Killed, Jailed, and Disappeared

Being present without papers is not a crime

• The Supreme Court: In Arizona v. United States (25 June 2012), Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the Court: “As a general rule, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States.” The opinion adds: “Removal is a civil, not criminal, matter.”
• Distinction: Unlawful entry is a separate federal offence (8 U.S.C. 1325), a misdemeanour for a first offence. Presence without status remains a civil matter.

The Supreme Court allowed stops based on apparent ethnicity

• The order below: On 11 July 2025, Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of the Central District of California issued a temporary restraining order barring agents in the Los Angeles area from relying “solely on the factors below, alone or in combination” to stop people: apparent race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent; presence at a particular location, such as a bus stop, car wash, tow yard, day-labourer pick-up site, or agricultural site; and the type of work a person does.
• The stay: On 8 September 2025, in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, No. 25A169, the Supreme Court stayed that order. The Court gave no majority reasons.
• Kavanaugh: Justice Brett Kavanaugh, concurring alone, wrote that “apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion,” but that “it can be a ‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors.”
• Sotomayor: Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented: “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”
• Since then: The case continues in the district court as Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin, No. 2:25-cv-05605. On 28 July 2026 Judge Frimpong held the government in civil contempt, at $500 a day, for failing to search agents’ phones as a discovery order required. On 2 September 2026 she enjoined warrantless civil immigration arrests in the district made without a prearrest, individualised finding of probable cause that the person is likely to escape, and certified a class of people subject to such arrests. An appeal is pending in the Ninth Circuit.
• Change of names: Markwayne Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma confirmed 54-45 on 23 March 2026, replaced Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security. President Trump announced Noem’s departure on 5 March 2026, naming her a special envoy for the “Shield of the Americas”; NBC News reported it as a firing. Her service ended on 31 March 2026. Todd Lyons announced on 16 April 2026 that he would resign as acting ICE director, effective 31 May 2026.
• Counsel for those stopped: At the Supreme Court, Elaine J. Goldenberg (Munger, Tolles & Olson), counsel of record. In the district court, Immigrant Defenders Law Center; ACLU Foundation of Southern California; Public Counsel; the Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin; the UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant and Racial Justice Solidarity Clinic; the National Day Laborer Organizing Network; the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and of San Diego and Imperial Counties; Hecker Fink LLP; Martinez Aguilasocho Law; and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). The plaintiffs include five workers, the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers, CHIRLA, and Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

What a concentration camp is

• The historian’s definition: Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, defines concentration camps as “mass civilian detention without real trials targeting vulnerable groups for political gain,” in which governments choose targets “based on ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation,” “rather than for crimes committed.” She told the Marshall Project in May 2026 that “the U.S. has crossed that line today.” In July 2025 she told Will Bunch, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer: “We’re already disappearing hundreds of people to … foreign countries, or to the Everglades, or now to Fort Bliss.” She notes that Dachau, the first well-known German camp, opened in 1933 to detain the Nazis’ political opponents, years before the extermination camps.
• The American precedent: The United States incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of them American citizens, during the Second World War. In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which apologised to people of Japanese ancestry and paid $20,000 to each survivor. German and Italian internees received neither apology nor compensation.
• Fort Bliss: Camp East Montana stands at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, where the Army ran an Enemy Alien Detention Station from early 1942 until November 1942. In May 1942 it held 56 internees, primarily men: 29 Japanese, 18 German, and 9 Italian. The Texas Historical Commission counts several Japanese Americans among its internees.

Renee Good, 37, Minneapolis, 7 January 2026

• Who: A US citizen born in Colorado, a poet and mother of three, who had moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri, in 2025.
• What happened: During Operation Metro Surge, ICE officer Jonathan Ross fired three times into her SUV as she sat at the wheel on Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis, once through the windshield and twice through the open driver’s-side window. Kristi Noem, then Secretary of Homeland Security, called the shooting “an act of domestic terrorism” and said Good had tried to “weaponize her vehicle.” Video appears to show Good turning the wheel away from Ross as she drove forward.
• Autopsy: An autopsy commissioned by her family found three gunshot wounds and a graze. One bullet entered the left side of her head near the temple.
• Accountability: The FBI took sole control of the investigation, and Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension withdrew on 8 January 2026. Minnesota sued the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security on 24 March 2026 and obtained the evidence, including her SUV, in July 2026. No one has been charged. As of October 2026, the Hennepin County Attorney’s office was still reviewing the evidence.
• Legal action: On 1 October 2026 her brother, Brent Ganger, as trustee for her next of kin, and her partner, Becca Good, who witnessed the killing, filed two federal suits in Minnesota. Ganger v. United States, No. 0:26-cv-04230-JMB-DLM, brings wrongful-death claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Ganger v. Ross, No. 0:26-cv-04231-LMP-DJF, a 149-page complaint, alleges a civil rights conspiracy under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 against Ross; Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff; Kristi Noem; Tom Homan, the White House border czar; Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee at Homeland Security since February 2025; Todd Lyons; Gregory Bovino, former Border Patrol commander; and ten unnamed agents.
• Lawyers and advocates: Antonio Romanucci, Benjamin Berkman, Daisy Ayllón, Sarah Raisch, and Stephen Weil (Romanucci & Blandin, Chicago); Kevin C. Riach (Law Office of Kevin C. Riach, Minneapolis).

