Human Impact Project

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been holding 23-year-old Eric Sebastian Ferrales, a Laveen landscaper who has lived in the United States since age 3, for two weeks. Although Ferrales lacks legal status, his family states the U.S. is the only country he has ever truly known. He now faces deportation proceedings.

Emmanuel Gonzalez-Garcia, a 16-year-old with autism, was separated from his mother Maria Garcia on October 4-5, 2025, while they were selling fruit as street vendors in Houston. After going missing, he was located by firefighters during a welfare check and told police he was homeless, providing a different name. Houston police turned him over to ICE, and he was placed in federal custody with the Office of Refugee Resettlement as an unaccompanied immigrant minor. After approximately 48-50 days in detention, a federal judge ruled that authorities lacked legal authority to detain him since he was not truly unaccompanied. He was reunited with his mother, though their immigration court cases remain pending.

ICE conducted a raid at a Koreatown plaza in Los Angeles. A security guard at the location reported that approximately 10 people were detained during the operation. The guard stated that shoppers were present at businesses in the plaza including Speakeasy Fitness and Food 4 Less.

A British woman was arrested by ICE while holding her 5-month-old baby at her green card interview in San Diego on November 20, 2025. She spent five days in custody before being released with her green card approved on November 25. Multiple immigration attorneys noted that federal law provides exceptions for direct relatives of U.S. citizens undergoing adjustment of status.

A 41-year-old undocumented immigrant and stepfather of a 22-year-old Army National Guard member was detained by ICE agents around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday while walking to work in Port Richmond, Staten Island. The stepfather, who immigrated from Mexico in the early 2000s and has no criminal record, is now being held in an ICE detention facility. The National Guard member's sister, a JROTC member, contacted the Staten Island nonprofit La Colmena after learning of the detention, and the organization held a press conference on the family's behalf. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul publicly responded to the case, calling for the Trump administration to address it.

Gladys Tentes-Pitiur, an Indigenous Shuar woman from Ecuador, was detained by ICE for 135 days at Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana after being arrested outside a courthouse in New Haven on July 7, 2025. She had fled Ecuador due to persecution and traveled through seven countries with her two young sons, surviving cartel kidnapping in Mexico before arriving in New Haven in November 2023. After an immigration judge granted her asylum on October 17, 2025, citing violence she had fled since age 15, she was released on November 19 and reunited with her sons, ages 6 and 7, outside their Fair Haven school the day before Thanksgiving. Her lawyer, Brenda Wylie, said the case was the only successful asylum grant her office achieved in 2025, and Tentes-Pitiur recalled her younger son initially refusing to believe she would not be taken away again.

An Australian woman and wife of a Navy veteran was arrested by ICE agents during her green card interview on November 18, 2025, in the same enforcement operation as other military spouses. She was detained for eight days before an immigration judge ordered her release on bond on November 26, 2025. She has no criminal history and remains eligible to pursue her green card through her U.S. citizen spouse. Her attorney noted this was the first arrest of this type at green card interviews in over 12 years of practice.

Community organizers and immigration attorneys report an uptick in detainments at the Dallas ICE Field Office during routine check-in appointments. Multiple immigrants, including those with pending asylum cases and proper documentation, have been detained during check-in appointments. The office has become one of the busiest in the country, averaging about 100 arrests per day, and reporting indicates most of those arrested in 2025 did not have criminal convictions. One case highlighted by the Dallas Morning News involved an asylum seeker from El Salvador with no criminal record who was arrested at a scheduled appointment in October 2025 and transferred to a detention center in Georgia.

Chanidaphon Sopimpa, a Thai national and wife of retired Marine Staff Sergeant Samuel Shasteen, was arrested by ICE agents during her final green card interview on November 18, 2025, and detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center. Sopimpa had overstayed her visa but the couple had been pursuing her green card through marriage to a U.S. citizen spouse, which includes a federal law exception for such cases. ICE stated the arrests were for visa overstays, but immigration attorneys note this enforcement action at green card interviews is unprecedented in recent history. Sopimpa has no criminal history and is scheduled for a bond hearing.

An NYPD sergeant named Atickul Islam was charged with posing as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field director and ordering a victim and their family to report to an ICE facility by April 15. Islam pleaded not guilty to personation of a federal officer and was released on an unsecured $25,000 bond. The NYPD suspended him without pay and seized his badge and service weapon.

Border Patrol detained Moises Benitez Diaz, a 27-year-old Raleigh construction contractor, on November 18 during Operation Charlotte's Web. His wife Esmeralda Escobar, who is 8 months pregnant, is now managing the family business while he is held at a Georgia facility. Despite DHS claiming he was a criminal convicted of felony larceny, court records show his charges were dismissed and he completed a misdemeanor diversion agreement.

