Human Impact Project

Jair Celis, a 29-year-old Utah father and soccer coach, was detained by ICE during his final green card interview despite being married to a U.S. citizen. The Department of Homeland Security posted on social media claiming Celis had a history of child sexual abuse, referencing sealed juvenile court records from when he was a minor. His attorneys plan to sue DHS for libel, arguing that juvenile cases are civil proceedings that cannot be used as convictions and should not be publicly disclosed.

ICE agents raided a home in Burnsville, Minnesota on Saturday, arresting four people including a couple whose 7-year-old son was left in the care of another arrested man's pregnant wife. Ring camera footage shows agents detaining the couple as they arrived home from the grocery store. Family members inside the home alleged that ICE agents entered without presenting a warrant and pointed guns at residents, including a pregnant woman and children.

Immigrant families detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas describe prolonged stays, despondent children, limited access to potable water, and inadequate food in court declarations filed in December 2025. A report from Human Rights First and RAICES found more than 5,600 people, including parents, toddlers and newborns, were held at the facility between April 2025 and February 2026, alleging months-long detentions, limited access to asylum protections, poor medical care and psychological harm. A Canadian citizen living in Texas said she and her 7-year-old daughter were detained for hours at a checkpoint and later transferred to a processing center despite her pending lawful immigration status. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security maintain the facility is safe and family-friendly, providing food, medical care, education and legal access, and say some detained families raise enforcement or security concerns.

Lucy, a 3-year-old unaccompanied minor, was presented without legal representation before an immigration judge in Tucson, Arizona. According to reports, multiple unaccompanied immigrant minors are appearing in immigration court without legal representation or support due to federal budget cuts to organizations that previously provided assistance.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with Border Patrol and Florida Highway Patrol, conducted immigration enforcement operations in central Palm Beach County on December 8, 2025, including roadblocks and an attempted raid on a residential construction site. Activists estimate at least 50 people were detained during the sweeps, with children separated from apprehended parents. A 19-year-old U.S. citizen was wrongly detained but later released. Local officials stated the operations disrupted the community and economy.

Bruna Ferreira, a Brazilian woman who arrived in the U.S. in 1998 at age six and previously held DACA protection, was arrested by ICE agents on November 12, 2025, in Massachusetts while driving to pick up her 11-year-old son from school. Ferreira shares custody of her son with her former fiancé Michael Leavitt, brother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She has no criminal convictions, and her brother, sister and son are U.S. citizens. She was held for 26 days across multiple facilities, including the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, before an immigration judge granted her release on a $1,500 bond on December 8 after DHS attorneys did not challenge her release. She remains in removal proceedings with mandatory periodic check-ins with ICE.

The ACLU and human rights organizations released reports on 12/8/2025 documenting conditions at Fort Bliss, the largest immigration detention site in the U.S., specifically at Camp East Montana, a tent facility in El Paso. Based on interviews with over 45 detained immigrants and 16 sworn declarations, the reports detail physical abuse, sexual abuse by officers, medical neglect, and coercive deportations to third countries. Specific cases cited include a teenager beaten into unconsciousness and another who sustained a broken tooth and ear damage, a Cuban immigrant whose head was slammed against a wall, and Geraldo Lunas Campos, whose death in ICE custody at a nearby facility was ruled a homicide following reports an officer choked him.

Don Lupe, who had lived in the U.S. for 27 years after migrating from Puebla, Mexico, was detained by ICE agents during a worksite raid in New Jersey. He described detention center conditions as isolating and abusive, designed to encourage self-deportation. His family mobilized support and with legal assistance, Don Lupe received a hearing where a judge granted bail and set bond at $7,500.

Jose Paniagua Calderón was detained in front of a Mexican restaurant on East 4th Plain Boulevard in Vancouver, Washington. Videos on social media show him screaming in pain as a silver-colored SUV drives over his legs during the detention. ICE denies that its agents ran over Paniagua's legs, while his family alleges ICE agents denied him medical care and forced him into their vehicle. He is reportedly being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.

Francisco Paredes, a 46-year-old maintenance worker at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Hopkins, Minnesota, was arrested by ICE on December 4, 2025, and deported to Mexico after living in the U.S. for 25 years. Paredes was detained for approximately one month in multiple facilities, including a Bloomington immigration office holding cell with 40 people, Crow Wing County Jail in Brainerd, and Webb County Detention Center in Texas, where he reported sleeping on floors without blankets and receiving minimal food. He spent Christmas imprisoned and was denied phone contact for several days after his arrest. Five weeks later, ICE agents surveilled St. Gabriel's Church during a Spanish-language Mass on January 4, 2026, which church leadership and local officials said violated parishioners' constitutional right to free exercise of religion. Francisco Paredes, a maintenance worker at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Hopkins, was detained by ICE agents in December 2024 after picking up coffee on his way to work. Paredes had lived in the U.S. for 25 years. He was transported to a processing facility following his detention.

