Deportation

You're walking to Sunday mass in your habit, rosary in hand, thinking about the day's readings — and two armed men stop you on the street. That's what happened to Sister Leticia Ugboaja on June 28, 2026, outside Our Lady of Sorrows church in McAllen, Texas. She had legal protection from deportation. ICE arrested her anyway.

Connor Read walked into a green card interview in Tampa on June 3, 2026 — and never walked out. The 29-year-old, who has lived in the US since he was nine years old, was arrested by four ICE agents in the interview room and is now held in a detention center in Louisiana. His wife and twin toddlers are waiting at home.

You are driving, and ICE agents pull you over — then open fire. This month it happened three times, and three people are dead. Now immigrants across the country are asking the same question: what can ICE agents actually do during a traffic stop, and what happens when they go too far?

You are running errands on Long Island when ICE agents are quietly running your license plate in the parking lot. Federal records now show the agency arrested more than 16,000 people in just 11 days this July — and the pace is still climbing. Here is what is happening and what you can do to protect yourself.

What happens when federal immigration agents approach someone who has a valid tourist visa? For Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, a 28-year-old from Mexico, the answer ended in his death. He ran from ICE officers at a Florida gas station on July 14, 2026, sprinted into traffic, and was struck by a semi-truck.

The federal government called them violent criminals who tried to run down immigration agents with their cars. DHS posted their names and faces on social media. Then, one by one, the cases fell apart. A Guardian review of 26 DHS-promoted "vehicle attack" cases found only one assault conviction — and a clear pattern of accusations that collapsed under basic scrutiny.

ICE agents are reportedly arresting the relatives who show up to collect migrant children from federal shelters — lawyers say the children are being used as bait. At the same time, deportation orders in New York City more than doubled in June 2026, hitting a record high nationwide. These two stories together signal a sharp escalation in enforcement that touches families, sponsors, and even green card holders.

What if ICE arrests you on your way to visit your mother — and you have a green card? That is exactly what happened to Salah Sarsour, a Milwaukee mosque president and permanent resident of nearly three decades. He spent more than 80 days in federal immigration detention before a federal judge ordered his release, and the government is still trying to deport him.

You're driving to work on a Tuesday morning when police pull you over — and then hand you to ICE. That scenario is no longer rare. Federal immigration agents arrested 43,138 people in June 2026, the highest monthly total since President Trump took office, and the arrests are happening quietly: at jobs, outside homes, and during routine traffic stops.

A man detonated an incendiary device at the entrance of 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan on Monday morning, injuring four people. That building is where thousands of immigrants go every week for immigration court hearings and USCIS appointments. As of Monday afternoon, it was unclear whether those proceedings would continue as scheduled.

ICE officers fatally shot two men during traffic stops — six days apart — with no body-camera footage of either incident. Now, border czar Tom Homan says ICE officers will be required to wear body cameras during vehicle stops. For immigrants across the US, the back-to-back killings have raised urgent questions about what rights you have if ICE pulls you over.

A court created in 1996 sat completely empty for 30 years — no petitions, no hearings, nothing. That changed this week. The Trump administration just filed the first-ever case in the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, and the judge already has questions about whether the government's case holds up.

You are driving to work before sunrise when an unmarked SUV begins following your car. That is exactly what happened to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Houston contractor and father, on July 7, 2026 — and he did not survive the encounter. Federal ICE agents shot and killed him in Houston's Magnolia Park neighborhood, then acknowledged he was not the person they were looking for.

You are driving to work, and suddenly federal agents are following your car. That is exactly what happened to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 8, 2026 — and he did not survive the stop. Six days later, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot dead at an intersection in Biddeford, Maine, just outside the laundromat where he took his three-year-old daughter. Neither man was the intended target of the operation.

An ICE officer fatally shot 25-year-old Colombian immigrant Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13, 2026. It was not an isolated incident — within the same week, another ICE officer killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, and two more ICE-related deaths followed. Now Democratic lawmakers are demanding investigations into how ICE screens and trains its officers.