Human Impact Project

Angel and Alex Tixe, Ecuadorian brothers-in-law working on a roofing crew repairing Mary Richards' 160-year-old farmhouse in Cornwall, Vermont, were detained on Aug. 8, 2026, after ICE agents in three unmarked SUVs surrounded the property. Reporting indicates the stop began when a passing ICE agent spotted the crew on the roof. Agents did not present a warrant or identify themselves despite Richards' repeated demands, handcuffing one worker in the yard while others fled, some hiding in a tree, before the men were taken out of state to a detention facility in Massachusetts. Angel, whose wife Maria Tixe has a pending asylum case, was released on bail after 15 days in custody and returned to Vermont. Alex, Maria's 30-year-old brother and father of an 18-month-old son, remained detained, with his sister-in-law saying she was still fighting for his release. "We aren't criminals," Tixe said. "We came to work and to help our children get ahead." State Sen. Ruth Hardy, who visited Richards and spoke with the crew manager, said the arrests appeared to reflect racial and ethnic profiling and called the incident traumatic. Migrant Justice and Addison County advocates organized support, and a GoFundMe for the men's families and legal defense raised over $7,600.

ICE conducted a multi-day operation called 'Operation Safe Community - Kansas' from September 22-25, 2026, arresting about 104 people in Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal, Hutchinson, Larned and other southwest Kansas communities, including workers at meat processing plants like National Beef and Cargill. Liberal Vice Mayor Janeth Vazquez witnessed agents detain a mother with a baby in her car, and a community volunteer arranged for a family member to retrieve the child. Viridiana Boron, a legal permanent resident from Mexico who came to the U.S. after her family was threatened, spent days delivering meals cooked by her mother and sister to roughly 200 families too afraid to leave their homes, and said she herself felt frightened despite having proper documentation, describing agents stopping cars based on whether someone appeared Hispanic or Latino. Advocates said many detainees had no criminal records, while the U.S. Attorney's Office named five arrestees with convictions including homicide, kidnapping, and sexual assault, disputing claims the operation amounted to discriminatory sweeps. The operation caused widespread disruption, with 120 students absent from one elementary school and businesses closing for the week. Officials did not release a full roster of those arrested or disclose their detention locations.

Frank Duran, a Cargill meat plant worker in Dodge City, and his 20-year-old daughter Guadalupe Navarrete, who works at National Beef in Liberal, were pulled over by an ICE vehicle with sirens while driving home from work in southwest Kansas. An officer approached Navarrete, who was driving, demanding identification but did not respond when she asked if he had a warrant or why they were stopped. Both are U.S. citizens who have lived in Kansas their entire lives, and Navarrete was left shaking and crying after the officer scanned her identification. She told her father, "We're both born here in Kansas. We're legal citizens, Dad. They profiled us." Duran said he believed they had been racially profiled. They were not detained and were allowed to leave after the stop, which occurred amid a broader ICE enforcement action targeting meat processing plants in the region.

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.

Brian José Morales García, a 25-year-old HVAC worker from Austin born in Denver, Colorado, was riding in his employer's truck near Fredericksburg, Texas, on April 3, 2026, when a state trooper stopped them for an alleged window-tint violation. He repeatedly told officers he was a citizen and offered his birth certificate, Social Security card, and baptismal record, but said they refused to accept them; he was held by the Gillespie County Sheriff's Office before Border Patrol took custody. He said agents mocked his citizenship claim and pressured him into signing paperwork admitting illegal entry, which he did only to avoid prolonged detention and reunite with his pregnant wife in Mexico. He was deported four to five days after the stop, missing the birth of his daughter and spending nearly five months with relatives in Mexico. His attorneys, including Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, filed a federal lawsuit alleging coercion and racial profiling, submitting his Colorado birth certificate, hospital records, baptismal certificate, and witness affidavits, while DHS disputed his citizenship claim. A federal judge called the case 'highly unusual' and ordered discovery; the Department of Justice agreed to let him return to Austin on August 30, 2026, with his lawyer picking him up in Laredo. His civil rights lawsuit continues, and he said his fear of being wrongfully targeted again will stay with him.

