Human Impact Project

The father of a student at a Seattle-area school was detained by ICE earlier this week while on his way to work and is now being held at the Northwest Detention Center. His partner, who is pregnant, is caring for their children, including a toddler, while facing the sudden loss of the family's income. A fellow parent at the school organized a fundraiser to help cover the family's rent, groceries, utilities, and other essentials, as well as the father's commissary account and potential legal costs.

Walto Deshommes, a Haitian father, was detained by ICE agents just outside a North Park Head Start daycare in San Diego moments after walking his 2-year-old daughter into her classroom. A family advocate said the arrest occurred off school grounds, and Deshommes managed to throw his car keys and ID to daycare staff as he was taken into custody. Staff at the center, operated by the Neighborhood House Association, followed emergency procedures to hand the toddler off to a designated contact. Deshommes and his partner, Suze, had been living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status until the Trump administration ended TPS for Haitians in July following a Supreme Court ruling; both have pending asylum cases with an upcoming immigration court date. Suze said she remains committed to appearing at that court date despite facing the process without Deshommes. A family advocate said the arrest reflects a recent trend of ICE targeting Haitians who have fallen out of status but still have pending cases.

ICE agents entered a laundromat in Lindenwold, New Jersey on September 15 without a warrant and detained customers inside, according to a social media post. During the encounter, agents maced a woman in the face while she recorded the interaction. The incident took place near an elementary school and a high school.

James Mervil and Josselene Polidor were arrested by ICE agents near John Marshall Elementary School in the Chollas Creek neighborhood of San Diego minutes after dropping off their 2- and 5-year-old children. Witnesses said officers boxed in the family's car, and the mother ran barefoot into a nearby home under construction, where she was handcuffed while pleading with workers for help and explaining her daughter attended the nearby school. Construction workers reported that an officer unholstered his gun and threatened pepper spray when a supervisor tried to intervene, and that the officer entered the home without the owner's permission. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrests, stating the parents had overstayed their visas. San Diego Unified School District confirmed both parents were taken into ICE custody, said the children were not present and were doing well, and arranged for a family friend to pick them up, while also condemning ICE arrests near its campuses. Local elected officials, including Rep. Scott Peters and Mayor Todd Gloria, condemned the arrests, saying such actions traumatize children and families.

ICE officers detained a mother and father near John Marshall Elementary School in San Diego's Chollas Creek neighborhood shortly after morning drop-off. Witnesses say officers boxed in the couple's Toyota Prius at an intersection, prompting the pair to flee on foot into a nearby house under construction, where the woman pleaded with workers for help, saying her daughter attends the school. A construction worker said the ICE officer unholstered his gun and drew pepper spray after the crew tried to intervene. San Diego Unified confirmed the parents' 2- and 5-year-old children attend a school program and were picked up by a family friend after both parents were taken into ICE custody.

In April, immigration officers arrested a mother and her two children in Alamo Heights, Texas, while they were waiting for a school bus, according to the San Antonio Report. The case is cited as part of a broader pattern of ICE enforcement operations occurring near school bus stops across the country.

Jesus Acevedo Sanchez, a 39-year-old father of two U.S. citizen daughters from Mexico, was arrested by ICE agents on June 11 outside Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in East Baltimore while dropping off his children. Unmarked ICE vehicles cut off his SUV at Dundalk Avenue and O'Donnell Street; armed agents in plain clothes with guns drawn broke his driver's side window. Believing he was being carjacked and fearing for his children's safety, Acevedo Sanchez drove to the school seeking protection. He sustained injuries including bleeding from his leg and face during the extraction. His partner, Adriana Gavilan Sanchez, 37, a mother of two U.S. citizen daughters from Mexico, was also detained by ICE that same day outside the school. She reported feeling terrified and experiencing nightmares following her detention. U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin ruled that ICE lacked probable cause and violated due process in Acevedo Sanchez's arrest, calling it a "stomach churner" and stating his detention was not justified. Judge Rubin ordered his release from Farmville Detention Facility. His attorney Rachel Girod said the judge reached the right result, noting that any other outcome would have been "rubber-stamping lawlessness." U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox ordered Gavilan Sanchez's release from immigration detention, and she was freed on July 15 from Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia.

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.

On July 1, 2026, Bozeman resident Brandi Straub was driving near Camp Equinox summer theater camp, about 10 minutes after dropping off her daughter, when ICE agents conducting an enforcement operation pursued two men who had jumped from a moving pickup truck after it sideswiped a post. An agent ran past her vehicle and pointed a gun through her passenger window before continuing the pursuit. Straub's 12-year-old daughter and a neighbor's 11-year-old were at the camp, three blocks away with about 120 children present; she called the camp director, who had not been notified of the operation but was already keeping children inside due to a storm. When Straub called 911, dispatch told her local police could not intervene in ICE operations.

