Human Impact Project

Yasmani Noel Moreno de Armas, a 31-year-old Cuban who arrived in Florida by raft in 2016 under the 'Wet Foot, Dry Foot' policy and ran a small trucking business between Miami and Tampa to help support his parents near Orlando, was detained by ICE in West Palm Beach on May 11, 2025, after his green card bid under the Cuban Adjustment Act was denied. He was held for about a year before being deported in late July/August 2026 not to Cuba but to the Central African Republic on a roughly 21-22 hour shackled flight, learning his destination only hours into the trip. Moreno, who manages diabetes and asthma, said the flight left him ill and triggered an anxiety attack. He is now confined at the Maison Confort lodging in Bangui alongside migrants from Afghanistan, Vietnam and Russia, without a passport, visa or legal status, suffering stomach problems and allergies, and says he was kidnapped twice by armed men he believed were security forces, with family and a fellow detainee paying about $100 for his release. A Cuban embassy representative told him Cuba would not take him back because he left as a 'rafter' migrant, and he fears returning there given a past imprisonment for trying to flee. 'They brought us here illegally,' he said, adding his parents 'went crazy, crying and yelling' when he told them where he was; his attorney is negotiating with federal officials for his return.

Peterson Nozil, a 37-year-old Haitian national who has lived in Springfield since August 2022, was stopped and arrested while driving home with his family in the car. He had been inspected at the border, granted humanitarian parole, later received temporary protected status, held a valid work permit, and had applied for asylum. His attorney, Maria Otero, filed a habeas corpus petition on Oct. 1 in the Southern District of Ohio seeking a bond hearing and his release from the Butler County Jail, joining several other Haitian nationals in southwest Ohio challenging ICE's mandatory detention policy. The petition was supported by exhibits including his marriage license, his daughter's birth certificate, an employer letter, a church certificate, and letters of support. Judge Matthew W. McFarland ordered the government to respond to the petition by Oct. 5.

Elder Chavez Carranza, an 18-year-old junior at Asbury High School in Albertville, Alabama, was detained by ICE on December 30, 2025, after a state trooper stopped him for speeding and driving without a license and contacted immigration officials. Chavez Carranza, originally from Copan, Honduras, fled violence and poverty and entered the U.S. at age 14, later being granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, though a separate deferred-action and green card application remains unresolved. He is held at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, where he says he has lacked adequate food and dental care, works as a painter earning $1 per day, and shares a room with 54 other men. His sister and legal guardian, Maryuri Chavez Carranza, a former teacher, said he calls her daily and misses his teachers, friends, senior year activities, and the birth of his nephew. By September 2026 he had spent more than 200 days in detention, as advocates including Angela Del Valle organized vigils across three states and raised concerns about conditions at Winn, where two detainees had died in less than two months.

Delaney Hall, a for-profit ICE detention center in Newark, faced scrutiny after detainees began a hunger strike and reported spoiled food, lack of medical care, and inadequate gynecological services, including an 18-year-old high school student and a woman who said she miscarried without assistance. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was handcuffed and arrested on trespassing charges while visiting the facility with congressional representatives, repeating 'I'm not resisting' as agents restrained him; he was held for five hours before charges were dropped. Rep. LaMonica McIver, who stood between Baraka and ICE agents during the visit, was later charged with three felony counts of assaulting federal agents after the government claimed she had 'slammed' an agent; she is still fighting the case. Days later, on Memorial Day, Senator Andy Kim visited to mediate between protesters and detainees, standing with arms raised between armed ICE agents and the crowd before agents fired tear gas and pepper balls at him and demonstrators, leaving him needing aid for burning eyes and throat. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was denied entry but heard from detainees' family members about conditions inside.

Amy Lucia López Belloza, a 19-year-old Babson College freshman on scholarship, was detained by ICE at Boston Logan Airport in November 2025 while trying to board a flight to surprise her parents for a family Thanksgiving reunion. She was unaware a removal order had been issued against her in 2017, when she was 11, after an immigration judge denied her and her mother's asylum claims. A federal judge in Massachusetts ordered that she not be moved out of state or deported, but ICE transferred her to Texas and deported her to Honduras, a country she had not visited since leaving at age 8; the government later conceded in court that an agent had misread the judge's order and apologized, but argued the violation should not affect her case. When offered a return flight in February 2026, she declined after ICE indicated she would be redetained in Texas and deported again. Her habeas corpus lawsuit was dismissed in March 2026 for lack of jurisdiction. She is now continuing her Babson studies remotely while living with her grandparents in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, as her attorneys argue before the First Circuit Court of Appeals that she should be allowed to return to Massachusetts.