ICE agents conducted large-scale enforcement operations in Dodge City, Garden City, and Liberal, Kansas—an area known as the 'golden triangle of beef'—arriving around September 22-23 and departing roughly three days later. Agents in unmarked vans and plain clothes stopped vehicles and detained dozens of people in surrounding communities, including a mother taken into custody with her baby, prompting a volunteer to arrange for a relative to retrieve the child. Hispanic and Latino residents described being stopped based on appearance, with agents even entering a local restaurant before being told to leave. Advocates said many detained had no criminal records, while Dodge City schools warned families of possible relative detentions and 120 students missed school at one elementary school. Community organizer Amy Soberanes delivered food to frightened residents and described children crying over detained parents, while worker Deymi Anayela Martinez Lemus described an empty parking lot and short staffing at area plants operated by Cargill and National Beef. Businesses closed or slowed operations, USDA data showed reduced cattle processing, and industry groups estimated millions in lost revenue. About 200 people protested in downtown Dodge City calling for immigration reform, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2 condemned the operation. Kansas Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall criticized ICE for failing to coordinate with local officials, while DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ICE targeted people with final removal orders and criminal histories rather than conducting worksite operations.

At least 40 people were detained by ICE agents in roadside stops and workplace encounters across New Bedford, Dartmouth, and Fall River, Massachusetts, according to Gov. Maura Healey and immigrant advocacy groups, with arrests also reported at Cumberland Farms, Market Basket, near fish houses, and at a Dunkin' on Nauset Street. A review of court records for 23 of the men by the New Bedford Light found 19 had no criminal charges beyond immigration-related misdemeanors, consistent with national data showing most ICE detainees lack criminal convictions. Video footage showed agents tackle and apply a taser to Augusto Lopes Vemba, a 40-year-old asylum-seeker from Angola, after he ran during his arrest near Acushnet Avenue. Attorneys with the Habeas Project of New England, a team of 20 volunteer lawyers, have filed habeas corpus petitions in federal courts in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to contest the detentions and prevent transfers out of state.

Leonardo 'Leo' Garcia Venegas, a 25-year-old U.S.-born citizen of Mexican descent working construction in Baldwin County, Alabama, was detained by immigration agents multiple times beginning in May 2025 despite presenting a valid Alabama REAL ID. In the first incident, armed agents raided a Foley construction site, tackled his undocumented brother, and held Garcia Venegas handcuffed for over an hour after he began filming and asserted his citizenship; his brother was later deported. Weeks later, agents detained him again at another job site, again dismissing his ID as fake despite him also providing his Social Security card. In a third encounter, officers followed him home, pulled him from his vehicle, tackled him, and shackled him. Never charged with a crime, Garcia Venegas testified before Congress saying 'I don't feel free,' and filed a federal lawsuit with the Institute for Justice against DHS officials, including Tom Homan and Kristi Noem, alleging Fourth Amendment violations, assault, battery, and false arrest. A federal judge in the Southern District of Alabama denied the government's motion to dismiss and temporarily halted warrantless construction-site raids, a ruling Garcia Venegas called 'a huge blow to lawless enforcement practices.'

Samuel Guzmán, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen born in Maryland who spent part of his childhood in Mexico and lives in Anne Arundel County, was surrounded and handcuffed by masked ICE agents near a 7-Eleven in Annapolis one Sunday in June while driving to his restaurant job. He said he repeatedly told officers he was born in the country, and that one officer asked him, 'If you are an American citizen, why don't you speak better English?' He was held for more than an hour alongside other Latino individuals and said he worried about a co-worker who lived nearby. Guzmán is now the lead plaintiff in a proposed federal class-action lawsuit, Guzmán v. DHS, filed September 9, 2026 in U.S. District Court in Maryland by immigrant rights group CASA. He is joined by three other Maryland residents from Prince George's, Montgomery and Wicomico counties who say they were similarly arrested without warrants or probable cause. The lawsuit alleges ICE adopted an 'arrest first, ask questions later' policy targeting people perceived to be Brown or Black immigrants without individualized assessments, and asks a federal judge to declare such warrantless arrests unconstitutional.

