Human Impact Project

Andry Omar Blanco Bonilla, a 40-year-old food delivery driver and mechanic from Venezuela, was detained at an ICE office in Dallas in February 2024 after notifying them of an address change and being asked about his tattoos—which he said represented his family, not gang affiliation. Released pending deportation when Venezuela would not accept deportees, he was detained again after Trump's inauguration and deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison on March 15, 2025. He endured four months of beatings and humiliation before being returned to Venezuela on July 18, 2025. He had no criminal record in the U.S. and came to the country to support his seven children.

Fabian Schmidt, a German-born electrical engineer and green card holder who was detained by CBP officers at Boston Logan Airport on March 7, 2025, and interrogated for days before being transferred to ICE custody at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Rhode Island, was held for a total of two months before his release. He now lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he has married his partner, Bhavani Hodgkins, with whom he has an 8-year-old daughter. Schmidt is paying roughly $60,000 in legal fees and related costs stemming from his detention, and says he is pursuing U.S. citizenship and writing a book about his experience. The German embassy had previously confirmed it was in close contact with U.S. authorities and the family during his detention.

Abel Orozco, a 47-year-old tree-cutting business owner who has lived in the Chicago suburbs for about 30 years, was arrested by ICE agents without a warrant on January 26 while driving home from picking up tamales for his family. Agents had entered his backyard and porch searching for his eldest son, who shares his name, and after forcing open his car and handcuffing him, realized roughly 45 minutes to an hour later they had the wrong person—but detained him anyway. Orozco has no criminal record, arrived in the U.S. in the late 1990s under a legal work petition, and was issued a removal order in 2004 after visiting his father in Mexico. He has remained in ICE custody in Kentucky for nearly six months, during which his family has missed mortgage payments, his younger son has struggled to keep the family business running, and his wife Yolanda, who has spoken publicly about the case, has been fighting breast cancer. His attorneys at the National Immigrant Justice Center, representing Orozco as one of 22 detainees, have filed a motion challenging the legality of warrantless ICE arrests and are seeking his release.

A federal judge ruled that the February 2025 arrests of 12 employees at El Potro Mexican Restaurant in Liberty, Missouri by armed Department of Homeland Security agents were unlawful. According to court documents, ICE officers came looking for one person believed to have a felony narcotics conviction, then had the restaurant owner bring employees in one at a time without informing them they could decline to speak with agents. The judge found 11 of the 12 arrests lacked probable cause, ruling only one lawful due to prior removal history, and found agents had prepared forms justifying the arrests that did not include facts supporting probable cause.

ImmigrationDefenders reports that parents attempting to reunify with children in federal custody are being arrested and placed into deportation proceedings. The organization represents 12 children in Southern California whose parents were detained shortly after initiating the reunification process, leaving children stranded in shelters.

Shirly Guardado, a Honduran immigrant married to Army Sgt. Ayssac Correa, was arrested by ICE agents in a parking lot outside her Houston workplace on March 13 after being lured out under false pretenses by plainclothes officers claiming to be Department of Public Safety. She was transported to a detention facility in Conroe, Texas, and Correa was not notified of her whereabouts for three days, learning of her location only when she called him from detention. Despite having a work permit and clean check-in record with immigration officials, and despite her husband's military service and USCIS having approved his sponsorship petition for her in 2023, Guardado was detained for nearly three months. The couple's application for military parole in place was denied due to her prior expedited deportation order, and on May 30—her 28th birthday—she was deported to Honduras, separated from her 1-year-old son and active-duty military husband.

Eliezar was detained by ICE on March 13 while returning home from work. After being held in an ICE detention center for weeks, he decided to self-deport to Guatemala. His wife Josselin and three children (ages 11, 6, and 16 months) were left without their sole income provider.

Julio Noriega, a 54-year-old U.S. citizen born in Chicago, was arrested by ICE agents on January 31, 2025, after buying pizza in Berwyn. Agents surrounded him, handcuffed him, and confiscated his wallet containing his ID and Social Security card before transporting him to an ICE processing center in Broadview. He was detained overnight without being questioned about his citizenship status and released only after agents examined his identification. In March 2025, attorneys from the National Immigrant Justice Center and ACLU of Illinois filed a federal court lawsuit alleging that ICE violated the Castañón Nava settlement agreement by arresting Noriega and at least 21 others without proper warrants since January 2025. The lawsuit alleges constitutional and immigration law violations including arrests without probable cause and detention orders created after people were already detained.

Yolanda Perez-Magallón, a 50-year-old undocumented immigrant and caregiver for her 21-year-old daughter with cancer, was detained by ICE agents on February 24 as a collateral arrest during an immigration sweep targeting her son Jonathan. She was held for nearly two weeks before being released on a $1,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on April 10.

