sent back to the United States the same day. Since returning from El Salvador, she has been held in a Texas detention center where she was recently beaten. Her mother in Venezuela had prepared a meal expecting her arrival.

Wuilliam Lozada Sanchez was deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison on March 15, 2025, under the Alien Enemies Act. He described being forced into stress positions for hours with guards watching for movement, and those unable to endure 24 hours on their knees were taken to 'the island'—a dark punishment cell with no light or ventilation where guards regularly beat detainees. He said 'the torture was never-ending.' He was released on July 18, 2025, as part of a prisoner swap.

Luis Muñoz Pinto, a 27-year-old Venezuelan who had been studying robotics engineering, was detained during a scheduled Customs and Border Protection appointment under the CBP One program and deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison on March 15, 2025, under the Alien Enemies Act, where he said lights stayed on 24/7, food and medicine were withheld, and bathing water had to be used for drinking. U.S. officials pointed to rose tattoos, which he says represent his twin sisters, as evidence linking him to the Tren de Aragua gang, an accusation he denies. He had no criminal record in the United States and was released on July 18, 2025, returning to Colombia. A federal judge has since ruled that Muñoz Pinto and more than 100 other deportees must be allowed to return to the U.S. for due process, and he hopes to clear his name and resume studying engineering there.

Andry Omar Blanco Bonilla, a 40-year-old food delivery driver and mechanic from Venezuela, was detained at an ICE office in Dallas in February 2024 after notifying them of an address change and being asked about his tattoos—which he said represented his family, not gang affiliation. Released pending deportation when Venezuela would not accept deportees, he was detained again after Trump's inauguration and deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison on March 15, 2025. He endured four months of beatings and humiliation before being returned to Venezuela on July 18, 2025. He had no criminal record in the U.S. and came to the country to support his seven children.

Juan José Ramos Ramos, a 39-year-old former telephone technician from Venezuela, was detained during an ICE appointment and deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison on March 15, 2025, under the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration alleged he was a Tren de Aragua gang member, but he was detected by immigration agents riding in a car with a Venezuela sticker. During his four months in CECOT, he said he endured severe beatings, humiliation, and psychological abuse, and told reporters he had wanted to end his life rather than continue enduring the conditions. He was released as part of a three-country deal in July 2025 that freed 238 Venezuelan men from the prison, and returned to Venezuela on July 18, 2025. A review of government data by ProPublica, the Texas Tribune and Venezuelan journalists found that at least 197 of the released men, including Ramos, had no criminal convictions in the U.S.

Diover Millan, 24, a construction worker, was arrested by immigration agents in the Atlanta suburbs on March 12 and transferred to Bluebonnet detention center in Texas. DHS classified him as a member of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without providing evidence. Millan faces potential deportation to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison under the Alien Enemies Act, though the Supreme Court temporarily blocked his deportation. He has a pending asylum case with a hearing scheduled for May 1.

Border Patrol agent Shane Millan pleaded guilty in federal court to telling multiple women to expose their breasts during virtual interviews as a condition for entering the United States. Millan admitted to sexually coercing at least four women during interviews in August 2023, falsely claiming the exposure was part of a legitimate search. He faces up to two years in prison and a $200,000 fine at his July 7 sentencing.

Exclusive audio was obtained from a prisoner at a detention facility operated by ICE.