Human Impact Project

An Indian family of four — parents Jagdish and Gurwinder, and children Guri (12) and Manpreet (11) — were detained by ICE during a routine check-in appointment in February 2026 and held at the Dilley family detention center in Texas. The family fled Punjab, India, after Jagdish converted from Sikhism to Catholicism and faced persistent threats and violence. They arrived in the U.S. in 2022 seeking asylum and settled in Los Angeles. During detention, Guri developed bleeding in his stools without specialist referral, Manpreet lost 6 pounds after a week of vomiting she attributed to tap water, and Gurwinder's arthritis and diabetes worsened without proper medication — her daughter helps her out of bed each morning. Both children have shown behavioral changes: Manpreet is often angry, Guri has stopped listening to his parents. Manpreet celebrated her 11th birthday in detention with a makeshift cake from commissary snacks — she said if there had been candles, she would have wished for her family to leave Dilley. The family reported no meat-free options on the days their Sikh-Hindu faith requires vegetarian meals. Manpreet stopped attending classes because they were taught in Spanish, which she does not speak. Guri stopped attending after his mother's health declined.

Dylan Lopez Contreras, a 21-year-old Venezuelan student at ELLIS Preparatory Academy in the Bronx, was detained by ICE in May 2024 after attending a mandatory immigration court hearing in Lower Manhattan. He was transferred to Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, where an immigration judge denied his asylum claim in September 2024 and ordered his deportation to Venezuela. After nearly 10 months in detention, Contreras was released on March 18-19, 2025, while his legal team pursued an appeal of the deportation order. He returned to school while applying for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, subject to an ankle monitor and ICE check-ins as his asylum appeal remains pending. Dylan Lopez Contreras, a 20-year-old high school student at Ellis Preparatory Academy in the Bronx, was arrested by ICE agents in May 2025 at a Lower Manhattan courthouse after attending a mandatory immigration hearing. He was held in federal custody for nearly 10 months before being released on March 18, 2026, on his own recognizance with an ankle monitor. His detention was notable as the first widely documented case of a public school student in New York City being detained by federal agents under the Trump administration. A teenager named Ricardo was held in ICE detention and spent time in solitary confinement, prompting outrage from the Chicago community. His mother, Martha Liliana, and community members organized a rally calling for his release. Dylan, a 16-year-old high school student in the Bronx, was arrested by ICE when attending a routine court date at an immigration courthouse in New York City. The arrest occurred as part of ICE's campaign of arresting people at mandated immigration court hearings and fast-tracking deportations. Dylan, a 20-year-old student from Ellis Prep High School, was detained by ICE in May during an asylum hearing. He remains in ICE custody. This case is part of a pattern of ICE detention of NYC public school students attending legal hearings.

A 14-year-old minor was handcuffed and detained during an ICE raid in Manassas despite not being targeted by the operation. Virginia State Delegate Michelle Maldonado criticized the detention, stating that the minor was not charged with a crime and calling the incident a reckless disregard for human decency and constitutional protections.

Roswell Enrique Pérez Nieto watched as immigration agents detained his wife and 3-year-old son at an immigration court in San Antonio, Texas. The encounter was captured in footage obtained by Newsweek, which documented masked officers taking the family into custody.

A man who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2014 and was released to his mother's custody was arrested by ICE on May 19, 2026 after a traffic violation conviction. The court granted his petition for habeas corpus, finding his detention violated due process because he had been released by immigration authorities and established a life in California with his mother and two U.S.-born children. The court ordered his immediate release and required the government to provide a pre-deprivation bond hearing with clear and convincing evidence of flight risk or danger if it seeks to re-detain him.

Boanerges Flores-Bravo, a Nicaraguan national who entered the U.S. in 2022 and was seeking asylum with his wife, was detained by ICE agents during a routine check-in appointment on May 18, 2026. He is now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. His wife Alba Matamoro-Hernandez was released with an ankle monitor and placed in the Alternatives to Detention program. The couple has an 8-year-old daughter and both worked for the Maplewood-Richmond Heights School District.

A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped a white Volvo truck on Interstate 35 in Webb County on May 18 during Operation Lone Star and discovered 20 undocumented immigrants—16 adults and 4 minors from Mexico and Guatemala—hidden in the truck's sleeping compartment. The driver, 25-year-old Miguel Angel Velazquez Chavez, a Mexican national, fled on foot but was arrested and charged with evading arrest and smuggling people. All 20 migrants were turned over to U.S. Border Patrol.