Alex Pretti, 37, Minneapolis, 24 January 2026

• Who: A US citizen and intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
• What happened: Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez, whom ProPublica identified from government records, shot him while he filmed an enforcement operation. CBP has never confirmed their names. Video appears to show agents pepper-spraying him, forcing him to the ground, and removing the handgun he carried under a permit before two of them opened fire. Kristi Noem, then Secretary, called his conduct “domestic terrorism” and said he had been “attacking” officers and “brandishing” a weapon. A preliminary review by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility says he resisted arrest and makes no mention of an attack or a threat with a weapon. Both shooters went on paid administrative leave.
• Medical examiner: On 2 February 2026 the Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds.
• Accountability: The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division opened an investigation on 30 January 2026. Minnesota sued federal officials on 24 March 2026 for the evidence, which federal authorities turned over in July 2026. As of 20 August 2026, no one had been charged.
• Lawyers and advocates: Steve Schleicher (Maslon, Minneapolis), a former federal prosecutor and special prosecutor in the 2021 trial of Derek Chauvin, acting pro bono for his parents, Michael and Susan Pretti; Anthony Cotton (Kuchler & Cotton, Milwaukee) for his sister, Micayla Pretti.

Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, South Padre Island, Texas, 15 March 2025

• Who: A US citizen from San Antonio, Texas, who had just turned 23 and planned to train as a mechanic.
• What happened: Shortly after midnight, Homeland Security Investigations agents were helping local police redirect traffic around a crash. Supervisory special agent Jack Stevens fired three shots into Martinez’s car through the open driver’s-side window. HSI is part of ICE. ICE’s incident report says the car struck an agent, who ended up on the hood. Police body-camera footage released by the Texas Department of Public Safety appears to show agents standing in front of the car as it moved slowly forward, and does not clearly show it striking anyone. Charles Stam, the family’s lawyer, says agents escalated the encounter by standing in front of the car.
• Concealment: Federal and state authorities did not disclose HSI’s role. It became public in February 2026, through ICE records that American Oversight, a watchdog group, obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
• Accountability: On 25 February 2026 a Texas grand jury declined to charge Stevens. Todd Lyons, then acting ICE director, said: “We stand by the grand jury’s unanimous decision that found no criminality.”
• Lawyers and advocates: Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm, for his mother, Rachel Reyes.

Keith Porter Jr., 43, Northridge, Los Angeles, 31 December 2025

• Who: A father of two who had moved to Northridge about a year earlier.
• What happened: An off-duty ICE agent who lived in the same apartment complex shot him on New Year’s Eve. The Los Angeles Times identified the agent as Brian Palacios from court filings in a custody dispute; DHS has not named him. The Los Angeles Police Department says Porter was firing an AR-15-style rifle into the air. DHS says he pointed the rifle at the agent. His family says he threatened no one. Jamal Tooson, a family lawyer, says an autopsy found three gunshot wounds, matching the three shots heard on an audio recording.
• Accountability: The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating. On 17 August 2026 Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told the family he had not yet decided whether to file charges; the family asked him to put the case to a grand jury, and his office said it was exploring that option.
• Lawyers and advocates: Ben Crump, civil rights lawyer, and Jamal Tooson, who on 3 February 2026 asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta to open an independent investigation.
• Unresolved: The sources reviewed do not state his citizenship. Reports differ on the time of the shooting (just after 10.30 pm, or shortly after 11.30 pm, on 31 December 2025). The TimesLIVE copy of the Reuters report misdates the death to 31 January 2026.

Silverio Villegas González, 38, Franklin Park, Illinois, 12 September 2025

• Who: A Mexican line cook, about 18 years in the United States. He had just dropped his two young sons at school and daycare on 12 September 2025 when ICE agents pulled their Jeep in front of his car.
• What happened: An ICE agent shot him during the car stop. DHS says he dragged an officer “a significant distance”. Franklin Park police body-camera footage, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, shows the officer calling his own injuries “nothing major”. Neither ICE agent wore a body camera. The county coroner found he was shot from behind at close range, downward through the back of his neck.
• Accountability: DHS told the Sun-Times in July 2026 that federal prosecutors declined to charge the agent, whom DHS has never named. Franklin Park waited more than seven months to ask the Illinois State Police to investigate, and that investigation remains open.
• Legal action: His brother, José Villegas González, filed an administrative wrongful-death claim for the estate under the Federal Tort Claims Act on 8 October 2026, the step the law requires before a suit against the federal government.
• Lawyers and advocates: Jonathan Manes, a lawyer with the MacArthur Justice Center.

Jaime Alanís García, 57, Camarillo, California, died 12 July 2025

• What happened: A Mexican farmworker, he fell about 30 feet from a greenhouse roof onto concrete during the federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms on 10 July 2025. He had called his family to say he was hiding from agents. He broke his neck and skull, and he died on life support two days later. DHS said agents were not pursuing him.
• Legal action: On 7 August 2025 his family filed a notice of claim with ICE under the Federal Tort Claims Act: a survival claim for his estate and a wrongful-death claim for his wife, Leticia Cruz Vázquez, and his daughter, Janet Alanis.
• Lawyers and advocates: Brett Schreiber, founding partner of Singleton Schreiber, and Robbie Munoz, partner at The Simon Law Group.

Josué Castro Rivera, 24, Norfolk, Virginia, 23 October 2025

• What happened: A Honduran man on his way to a gardening job, according to his brother, Henry Castro. Immigration agents stopped the vehicle carrying him in what DHS called a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation. DHS says he “resisted heavily and fled”; a passing vehicle struck and killed him on eastbound Interstate 264 at about 11 am on 23 October 2025. Federal and state authorities gave his first name as Jose; his family says Josué.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, Houston, Texas, 7 July 2026

• What happened: A Mexican man with no criminal record, shot dead by an ICE officer while driving his construction crew to a job site. ICE says he tried to ram an officer’s vehicle; his family disputes that account. The agents had been surveilling three Guatemalan men and pursued his van after a partial licence-plate match; neither he nor his passengers were the original target. None of the four agents wore body cameras, and DHS says they “had not yet been issued body cameras”.
• Officer: On 28 September 2026 the Texas Tribune identified the shooter as ICE officer Gregory Feathers, through an official familiar with the investigation and corroborating records. He faces no charge.
• Accountability: Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare is convening a grand jury, with help from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The FBI, the US Attorney’s Office and DHS are investigating separately.