Harrinson Jose Osuna Benitez, a Venezuelan tattoo artist seeking asylum over fears of torture and persecution, was paroled into the U.S. in September 2024 after ICE found no criminal history, later settling in Portland with his partner, who gave birth to their son in December 2024. He attended multiple immigration hearings through 2025 and had a future hearing scheduled for January 2027, but on November 17, 2025, ICE detained him at a Portland office visit, citing his tattoos as a security concern without providing notice of parole revocation. He spent weeks at the Northwest Immigration Processing Center while his family struggled without his income. On December 30, 2025, a federal judge in the Western District of Washington granted his habeas corpus petition, ruling his detention violated due process and ordering his release.

Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, an 18-year-old rising senior at Reseda Charter High School, was detained by federal immigration agents on August 8, 2025, while walking his family's dog in Van Nuys. A neighbor said masked agents in unmarked vests labeled "immigration police" took him, leaving the dog loose in an alley. He was held at a Los Angeles detention center before being transferred to a facility in Arizona on August 26, awaiting deportation proceedings. Educators, former teachers and community activists rallied outside LAUSD headquarters on August 19 demanding his release so he could return to school, while his family, including four younger siblings who missed him, started a GoFundMe to support him. An immigration judge granted him bond on November 17, and he was released and reunited with his family just before Thanksgiving after months in custody.

Cristobal Maltos, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen, was stopped by Border Patrol agents on November 17, 2025, while following a hit-and-run driver and reporting it to police. Agents surrounded his vehicle at an intersection, and when he attempted to move forward, they broke his car windows and removed him from the vehicle, allegedly causing injuries. Maltos was charged with felony assault, resisting arrest, and impeding a federal officer during the enforcement operation dubbed "Charlotte's Web."

A U.S. citizen in his early 20s and his undocumented father were stopped by federal agents while walking to La Chiquita grocery store in Little Village to buy carne asada and beans. Both men were arrested and transported to the ICE facility in Broadview. The son was later released but said agents dismissed his pleas that his younger brother has epilepsy and needs their father's care. The father remains in ICE detention out of state. The son requested anonymity to protect his father from potential retaliation.

Carlos Jimenez, a 24-25-year-old U.S. citizen and food bank worker with three children, was shot in the shoulder by ICE agents on October 30, 2025, during an enforcement action in Ontario near an elementary school bus stop on Baseline Avenue. According to Jimenez's legal team, he approached the officers to warn them that children would soon arrive at the nearby school bus stop, and was shot from behind while attempting to leave the scene after an agent drew a gun and pepper spray. Federal authorities maintain Jimenez reversed his vehicle toward officers in a threatening manner, prompting defensive gunfire. A bullet remains lodged in his right shoulder, and bullet fragments remain in his torso, causing ongoing pain. Jimenez was arrested and charged with assault on a federal officer but was released on bond and has pleaded not guilty. The incident is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and FBI. His attorneys argue the shooting reflects a broader pattern of escalated ICE enforcement tactics.

Two homeschooled brothers, Sam (16) and Ben (17) Luhmann, have been patrolling West Chicago and surrounding areas since mid-September to document federal immigration enforcement activity during Operation Midway Blitz. The brothers have had numerous encounters with ICE agents and have been threatened with arrest while documenting their activities. Their efforts represent part of a broader youth activism movement against the enforcement operation across the Chicago area.

José Barco, a decorated U.S. Army veteran who deployed twice to Iraq and received a Purple Heart after a 2004 explosion caused traumatic brain injury, was deported to Mexico in November 2025 after struggling with untreated TBI and PTSD following his service. His 2006 citizenship application, filed while he was on active duty at Fort Carson, was lost in processing despite being complete and eligible, according to his commanding officer. After an attempted murder conviction stemming from a 2008 shooting of a pregnant woman, Barco served 15 years in prison and was paroled on January 21, 2025, at which point ICE immediately detained him. Venezuela initially was slated to receive him but refused to accept him at the Honduras border over documentation concerns, and he was ultimately deported to Mexico—a country he had never visited—on Veterans Day, also the 21st anniversary of the explosion that wounded him. His wife, Tia, said she had not been told his whereabouts, and former platoon members and his medic expressed dismay over the timing of his removal.

On November 14, 2025, ICE agents detained Wilmer Toledo-Martinez, a 28-year-old Vancouver resident married to a U.S. citizen with three American-born children. One agent posed as a construction worker to lure Toledo-Martinez outside his home, after which another agent released a dog that attacked him on the arms and torso. Toledo-Martinez was hospitalized and received stitches for his injuries. He was denied medical care while in federal immigration detention at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. Senator Patty Murray condemned the use of force, noting that Toledo-Martinez did not resist arrest or attempt to flee.

A 33-year-old Queens woman reported that ICE agents raided her apartment on November 13, 2025 at 5:30 a.m. while searching for her cousin on a criminal arrest warrant. The woman claims agents forced entry, grabbed her by the hair, and pointed guns at her three children when the family attempted to record. ICE stated they knocked for 20 minutes before lawfully entering when no response was received.