Angel Lemus-Linares, a 32-year-old from El Salvador seeking political asylum, was placed in solitary confinement at T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Texas for seven consecutive days after being beaten by ICE officers following an altercation with another detainee. He reported being locked in isolation without adequate medical care or bathroom access, and experienced multiple additional solitary confinement placements and prolonged lockdowns during his 28+ months in ICE custody. After an immigration judge denied his asylum claim in December 2025, Lemus-Linares was deported to Mexico and is now applying for refugee status.

A father was detained by ICE on February 26, 2026, in Escondido, California, while on his way to pick up his children from school. His family exhausted their savings on legal fees and fell three months behind on rent while seeking to secure his release. By May 18, 2026, with assistance from legal aid organization Clue Justice, the family secured the remaining funds needed for his $4,000 bond, and he was set to be released. The legal aid organization warned that DHS may appeal the case if release did not occur quickly.

Sara Yazmin Garcia was arrested on May 15, 2026, and taken into ICE custody on May 17, 2026, due to her immigration status. She is being held in Atlanta, Georgia, over seven hours from her family. She has no criminal record and has lived in the United States for over 20 years, leaving behind her husband of 10 years, her 15-year-old son, and extended family who depend on her emotionally and financially.

Wendy Hernandez Reyes, a 29-year-old undocumented immigrant and domestic violence survivor with no criminal record, was detained by Baldwin County sheriff's deputies in Alabama on January 8, 2026, during a traffic stop. After ICE was contacted, Hernandez repeatedly requested her release to care for her 2-year-old U.S. citizen son, Orlin, but was denied. She was deported to Honduras on January 26, 2026, without her son and was forced to leave him in the care of her brother-in-law, Samuel Maldonado Erazo. On March 4, 2026, Orlin died from multiple blunt force traumas inflicted by Maldonado, who was charged with first-degree murder. A federal court reopened a case against the Department of Homeland Security alleging ICE officials failed to follow safety protocols during separation and lacked a reunification plan, while ICE blamed Hernandez for leaving her son with the relative.

On March 14, 2026, Gerardo Gonzalez Reyes, 44, and his 17-year-old son Esteban were arrested during a traffic stop in San Marcos after police responded to a false report. Police confirmed no crime had occurred. Esteban was released, but ICE placed a detainer on Gonzalez Reyes based on prior DWI convictions from 2004 and 2005 and transferred him to T. Don Hutto Detention Center. Despite over two months of community advocacy, vigils, and petitions to drop criminal charges by his family—including U.S. citizen children and a disabled wife who depends on him as a caretaker—an immigration judge ordered his deportation to Mexico in May 2026. His family plans to appeal.

Seven people believed to be immigrants from Mexico and Honduras died from heat stroke while being smuggled in a sealed Union Pacific boxcar in South Texas. Six bodies were discovered inside the boxcar at a rail yard in Laredo on May 10, 2026, when temperatures reached 97–105 degrees. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 56, with three from Mexico and three from Honduras. A woman inside the container called her sister reporting dangerous heat and physical distress, prompting a police response. A seventh body was found near railroad tracks in Bexar County, approximately 150 miles north of Laredo, on May 11 and is believed connected to the incident. Authorities attributed the deaths to heat-related illness and contacted the Department of Homeland Security, with federal officials leading the investigation into the human smuggling operation.

Maria Betania Uzcategui Castillo, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker with valid work authorization through 2030, and her two children, 11-year-old Victor Uzcategui-Labrador Jr. and 8-year-old Monserrat Uzcategui-Labrador, were detained by ICE agents at a school bus stop in Alamo Heights, Texas. The family had arrived at the U.S. border in 2021 seeking asylum, complied with prior immigration requirements, and had a court date scheduled for 2027. Both children attended Cambridge Elementary in the Alamo Heights Independent School District and were reported as deeply traumatized by the detention. The family spent 17 days at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, the country's largest family detention facility, while community members organized a rally and a fundraising campaign that raised more than $28,000 for legal fees. Her husband, Victor, and the family's attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, worked to secure their release. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ordered the family released, and they were freed pending future immigration hearings.

