Human Impact Project

A Twin Cities activist initially facing four felony charges and decades in prison for allegedly assaulting federal agents during an anti-immigration enforcement protest in south Minneapolis has accepted a plea deal reducing the charges to a single misdemeanor, avoiding prison time and a felony record. Her guilty plea marks the first conviction federal prosecutors have secured against a Minnesota protester arrested during the operation. Charges against a third of the 36 people originally arrested have been dismissed, while others continue to fight their cases.

On May 2-3, 2026, ICE agents arrested Chidozie Wilson Okeke, a Nigerian national who had overstayed his tourist visa since August 2023, during an enforcement operation near Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn. Okeke sustained injuries during the arrest and was taken to the hospital's emergency room. Approximately 200-300 anti-ICE protesters gathered outside the hospital in response, resulting in a five-hour confrontation with NYPD. Nine people were arrested on charges including obstructing traffic, blocking emergency entrances, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, reckless endangerment, and criminal mischief. During the protest, ICE vehicles were damaged, pepper spray was used against agents, and an ICE vehicle struck a protester; four NYPD officers and several DHS agents sustained minor injuries. On May 4, elected officials and community leaders, including City Council Member Sandy Nurse, rallied against the incident, citing direct coordination between ICE and NYPD and demanding the city respect sanctuary city laws.

Hana Francis, 26, was arrested at a sit-in demonstration in a hotel lobby on Southwest 2nd Avenue in Portland during May Day protests. She was charged with second-degree criminal trespass.

Several hundred protesters gathered at Portland's ICE facility on May Day, with some marching onto the facility's driveway and rattling its gate before Portland police and Oregon State Police moved in to clear the area and make arrests. Officers said protesters threw rocks and water bottles, injuring an officer, while ICE agents remained inside the building throughout the confrontation. Police had made arrests earlier in the day, including nine people during a hotel sit-in demonstration, with additional arrests made near the ICE facility as the evening protest intensified. A police spokesperson said officers' intervention was prompted when demonstration activity "turned criminal."

Adam Marshall, a former infantry officer who has volunteered for over a year helping families of detainees, was arrested and briefly detained while serving as a medic for protesters who had been pepper-sprayed outside Delaney Hall in May 2026. Federal agents pushed him to the ground, carried him by his arms and legs into the detention center's courtyard, scanned his face with a mobile application, held him for two hours, then transported him and two other men to an underpass beneath the New Jersey Turnpike where they were lined up against a metal wall with hands above their heads before being told never to return and released.

ICE agents attempted to arrest Oscar Ocampo, a 41-year-old from Ecuador, on Exchange Street in New Haven while he was holding his seven-month-old son during a daycare drop-off. Neighbors and activists from the New Haven Immigrants Coalition emerged and recorded the encounter, urging the agents to leave. After approximately 20 minutes, the ICE agents departed without detaining Ocampo.

Anita Garcia, a volunteer with SBResiste rapid response network, was physically restrained and allegedly punched by ICE agents while observing an enforcement action at the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor office in Santa Barbara on April 30. Garcia had arrived after receiving a tip about ICE activity and entered the building to document the agents' activities. The agents accused her of impeding their work and physically restrained her against a wall, according to Garcia's account.

On April 28-29, 2026, approximately 40 protesters, including Maine residents and faith leaders, gathered at ICE's Burlington field office in Massachusetts to protest overcrowding and unsanitary conditions at the facility. The group attempted to block the administrative entrance and deliver care packages and a letter of support to detainees but were denied access. Police arrested between 9 and 12 protesters for trespassing and disturbing the peace after they refused orders to relocate to a designated free speech area. All arrested protesters were released and summoned to court. Some detainees at the facility had been transferred there during a January ICE operation in Maine.

ICE conducted a targeted enforcement operation in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville on April 29, 2026, with unmarked vehicles that remained in the area for hours. Officers with a court-issued arrest warrant detained one undocumented immigrant after observing surveillance of the location and making several attempts to communicate with individuals inside the residence. Residents gathered outside the home yelling to impede the operation. Metro Councilmember Joy Styles, who witnessed the arrest, described the scene as chaotic and noted the situation involved more than routine enforcement.

Jaime Ernesto Alvarez-Gonzalez, 53, pleaded guilty to impersonating a U.S. Border Patrol agent and disrupting deportation operations in San Diego on January 8. He modified a black Ford F-150 with law enforcement-style features and followed a real Border Patrol agent, causing the officer to abandon his mission for safety. Alvarez-Gonzalez coordinated multiple vehicles to harass and chase federal agents onto the highway and possessed firearms despite being prohibited from doing so.

Ian Hill, a Springdale resident protesting the borough's ICE partnership, was confronted by a passing ICE supporter who stopped his car; the supporter punched a different protester while video showed Hill neither striking nor being struck. Nearly three months later, Hill was charged with simple assault and terroristic threats over social media posts, but all charges were later dropped.