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 25, Biddeford, Maine, 13 July 2026

• What happened: A Colombian man shot in his car by an ICE officer at about 7 am on 13 July 2026. ICE first said agents were enforcing a final deportation order; Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin later told Senator Angus King that Durán Guerrero was not the target of the warrant. Mullin first said he “weaponized” his vehicle; ICE later said he “attempted to flee”. None of the agents wore a body camera. His family’s lawyer, Benjamin Gideon, says he had legal work authorisation, was following a lawful immigration pathway, and “had never been accused of a crime.”
• Officer: Relatives told AP that the officer is David Brouillette, 37. DHS has not named him.
• Accountability: The Maine Attorney General, the FBI and the DHS Office of Inspector General are investigating.
• Count: Al Jazeera counted at least nine deaths during immigration enforcement operations between January 2025 and 13 July 2026, six of them shootings by federal agents. Three of the dead were US citizens.

Camp East Montana, Fort Bliss, El Paso

ICE’s largest facility, a tent camp on Fort Bliss that opened in August 2025 for up to 5,000 people. Acquisition Logistics, a company with no detention experience, ran it under a $1.3 billion contract, with guards from Akima Global Services and medical care from Loyal Source Government Services. ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics in March 2026 with Amentum, a former subcontractor; the Government Accountability Office dates the formal termination to April 2026. Loyal Source remains the medical provider. A GAO report of 9 June 2026 (GAO-26-108886) found that ICE rushed the camp open before construction finished and without the pre-occupancy inspection its policy requires; that evidence associated with the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos “was missing or destroyed”; and that the contractor screened for tuberculosis by questionnaire instead of the required skin tests, so one detainee with tuberculosis lived among the general population in November 2025. Human Rights Watch and the ACLU documented beatings, filthy and crowded pods, and interrupted medications in an 84-page report of 15 July 2026, “You’re Only Getting Out Deported or Dead”: Abusive US Immigration Detention at Ft. Bliss.

Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died 3 January 2026

• Who: A Cuban man who came to the United States in 1996 and lived in Rochester, New York. A judge ordered him removed in March 2005, but the government could not obtain travel documents for him. ICE detained him in July 2025 and moved him to Camp East Montana on 6 September 2025.
• ICE’s account: ICE first reported “medical distress”, then a suicide attempt, then death after a “spontaneous use of force” by staff to “prevent him from harming himself.”
• Medical examiner: On 21 January 2026 the El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide, from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression”. The report says he “was witnessed to become unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement.” Six detainees told a federal court that he begged for days for his asthma medication and that they heard him gasp that he could not breathe; one witness said guards choked him.
• Record: Convictions in 2003, in New York, for sexual contact with a child under 11, and in 2009 for attempting to sell a controlled substance.
• Accountability: The FBI is investigating. On 21 January 2026 US District Judge Steven Briones temporarily barred DHS from deporting two detainees who witnessed the death; the government later agreed not to deport six witnesses.
• Legal action: His family filed suit in El Paso County on 29 June 2026 (reported as Cause No. 2026DCV3228), seeking more than $1 million from Acquisition Logistics, Akima Global Services, Akima’s parent NANA Regional Corporation, guard lieutenant Paul Walden, and guards Hector Lopez, Victor Flores and Daniel Meta. The plaintiffs are Kary Lunas, Jeraldo Lunas Pagan, and a minor child represented by Jeanette Pagan Lopez.
• Lawyers and advocates: Christopher Benoit (Benoit Legal, El Paso), with Will Horowitz and Max A. Schoening (Qureshi Law, Los Angeles).
• Unresolved: AP, the complaint and the medical examiner spell his first name Geraldo; Human Rights Watch mostly spells it Gerardo. The complaint spells one guard’s surname both Flores and Florez.

Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, died 14 January 2026

• What happened: A Nicaraguan man, found with a ligature after hours in a medical holding room. ICE reports a “presumed suicide” and says the cause remains under investigation.
• Autopsy withheld: Diaz died a week before the county ruled Lunas Campos’s death a homicide. ICE sent his body to William Beaumont Army Medical Center instead of the county medical examiner, and the Army hospital releases autopsies only to families and investigators. His brother, Yorlan Diaz, says: “I don’t believe he took his life.”
• Lawyers and advocates: Randall Kallinen, a Texas lawyer for the family, who seeks an independent autopsy.

Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, 48, died 2 or 3 December 2025

• What happened: A Guatemalan father of five, the camp’s first death. Hospitalised for more than two weeks, he died of liver and kidney failure; sources give the date as 2 or 3 December 2025. ICE says he received “constant, high-quality care”. His wife, Lucía Pedro Juan, was deported to Santa Eulalia, in Guatemala’s western highlands, before she could see him. His daughter says his medical needs were “always ignored”. Twenty-five House Democrats, led by Representative Veronica Escobar of El Paso, wrote on 26 February 2026 that poor medical care contributed to his death. The El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled the death natural, from “complications of alcoholic hepatic cirrhosis”.

Adelanto ICE Processing Center, California (GEO Group)

Four Mexican nationals died after detention at Adelanto between September 2025 and March 2026. On 15 October 2025 Representative Judy Chu and 31 other members of Congress demanded the facility’s closure. On 26 January 2026 Public Counsel, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Immigrant Defenders Law Center and the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher filed a proposed class action, L.T. v. ICE, challenging the denial of medical and mental-health care. On 30 March 2026 Mexico’s consulate in Los Angeles announced that Mexico would file an amicus brief. On 16 July 2026 US District Judge Sunshine Suzanne Sykes (Central District of California) granted a preliminary injunction requiring 24-hour clean water, intake screening, treatment, and medical access.

Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, died 22 September 2025

• Who: Brought from Mexico at age four; a former DACA recipient from Westminster, California, who lost that protection after a 2015 drunk-driving conviction. ICE arrested him at his car-wash job in August 2025.
• What happened: He reported fever and pain. On 18 September 2025 medical staff returned him to his cell with over-the-counter pain pills, and his condition worsened for three days before staff sent him to hospital on 21 September 2025. A partial autopsy lists an abscess as the main cause of death. He died before surgery that might have saved him.
• Legal action: His parents, Eusebio Ayala Roman and Lucia Uribe Martinez, sued GEO Group and the medical contractor Wellpath for wrongful death on 31 December 2025 in the Central District of California, Case No. 2:25-cv-12436. The complaint dates his custody from 17 August 2025 and alleges that an untreated infection progressed to sepsis.
• Lawyers and advocates: Jesús Eduardo Arias, a Los Angeles lawyer.

Gabriel García-Avilés, 56, died 23 October 2025

• What happened: Border Patrol agents seized him in a roving raid in Costa Mesa on 14 October 2025 and moved him to Adelanto. His family says he held a work permit and had lived in the United States for more than 30 years. DHS attributed the death to cardiac arrest from alcohol withdrawal. The coroner recorded natural causes, on the strength of a family questionnaire, and performed no autopsy. His family says Adelanto gave them false information about his whereabouts; they learned only on 23 October 2025 that he lay in critical condition at Victor Valley Global Medical Center, and he died that evening. Representatives Dave Min and Judy Chu demanded answers from DHS.
• Unresolved: L.A. Taco gives his age as 54; KVCR and Mexican officials give 56.

Alberto Gutiérrez Reyes, 48, died 27 February 2026

• What happened: ICE arrested him in Echo Park, Los Angeles, on 9 January 2026 and brought him to Adelanto on 12 January 2026. His wife, Patricia Martinez Hernandez, says he had diabetes and high cholesterol and received no medication. ICE says he reported feeling faint on 25 February 2026 and was admitted to hospital with chest pain and shortness of breath; he died at Victor Valley Global Medical Center. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez says he was “denied medical care”. ICE says no detainee is ever denied emergency care.

José Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, 52, died 25 March 2026

• What happened: ICE says staff found him unresponsive in his bunk and that he had received daily treatment for diabetes, hyperlipidemia and hypertension, diagnosed at intake in February 2026. He died at a hospital in Victorville. The official cause remains undetermined. A witness told Immigrant Defenders Law Center that he struggled to breathe and that help came late. Mexico demanded an immediate review of Adelanto, citing “serious omissions and evident deficiencies” in medical care, and its consulate in San Bernardino sought his full medical record.
• Lawyers and advocates: Jesús Eduardo Arias, whose firm is conducting a private forensic investigation for the family.

Other facilities

Emmanuel Clifford Damas, 56, Florence, Arizona, died 2 March 2026

• What happened: A Haitian man living in Boston, held by CoreCivic at the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center. His family says staff ignored his toothache from mid-February 2026; a lawmakers’ letter says clinic staff gave him over-the-counter medication on 17 and 18 February 2026 and denied dental treatment. He went to hospital on 19 February 2026, and he died on 2 March 2026 after his family chose to end life support. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner found “complications of necrotizing mediastinitis with neck and retropharyngeal abscess in the setting of severe dental caries and periodontal disease”. The record shows he declined extractions in October 2025, January 2026 and mid-February 2026, and refused an evaluation around 18 February 2026. Representative Yassamin Ansari called the death “a clear case of medical neglect at the hands of ICE”.
• Status: Boston police arrested him in September 2025 on a misdemeanour charge of assault and battery; his family says he slapped his son on the back of the head after a misunderstanding. ICE took him into custody after his family posted bail and held him under the Laken Riley Act. No conviction is reported.
• Lawyers and advocates: Raymond Audain, the family’s lawyer.
• Unresolved: The medical examiner’s manner-of-death finding.

Chaofeng Ge, 32, Moshannon Valley, Pennsylvania (GEO Group), died 5 August 2025

• What happened: A Chinese man from Queens who spoke Mandarin, found hanged in a shower stall four days after he arrived at Moshannon Valley Processing Center. The county autopsy found him “with his hands and feet tied behind his back”; ICE’s report made no mention of the bindings. The autopsy ruled suicide, and the medical examiner noted references to people binding themselves before suicide by hanging. His family’s suit says no staff member spoke Mandarin, which left him isolated; his brother says GEO never contacted the family.
• Legal action: Yanfeng Ge v. ICE and DHS, a Freedom of Information Act suit filed in the Southern District of New York in November 2025 by his brother, Yanfeng Ge.
• Lawyers and advocates: David B. Rankin, the family’s lawyer.

Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, Delaney Hall, Newark (GEO Group), died 12 December 2025

• What happened: A Haitian asylum seeker, arrested on 11 December 2025, who died at University Hospital in Newark about 24 hours later. ICE attributes the death to natural causes and says he showed no distress at intake. His family suspects abuse at Delaney Hall.
• Lawyers and advocates: Oliver T. Barry (Barry, Corrado & Grassi), retained by the family to preserve and gather evidence.

Edwin Jovanny López Cornejo, 41, Delaney Hall, Newark, died 1 August 2026

• What happened: A Salvadoran man with diabetes, high blood pressure and epileptic seizures, more than 20 years in the United States. ICE gives his age as 41; his family says 39. He told his mother that officers gave him medication “when they wanted, not when he needed them.” On 31 July 2026 he told her he could not feel half his face or his right hand. He collapsed the next day and died at University Hospital in Newark. The official cause remains pending.

Parady La, 46, Philadelphia, died 9 January 2026

• What happened: A Cambodian American man from Upper Darby, raised in the United States by parents who emigrated from Cambodia. ICE arrested him outside his home on 6 January 2026 and held him at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, where ICE says it “treated [him] for severe drug withdrawal”. Staff found him unresponsive on 7 January 2026 and gave him CPR and Narcan. Doctors at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital diagnosed anoxic brain injury, shock and multiple organ failure, and he died on 9 January 2026. His nephew, Michael La, says detainees held with him begged for water and received none. His brother calls the death “completely preventable”.
• Lawyers and advocates: Victoria Peña-Parr, a lawyer with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which has filed a records request. The family has retained the firm Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin and the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project for a possible wrongful-death suit.

