Holding ICE Accountable for Unlawfully Targeting Immigrant Survivors of Abuse, Exploitation, and Other Serious Crimes

Lupe A.

Lupe is a survivor of domestic violence. She lived in the U.S. for nearly thirty years—most recently in Los Angeles, California—raising four adult children and caring for three U.S. citizen grandchildren. In 2017, after suffering severe abuse and cooperating with police in her abuser’s successful prosecution, Lupe applied for a U visa. In 2022, she was granted deferred action and work authorization by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), valid through October 2026, based on her eligibility for relief under federal law. Despite her lawful status and pending U visa petition, ICE officers arrested Lupe outside her Los Angeles home in April 2025, to enforce a decades-old removal order she did not recall receiving. Her attorney immediately notified ICE of her legal status and sought to reopen her case and stay her removal. Nevertheless, Lupe was deported to Mexico the very next day.

Camila B.

Camila has lawful deferred action status. She has lived in Los Angeles, California, for the past seventeen years and has three U.S. citizen children two young adults, and one teenager. In 2021, Camila was knocked unconscious and hospitalized after an assault. She cooperated with police in apprehending the suspect, and in 2023, she applied for a U visa. In May 2025, USCIS determined her petition was bona fide and granted her deferred action status. On July 1, 2025, while Camila was working at her tamales business, unidentified agents apprehended her during DHS’s indiscriminate immigration raids across Los Angeles. She was held in custody at the B-18 ICE facility and later at Adelanto ICE Processing Center. Although an immigration judge released her on bond, ICE required her to wear an ankle monitor and now demands weekly location check-ins. Camila remains terrified of being detained by ICE again.

Paulo C.

Paulo has lived in and around Austin, Texas, for the last fifteen years. He is married and has four U.S. citizen children, ages three to twenty-one. His oldest child is his U.S. citizen step-daughter, whom he has raised since she was three years old. When his step-daughter was sexually assaulted at age thirteen, Paulo and his wife cooperated with police and prosecutors in the successful felony prosecution of the perpetrator. His wife petitioned for a U visa based on the incident and included Paulo as a derivative beneficiary. In April 2023, USCIS determined their application was bona fide and granted him deferred action status and work authorization. Although Paulo remains in deferred action status based on his pending U visa petition, ICE is currently imprisoning him at the South Texas ICE Processing Center. In July 2025, following a traffic stop, ICE took him into custody without probable cause and has since refused to release him or provide notice and an opportunity to be heard.

Kenia Jackeline Merlos

Ms. Merlos has lived in the U.S. for 22 years and resides in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and their elementary-aged U.S. citizen children: triplets and a younger child. Although she has authorized presence in the U.S. under deferred action status, ICE is currently imprisoning her at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. In June 2023, Ms. Merlos and her husband witnessed a man approach a truck near their home. When they confronted him, he threatened them with a gun. They were able to retreat and promptly reported the incident to police, fully cooperating with the investigation. Ms. Merlos applied for a U visa in March 2024; USCIS found her petition bona fide and granted her deferred action in December 2024. In June 2025, while visiting with family near the Canadian border, CBP arrested Ms. Merlos, her children, and her 71-year-old mother visiting from Honduras on a valid tourist visa. CBP held Ms. Merlos and her children captive and incommunicado for the next two weeks. CBP then transferred Mrs. Merlos to ICE custody in Tacoma, where she remains without notice or a hearing regarding the revocation of her deferred action status.

Luna E.

Luna is currently imprisoned by ICE at the California City Detention Facility, despite her approved deferred action status. She endured physical and sexual abuse from her father beginning at age twelve, and from another older man who impregnated her at age fifteen and who is the biological father of her oldest daughter. This man eventually moved to the U.S., and in 2005, Luna and her children, fleeing her father, joined him at his request. He forced her to work multiple jobs and surrender all her earnings, effectively holding her captive for years while continuing to be physically abusive. Luna was eventually able to escape. In 2023, she petitioned for a T visa based on the trafficking she endured. In February 2025, USCIS determined her petition was bona fide and issued an automatic stay of removal. Despite this, ICE continues to detain her without alleging any new facts justifying her continued detention.

Carmen F.

Carmen lived in the U.S. for three years until Defendants removed her and her eight-year-old son to their home country on or about July 31, 2025. Carmen has had a U visa petition pending since early 2025. While in the U.S., she endured increasingly abusive behavior from her husband. After a particularly violent incident, she called police and obtained a restraining order, which he soon violated. He was ultimately deported, and she was able to be free of him for a time. In June 2025, ICE detained Carmen at her ICE check-in, took custody of her son, and held them at ICE’s family detention center in Dilley, Texas, for nearly two months. Although her lawyer informed ICE of her pending U visa petition and requested release and a stay of removal, ICE removed her without seeking a determination from USCIS on her eligibility. Upon return, her abusive husband forced her to live with him and resumed his abuse. She is terrified every day.

Yessenia Ruano

Ms. Ruano has lived in the U.S. for fourteen years and worked as a teacher’s aide in Milwaukee, Wisconsin until June 2025, but who currently resides in El Salvador after being forced by Defendants to “self-deport.” She is a survivor of human trafficking and has had a pending T visa petition since February 2025. Her immigration lawyer filed an application for a stay of her removal. ICE denied the stay on March 6, 2025, and informed her immigration attorney that if she did not leave the country promptly, the agency would detain her at an upcoming June 2025 ICE check-in. ICE agents threatened to forcibly deport her without her ten-year-old twin U.S. citizen daughters. ICE did not request or obtain a determination from USCIS regarding Ms. Ruano’s prima facie eligibility for a T visa. To avoid being separated from her children, Ms. Ruano succumbed to the duress and left for El Salvador with them.

Daniel H. 

Daniel has lived in the U.S. for eighteen years and resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He has two U.S. citizen daughters, ages thirteen and fourteen. Daniel is currently imprisoned by ICE at the Rio Grande ICE Detention Center in Laredo, Texas, where he has been detained since August 2025. In 2009, Daniel and his father were violently attacked while confronting individuals attempting to break into their car—Daniel was stabbed in the neck and shoulder and suffered broken teeth, requiring emergency medical care. He cooperated with police, and the perpetrator pled guilty. In August 2025, ICE took Daniel into custody near his home after a notario—an unlicensed individual presenting as a legal professional—filed an incomplete U visa petition on his behalf. Although a qualified attorney has since filed a corrected and complete U visa petition, ICE has not released him or sought expedited determination of his eligibility for relief.