Human Impact Project

Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a 24-year-old Venezuelan man living in north Minneapolis, was shot in the leg through his front door by ICE agent Christian Castro during a January 2026 raid tied to Operation Metro Surge. His partner, Indriany Mendoza Camacho, said agents threw tear gas into the home, which had children present, before entering to detain him; the bullet also traveled into a child's room. Federal prosecutors initially charged Sosa-Celis and his cousin/roommate Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna with assaulting officers with a shovel and broom, but surveillance video contradicted the officers' sworn testimony, and the charges were dismissed after the Justice Department acknowledged agents had lied under oath. ICE's Acting Director Todd Lyons said two officers may have lied and placed them on leave. Hennepin County prosecutors later charged Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime; he was arrested in Texas by DHS agents and Texas Rangers. Texas Governor Greg Abbott refused to extradite Castro, prompting a lawsuit from Minnesota's attorney general, and the Justice Department subsequently charged Castro only with making false statements. An Assistant U.S. Attorney who objected to that decision was fired and is now under investigation for allegedly leaking case information.

Jorge Mata Campos, a 51-year-old Costa Rican national who holds valid U visa status as a crime victim, has built a life in the United States working in construction, buying a house, marrying, and raising a 16-year-old U.S. citizen son. He was arrested at his home in Nashville following confusion over a 911 call, after earlier voluntarily visiting ICE offices to try to resolve his immigration case. He entered detention while still recovering from a car accident that had left him incapacitated for months. For about three months he has been held at the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana, where he says poor food and inadequate medical care have caused him to lose nearly 15 kilograms. Speaking with La Nación by video call, Mata described punishments imposed on detainees and said some resort to self-harm, telling the outlet, 'No les importamos' ('They don't care about us'). He has requested voluntary departure but has not received a date, and his attorney continues trying to resolve his case.

Bryan Omar Sánchez, a Honduran man who had lived in Colorado for about a decade working as a gardener, truck driver, and pressure-washing business owner, was detained by ICE at his home on May 13 and moved through detention centers in Texas and Arizona. Despite a 2020 Convention Against Torture protection barring his return to Honduras and a pending asylum claim, he was placed on a nearly 22-hour flight to the Central African Republic on July 29 without his consent; one officer reportedly mocked him, asking 'Hey, Honduras, why are you going to Africa?' while Sánchez protested, 'Africa? I can't go to Africa.' Once in Bangui, he described being held in a shelter with restricted movement, facing language barriers and limited access to services, prompting Honduras' National Human Rights Commissioner (Conadeh) to demand urgent consular assistance and verification of his well-being. While detained, Sánchez represented himself in filings with Colorado's federal court, arguing he should not have been removed to a country he had never visited. U.S. District Judge Regina M. Rodríguez ruled that ICE violated his due process rights by giving him no notice or opportunity to challenge the removal, and ordered the government to return him to Colorado and release him without conditions such as GPS monitoring.

A woman was detained by ICE agents outside her daughter's home while on her way to work, surrounded by three ICE vehicles with no warrant. She has lived in the United States for over 18 years and is described by her family as a hardworking mother who ensures her children are fed and attend school. She is currently held at a detention center in Otay, California, and her family is raising funds for legal fees.

Retired Wayne County judge Michael Callahan said a convoy of eight armed ICE officers arrived at his metro Detroit home in August, falsely claiming they only intended to place an ankle tether on his foster son, a Congolese refugee who had lived in the U.S. for more than seven years, attended every required ICE check-in, had no criminal record and worked full-time as a truck driver. The officers had no warrant or court order, according to Callahan, and took the foster son into custody once he stepped outside. DHS disputed that officers used a ruse, saying they identified themselves as law enforcement, and a federal court declined to block the deportation after the government cited a 2019 final removal order. About two weeks after his arrest, he was flown to Cameroon, a country where he has no known ties, despite having been granted protection from return to his native Democratic Republic of Congo, which he had fled due to violence tied to his father's political opposition activity.

José Serrano Salgado, Ecuador's former interior minister under President Rafael Correa, fled to Miami in 2021 and later applied for asylum. ICE arrested him outside his Miami home in mid-2025, and he spent nearly a year detained at Krome North Service Processing Center, where a source said he lost about 25 pounds and his prediabetes worsened into diabetes. In May 2026, an immigration judge denied his asylum claim but granted deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture after he showed he faced torture if returned to Ecuador. Three Trump-appointed appeals judges reversed that protection within a day of reviewing the case, and Serrano was deported to Ecuador within hours, sent on a private jet in late August 2026. He now faces murder charges over the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and is held in a maximum-security prison, where a source said he has been abused, including having his fingernails smashed, being denied food, and being told footage of him stripped naked would be shared with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, a political rival of his former boss.

