WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called for the Department of Homeland Security to return a California woman with DACA who was recently deported a day after her green card interview. <\/p>\n
DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is the Obama-era program that since 2012 has shielded certain immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allowed them to work legally. <\/p>\n
Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez lived in California for 27 years before being detained at her green card interview last month and deported within 24 hours, despite having active DACA protection and no criminal history. Her story was first reported by the Sacramento Bee<\/a>. <\/p>\n On a call from Mexico on Thursday with reporters, Estrada Juarez, 42, said DACA was supposed to protect people like her who work hard and follow the rules. <\/p>\n \u201cI did everything I could to build a stable life and give my daughter the opportunities that I never had,\u201d she said. \u201cBut about two weeks ago, everything changed. I was wrongfully deported. In a single moment, nearly 30 years of my life were taken away from me \u2014 my home, my work, my community.\u201d<\/p>\n Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment about Estrada\u2019s case. <\/p>\n The detention and deportation of DACA recipients is in stark contrast to previous administrations, including the first Trump administration, and years of bipartisan support for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. For admission into the program, they must pass background checks and meet certain educational or work requirements. <\/p>\n Trump has given mixed signals on DACA recipients, known as \u201cDreamers.\u201d In his first term, he tried unsuccessfully to shut down the program. In December 2024 on \u201cMeet the Press\u201d he said that \u201cI want to be able to work something out\u201d on their behalf, but offered no specifics and the administration has done nothing to offer them extra protection.<\/p>\n The program\u2019s fate has since remained embroiled in litigation. <\/p>\n Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said Homeland Security provided conflicting data to members of Congress about how many DACA recipients have been detained and deported since Trump returned to the White House. <\/p>\n In a Jan. 12 letter<\/a> to Garcia, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem<\/a> said that between Jan. 1 and Sept. 28 of 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested 270 DACA recipients. The letter did not say how many of those 270 were deported. <\/p>\n Of those, 130 had criminal convictions, 120 had pending criminal charges and 14 were in violation of immigration law, she wrote. That adds up to 264, not 270. <\/p>\n \u201cPlease note DACA is a form of prosecutorial discretion that does not confer lawful status,\u201d wrote Noem, who was fired Thursday.<\/p>\n But in a letter<\/a> to Durbin and other senators last month, Noem provided smaller numbers, though she addressed a longer time period, Jan. 1 to Nov. 19, 2025. She said the agency had arrested 261 DACA recipients and deported 86.<\/p>\n She said that of those arrested, 241 had criminal histories, though she did not specify if that meant convictions or pending charges.<\/p>\n On Wednesday<\/a>, Garcia wrote back to Noem, saying, \u201cThe discrepancies between your two responses demonstrate gross incompetency or intentional misdirection.\u201d <\/p>\n The conflicting data from Noem came after 95 members of Congress in September demanded answers<\/a> about the targeting of DACA recipients. They wrote that letter after Tricia McLaughlin, the former Homeland Security public affairs secretary, said DACA recipients \u201care not automatically protected from deportation.\u201d <\/p>\n The lawmakers cited the case of a deaf and non-verbal DACA recipient<\/a> with no criminal history who was detained last year amid the immigration raids in Los Angeles. He was later released. <\/p>\n As of June 2025, there were more than 515,000 DACA recipients in the U.S., a decrease since the program\u2019s peak of nearly 800,000. With 144,000, California has the most of any state, according to federal data. <\/p>\n Estrada Juarez did not take questions during the call Thurday with reporters, but Ivonne Rodriguez, press director for immigration reform at the advocacy group FWD.us, explained to The Times what happened. <\/p>\n Around 11 a.m. on Feb. 18, Estrada Juarez arrived with her daughter Damaris Bello, a 22-year-old U.S. citizen, at the John E. Moss Federal Building in Sacramento for an interview as part of the process to obtain legal permanent residency, or a green card. <\/p>\n At the courthouse, immigration agents took Estrada Juarez\u2019s fingerprints and asked her to apply a fingerprint to a form saying she had agreed to be deported, Rodriguez said. She refused. <\/p>\n An officer told Estrada Juarez \u201cIf you don\u2019t sign, I will make you sign.\u201d The officer grabbed her hand and forced her to sign using her fingerprint, Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n Rodriguez said federal agents cited a deportation order from 1998 during Estrada Juarez\u2019s detention last month at the courthouse. But being a DACA recipient should mean that such orders are not acted upon while the protected status is active, so long as the person stays out of criminal trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cShe kept stating she had active DACA throughout the entire time and they did not care,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n By 8 a.m. the next morning, Estrada Juarez had been dropped off by bus in Tijuana, Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n Estrada Juarez is among many immigrants arrested for deportation at courthouses<\/a> since last year, a practice that breaks from longstanding former procedure.<\/p>\n