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WASHINGTON — Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Unwell.) known as for the Division of Homeland Safety to return a California lady with DACA who was not too long ago deported a day after her inexperienced card interview.
DACA, or Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals, is the Obama-era program that since 2012 has shielded sure immigrants delivered to the U.S. as youngsters from deportation and allowed them to work legally.
Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez lived in California for 27 years earlier than being detained at her inexperienced card interview final month and deported inside 24 hours, regardless of having energetic DACA safety and no prison historical past. Her story was first reported by the Sacramento Bee.
On a name from Mexico on Thursday with reporters, Estrada Juarez, 42, mentioned DACA was supposed to guard individuals like her who work arduous and observe the principles.
“I did all the pieces I may to construct a secure life and provides my daughter the alternatives that I by no means had,” she mentioned. “However about two weeks in the past, all the pieces modified. I used to be wrongfully deported. In a single second, almost 30 years of my life have been taken away from me — my residence, my work, my group.”
Homeland Safety didn’t reply to a request for remark about Estrada’s case.
The detention and deportation of DACA recipients is in stark distinction to earlier administrations, together with the primary Trump administration, and years of bipartisan assist for immigrants delivered to the U.S. as youngsters. For admission into this system, they need to cross background checks and meet sure academic or work necessities.
Trump has given blended alerts on DACA recipients, often called “Dreamers.” In his first time period, he tried unsuccessfully to close down this system. In December 2024 on “Meet the Press” he mentioned that “I would like to have the ability to work one thing out” on their behalf, however supplied no specifics and the administration has completed nothing to supply them further safety.
This system’s destiny has since remained embroiled in litigation.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) mentioned Homeland Safety supplied conflicting knowledge to members of Congress about what number of DACA recipients have been detained and deported since Trump returned to the White Home.
In a Jan. 12 letter to Garcia, then-Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned that between Jan. 1 and Sept. 28 of 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested 270 DACA recipients. The letter didn’t say what number of of these 270 have been deported.
Of these, 130 had prison convictions, 120 had pending prison expenses and 14 have been in violation of immigration regulation, she wrote. That provides as much as 264, not 270.
“Please notice DACA is a type of prosecutorial discretion that doesn’t confer lawful standing,” wrote Noem, who was fired Thursday.
However in a letter to Durbin and different senators final month, Noem supplied smaller numbers, although she addressed an extended time interval, Jan. 1 to Nov. 19, 2025. She mentioned the company had arrested 261 DACA recipients and deported 86.
She mentioned that of these arrested, 241 had prison histories, although she didn’t specify if that meant convictions or pending expenses.
On Wednesday, Garcia wrote again to Noem, saying, “The discrepancies between your two responses reveal gross incompetency or intentional misdirection.”
The conflicting knowledge from Noem got here after 95 members of Congress in September demanded solutions in regards to the concentrating on of DACA recipients. They wrote that letter after Tricia McLaughlin, the previous Homeland Safety public affairs secretary, mentioned DACA recipients “will not be mechanically shielded from deportation.”
The lawmakers cited the case of a deaf and non-verbal DACA recipient with no prison historical past who was detained final yr amid the immigration raids in Los Angeles. He was later launched.
As of June 2025, there have been greater than 515,000 DACA recipients within the U.S., a lower because the program’s peak of almost 800,000. With 144,000, California has probably the most of any state, in response to federal knowledge.
Estrada Juarez didn’t take questions through the name Thurday with reporters, however Ivonne Rodriguez, press director for immigration reform on the advocacy group FWD.us, defined to The Occasions what occurred.
Round 11 a.m. on Feb. 18, Estrada Juarez arrived along with her daughter Damaris Bello, a 22-year-old U.S. citizen, on the John E. Moss Federal Constructing in Sacramento for an interview as a part of the method to acquire authorized everlasting residency, or a inexperienced card.
On the courthouse, immigration brokers took Estrada Juarez’s fingerprints and requested her to use a fingerprint to a type saying she had agreed to be deported, Rodriguez mentioned. She refused.
An officer advised Estrada Juarez “In case you don’t signal, I’ll make you signal.” The officer grabbed her hand and compelled her to signal utilizing her fingerprint, Rodriguez mentioned.
Rodriguez mentioned federal brokers cited a deportation order from 1998 throughout Estrada Juarez’s detention final month on the courthouse. However being a DACA recipient ought to imply that such orders will not be acted upon whereas the protected standing is energetic, as long as the individual stays out of prison bother.
“She stored stating she had energetic DACA all through your complete time and they didn’t care,” Rodriguez mentioned.
By 8 a.m. the following morning, Estrada Juarez had been dropped off by bus in Tijuana, Rodriguez mentioned.
Estrada Juarez is amongst many immigrants arrested for deportation at courthouses since final yr, a apply that breaks from longstanding former process.
Throughout a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to Tuesday on oversight of Homeland Safety, Durbin requested Noem about Estrada Juarez and the opposite deported DACA recipients.
“Madam secretary, why have you ever deported dozens of DACA holders who needed to adjust to a prison background examine to be eligible for DACA?” Durbin requested.
“Sir, we observe all legal guidelines as relevant to the Division of Homeland Safety,” Noem replied earlier than Durbin reduce her off.
“Why did you deport them?” he repeated.
Noem mentioned she wasn’t aware of the small print of Estrada Juarez’s case however would look into it.
On the decision Thursday with Estrada Juarez, Sen. Padilla (D-Calif.) mentioned he met her daughter this week. He and different Democrats known as for Congress to cross laws that will completely shield DACA recipients from deportation.
“DACA recipients did all the pieces proper and adopted all of the directions specified by this system,” he mentioned. “They took america authorities at its phrase, they usually’ve stored their finish of the deal. However now we all know that Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are breaking the federal government’s promise.”
Estrada Juarez mentioned justice in her case would imply being allowed to return to the U.S.
“I’m not asking for a particular remedy,” she mentioned. “I’m asking for what is true. My deportation was mistaken, and my household mustn’t must be torn aside. I simply need to change to go residence and maintain my daughter once more.”
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