ICE agents arrested Julio, a man with end-stage kidney failure requiring regular dialysis, as he returned home from a medical appointment. He was held in detention facilities and denied appropriate medical care, eventually suffering a severe stroke while hospitalized under ICE surveillance. His family, all U.S. citizens including a military servicemember, advocated for his release but ICE refused despite his critical medical needs.

Francisco Gaspar Cristóbal Andrés, 48, died on December 3, 2025, after 93 days in ICE detention, becoming the first known detainee death at the Camp East Montana facility in El Paso, the nation's largest immigration detention center. He had worked in the U.S. for 20 years and was married to Lucía Pedro Juan for 25 years, with five children. Guards separated the couple during processing and ordered them not to touch, and weeks later Pedro Juan was deported to Guatemala despite pleading to see her husband, who was hospitalized in grave condition with liver and kidney complications; she learned of his death after returning to her hometown of Santa Eulalia. Detainees at the facility reported verbal abuse by guards, including derogatory remarks and claims they were served dog food.

A 23-year-old U.S. citizen mother was chased by Border Patrol agents near her home in Marrero while walking from a store on Wednesday. The encounter was captured on video and occurred during an enforcement operation called "Catahoula Crunch" in the New Orleans area. The woman told agents twice that she was an American citizen before running into her parents' home, where agents stood outside for several minutes.

Associate pastor Ruzana Nehonde, 49, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in at the Burlington field office in November 2025 and transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana facing deportation to Zimbabwe. Despite having no criminal record, an adult son with U.S. citizenship, a pending green card application, and nearly three decades of residence in Massachusetts with a history of ICE compliance, she was taken into custody. Her church community in Stow has rallied to support her and is collecting donations to help cover household expenses.

Dulce, a Guatemalan mother without legal status in Virginia, had her 8-year-old son placed in federal shelter after he was detained during a traffic stop while visiting family in another state in summer 2024. Although she had previously passed sponsorship requirements and reunited with him within weeks of his initial border crossing, resettlement officials required her to repeat the entire application process. After eight months, she recovered her son in February 2025 following a lawsuit filed by his attorneys. Dulce feared attending an ICE office for an identification interview and avoided her home for days due to fear of deportation.

Humberto Martinez was deported by ICE to Mexico while his daughter Jessica Martinez, a U.S. Navy sailor, was deployed to the Middle East. Jessica learned of her father's deportation while already overseas. The family was separated by the two simultaneous government actions, leaving Jessica's sister to manage the household while their father remained in Mexico awaiting return to the United States.

A second-grade student in Vermont was detained by ICE during the Thanksgiving holiday period. The incident involved the detention of a minor by immigration enforcement authorities.

Elias Perez-Zuazo, a Panamanian national, was detained by ICE in December 2025 during a scheduled check-in appointment at a Chantilly, Virginia office that he had previously attended without incident. Perez-Zuazo entered the U.S. in November 2021, was processed at the southern border, and married his U.S. citizen husband Jonathan Blanco Gallegos in February 2024. They had begun applying for a green card when Perez-Zuazo was taken into custody without warning. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia has issued an order barring ICE from removing him from the judicial district while the court reviews the legality of his detention, which his attorney is challenging via habeas corpus petition.

A Charlotte man was detained by ICE during his lunch break at a construction job during raids in the city last December. He was held in detention centers across two states before being deported to El Salvador. His wife, who was five months pregnant at the time, and their young daughters have not seen him in about ten months, and he has never met the couple's new baby. Neighbors describe him as a talented woodworker who helped build decks and complete projects for others in the community, and the family has decided to relocate to El Salvador to reunite.

Pauline Nadege Binam, 36, a Cameroonian woman who came to the U.S. at age 2 and identifies as queer, remains held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, as of August 2026. Advocates Noël Heatherland and Timoria McQueen Saba recently visited her through a glass partition for about 40 minutes, describing her as exhausted but hopeful, and noting she has found some solace reading nearly a book a day and bonding with other detainees, including another Cameroonian woman. She remains separated from her 17-year-old U.S. citizen daughter and continues to fear seeking medical care after a doctor removed one of her fallopian tubes during an earlier detention at Irwin County Detention Center without her consent. Her attorney is pursuing a U visa tied to her cooperation with authorities after surviving domestic violence and may seek to reopen her removal case based on fears of persecution if returned to Cameroon.