A vigil titled "Disappeared in Berks" was held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Reading to commemorate 75 immigrants discharged from Berks County Jail to ICE between March 2025 and March 2026. Seventy-five pairs of empty shoes were displayed to represent those taken. The event featured testimonies including a letter from Gladis Garzon about her husband Carlos Gonzalo, who has been in ICE custody for eight months after being transferred from the county jail, and has been moved between detention facilities in multiple states.

Karla Saenz, a 26-year-old Venezuelan transgender organizer with Trans Queer Pueblo, was detained by ICE on March 9, 2026, during what she believed was a routine immigration check-in in Phoenix. According to an eyewitness account, ICE agents took her to a back room, claimed she had an arrest warrant without providing documentation, and handcuffed her. Saenz was transferred to Eloy Detention Center, located approximately 60 miles southeast of Phoenix, where she was initially placed in the men's unit despite being a trans woman. She contracted COVID-19 during her first two days in custody. Saenz had been a vocal advocate for Arbella "Yari" Marquez, a lesbian detainee at the same facility who was suffering from serious health complications including returning leukemia. Advocates believe Saenz's detention was retaliatory for her visible organizing work against immigration enforcement in Arizona, noting that she had consistently complied with all supervision requirements prior to her detention.

Approximately 200 to 1,400 detainees at North Lake Processing Facility, a 1,800-bed ICE detention center in Baldwin, Michigan, began a hunger and labor strike on Monday, April 21, 2026, to protest conditions including medical neglect, slow ICE communication, and prolonged confinement. The facility, operated by private prison company GEO Group, holds detainees with average stays of 49 days, though some have been held for nearly six months. By Wednesday morning, detainees in at least one unit had stopped the strike.

ICE agents detained a man on April 23, 2026, at the Sonoma County Jail while he was being released after a court hearing, taking him from the transportation hall between the release area and the public lobby where his sister was waiting. He has since been transferred to the ICE Detention Center in California City, a facility reactivated in 2025 in the Mojave Desert. His sister, using the pseudonym "Yohanna" to protect her family from retaliation, described the detention at an April 27 press conference organized by immigrant rights groups outside the Sheriff's Department. On April 28, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a new immigration ordinance providing $1.5 million to community organizations supporting immigrants, though it stopped short of declaring Sonoma County a sanctuary county.

William 'Danny' Rosenmund, a Springdale resident who regularly spoke at borough council meetings, was forcefully pulled from the podium and taken to the ground by Springdale police during an April 21 public meeting. He had repeatedly questioned the borough's 287(g) agreement with ICE and criticized officials for approving it without a public vote.

William "Danny" Rosenmund, a library board member, was arrested at a Springdale Borough Council meeting on April 21 while speaking about the borough's 287(g) agreement with ICE. He was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and five misdemeanors after exceeding his three-minute speaking time and continuing to speak after being ordered to stop. The county's acting chief public defender called the charges "inappropriate" and said he would push for them to be dropped or reduced.

Nearly 100 detainees at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County launched a hunger strike between April 16-19, 2026, to protest detention conditions and medical care. The strike began after a detainee became ill with influenza on April 16, with 50-70 detainees in the same housing pod initially refusing an evening meal due to food contamination concerns. Advocacy groups reported that detainees were protesting unsafe living conditions, including contaminated food, inadequate medical care, and staff indifference to medical emergencies, with reports of a recent medical emergency in which a detainee lost consciousness without receiving proper care. Advocacy group Frontline DIGNITY called for the facility's shutdown and independent investigation. Clearfield County commissioners met with GEO Group leadership, the facility operator, to address the incident.

Michelle Mendoza, a U.S. citizen and mother of two young children, was detained by ICE agents on April 15, 2026, during a school drop-off at the intersection of Main Street and Bangs Avenue in Asbury Park, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Agents took her to the ground, causing visible bruising, and handcuffed her in front of her children (ages 9 and 1). Some ICE agents covered their faces during the arrest, allegedly violating New Jersey state law prohibiting masked officers during enforcement actions. Mendoza was released without charges after eight hours at the Newark ICE detention center (Delaney Hall), though her husband remained in ICE custody. The incident prompted community protests and statements from city officials and state legislators.

ProPublica and FRONTLINE investigated more than 300 arrests of protesters and bystanders during Trump administration immigration enforcement sweeps in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Charlotte. Over one-third of cases were dismissed, acquitted at trial, or never prosecuted. Video evidence and other documentation repeatedly contradicted officer statements, and prosecutors struggled to substantiate charges such as assaulting federal officers or interfering with law enforcement. Federal agents, largely inexperienced in crowd control, made widespread arrests that ultimately failed legal scrutiny.