Godfrey Wade, a 65-year-old Jamaican-born U.S. Army veteran and lawful permanent resident who came to the U.S. at 15 in 1975, was deported to Jamaica on February 5, 2026, while his appeal remained pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Wade worked as a chef, tailor, tennis coach and fashion designer while raising six children and three grandchildren with his fiancée April Watkins. He was detained by ICE for nearly five months following a September 2025 traffic stop for driving without a valid license, held at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia and later Richwood in Louisiana, where he endured overcrowding, inadequate food, a water outage, and illness that caused significant weight loss. His deportation stemmed from a 2014 in absentia removal order tied to a 2008 misdemeanor bounced-check conviction, after immigration court notices were mistakenly sent to the wrong address. His daughter said he was removed without warning, arriving in Jamaica with only the clothes he wore before being hospitalized for pneumonia; his fiancée and daughter said he drew portraits of fellow detainees to lift their spirits and have since raised funds and a petition seeking him a day in court. In October, a Douglas County Superior Court judge granted his habeas corpus petition, voiding the 2008 conviction and giving him a new chance to fight his case, which remains pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Phone Chomsavanh, a Laotian citizen who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved to the U.S. with his family at age 7, was released from Eswatini's maximum-security Matsapha Correctional Complex on Sunday after being held there for more than 14 months. He was deported to Eswatini in July 2025 under the Trump administration's third-country deportation program after already completing his U.S. prison sentence, one of five immigrants sent there at the time. His lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said he was given no notice, hearing, or chance to object before being flown to a country he had no ties to, saying, 'He had already served his time. Instead they put him on a plane without telling him where it was headed and left him in a prison in a country he had never heard of, where nobody ever accused him of anything.' Following his release, he traveled through Johannesburg en route to Laos. The third-country deportation program has sent about 500 immigrants to African nations that are not their countries of origin, with Eswatini receiving roughly 30 people under an agreement with the U.S. in exchange for $5.1 million in payments.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker who entered the U.S. legally through CBP One in 2024 and held a valid work permit, was shot in the back by an ICE agent on September 20, 2026, during a traffic stop while delivering for DoorDash in North Austin. Federal prosecutors allege he struck an officer with his car's side mirror and fled, while he says an unmarked ICE vehicle rammed and spun his car before he was shot, unaware it belonged to ICE. He suffered a fractured clavicle and a bullet lodged near his spine causing partial paralysis, and his attorney said he faced risk of infection without surgery and received no pain medication in custody. A federal magistrate judge found prosecutors had not clearly shown he was a danger to the community but ruled him a flight risk and denied bond; his attorney said he would pursue a habeas corpus case. He faces DOJ charges of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer carrying up to 20 years in prison, which his defense disputes, and a separate deportation order prompted his attorneys to sue to block removal. The shooting, partly captured on bystander video, prompted protests of over 150 people and calls from Rep. Greg Casar, Mayor Kirk Watson, and Rep. Joaquin Castro for an independent investigation and release of body-camera footage.

Johnny Sebastián Lucas Barre, a 38-year-old Ecuadorian man held at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in Georgia, says agents handcuffed and beat him after he refused to sign a deportation order and provide fingerprints without a lawyer present. He said three agents threw him against a wall, struck him, and placed a foot near his head until he lost consciousness, later waking up in a wheelchair receiving medical attention and showing visible bruises on his wrists and body. His partner, Leidy Montalvo, said he had been working in the facility kitchen for a dollar a day when agents repeatedly pressured him to sign his deportation paperwork, and she has shared photos of his injuries publicly. Lucas Barre entered the U.S. through Texas in 2024 and was detained again in December after reporting a change of address at an immigration appointment in Orlando, Florida; he has a pending asylum/immigration appeal but no longer has a lawyer because he could not afford to continue paying for one. Immigration attorneys said fingerprints or a signature obtained while someone is unconscious would not be legally valid. Lucas Barre has since filed a federal habeas corpus petition against the facility's warden, which remains pending after the warden moved to dismiss it and his attorney filed a response opposing dismissal.

