Judge orders Trump officials to return Daca recipient deported to Mexico

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) to the US, ruling that her deportation to Mexico last month was a “flagrant violation” of the legal protections afforded to immigrants who arrived in the country as children.

Judge Dena Coggins said in her Monday ruling the administration must return Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, a Daca recipient, to the US within seven days. She was arrested on 18 February in Sacramento during her green-card appointment, and was deported to Mexico the next day.

“Less than 24 hours after the petitioner’s good-faith appearance to pursue lawful permanent resident status in this country”, Coggins wrote, “she was removed to a nation where she had not lived in over 27 years, pursuant to an order purportedly entered against her when she was 15 years old.”

Estrada Juarez said in a statement that she was “overwhelmed with relief and hope after learning about the court’s decision”.

She said: “Being separated from my daughter and my home has been incredibly painful. I followed the rules and trusted the process, and I just want to return to my family and rebuild my life. This decision gives me hope that I will be able to come home soon.”

Her daughter, Damaris Bello, said the “past weeks without my mom have been devastating. Nothing has felt the same without her. We are so grateful that the court recognized what was done to her was wrong.”

While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that she was subject to a 1998 removal order, Estrada Juarez has denied receiving an order of removal.

“This is yet another ruling from a Biden-appointed activist judge,” a DHS spokesperson said. The department said Estrada Juarez “received full due process and was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 1998. She was removed from the US shortly after.”

According to a statement from FWD.us, an immigrant advocacy organization assisting her, this order was “never finalized because it lacked the required supervisory approval”.

Estrada Juarez, who arrived in the US as a teenager in 1998 and worked multiple jobs before becoming a regional manager, had complied with Daca’s requirements for years, according to an interview with the Cut. She and her 22-year-old daughter attended the green-card appointment, where immigration agents arrested Estrada Juarez in front of her daughter, according to the magazine.

Estrada Juarez filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration earlier this month, arguing that she “could not legally be removed from the United States while in Daca status”.

Former DHS secretary Kristi Noem; acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Todd Lyons; US attorney general, Pam Bondi; and Sergio Albarran, acting field director of the San Francisco ICE office, were named in the lawsuit.

“This case highlights serious failures in the government’s haphazard and irresponsible attempts to remove individuals without following the law,” Estrada Juarez’s attorney, Stacy Tolchin, said. “We are focused on ensuring Maria’s safe return and preventing this from happening again.”