Cecilia, a 29-year-old pregnant Venezuelan asylum seeker, voluntarily surrendered to ICE with her three sons (ages 6, 9, and 12) on May 5, 2026, at the Centennial field office in Colorado. The family had walked to the U.S. in 2024 seeking stability, but lost their apartment and income after Cecilia's husband Ronald was arrested at an ICE appointment in November 2025. Facing homelessness and unable to support her children as her pregnancy became visible, Cecilia chose assisted voluntary departure. The family arrived in Caracas, Venezuela on May 13, 2026.

Dr. Rubeliz Bolívar, a Venezuelan physician working at South Texas Health System, was detained by CBP in mid-April 2026 at McAllen International Airport while attempting to board a flight with her five-year-old U.S. citizen daughter. CBP claimed she had overstayed a visa that expired in 2017, despite her holding a valid work permit and having a pending green card application and active asylum proceedings. Her daughter was held briefly before being released to her maternal grandparents. After approximately one month in El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, a judge ordered Bolívar's release on bail on May 13, 2026, and she was reunited with her family. Her attorneys are appealing ICE's allegations that she violated visa conditions.

A Mexican agricultural worker first entered the United States in 1989 and most recently in 2000. He has lived in Napa, California with his wife, a U.S. permanent resident, and four U.S. citizen children, working as an agricultural worker. He was arrested by DHS in April 2016 and placed in removal proceedings under INA § 240; he was released on bond by an immigration judge that same year. In 2017, he filed an EOIR-42B application for cancellation of removal, noting his youngest son's emotional and behavioral health problems and the hardship his family would experience upon his removal. On May 12, 2026, he was detained by ICE without a pre-detention hearing and taken to the ICE Detention Facility at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. He filed a habeas corpus petition and motion for temporary restraining order seeking release and an injunction preventing re-detention without a hearing. On May 21, 2026, the federal court granted a preliminary injunction, finding that he has serious questions going to the merits of his Fifth Amendment due process claim and that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm. The court ordered that he cannot be re-detained without notice and a pre-deprivation hearing before a neutral immigration judge at which the government must establish by clear and convincing evidence that re-detention is warranted.

Carmelo Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, discovered his 11-year-old daughter Maria murdered in their Pasadena, Texas apartment in August 2023. Maria had been sexually assaulted and strangled; a neighbor was arrested and charged with capital murder. Gonzalez is a crucial witness in the case and had filed a U-Visa application, which is granted to crime victims and witnesses who assist law enforcement investigations. On January 26, 2025, Gonzalez was arrested for a first-time misdemeanor DWI offense and flagged by ICE. Despite his pending U-Visa application, he was taken into ICE custody upon bond release and placed on a deportation flight within a week. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare expressed alarm, stating he had never seen a witness with a pending U-Visa application removed so quickly, and warned that such enforcement policies are deterring witnesses from cooperating in criminal prosecutions.

Patricia Balbuena Soto, a 49-year-old mother who had lived in the United States for 30 years, was arrested at her workplace in Atlantic City on July 24, 2025, on criminal charges including home invasion burglary and weapon possession. She was transferred to ICE custody on July 25 and held at Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey, then Port Isabel in Texas. On August 5, 2025, she was deported to Mexico, leaving behind her 17-year-old U.S. citizen daughter. The teenager, an honors student, was forced to abandon her college plans and assume financial responsibility for herself at age 17.

Darisbell Paola Quintero Morillo, a Venezuelan asylum seeker with a pending case, was detained by ICE on April 23, 2026, while attending a scheduled check-in appointment at the Dallas ICE Field Office despite her compliance with immigration requirements. She had entered the U.S. in April 2021 with her husband Gilbert Vicent, both fleeing political persecution in Venezuela. She was transferred to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, where she discovered she was pregnant during medical evaluation. While in custody, she reported inadequate nutrition, poor food quality, and insufficient medical care, and requested medical attention multiple times due to pregnancy complications. Her attorney filed a federal court petition and emergency motion seeking her release on parole, citing her compliance history and lack of criminal record, but the judge denied the emergency motion. She subsequently miscarried while detained. After learning of the miscarriage from her doctor at the hospital, ICE officers cuffed her ankles to the hospital bed.