A federal court is reviewing the case of Jessica Treviño Villegas, whose defense maintains that she was improperly expelled from the United States despite maintaining her permit under the DACA program, while organizations denounce an increase in deportations of beneficiaries of this immigration protection.
Activists, immigration lawyers and organizations defending migrant rights intensified pressure on the United States Government to allow the return of Jessica Treviño Villegas, a Mexican deported despite having current protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Treviño Villegas' defense presented a petition before the Federal Court of the Southern District of Texas to request her “immediate return,” arguing that her immigration authorization remained valid until April 2027 when she was deported in March of this year.
Jessica came to the United States when she was seven years old and built her life in Alamo, Texas. She is the mother of three American citizen children, ages 16, 14 and 13, who remain in that country after their mother's deportation. The organization La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), which is accompanying the case, maintains that the separation of the family occurred even though the Mexican woman met the conditions required by the DACA program, which she renewed periodically since she obtained the benefit.
Defense maintains that the cancellation of DACA is unfounded
Treviño Villegas' lawyers pointed out that, after being sent to Mexico, immigration authorities began a procedure to cancel her protection under DACA considering that she made an unauthorized trip outside the United States. However, the defense argues that his departure from the country was not voluntary, but rather a direct consequence of his arrest and deportation, which is why they consider that the argument used to withdraw his benefit lacks legal basis.
"No family should have to go through what we have gone through. I ask this Administration to stop separating families. Let me return home to my children," Treviño Villegas said in a statement released by the organization La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE).
For her part, the organization's president, Tania Chávez, stated that "Jessica did not leave the country of her own free will. She was violently detained and illegally deported. The same agency that manufactured this chaos in Jessica's life now threatens to cause even more damage by removing her DACA protections."
The case develops in a context of growing concern among immigrant defense organizations, which denounce an increase in immigration actions against beneficiaries of the program created during the administration of former President Barack Obama to protect people who arrived in the country as minors from deportation.
According to figures cited by activists, dozens of DACA beneficiaries have been detained and deported in recent months, while the program remains closed to new applicants and those who already have this protection must renew it every two years to maintain their immigration status.