Santos Banegas Reyes, 42, East Meadow, New York, died 18 September 2025

• What happened: A Honduran construction worker and father, arrested on 17 September 2025 and found unresponsive in his cell at the Nassau County Correctional Center less than 18 hours after he arrived. ICE gives a preliminary cause of “liver failure complicated by alcoholism”; his sister calls that “absurd”, and the family denies he drank heavily and seeks an independent autopsy.
• Lawyers and advocates: Oscar Michelen, representing the family with the Long Island Hispanic Bar Association.
• Unresolved: The Long Island Press spells his name Reyes-Banegas.

Carlos Josué Marchena-Marchena, 36, Winnfield, Louisiana, died September 2026

• What happened: A Costa Rican man with type 1 diabetes, held at Winn Correctional Center, which LaSalle Corrections runs with the Winn Parish Sheriff’s Office. Staff found him unresponsive on 18 September 2026, and he died in hospital. His sister, Franciny Marchena, says he missed insulin and meals and that no one checked his blood sugar. A doctor gave him pills for chest pain. His girlfriend, Ana Leon Castro, says: “All they gave him was a pill.” ICE says he “received proper medical care”. He was the first Costa Rican to die in ICE custody in Trump’s second term.

Royer Pérez-Jiménez, 19, Moore Haven, Florida, died 16 March 2026

• What happened: A Mexican teenager held at the Glades County Detention Center, the youngest person to die in ICE custody under the second Trump administration, by AP’s count. ICE reports a “presumed suicide”. ICE says Volusia County sheriff’s officers arrested him on 22 January 2026 on felony charges; the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office says he does not appear in its system.
• Advocates: Carly Pérez Fernández, communications director of Detention Watch Network, condemned the “abysmal conditions” of detention. Mexican consular officials from Miami visited the facility and requested documentation.

Denny Adán González, 33, Stewart Detention Center, Georgia (CoreCivic), died 28 April 2026

• What happened: A Cuban man, reportedly in solitary confinement when he died. DHS reports a suspected suicide; the official cause remains under investigation. Amílcar Valencia, executive director of El Refugio, counts him the 14th person to die at Stewart.
• Lawyers and advocates: Priyanka Bhatt, senior staff attorney at Project South; Samantha C. Hamilton, senior staff attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta; Amílcar Valencia of El Refugio; and Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director of Detention Watch Network.

Brayan Rayo-Garzón, 27, Rolla, Missouri, died 8 April 2025

• What happened: A Colombian man held at the Phelps County Jail while awaiting deportation, found unresponsive in his cell on 7 April 2025 with a sheet around his neck. He died the next day. ICE’s own death report shows he “was never given a mental health evaluation”. His body lay unclaimed for weeks. In May 2026 Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered his foreign ministry to deliver a note of protest to the United States over the death.
• Unresolved: St. Louis Public Radio spells his name Brayan Garzón-Rayo.

Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, 46, Moshannon Valley, Pennsylvania, died 14 December 2025

• What happened: An Eritrean green-card holder and former imam of the Islamic Center of Northeast Ohio. On 11 December 2025 he filed a habeas petition and an emergency motion in the Western District of Pennsylvania, alleging inadequate medical care; the judge denied the emergency motion that day. He died three days later. ICE says he complained of chest pains. The cause remains under investigation.

Daphy Michel, 31, Pittsburgh, died 2 March 2026 (after release)

• What happened: A Haitian asylum seeker with “untreated severe mental health issues”, in the medical examiner’s words. Washington County, Pennsylvania, jailed her from 3 September 2025 on charges of terroristic threats and harassment, which a court dismissed. ICE then arrested her in her cell and, on 27 February 2026, released her in Pittsburgh with an ankle monitor, in what her lawyer called “September clothes”. She spent about a day in a bus shelter and died on 2 March 2026. On 12 June 2026 the Allegheny County Medical Examiner ruled the cause hypothermia and the manner homicide, a ruling “not to be interpreted as a declaration of criminal guilt”. DHS says ICE “had NOTHING to do with this woman’s death.”
• Lawyers and advocates: Joseph Patrick Murphy, the family’s lawyer, who expects the family to sue ICE.

Further named deaths, for the record

• Abelardo Avellaneda-Delgado, 68, Mexico: Died on 5 May 2025 while TransCor, a CoreCivic subsidiary, moved him from the Lowndes County Jail to Stewart Detention Center, Georgia.
• Jesús Molina-Veya, 45, Mexico: Found unconscious in his cell at Stewart Detention Center; died on 7 June 2025. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia named both men in a letter of 23 September 2025.
• Nenko Stanev Gantchev, 56, Bulgaria: Died on 15 December 2025 at North Lake Processing Center, Baldwin, Michigan.
• Heber Sánchez Domínguez, 34, Mexico: Found hanging in his sleeping quarters at the Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility, Lovejoy, Georgia, on 14 January 2026, six days into federal custody after a 7 January 2026 arrest for a minor traffic violation.
• Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, Afghanistan: A refugee who had worked with US forces in Afghanistan; fell ill in a hold room at the ICE Dallas field office and died at Parkland Hospital on 14 March 2026, the day after his arrest.
• Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, 27, Cuba: Died after an apparent suicide at the Federal Detention Center in Miami on 12 April 2026.
• Mamuka Artmeladze, 43, Georgia: Died on 4 June 2026 after detention at Winn Correctional Center, Winnfield, Louisiana.
• Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, 45, Venezuela: Died on 13 July 2026 during a bus transfer from Irwin County Detention Center, Ocilla, to the Folkston ICE Processing Center, Georgia.
• Julián Curo-Churata, 47, Peru: Moved from Richwood Correctional Center, Louisiana, to Ochsner LSU Health Monroe Medical Center, where he died on 29 September 2026.

