Human Impact Project

Lucia Webb, a 31-year-old Minneapolis resident, followed two ICE vehicles to the park-and-ride outside the Whipple Building on December 3. Officers boxed her in, surrounded her car, and threatened to arrest her. She is a named plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit alleging ICE violated constitutional rights of observers and protesters.

Mubashir Khalif Hussen, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was stopped and arrested by multiple masked ICE agents in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis while walking to lunch in December 2025. Despite repeatedly telling agents "I'm a citizen" and attempting to show his driver's license and passport card—which his employer also tried to show through the vehicle's windshield—agents refused to examine his identification. He was held for several hours and shackled in a detention center before being released after showing a photo of his passport. Federal Judge Eric Tostrud found in March 2026 that Hussen was detained based solely on his race or ethnicity in violation of the Fourth Amendment, in a case brought by the ACLU of Minnesota against ICE and Border Patrol during Operation Metro Surge.

Federal immigration enforcement officer Bovino was found by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to have lied about a rock-throwing incident used to justify deploying tear gas against protesters in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood during Operation Midway Blitz. Video evidence contradicted his claim that he was hit by a rock before throwing tear gas, and the judge issued a preliminary injunction against federal immigration agents for violating her temporary restraining order by using force without warning.

ICE states that video footage from Broadview Detention Center was lost in a system crash on October 31, one day after the facility was sued on October 30 for allegedly abusing detainees. Two weeks of surveillance footage was reportedly destroyed. Government lawyers stated they lack resources to preserve surveillance footage.

Sokhean Keo, detained at California City Detention Facility, witnessed a fellow detainee's suicide attempt by hanging. The facility did not offer mental health services to Keo and others who witnessed the incident; instead, staff disciplined anyone who had not immediately returned to their cells afterward. Keo joined a class-action lawsuit filed November 12, 2025, against the Trump administration alleging severe medical neglect and inhumane conditions at the CoreCivic-operated facility.

ICE agents arrested Juanita Avila, a 47-year-old legal permanent resident carrying her green card, during a traffic stop in November 2025 without showing a warrant or probable cause. Video evidence of the arrest captured by her daughter became part of a lawsuit challenging ICE's arrest practices. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking ICE from continuing warrantless arrests in Oregon, citing the agency's conduct and systematic violation of constitutional rights.

Federal immigration agents deployed tear gas in the Irving Park and Avondale neighborhoods on Chicago's Northwest Side on Saturday, detaining multiple people including a landscaper, a tortilla delivery driver, and an elderly resident. Neighborhood protests occurred following the incident. The incident was alleged to violate a federal judge's temporary restraining order limiting tear gas use. Additional arrests occurred at O'Hare International Airport's rideshare lot the same day.

On October 23, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino deployed tear gas and pepper spray against protesters in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood in response to immigration enforcement operations. Video evidence documented Bovino throwing a tear gas canister into the crowd, allegedly in violation of a federal court order prohibiting such tactics without imminent threat. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Bovino was struck by a rock, but witnesses and video evidence contradicted this account. On October 24, Federal Judge Sara Ellis ordered Bovino to appear in person to answer allegations that he violated the temporary restraining order.

During a second day of federal immigration enforcement operations in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood in October 2025, agents led by Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino detained at least five people, including two Benito Juarez Community Academy students and a U.S. citizen. Protesters and city officials said the students were beaten and assaulted by officers, with one left with blood on his face; a teacher said she realized one student was missing only when taking attendance. When residents gathered to oppose the sweeps, agents in camouflage and gas masks deployed tear gas and pepper spray, with video showing Bovino tossing a canister into the crowd despite a court order restricting such force. Additional arrests, including two staff members of a local alderman, occurred in Little Village and suburban Cicero, and a federal judge ordered Bovino to testify and appear at a status hearing.

The ACLU of Nevada filed a lawsuit challenging Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's 287(g) partnership with ICE, which allows local officers to hold undocumented immigrants for transfer to federal agents. The case centers on Sergio Morais-Hechavarria, a 36-year-old man arrested in August who pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a stolen vehicle. After completing his criminal sentence, a judge ordered his release to an inpatient treatment facility, but Metro detained him on an ICE immigration hold for weeks beyond his release date. On October 16, Morais-Hechavarria was transferred to a Texas immigration facility without notice to his attorneys and in violation of the court order. The ACLU contends the 287(g) partnership violates Nevada state law and Dillon's rule, which prohibits local agencies from exercising powers not authorized by the Legislature.

