Overview
- Attorneys filed the lawsuit on March 11 in federal court seeking an emergency order to bring Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez back to the United States.
- Estrada Juarez was detained at a USCIS green card interview in Sacramento on Feb. 18 and removed to Mexico on Feb. 19 despite holding DACA protections, according to the complaint.
- The Department of Homeland Security says an immigration judge ordered her removal in 1998 and that ICE reinstated the order after what DHS calls an illegal reentry, leading to her Feb. 19 deportation.
- Her suit disputes DHS’s account, asserting she never received a removal order, that reinstatement requires an illegal reentry, and that her 2014 return was lawful under DACA advance parole.
- Members of Congress are pressing for answers as DHS has given differing tallies of DACA arrests and removals last year, including 270 arrests with 174 removals versus 261 arrests with 86 removals.