Alma Lopez Diaz accompanied her sons Jose, 20, and Josue, 19, to a routine ICE check-in at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan in March 2025, where they were unexpectedly detained and subsequently deported to El Salvador. Neither brother had criminal records, and both were pursuing green cards through Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. The deportation separated them from their mother and 8-year-old nonverbal brother Mateo, a U.S. citizen with Moebius syndrome who requires constant care.

Jose Guadalupe Jaimes, a 55-year-old Mexican national who had lived in the United States for 30 years, was arrested by ICE outside Arthur Middle School in Trenton, Michigan, after dropping off his eighth-grade son, who has Asperger's syndrome. Jaimes owns a painting business and has a valid work permit with no criminal record. His children, Ana and Hector (a college junior), described him as a devoted father who emphasized education and built a life in metro Detroit with his wife and five children. According to his son Hector, ICE agents approached with guns drawn during the arrest; an ICE agent reportedly told Jaimes, "I don't even know why you're here because you have no record, you didn't do anything bad." An ICE spokesman stated Jaimes had been "ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2014." He is being held in St. Clair County Jail pending immigration proceedings. His family expressed deep concern about surviving financially and emotionally without him.

Issa Salma Baouna, a 49-year-old green-card holder from Niger, was denied reentry to the United States at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 6 after CBP determined he was inadmissible due to a prior removal order from 2022. Baouna had been ordered removed following an arrest for assault and visa overstay, and was paroled back into the country multiple times in 2023. After voluntarily returning to Niger, he contracted malaria that led to kidney failure. His wife left the U.S. with their two children to reunite with him.

Jhoan Bastidas, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national, was deported from the United States and detained for 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba before being transferred to Venezuela. During his detention, he was confined to a small cell, shackled when leaving the cell, allowed sunlight only three days per week, and had minimal access to food, books, or activities. The U.S. government alleged Bastidas was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang based on his chest tattoos, a claim he denied. He has since returned to his hometown in Maracaibo and begun working at a hot dog stand.

Quebec Vasquez, a DACA-protected mother of three U.S. citizen children, announced plans to self-deport to Mexico due to fears about rapidly changing immigration policies under the Trump administration. Despite being protected from deportation through DACA for 10 years, she cited uncertainty and fear about her family's future as reasons for considering leaving the United States.

A man identified as Oscar (also referred to as Ashley's husband in one account) was detained by immigration authorities during a Green Card interview in February 2025 at a USCIS office in Broward County, despite his lawyer's assurance that detention was unlikely and his lack of a criminal record. He was held at the Krome detention facility in Miami before being deported to Honduras, the country he and his wife had fled after she, an environmental activist, received death threats. His wife, a mother of four daughters, remained in the U.S. initially but traveled with their daughters to Honduras in March 2025 to reunite with him. The family continues to navigate separation, with his wife working multiple jobs to manage the instability caused by the deportation, while he described himself as fearful and 'at the mercy of God and his will.'

The Trump Administration has reopened family detention centers in Texas and is detaining immigrant families, including some who have been living in the United States for years. Legal advocates report that children in these facilities are experiencing hunger, sleep deprivation, and psychological distress. The government is potentially planning to detain thousands more at military bases like Fort Bliss.

A Pasco mechanic and father of three was arrested by a federal immigration agent on his way to work in March 2025. He may have been targeted because of a 2020 DUI charge and minor resolved traffic violations. A federal work permit he had previously applied for was approved while he was detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. After months in detention, he was deported to central Mexico in June 2025.

Jorge Reyes Medina, a Mexican father of four, was arrested in Baltimore in March 2025 and held at the George H. Fallon Federal Building before being transferred to Arizona and then California. After a federal judge ordered ICE to return him to Maryland for a bond hearing as part of a habeas corpus petition, he was moved through Louisiana, Pennsylvania, back to Baltimore, then Louisiana and Texas again. He was denied bond, and a judge ordered his deportation on June 23, 2025; no appeal was filed.

Wendy Brito, an asylum-seeker from El Salvador and mother of three living in the New Orleans area, was detained after attending a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She has been in the U.S. for 15 years and volunteers at a local elementary school. Her partner Kremly Marrero said officials told the family she was taken because of "new regulations under the new administration." Brito is now held in Basile, Louisiana, nearly 200 miles away from her home and children, and ICE has declined to comment on the specifics of her case.

Val, a Mexican national, was apprehended during a Department of Homeland Security check-in in March and deported under expedited removal, leaving behind his 7-year-old son Alex and partner Renee in Baltimore. The deportation is one of thousands of ICE enforcement actions in Maryland under the Trump administration—arrests surged 165% compared with 2024—causing widespread anxiety and stress among immigrant families in the region.