A federal judge in Illinois issued a temporary restraining order blocking federal agents from using tear gas, pepper balls, and excessive force against protesters demonstrating outside an ICE detention facility near Chicago. The order was prompted by video of Reverend David Black, a Presbyterian pastor in clerical garb, being repeatedly struck with pepper balls and chemical spray while peacefully praying during a protest at the Broadview facility.

Chicago TV producer for WGN-TV, Debbie Brockman, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Friday in a residential area during immigration enforcement operations. A federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting DHS agents from arresting journalists without probable cause. Brockman was released from federal custody the same day with no charges filed against her.

On February 7, 2025, ICE officers arrested 12 employees at El Potro Mexican Restaurant in Liberty, Missouri while searching for a registered sex offender. A federal judge ruled that 11 of the arrests were unlawful, finding that ICE lacked probable cause to justify warrantless arrests and violated a legal settlement agreement requiring probable cause that a person is likely to escape before making such arrests in the Midwest region. The judge found that the restaurant owner was not informed that employees had the option to refuse speaking with agents. The National Immigrant Justice Center brought the case challenging the raids. The federal judge extended the terms of the settlement agreement through February 2026.

Five asylum seekers from Colombia, Guatemala, China, and Nicaragua were arrested by DHS agents immediately after exiting immigration court hearings at the San Francisco Immigration Court on October 2, 2025. All had pending asylum applications and were previously released under supervision with no criminal history. The federal court granted a temporary restraining order requiring their immediate release and prohibiting re-detention without a hearing.

A father from Guatemala, separated from his daughter at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2017, was returned to Guatemala under the first Trump administration but came back to Florida in 2021 to reunite with his children under the Ms. L settlement agreement. He was re-separated from his children in October 2025 after being stopped in West Palm Beach while performing landscaping work near Mar-a-Lago. He was detained first at Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades, then transferred to Camp East Montana in Texas, where he reported being fed moldy food with worms and berated by guards; he also learned that a fellow detainee died from mistreatment. The ACLU filed a motion on behalf of detained Ms. L parents, and he was released in April 2026. Though reunited with his children, he continues to feel tracked through ankle monitoring and required bi-weekly ICE check-ins, and his children worry he will not be present when they leave school.

A Chicago couple was arrested during Operation Midway Blitz just eight days after getting married. The wife was deported to Mexico while the husband remained in detention in Michigan. Despite being named in a federal lawsuit alleging unlawful arrests, a judge ordered the husband's removal to El Salvador.

A Guatemalan mother and her two children, ages 8 and 3, were released from ICE custody on October 1, days after being detained without a warrant by federal agents at a Chicago park on September 28, 2025. A federal judge ordered that the family be protected from deportation while the government responds to a habeas corpus petition filed by the National Immigrant Justice Center. The children's father remains in a Texas detention facility after being transferred from Illinois; attorneys have asked for his release or a bond hearing, arguing he poses no danger or flight risk. The family, who came from Guatemala in 2023 seeking asylum, has a hearing scheduled for October 2027.

The National Immigrant Justice Center and ACLU of Illinois filed a federal court notice on behalf of 27 people arrested without warrants or probable cause by Department of Homeland Security officers since May 2025, with at least 20 arrested in September. The filing challenges violations of a consent decree that prohibits racial profiling and warrantless arrests, documenting incidents where people were arrested while walking in neighborhoods, at parking lots, during traffic stops, and at their homes.

Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, an asylum-seeker, was detained at the ICE field office at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco and held in harsh conditions including small, cold rooms with no beds, limited hygiene supplies, and restricted access to counsel. The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit on September 18, 2025, challenging ICE's detention practices and courthouse arrest policies. On November 25, 2025, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts provisionally certified the class action and issued a preliminary injunction, finding the facility's conditions likely unconstitutional and noting people are routinely held over 12 hours, with some exceeding 72 hours. The court ordered ICE to immediately provide beds and bedding, medical screenings and care, dimmed lighting and comfortable temperatures overnight, hygiene supplies, daily cleaning, and information about detainees' rights in their primary language.

Ligia Garcia, an asylum-seeker from Colombia with no criminal record, was arrested by ICE on July 31, 2025, after attending her immigration court hearing in San Francisco and detained at the ICE field office at 630 Sansome Street. She was held in harsh conditions including small, cold rooms with no beds, forced to sleep on the floor under bright lights, limited hygiene supplies, and restricted access to counsel after 3 p.m. and on weekends. She was held for extended periods despite the holding cells being designed for stays under 12 hours. On September 18, 2025, the ACLU and immigrant rights lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Garcia and three other plaintiffs detained at the same facility, challenging ICE's detention practices and courthouse arrest policies and alleging unconstitutional conditions and violations of due-process protections.