Marimar Martinez, Chicago, 4 October 2025

• Who: A US citizen and Montessori teaching aide in Chicago.
• What happened: Border Patrol agent Charles Exum shot her five times in Brighton Park during Operation Midway Blitz. Federal prosecutors charged her, alleging she rammed agents’ vehicle; on 20 November 2025 US District Judge Georgia Alexakis dismissed the case with prejudice at the Justice Department’s request. A reconstruction by Bauer Forensics, the plaintiffs’ expert, alleges that Exum fired from behind her car. DHS says it placed Exum on administrative leave.
• Legal action: On 5 October 2026 she sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act in federal court in Chicago, alleging negligence, battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and false arrest and false imprisonment.
• Lawyers and advocates: Christopher Parente, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago and Miami, and Michael Gallagher.

George Retes, Camarillo, California, 10 July 2025

• Who: A US citizen and Iraq combat veteran working as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo.
• What happened: Driving to work, he reached an ICE roadblock outside the farm and told agents he was a citizen. Agents broke his driver’s-side window and pepper-sprayed him; one agent knelt on his neck and another on his back, and they zip-tied his hands behind his back. They held him “for over 72 hours without charges, a hearing, or access to an attorney”, in the words of the Institute for Justice, and placed him on suicide watch in an isolated cell on the second day. Agents allowed him no phone call, and he missed his daughter’s third birthday. No one charged him with a crime.
• Legal action: Retes v. United States, No. 2:26-cv-01761 (C.D. Cal.), filed 18 February 2026.
• Lawyers and advocates: Patrick Jaicomo, Anya Bidwell, and Marie Miller, Institute for Justice; local counsel Anna M. Barvir and Joshua Robert Dale, Michel & Associates.

Leonardo Garcia Venegas, Baldwin County, Alabama, May and June 2025

• Who: A US-born concrete worker in Baldwin County, also known as Leo Garcia Venegas.
• What happened: In May 2025, during a raid on a construction site, agents forced him to the ground while he repeatedly said he was a citizen; a coworker’s video captured it. Less than a month later, at another site, agents told him his valid Alabama REAL ID was fake and held him again. In May 2026 he said agents had held him a third time.
• Legal action: Venegas v. Homan, No. 1:25-cv-00397 (S.D. Ala.), a class action filed 30 September 2025. On 2 September 2026 Chief Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock, a Trump appointee, ruled from the bench that the suit could proceed. On 21 September 2026 he issued a temporary stay barring the challenged policies behind warrantless immigration raids on private construction sites.
• Lawyers and advocates: Jared McClain, Jaba Tsitsuashvili, and Joshua Windham, Institute for Justice.

Brian Morales Garcia, 25, deported April 2026

• What happened: A US citizen born in Denver, Colorado, who also holds Mexican citizenship. Police stopped the vehicle he was riding in near Fredericksburg, Texas, and the officers called ICE, which held him for several days and deported him to Mexico on 7 April 2026. The Justice Department let him re-enter on 30 August 2026 while his suit over his detention and deportation proceeds. DHS disputes his account and accuses him of entering the country illegally.
• Lawyers and advocates: Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.
• Unresolved: The length of his detention (the Texas Tribune reports five days, with dates that conflict) and whether he had access to a lawyer.

Jeury Concepcion, the Bronx, 6 May 2026

• What happened: Masked ICE agents followed the New York-born man as he walked to a haircut in the Norwood section of the Bronx, forced him onto the sidewalk, and handcuffed him without asking for identification. He needed stitches for a head wound. DHS said he matched a target’s description and became “combative and refused to identify himself”.
• Investigation: On 8 May 2026 Representative Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, asked DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to investigate.
• Court finding: On 6 October 2026 Judge Gary R. Brown (E.D.N.Y.), a Trump appointee, ruling on the habeas petition of Angel Jesus Almonte, arrested in the same operation, found both arrests illegal and called Concepcion’s arrest “extremely violent”. He found that ICE prepared Almonte’s arrest warrant after the arrest, described agents’ testimony as “evasive and apparently perjurious”, and wrote: “ICE agents falsified official records trying to conceal their illegal actions, which included significant injury to a U.S. citizen.”

Andrea Velez, Los Angeles, 24 June 2025

• What happened: As her mother and sister dropped her at work in downtown Los Angeles, a plainclothes agent grabbed her and slammed her to the ground. She showed her driver’s licence and health insurance card, yet officers booked her into jail and held her two days, 24 hours of them without water. Prosecutors charged her with assaulting a federal officer; the Justice Department dismissed the case without prejudice.

Willy Wender Aceituno, Charlotte, North Carolina, 15 November 2025

• What happened: Armed, masked agents stopped the US citizen in a restaurant car park as he bought food before work, confirmed his citizenship, and left. Minutes later they returned, shattered his car window, pulled him to the ground, and handcuffed him. They drove him, bleeding, around Charlotte in an unmarked SUV with other men who appeared Latino, then released him more than two miles from his car without explanation, medical help, or transport.
• Legal action: Federal Tort Claims Act claims filed 3 March 2026 against CBP, Border Patrol, ICE, and other DHS agencies; he is one of five plaintiffs in a class action against warrantless immigration arrests in North Carolina.
• Lawyers and advocates: Michele Delgado (ACLU of North Carolina), Jake Sussman (Southern Coalition for Social Justice), and Tin Fulton Walker & Owen.

Three US-citizen children deported to Honduras, April 2025

• What happened: ICE detained a two-year-old US citizen, identified in court as V.M.L., with her mother and sister at a routine check-in in New Orleans and deported them to Honduras before a court could rule on the family’s habeas petition. On 25 April 2025 Judge Terry Doughty (W.D. La.), a Trump appointee, wrote of a “strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process”. The Government said the mother asked to take the child with her. In a separate case the same week, ICE deported a four-year-old citizen with metastatic cancer, denied access to his medication, and his seven-year-old citizen sister with their mother.
• Lawyers and advocates: The ACLU; Gracie Willis, National Immigration Project.
• Unresolved: Later outcomes not found.