Juan Francisco Areche Minaya, a 49-year-old Dominican citizen who has lived in Puerto Rico for more than 28 years with no criminal record, was detained in San Juan on August 11, 2026 by several masked ICE agents while waiting near a business for a friend who was picking up electrical materials for a job. He is the father of two U.S.-citizen children and the son of a U.S.-citizen mother, both of whom depend on him for financial and daily support, and he has two previously approved I-130 family petitions. His daughter, Darjeerling Areche, said he has 'been present throughout my entire life' and called his detention 'completely incomprehensible.' U.S. District Judge Gina Méndez Miró barred his transfer out of Puerto Rico and ordered a bond hearing under the First Circuit's ruling in Guerrero Orellana v. Moniz, but Immigration Judge Elvin Talavera Peraza denied him bond on August 21, 2026, citing an alleged flight risk; his habeas petition alleges the stop was racially motivated. The ACLU of Puerto Rico and the University of Puerto Rico's Immigration Clinic denounced the bond denial as part of a broader pattern of biased rulings. On September 1, 2026, the federal court dismissed his amended habeas petition without prejudice, finding he had not exhausted administrative remedies or presented a proper constitutional question.

Brandon Domena, a lifelong Passaic County, New Jersey resident and U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE agents for about five hours after a confrontation broke out while he and his family watched agents arrest a neighbor, reportedly a Mexican man wanted for domestic violence. Video showed agents in tactical gear restraining Domena face-down on a lawn and handcuffing him, with a witness saying his arm was nearly dislocated; he says he was left with bruises and marks on his hands. Domena said he repeatedly told agents he was a U.S. citizen, believes he was racially profiled, and was denied water, a restroom, medical attention and a phone call during his detention. DHS alleges he spit at and kicked an officer and was arrested on potential charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers, but he has not been criminally charged. He disputes DHS's account, says an agent later apologized to him, was released the same day, and has hired a lawyer.

A Black man with no connection to an ongoing traffic stop was questioned and handcuffed by a US Border Patrol agent at an Orion gas station in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. Video shows the agent demanding his identification and telling him it was 'because you're an immigrant' before officers forced his arms behind his back and restrained him. He was released minutes later after a status check cleared him. A second man who appeared Latino was seized shortly afterward, and an older man filming the encounter was ordered to move away from the scene.

Beaubrun Charles Ardouin, a naturalized U.S. citizen who drives for a transportation company shuttling workers, was pulled over near Topre America in Springfield, Ohio, in what DHS called a 'targeted enforcement' stop. Ardouin said he showed officers his ID and told them he was a citizen, but they demanded identification from his five Haitian passengers and threatened to break his van's windows if he didn't unlock them. All five men, who said they had pending asylum applications, were detained and booked into Butler County Jail under ICE holds; jail records identified them as Canot Monnimat, Albert Francois, Nero Adrien Toussaint, Cadet Vixama and Wislain Fenelon. The stop occurred amid broader ICE activity across Springfield, including arrests near a car wash in an area with several Haitian-owned businesses, with some detainees' mugshots showing them still in work uniforms. Butler County Jail held 17 people listing Haiti as their birth country under ICE detention as of one recent Monday, as many of Springfield's estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian residents became vulnerable to detention after a federal judge lifted a stay on the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti. Legal experts questioned whether officers had reasonable suspicion for the traffic stop, and DHS said several of the detained men have since been released or transferred.

The ACLU of Ohio filed a federal lawsuit alleging that ICE agents repeatedly violated federal law by making warrantless arrests without determining flight risk, detained individuals for weeks or months, and mistreated detainees. The lawsuit details cases involving people with valid visas, work permits, and U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico, suggesting possible racial profiling. The plaintiffs seek class action status and want courts to stop warrantless arrests and require compensation for those improperly detained.

