Crime & Justice · Sep 29, 2026ICE Watch: His mom was detained by ICE. Two months later, he died by suicide

ICE Watch & Accountability · Daily Update · September 29, 2026

Where These Stories Happened

1. Springfield, Ohio; 2. Oregon, New York; 3. Taylor County, Texas

Pins mark the town or city named in each report, not an exact address. Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors. Street photo: Nyttend, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Detention & Deaths

His mom was detained by ICE. Two months later, he died by suicide

Click here to listen to this article – Share via See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred – Samuel Gonzalez Terrones, 21, died by suicide two months after ICE detained his mother. – Samuel had been diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia. His family says he grew increasingly despondent as his mother remained in custody.^[1]

Federal judge orders immediate release of Massachusetts detainee, accuses ICE of repeated misrepresentations

A federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Eleandro Almeida De Souza, finding that immigration authorities failed to prove he was a flight risk.

The court had already directed his release in a docket order so his detention would not continue while the written decision was prepared. De Souza entered the United States in September 2019 and was released on an order of recognizance. ICE took him into custody around Aug. 14, 2026.^[2]

Courts & Lawsuits

Habeas corpus petition frees South Florida man after 8 months in ICE detention, federal judge rules

A South Florida man is back with his wife after spending eight months in immigration detention, following a federal judge's order that he be immediately released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Cellphone video captured the emotional moment 51-year-old Marlon Cervelo reunited with his wife, Judith Castellanos, for the first time in eight months. "I feel so happy," Castellanos said. Cervelo was detained in Florida but ultimately released in Texas.^[3]

Court officials say they didn't know ICE agents were at Otero County courthouse; county has yet to respond

ALAMOGORDO — Officials with the Twelfth Judicial District say they had no advance knowledge that federal immigration agents were on courthouse grounds on Sept. 22, when masked men who identified themselves as ICE agents detained a man moments after a judge dismissed the criminal case against him.

The man's name has not been released. Audrey Hukari, chief clerk and court executive officer for the Twelfth Judicial District and Magistrate Courts, responded to a request for comment sent Sunday to District Judge Angie Schneider and the court clerk's office.^[4]

Hukari said the court "can not comment on specific cases," but that court staff "were not aware of federal immigration agents being present on September 22nd."
— as reported by 2nd Life Media Alamogordo Town News

Raids & Arrests

ICE Launches New 'Public Safety Surge' Just Days After Agents Reportedly Left US Citizen Bloodied

DHS has not said how many agents will be deployed or when the operation will end, while critics point to recent encounters involving civilians and migrants The Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday that ICE had launched a 'nationwide public safety surge' across 11 states and Washington, DC.

The announcement followed an encounter in a Chicago suburb in which immigration agents reportedly mistook a US citizen for a fugitive and left him injured and bloodied beside a road. For context, local police and a resident who stopped to help described the Chicago incident, according to the account provided for this report. Illinois, where the encounter took place, is among the jurisdictions named in the new operation.^[5]

ICE detained this Austin mother's husband on his way to work. Their story is one of many.

In the last few months, Yesenia Santiago's biggest fear was to wake up and learn that her husband, Lucas, had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Her fear came true on Sept. 21, when she woke up to a text message from Lucas asking her to recover his van. When she went to get it, she saw coffee in the cupholders and a pack of cookies spilled on the floor.^[6]

“It looked like workers going to work, eating their morning breakfast, their morning coffee,” she recalled.
— as reported by KUT

Oversight & Policy

How Trump’s immigration crackdown harms children—including US citizens

This story was originally published by The 19th.

President Donald Trump has revived a policy change from his first term that gives immigration agents broad authority to deny green cards and visas to applicants who have received public benefits—or whose families have. The change to what’s known as the public charge rule took effect on Sept. 18. Trump’s first-term attempt to change the public charge rule was blocked by federal courts.^[7]

ICE deports Haitian pastor previously spared removal

First entered the US illegally in 2016, ordered to leave in 2018 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have deported Haitian Pastor Molis Augustave to Haiti after officials previously spared him from removal by taking him off a flight at the last minute.

The immigrant rights group We Are CASA announced Thursday that Augustave had been sent back after weeks of dispute over his status, FOX43 reported. The group said 19 days had passed between his arrest and his deportation. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rejected his application for permanent residency, known as a green card, last week.^[8]

Primary Records

Check the government’s own records directly:

• ICE detainee death reporting (ICE’s own notices)
• DHS Office of Inspector General reports
• ICE online detainee locator

References

1. Los Angeles Times. His mom was detained by ICE. Two months later, he died by suicide. ↩
2. Fall River Reporter. Federal judge orders immediate release of Massachusetts detainee, accuses ICE of repeated misrepresentations. ↩
3. CBS News. Habeas corpus petition frees South Florida man after 8 months in ICE detention, federal judge rules. ↩
4. 2nd Life Media Alamogordo Town News. Court officials say they didn't know ICE agents were at Otero County courthouse; county has yet to respond. ↩
5. International Business Times UK. ICE Launches New 'Public Safety Surge' Just Days After Agents Reportedly Left US Citizen Bloodied. ↩
6. KUT. ICE detained this Austin mother's husband on his way to work. Their story is one of many.. ↩
7. dailykos.com. How Trump’s immigration crackdown harms children—including US citizens. ↩
8. christianpost.com. ICE deports Haitian pastor previously spared removal. ↩

Methodology: ICE Watch & Accountability is compiled daily by scripts/ice_watch.py from named news reports published in the previous 36 hours. Passages in bold and in quotation blocks are verbatim from the cited report; nothing is paraphrased or generated by AI. Stories are grouped by keyword into sections, and a story already covered on Kemetic Minds in the past three days is skipped.

Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk

Verified Newsroom

Primary-sourced investigative intelligence on civil rights, voting rights, federal policy, and consumer protection. Sourced from primary legal filings, government statistics, and direct field reporting.

Editorial Standards & Policy → Join Telegram Alerts