Clergy shot with pepper rounds

• Rev. David Black, Broadview, Illinois, 19 September 2025: One of three agents on the roof of the Broadview ICE facility shot the minister of First Presbyterian Church in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighbourhood in the head with a pepper ball; video shows him falling. He joined an ACLU suit alleging the Government suppressed protesters’ First Amendment rights.
• Rev. Jorge Bautista, Alameda, California, 23 October 2025: At a prayer vigil at the entrance to Coast Guard Island, a masked agent fired a pepper round into the chin of the pastor of College Heights Church, a United Church of Christ congregation in San Mateo, from a few feet away, after he called out “We come in peace!”. He received emergency-room treatment and went home that afternoon.

A judge finds the force “shocks the conscience”

• Ruling: In an order of 7 November 2025, Judge Sara Ellis (N.D. Ill.), after reviewing hundreds of hours of video, found that agents’ force against protesters and journalists in Chicago “shocks the conscience”. She found that Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander leading the Chicago operation, admitted he lied about whether a rock hit him before he deployed tear gas in Little Village. Her preliminary injunction barred riot-control weapons against journalists and protesters except in narrow circumstances, and required agents to wear visible identification and to activate body cameras.
• Since: The Justice Department appealed on 10 November 2025, and on 19 November 2025 a Seventh Circuit panel stayed the injunction as “overbroad”. The plaintiffs then moved to dismiss the case to keep the appeals courts from expanding the Government’s powers, and in January 2026 Ellis granted a voluntary dismissal without prejudice.

More citizens on the record

• Daniel Montenegro: Officers tackled the day-labourer advocate while he filmed a raid at a Van Nuys, California, Home Depot in mid-2025, injuring his back. Gregory Bovino then posted his name and photo, accusing him and three others of using tyre spikes to disable vehicles. Montenegro says he never saw such devices; no one charged him.
• Darren Eichler: Agents detained the cemetery worker and three colleagues, all US citizens, at Concordia Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, on 7 October 2025, and hit them with pepper balls and pepper spray. Agents released all four without charges.
• Julio Noriega: ICE officers arrested the Chicago-born citizen in Berwyn, Illinois, on 31 January 2025 without a judicial warrant, drove him around for more than an hour, and held him handcuffed at the Broadview processing centre. They released him about 10 hours after his arrest without paperwork.
• Ras Baraka: Federal agents arrested the Mayor of Newark outside the Delaney Hall detention centre on 9 May 2025. Prosecutors under Alina Habba, the acting US Attorney for New Jersey, dropped the trespass charge 10 days later, and on 21 May 2025 US Magistrate Judge André Espinosa dismissed it, saying the speed of the reversal “suggests a worrying misstep by your office.”

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

• What happened: A Salvadoran man living in Maryland with his US-citizen wife and child. A 2019 court order barred his deportation to El Salvador because of a “well-founded fear” of gang persecution. ICE arrested him in March 2025 and sent him to CECOT, El Salvador’s mega-prison, in what ICE admitted was an “administrative error”. On 10 April 2025 the Supreme Court held that the district court’s order “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.”
• Since: Federal prosecutors indicted him in June 2025 on human smuggling charges in Tennessee and returned him to the United States to face them. ICE detained him from August 2025 until 11 December 2025, when US District Judge Paula Xinis (D. Md.) ordered his release, writing: “No such order of removal exists for Abrego Garcia.” On 17 February 2026 she barred ICE from detaining him again. On 22 May 2026 Judge Waverly Crenshaw (M.D. Tenn.) dismissed the smuggling charges as vindictive prosecution. The Government has proposed removing him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, or Liberia; Costa Rica has offered to accept him as a refugee, and in June 2026 DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin signalled the Government may accept that option.
• Lawyers and advocates: Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg.

Rümeysa Öztürk

• What happened: ICE agents seized the Turkish Tufts University doctoral student on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, on 25 March 2025 and moved her through Vermont to a detention centre in Basile, Louisiana. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed to an op-ed she co-wrote; a leaked State Department review found no connection to Hamas. On 9 May 2025 US District Judge William Sessions (D. Vt.) ordered her immediate release after 45 days, finding “absolutely no evidence that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence.”
• Since: She completed her PhD in child studies and human development in February 2026. In April 2026 her lawyers and the Government reached a settlement, and the Government moved to dismiss her remaining cases. She is returning to Turkey “on my own timeline”.
• Legal action: Ozturk v. Hyde, No. 2:25-cv-00374 (D. Vt.).
• Lawyers and advocates: Jessie Rossman and Adriana Lafaille (ACLU of Massachusetts); Esha Bhandari, Brian Hauss, and Brett Max Kaufman (ACLU); Lia Ernst (ACLU of Vermont); CUNY CLEAR; Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel.

Mahmoud Khalil

• What happened: Plainclothes DHS agents arrested the Palestinian Columbia graduate, a lawful permanent resident, at his university apartment on 8 March 2025 and moved him to immigration detention in Louisiana. ICE held him 104 days before US District Judge Michael Farbiarz (D.N.J.) ordered his release on 20 June 2025.
• Since: On 15 January 2026 a Third Circuit panel ruled 2-1 that the district court lacked jurisdiction; the full court then voted 6-5 against rehearing. The Third Circuit stayed its mandate while he seeks Supreme Court review.
• Supreme Court: His lawyers filed a petition for certiorari on 19 October 2026.
• Lawyers and advocates: Baher Azmy, Samah Sisay, and Diala Shamas (Center for Constitutional Rights); Brett Max Kaufman (ACLU); NYCLU; ACLU of New Jersey; CUNY CLEAR; Washington Square Legal Services; Dratel & Lewis; Van Der Hout LLP.