Domingo Tot Quip, a 31-year-old Portland resident from Guatemala and restaurant worker, was arrested at a bus stop in January 2026 during an ICE enforcement operation while heading to work. ICE agents mistakenly identified him as another Guatemalan man with the same first name and birthday who had a final removal order, despite Tot Quip having valid identification documents with him at the time of arrest. He spoke primarily an indigenous Guatemalan language, had no criminal history, and had never interacted with ICE before. A federal judge ordered ICE not to remove him from the country, but Tot Quip was deported to Guatemala one day after the order. His attorney, Kerry Doyle, alleged racial profiling was involved in the misidentification. After months in Guatemala, ICE acknowledged "the gravity of the inadvertent removal" in court records and agreed to return Tot Quip to the U.S. at government expense, with his return to Maine expected in August 2026.

Elzon Lemus, a 23-year-old electrician and U.S. citizen from Brentwood, New York, was stopped and detained by ICE and Homeland Security agents while riding in a passenger seat on his way to work in Westbury. Agents told him he "looks like somebody we are looking for" but refused to identify themselves or specify who they were searching for. When Lemus refused to provide ID without identifying information from the agents, he was handcuffed and held for 20-25 minutes while they confiscated his phone; they eventually found his ID in his pockets. His attorney, Fred Brewington, is calling the incident racial profiling and a breach of federal civil rights, while state assemblyman Philip Ramo demanded a Department of Justice investigation.

Elaine Miles, an Indigenous actor best known for roles in 'Northern Exposure,' 'Smoke Signals,' and 'The Last of Us,' was detained by four ICE agents at a bus stop in Redmond, Washington, while walking to Target. When she presented her tribal ID from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation—a form of identification recognized by federal agencies—the agents called it fake and claimed anyone could make one. Miles said the agents did not identify themselves when asked for names and badge numbers, and attempted to take her phone when she tried to call the tribal enrollment office to verify her ID. The agents left after a fifth agent whistled them back to their vehicles. Miles's son and uncle were also detained by ICE agents who initially rejected their tribal IDs before being released.

Willy Wender Aceituno, a 46-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Honduras who said he voted for Trump twice, was stopped twice within minutes by Border Patrol agents in a Charlotte, NC restaurant parking lot on November 15, 2025, during 'Operation Charlotte's Web.' After the first group of agents confirmed his citizenship and no criminal record, a second group smashed his truck's window, dragged him over broken glass, threw him to the pavement, and handcuffed him before driving him around the city and releasing him over two miles from his vehicle without his keys or medical help. Aceituno said the incident echoed childhood trauma in Honduras, where agents took his father, who was never seen again. 'ICE isn't looking for criminals,' he said. 'They're looking for Latinos.' He sought treatment at Atrium Hospital and, with the ACLU of North Carolina, filed a $1.25 million federal claim against DHS, ICE, and CBP, also joining a related class action over warrantless arrests. His U.S.-born daughter now carries her passport at college because of her appearance.

Quentin Williams, an assistant teacher known to students as 'Mr. Q' at Roosevelt High School, was tackled, choked and detained by federal immigration agents on January 7, 2026, hours after Renee Good was fatally shot nearby. Agents pursuing a suspect in a car chase swarmed the school's front lawn as students were being dismissed; body camera footage shows agents grabbing and choking Williams after he helped up a colleague who had been knocked down while trying to keep agents off school property. He was placed in an unmarked SUV and later charged by federal prosecutors with assaulting and impeding officers, charges that were dropped months later. Williams, a Roosevelt High graduate and veteran educator, said, 'I feel lucky to be alive,' and described being terrified during the encounter. He believes he was targeted because he is Black and has struggled with anxiety since the incident, and is now pursuing a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit against the government with the MacArthur Justice Center and Friedman, Gilbert and Gerhardstein. Minneapolis Public Schools closed all schools citywide for several days afterward.

Two Lane County residents identified by initials H-F-M-J and A-V-L were detained by ICE officers during a vehicle stop near Eugene on July 3, 2026. According to legal petitions filed by Catholic Community Services of Lane County, the officers boxed in the vehicle without displaying arrest warrants, explaining the reason for the stop, or identifying themselves as immigration officials. The petitions allege the arrests were based solely on the detainees' perceived race and ethnicity rather than individualized assessment of flight risk or immigration status, and claim officers failed to inquire about family, employment, or community ties. ICE stated the detainees were arrested during a targeted enforcement action and that warrants had been issued for both men.