Carlos Moreno, a Venezuelan asylum seeker who is legally blind and hard of hearing, was detained by ICE agents in March 2026 as he and his wife, Wendys Martinez, left a Schuylkill County courthouse after paying a $277 noise citation for playing music at their Pottsville home. He was transferred through a York processing facility and Moshannon Valley Processing Center before arriving at Cambria County Prison, roughly 200 miles from home, where he says staff failed to keep his hearing aids charged, never fixed his broken cane, and did not provide promised translation services, forcing him to rely on other detainees to interpret and leaving him largely confined to his cell for nearly six months. Moreno said the conditions pushed him to consider abandoning his asylum appeal; after his appeal deadline passed, Martinez gave birth to their son alone on the Fourth of July. Cambria County, which has earned more than $1.5 million detaining immigrants like Moreno under a federal agreement, later transferred him to facilities in Louisiana and then Texas to await deportation to Venezuela. Cambria County's warden said Moreno received adequate care but declined to provide details, citing privacy and security procedures.

Mario Mata Cruz, a Salvadoran national with a pending Special Immigrant Juvenile Status application and no criminal record, was arrested by ICE on Long Island in October 2025 while driving to work with his brother. He had crossed the border at age 17 and obtained SIJ status in 2019, putting him on a path toward a green card. ICE transported him to Texas and deported him to El Salvador without a final removal order from an immigration judge or signed voluntary departure paperwork, which his attorney Ed Cuccia says was illegal. His lawyers sued the Trump administration, and the government agreed to return him from El Salvador over the summer, but instead of being released to New York where his brother lives, he has been held in detention facilities in Louisiana, New Jersey, and Virginia with no ties to those states. An immigration judge in New Jersey denied him bond, and a hearing on his green card application was scheduled. His case is part of a broader pattern NY1 documented of at least 132 cases where people were deported without final removal orders.

Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant and father of four who suffered from asthma, bipolar disorder and anxiety, died on January 3, 2026, at Camp East Montana, an ICE detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, following a physical altercation with guards. Fellow detainee Antonio Frometa Ascón, who knew Campos from Guantánamo, said he watched guards beat and handcuff Campos as he begged for his inhaler; other witnesses heard him scream 'I can't breathe!' before he was taken away and never returned. A separate detainee, Gonzalo, who had survived a 12-day journey through the Darién Gap marked by violence and robbery, described witnessing guards put a foot on a cellmate's neck during a protest over detention conditions, an account consistent with Campos's death. The El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide from asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. DHS maintains guards were trying to save Campos's life, while a GAO report found the facility's contractor failed to provide required reports and that evidence was missing or destroyed. No one has been charged; his death was among 37 detainee deaths in ICE custody reported since last fall, the deadliest year on record for the agency.

Jodas Etienne, a 33-year-old Haitian national who lives in Springfield, has been held at the Butler County Jail for two months and is seeking a bond hearing and release from ICE detention.

Gedion Masunsu, 42, a Waltham resident who spent 16 years seeking political asylum after working for American military contractors in Iraq and completing the Waltham Police Department's Citizens Academy, was deported to Uganda on September 30, 2026, after 19 months in ICE detention, most of it at the Strafford County jail in Dover, NH. He had been arrested on assault charges involving his now-wife that were dismissed by a Massachusetts judge within three months, but his paralegal, Rosette Serwanga, said the charges were not promptly removed from his record and likely influenced his case; an immigration judge denied him bond twice even after he was granted withholding of removal. A federal judge denied his habeas corpus petition challenging his detention without prejudice in December 2025. After the government appealed his withholding of removal, the judge issued a removal order and the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his case on September 15, 2026, reportedly because his former attorney filed the appeal late. Masunsu said ICE removed him within hours of an inquiry from an aide to Sen. Edward Markey, despite telling officials at a Burlington, MA holding facility that he still had 15 days to appeal. He suffered an untreated rotator cuff injury during an ICE transport van ride, married his partner, Sylvia Mamutabi Mugisha, while detained, and her daughter Paris Kirunda wrote that he 'embraced my siblings and me with genuine love, kindness, and respect.' Fellow detainees described him as a devout Christian whose daily prayer meetings calmed tensions at the jail. He is now in a Kampala hotel with no family or friends remaining in Uganda, relying on financial assistance from the Ugandan community in Boston.

Manuel Alejandro Nadal-Ortiz, a Venezuelan asylum seeker with a pending work permit, was detained by ICE agents on September 1 outside a Bloomington Walmart where he worked as a delivery driver for DoorDash, Uber and Walmart. He was detained alongside Cesar Augusto Cepeda Gomez, another delivery driver. His girlfriend, Joanna Hanner, said his mother called her crying within minutes of the arrest, and the family spent the day calling detention centers before Ortiz reached them by phone that afternoon from Chicago, saying he was being transferred to a jail in Michigan. Hanner said Ortiz had no criminal record beyond a paid speeding ticket, closely monitored local ICE activity to avoid it, and was saving money to support his father in Venezuela. On September 24, Ortiz filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court in Michigan, and on September 30 a judge ordered the government to show cause for his continued detention, with a response due October 5. Unlike Cepeda Gomez, whose parallel habeas case led to a bond hearing, Ortiz's case remains in earlier litigation stages.