Mohsen Mahdawi and Badar Khan Suri

• Mahdawi: ICE arrested the Columbia University student on 14 April 2025 at his own citizenship interview in Colchester, Vermont; his lawyers say the Government targeted him for his pro-Palestinian advocacy. US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford (D. Vt.) freed him on bail on 30 April 2025. In June 2026 Immigration Judge Angela Munson ordered him removed to Jordan, and he has appealed. On 21 July 2026 the Second Circuit ruled that the district court lacked jurisdiction to release him; that decision has not yet taken effect.
• Khan Suri: Agents arrested the Indian scholar at Georgetown outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on 17 March 2025 and held him 58 days in Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas before US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles (E.D. Va.) ordered his release on 14 May 2025.
• Lawyers and advocates: For Mahdawi: Luna Droubi (Beldock Levine & Hoffman); Cyrus Mehta and David Isaacson (Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners); Andrew Delaney (Martin Delaney & Ricci Law Group); Michael Tan (ACLU). For Khan Suri: Sophia Gregg, ACLU of Virginia.

Andry José Hernández Romero and the men sent to CECOT

• Hernández Romero: A gay Venezuelan makeup artist who entered at the San Diego border for a scheduled appointment and passed an initial credible fear interview. The Government sent him to CECOT in March 2025 under the Alien Enemies Act, citing tattoos of crowns reading “mom” and “dad” as proof of Tren de Aragua membership. He has no criminal record. He says he spent 125 days in CECOT and describes beatings and sexual abuse by guards.
• The flights: On 15 March 2025 three planes left for El Salvador despite an order from Chief Judge James Boasberg (D.D.C.) to turn them around. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador reported 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans aboard. On 16 April 2025 Boasberg found probable cause to hold the Government in criminal contempt. On 18 July 2025 all 252 Venezuelans held in CECOT went to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange for 10 US citizens.
• Contempt inquiry: A D.C. Circuit panel vacated the probable-cause finding on 8 August 2025; the full court declined rehearing in November 2025 but let Boasberg continue his inquiry. On 14 April 2026 a second panel ordered him, 2-1, to end it. The full D.C. Circuit granted rehearing in June 2026 and heard argument on 29 September 2026; it has not yet ruled.
• Lawyers and advocates: Lindsay Toczylowski and Melissa Shepherd (Immigrant Defenders Law Center); Lee Gelernt (ACLU); Democracy Forward.

Men deported to South Sudan and Eswatini

• South Sudan: On 20 May 2025 the Government flew eight men towards South Sudan; only one came from there, and the others came from countries including Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, and Vietnam. On 21 May 2025 US District Judge Brian Murphy (D. Mass.) found the removals violated his order. The Government held the men in a converted shipping container at a naval base in Djibouti until the Supreme Court, on 23 June 2025, stayed Murphy’s broader ruling. The men reached South Sudan on 5 July 2025. Jesus Muñoz-Gutierrez, a Mexican, reached home only in September 2025.
• Eswatini: In mid-July 2025 the United States sent five men, from Jamaica, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and Yemen, to Eswatini, which held them without charge in the Matsapha Correctional Complex although their lawyers say they had completed their US sentences. Ten more men followed in October 2025. Roberto Mosquera del Peral, a Cuban, began a hunger strike in mid-October 2025; his lawyer, Alma David, said: “My client is arbitrarily detained, and now his life is on the line.”
• Lawyers and advocates: Trina Realmuto (National Immigration Litigation Alliance); Tin Thanh Nguyen and Alma David; the Legal Aid Society; Amnesty International.

Alligator Alcatraz, Florida Everglades

• Inspector General: The DHS Office of Inspector General’s report OIG-26-22 (September 2026), from an unannounced inspection of the Florida-run camp on 21 January 2026, found that between 17 July 2025 and 18 January 2026 staff held 79 detainees in metal enclosures of about 18 square feet, which staff called “calming areas”, for periods from several minutes to nearly two hours. The report says the enclosures “may have been used as a disciplinary tool” and that the practice “does not meet standards for humane treatment”. Each detainee had 28 square feet of living space, against the 75 required for dormitory housing. Legal-call phones did not work, some detainees had no law library, and showers, available three times a week, were bug-infested.
• Court: On 27 March 2026 Judge Sheri Polster Chappell (M.D. Fla.) issued a preliminary injunction requiring “timely, free, confidential, unmonitored, unrecorded outgoing legal calls” and at least one working telephone for every 25 detainees. In January 2026 former detainees had testified that, with no pen or paper, they wrote lawyers’ numbers on beds or walls with soap. Florida closed the camp on 25 June 2026.
• Lawyers and advocates: Eunice Cho, ACLU.

Broadview, Illinois

• Court: In Moreno Gonzalez v. Noem, No. 1:25-cv-13323 (N.D. Ill.), US District Judge Robert Gettleman said from the bench on 4 November 2025 that the processing centre “has really become a prison” and called its sleeping conditions “unnecessarily cruel”. On 5 November 2025 he issued a temporary restraining order requiring at least three full meals a day, water with each meal and on request, clean bedding mats, toiletries, showers at least every other day, clean holding rooms, and free, private phone access to lawyers.
• Lawyers and advocates: Alexa Van Brunt (MacArthur Justice Center); Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU-Illinois; Eimer Stahl LLP.

26 Federal Plaza, New York

• Court: In Barco Mercado v. Mullin (filed as Barco Mercado v. Noem), No. 25-cv-6568 (S.D.N.Y.), US District Judge Lewis Kaplan granted a preliminary injunction in September 2025 that capped crowding in the holding rooms, most of them on the tenth floor. After a bench trial in May 2026 found that ICE repeatedly violated it, he issued a permanent injunction on 24 September 2026 requiring capacity limits, sanitation, meals, medical care, and free, confidential attorney calls within an hour of arrival.
• Lawyers and advocates: Carmen Iguina González (ACLU); Molly Biklen (NYCLU); Harold Solis (Make the Road New York); Heather Gregorio (Wang Hecker LLP).