Gavilan Sanchez, a Mexican national without legal immigration status and mother of U.S. citizen children, was arrested by ICE agents during the same June 11 operation that led to the detention of her husband, Jesus Acevedo Sanchez, outside a Baltimore school. Her attorney said agents threatened to do to her "what we did to your husband or worse," and ICE initially accused her of punching officers, though a later affidavit described only "minimal physical resistance." A federal judge ordered her release in early July, and since then her daughters have been staying with relatives. On July 23, a separate judge ordered ICE to release Acevedo Sanchez as well, calling the case a "stomach churner" and finding that ICE lacked probable cause and failed to follow due process procedures during the arrest.

Fatou Traore, a University of Iowa custodian, was detained by ICE agents outside her sister's home in Iowa City as she arrived to pick her up for work. Plainclothes agents in unmarked vehicles blocked her car, pulled her out, handcuffed her, and took her phone and wallet; her keys were later returned. She has since been transferred through detention centers in Cedar Rapids, Hardin County, and Omaha before being moved to ICE's Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana. Her husband and four sons, ranging from a toddler to a 19-year-old, are managing without her, with funds being raised to support the children and help her resettle in Mexico.

In May 2026, 14-year-old Dilan Maney Paredes and his mother, Margoth Paredes-Ortiz, were detained by ICE in the Tempe area. Paredes-Ortiz was arrested at a Walmart, and her son was taken into custody outside Cecil Shamley School. Both were transferred to Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas, where they were held for approximately 20 days in conditions described as prison-like. They were released in June 2026 pursuant to the Flores Settlement Agreement, which limits child detention to 20 days. Rep. Greg Stanton's office submitted a congressional inquiry to ICE and coordinated with advocates on the case. The family returned to Arizona, where they will remain while their case proceeds before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

A woman was detained by ICE agents in an incident captured on video near a Hudson County school, separating her from her young children. Local officials condemned the enforcement action and noted that the agents wore masks in violation of a state law signed by Gov. Mikie Sherrill in March.

Fredy Cruz-Calderon, 48, was arrested by masked ICE agents on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at 8:15 a.m. while getting out of his car in a parking lot near Snoqualmie Hall, where he was waiting to take part in a college class activity. College officials say the agents left campus with him without providing names, badges, or a warrant, prompting security to follow state protocols barring assistance to federal immigration agents. Cruz-Calderon entered the U.S. legally on a visa in May 2018 but overstayed and did not obtain legal status to remain; he is detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma pending deportation to Colombia. The arrest has prompted students to call for more campus resources and led the college's teachers' union to form a task force to improve communication and emergency alert protocols.

Federal immigration enforcement officials conducted a vehicle chase that ended in the parking lot of Steilacoom High School in Washington on June 12, 2026. The chase began at Western State Hospital parking lot and continued onto Sentinel Drive before concluding at the high school. The driver, a middle-aged man, attempted to flee on foot but was apprehended by immigration authorities.

Jesus Acevedo-Sanchez was detained by ICE agents on June 11, 2026, at Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in Southeast Baltimore during a preschool graduation ceremony. When agents attempted to arrest him, Acevedo-Sanchez refused lawful commands and violently resisted, using his vehicle to evade law enforcement and dragging an ICE officer in the process. He faces federal charges for resisting and impeding federal officers and destruction of government property. Children who were in the vehicle were removed and cared for by family members, while school staff secured other children in the building. Acevedo-Sanchez has a history of evading ICE, including a prior collision with an ICE vehicle in April 2026. He is being held at a Baltimore detention facility. Two undocumented immigrants were detained by ICE agents at Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School during a school graduation ceremony on June 11, 2026. The individuals were pursued by ICE agents and drove into the school parking lot with children in the vehicle. During the detention, one individual punched federal officers and faces federal charges for assaulting a federal officer. The arrests resulted in children being separated from their parents and caused distress among those present. School officials and state leaders condemned the enforcement action at the sensitive location.

A mother of a student at Scarlett Middle School was detained by ICE around 8:30 a.m. on June 3, 2026, in a business parking lot in the 3500 block of Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor, Michigan, according to the school's parent-teacher organization. As of June 5, the school community had raised about $4,800 to support the family, and Ann Arbor Public Schools said it is working with them. ICE did not respond to requests for comment, and Ann Arbor police confirmed they did not make an arrest in the area that morning. The PTSO president said this is the second known detention of a Scarlett Middle School parent and that she has been hearing of near-daily immigration enforcement activity around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

Jose was detained by ICE on May 21, 2026 without a warrant while taking his 3-year-old daughter to school and transported to Aurora ICE detention facility. He had a pending immigration case since 2024 to adjust his immigration status and was awaiting USCIS office response at the time of detention. His family is facing emotional and financial hardship as a result.

A woman identified as a parent was detained by federal agents just outside a North Hollywood elementary school immediately after dropping off her children on Wednesday morning. Witnesses recorded the detention in tactical gear near campus, and the incident sparked concern among parents about law enforcement activity near schools. No federal agency officially identified itself or stated a reason for the detention as of the latest reports.

Maria, a single mother, was apprehended by ICE while dropping her children off at school, leaving her two children, ages 5 and 7, alone and bewildered without knowing when or if they would see her again. The arrest was part of a broader enforcement operation that resulted in the arrest of parents of at least 27,000 children over a seven-month period.