A 34-year-old Venezuelan man known only as JCCV, who lives in The Dalles, Oregon with his family and had a pending immigration application, testified he was detained by ICE agents who mistakenly believed he was his brother and never checked his identification. He was transported to a detention facility in Portland and held for multiple days, during which agents pressured him to sign a voluntary self-deportation document written in English, a language he cannot read, without explaining what it meant. His testimony was part of a federal court hearing examining whether ICE has continued making warrantless arrests in Oregon despite a February injunction requiring warrants and flight-risk assessments before arrests.

An Iraqi man showing early signs of dementia was arrested by ICE agents in his front yard after living in the United States for more than 30 years. An immigration judge had ruled he would likely face torture if returned to Iraq, but he was nonetheless held in an Arizona detention facility while officials searched for another country willing to accept him. He was among more than 120 immigrants identified in Arizona who remained detained despite winning protection from removal to their home countries.

A 34-year-old Mexican national who had lived in Flagstaff with his family for at least two years was detained by ICE agents outside his apartment on East Cortland Boulevard as he was preparing to take his two children to school, according to family spokesperson Maria Castillo Rincon. He was transported to Phoenix shortly after. ICE then called his wife, a 32-year-old Mexican national, and told her that if she did not turn herself in at Phoenix, agents would raid her home; she and her two children, ages 14 and 7, drove to Phoenix and self-deported that same day. The family had sought asylum after fleeing violence in Mexico, but a judge denied their application and issued a deportation notice; Castillo Rincon said ICE had originally intended to detain a different family member, and local police and county officials said they were unaware of the operation, which included agents staging at Fort Tuthill County Park, until learning of it through social media.

Edgar Martinez, 33, was detained by ICE outside his West Phoenix home near 83rd Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road after agents allegedly posing as electricians cut power to his house to lure him outside. His partner, Marisol Lopez, said the agents wore construction-style vests, tampered with the exterior electrical box, never identified themselves or showed a warrant, and pinned Martinez to the ground before detaining him. Lopez said Martinez had no serious criminal record and was applying for a T visa as a victim of human trafficking, while ICE said he lacked lawful status and cited two prior domestic violence misdemeanors. He was being held at a detention facility in Florence, Arizona due to capacity issues elsewhere and was set to appear in immigration court. His sister-in-law, Clara Armenta Aguilar, launched a fundraiser for legal fees and bond, describing him as a devoted husband, brother, and son whose wife has been with him since they were 15-year-old high school sweethearts. The family said they previously experienced the deportation of another relative in June 2019 and are praying for his return.

An Afghan man who worked as a U.S. military interpreter and cultural adviser during Operation Enduring Freedom was detained by ICE and FBI agents outside his St. Louis County home as he left for a morning run. He entered the U.S. legally in 2014 through the Special Immigrant Visa program and is a green card holder who built a life with his wife, Cata Estrada, and their children, including one born weeks before his arrest. A scientist with multiple degrees who hoped to become a doctor, he is also a plaintiff in a 2023 federal lawsuit over being placed on terrorist watchlists. ICE alleges he provided material support to a terrorist organization, citing a 2021 FBI search warrant linking him to a group associated with al-Qaida, and claims he lied on his 2019 naturalization application. He denies the allegations, says his rights as a permanent resident have been violated, and is seeking a jury trial. He is being held at the Ste. Genevieve County Detention Center in Missouri, with an immigration court hearing scheduled for Sept. 14 in Kansas City.

G.M., a lawful permanent resident from the Dominican Republic, was arrested by ICE at his home on Oct. 5, 2020, and held for 21 months without a bond hearing during removal proceedings tied to a 2015 second-degree assault conviction. He was released in 2022 after a nationwide injunction required ICE to review the custody status of detainees with certain medical conditions, though the legal questions in his case remained unresolved. His case had been scheduled for Supreme Court arguments in October, but it was dismissed as moot on Sept. 11, 2026, after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul granted him a full pardon for the assault conviction in late August, eliminating the legal basis for his detention and deportation.

On the morning of September 9th, two family members—an aunt's husband and her son-in-law—were detained by ICE agents outside their home as they left for work. The men had lived in the U.S. for nearly 13 years and have three children between them, one of whom was born in the U.S. They were taken to the Buffalo detention center, where they were pressured into signing voluntary departure forms, and were later transferred to a facility in Louisiana. One of the men has heart problems requiring five medications nightly, and one reported experiencing abuse in custody; family members say they are unsure if he is receiving needed medical care. ICE confiscated the men's passports, leaving the family without a way to relocate, and the wives have had only brief phone calls with the detained men since their arrest.