Lianyong Wei, a 51-year-old Chinese national who had lived in Saipan since entering the U.S. in 2019 on a two-week parole authorization, died in ICE custody at the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Corrections. Local police had arrested Wei on August 21, 2026, on criminal charges including an alleged attack on a family and assault with a dangerous weapon, and he was transferred to ICE custody the next day to face removal proceedings. He was found dead with a bedsheet tied to his bunk and around his neck, with reports differing on whether he was discovered unresponsive during a routine morning check less than a day after entering custody or two days later; resuscitation efforts at a hospital failed. It remains unclear whether he received a required medical intake screening. Corrections Commissioner Anthony Torres extended condolences to Wei's family and said the department is reviewing its procedures. His cause of death remains under investigation, and the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles has demanded a thorough inquiry, noting he is at least the fifth Chinese national to die in ICE or Border Patrol custody since March 2025. His death has been recorded among dozens of detainee deaths reported by ICE since 2025.

Claudia Carolina Rodríguez Caglianone, a 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant who served as captain of St. Thomas University's soccer team and earned bachelor's and master's degrees there, was detained by ICE at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on July 31, 2026, while trying to board a domestic flight. She had entered the U.S. in 2017 on a tourist visa, applied for asylum within six months, and held Temporary Protected Status until it expired in October. Her family said she was held for eight days at the Miramar ICE field office without being able to shower or change clothes, losing 15 pounds, before being transferred to facilities including the Broward Transitional Center and Pompano Beach. Her former coach praised her leadership and character. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited the facility, criticized ICE for detaining 'law-abiding residents like Claudia,' and raised concerns about hundreds of similar detainees, with the resulting public pressure contributing to her eventual release.

Gerson Josué Santamaría Turcios, a Honduran immigrant and Rhinebeck High School graduate who ran his own lawn care and landscaping business, was arrested by ICE as he returned home from work. He had lived in the Rhinebeck community for years, building long-term employment relationships with local residents who describe him as warm and hard-working. A Manhattan judge denied his request for a temporary restraining order, and he was held at Orange County Jail before being transferred to the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana. A coalition called New York Neighbors Unite launched a fundraising campaign that quickly raised more than $26,000, eventually growing to over $132,000 with support from former employers, teachers, classmates, actor Paul Rudd, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, and U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan. His attorney, Karen Weinstock, pursued a habeas corpus petition, and a U.S. appeals judge from the Second Circuit granted him a stay of removal after more than a year in custody. Local resident Martha Honey said neighbors remain concerned about his ongoing imprisonment.

Musa Sheriff, a Liberian citizen who was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in 1999, has been held since ICE arrested him on March 2, 2025 at a scheduled check-in, after facing deportation over a criminal threatening charge filed five years after his arrival. He is detained in the ICE section of the Federal Correctional Institution at Lewisburg, and in August filed a habeas petition arguing his prolonged 19-month detention violated his due process rights. U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann ruled in his favor, finding his confinement conditions were indistinguishable from criminal punishment, and ordered the government to release him on his own recognizance or provide an individualized bond hearing by October 9.

Salah Sarsour, 53, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and a lawful permanent resident for over 32 years, was detained by ICE on March 30, 2026, after armed plainclothes agents pulled him over in unmarked vehicles near Milwaukee. He is married to a U.S. citizen, has six U.S. citizen children, and has no U.S. criminal record. DHS alleged he lied on his 1998 green card application by omitting convictions from an Israeli military court when he was a minor, which Sarsour says were coerced under torture, and also alleged he was suspected of funding terror organizations. He was held 80 days at Clay County Jail in Indiana, where his unmonitored diabetes worsened, he faced religious liberty restrictions and inadequate medical care, and lost over 30 pounds. His attorneys, including the Muslim Legal Fund of America, argued he was targeted for his Palestinian background and advocacy, noting authorities had known of his prior convictions for 25 years. On June 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon ordered his release, finding ICE likely detained him in retaliation for his Palestinian rights advocacy. Despite this, an immigration judge later ruled in September that Sarsour can be deported under a cold-war era law, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio citing his activism as grounds for removal; his attorneys plan to continue fighting the case.