Iara do Carmo Santana, a 29-year-old Brazilian woman working as a house cleaner, was arrested by Malden police after her fiancé, Gabriel Lemos, called 911 out of concern for her mental health following a recent miscarriage and related infection. She was booked, released from police custody, then detained by ICE, which accessed her information through a shared FBI database, and held for roughly four days at ICE's Burlington, Massachusetts field office. She said she received no medical evaluation upon arrival and was often denied her prescribed antibiotics, causing her infection symptoms to worsen. Federal judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her release on September 8, criticizing ICE for its failure to provide necessary medical care. She was reunited with Lemos, a legal permanent resident she plans to marry next year, and her 6-year-old son. Do Carmo Santana has a pending asylum case and holds employment authorization. "I was afraid that I was going to go crazy in there," she said. "I was really scared."

Angel Ivan Chavez Salas, a father of two who works as an HVAC technician in Decatur, Georgia, was arrested by ICE agents outside his home on August 16. He arrived in the U.S. lawfully on a visa in 2016 and applied for asylum after fleeing political persecution in Peru, regularly attending immigration interviews but never having had a hearing before a judge. His attorney, Peter Isbister, said Chavez Salas has no criminal history. He was held at the D. Ray James Processing Center in southeast Georgia awaiting a court date. Students at Decatur High School, including a friend of his son, organized an online fundraiser that raised nearly $20,000 from more than 300 donors to support his family. A judge later granted him a $10,000 bond, allowing his release while he continues fighting his asylum case.

Rafael Vela Gonzalez, 66, who fled El Salvador's civil war at 19 and lived in California for decades, was detained by ICE agents outside his Silver Lake home in early January after a video reviewed by the Los Angeles Times showed agents dragging him down concrete steps and handcuffing him. He had served as full-time caretaker for his partner of more than 30 years, 81-year-old U.S. citizen Vivian Lee Arguello, who has mobility issues, and was known in his neighborhood for decades of volunteer handyman work. His attorney says he obtained temporary residency under the 1986 amnesty program but was never notified to apply for permanent status before it expired in 1997; after losing his card in 2023, his 2025 replacement request was denied, leading to his detention. After nearly eight months at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, he developed a rash with oozing, bleeding sores, swollen feet, and difficulty walking, and was hospitalized for acute bronchitis and sepsis from June 17-22 after collapsing in his cell; the facility reportedly withheld information about his whereabouts from his attorney and partner during that time. A judge denied his bond request in July citing flight risk, and his attorney filed an appeal in August. Arguello has had to sell their home, move in with relatives, and rehome their dog Chico, while neighbors held a vigil and raised nearly $50,000 for the family.

Set Salvador Esquivel Alvarado, who came to the United States at age 12 and has no criminal record, was detained by immigration agents outside his home while preparing to leave for work. His community describes him as quiet, respectful, and hardworking. Set is the primary financial provider for his parents, including his disabled father who cannot work. He has since been transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, and his family is raising funds to cover an estimated $20,000 bond and legal fees.

Sebastian Jimenez Peroza, a 17-year-old Venezuelan senior at Gainesville High School who plays football, soccer and baseball, was detained by ICE agents along with his mother Antmary Peroza Barrios, stepfather, and sister Fabiana Morillo Peroza at their Gainesville apartment complex days before the school year began. The family had fled Venezuela due to his mother's activism against the government and had been pursuing asylum after their visa expired. Football coach Ashour Peera rallied community support, describing Jimenez as 'a remarkable young man' who 'lights up a room' and a teammate who checked in on others; students displayed a Venezuelan flag with his jersey number, and a GoFundMe raised more than $20,000. After two weeks at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, Sebastian and his mother were released on $5,000 bonds each and flew back to Jacksonville, where they were greeted by his coach and classmates; his stepfather was released separately on a $6,500 bond, his location undisclosed. His sister's case remained open, with a bond hearing scheduled for Sept. 9, and ICE has not explained why the family was detained.

Daniel Ramirez, a 30-year-old Texas resident born in Mexico's Tamaulipas state and raised in Brownsville, was detained by U.S. immigration agents near his home and held for days in detention without being able to shower or brush his teeth before being shackled for a 15-hour flight to Guatemala City under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy. He was then bused across the border into Tapachula, Mexico, more than 1,000 miles from the U.S. border, joining at least 2,200 Mexican nationals sent to Guatemala this year as part of a broader program that has deported about 22,000 people to third countries, with roughly 19,000 sent to Mexico. Ramirez, who lived in the U.S. for years without legal status, said the transfer felt like "a punishment for us so we don't go back again." He later took a multi-day bus trip to Matamoros, near Brownsville, where he found work painting cars.

A Mexican mother experienced a tense week after ICE agents arrived at her home, an episode that culminated in an immigration court appearance. During the ordeal, her child wrote a handwritten letter pleading, "Please ICE, don't take my mom," after agents came to their house.