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By Mandy Taheri
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A district judge ordered the government to return Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez to the United States within seven days after granting her motion challenging her deportation.
In a statement following the order, Estrada Juarez said, “Being separated from my daughter and my home has been incredibly painful.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek on Tuesday, "This is yet another ruling from a [Joe] Biden-appointed activist judge. Maria De Jesus Estrada Juarez is an illegal alien from Mexico who received full due process and was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 1998."
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Why It Matters
Estrada Juarez has lived in the U.S. for 27 years, first arriving in 1998 without proper documentation. Later, in 2013, she was granted DACA protection to work and live in the U.S. According to court documents, her DACA status is valid until April 23, 2026, and her renewal petition is still pending.
In 2012, then-President Barack Obama introduced the DACA program, offering protections and work authorizations for millions of undocumented residents who came to the U.S. as minors. The program, which has about 533,000 active participants, has been in legal and political limbo for years as courts have weighed its validity.
President Donald Trump's first administration attempted to end the DACA program, but Trump also proposed extending protections for its recipients as part of broader immigration deals that included funding for a border wall and other policy changes.
What To Know
District Judge Dena M. Coggins said Estrada Juarez was “removed in flagrant violation of the regulatory protections afforded to her under DACA, and in violation of the constitutional protections afforded to her under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” in her March 23 order reviewed by Newsweek.
The order continued, “the court will grant petitioner’s motion for a temporary restraining order and order that respondents facilitate her immediate return to the United States.”
Prior to her removal to Mexico on February 19, she lived in Sacramento, California, with her 22-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen. Estrada Juarez was removed the day after she appeared before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for a hearing on her pending application for adjustment of status, according to court documents. She alleges this was the first time she was “made aware that she was subject to an order of removal,” per court documents.
On jurisdiction, Coggins wrote, "a noncitizen unlawfully removed from the United States under extreme circumstances may seek their return despite no longer being detained in the district in which they seek relief."
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What People Are Saying
Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez said in a statement following the order: “I am overwhelmed with relief and hope after learning about the court’s decision. 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.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Newsweek in a Tuesday email: “This is yet another ruling from a Biden-appointed activist judge. Maria De Jesus Estrada Juarez is an illegal alien from Mexico who received full due process and was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 1998. She was removed from the U.S. shortly after.
"ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] arrested her again on February 18, 2026, and her final order was reinstated. She was removed from the U.S. on February 19, 2026. DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country. Any illegal alien who is a DACA recipient may be subject to arrest and deportation for a number of reasons, including if they’ve committed a crime.”
Estrada Juarez’s daughter, Damaris Bello, said: “These 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. We are counting the days until she is back where she belongs.”
Estrada Juarez’s attorney Stacy Tolchin said: “The court recognized what we have argued from the beginning: Maria’s deportation was unlawful because DACA status protected her from being removed from the United States. This ruling will reunite her with her U.S. citizen daughter.”
FWD.us President Todd Schulte said in a press release: “We are thrilled for Maria and her family and deeply saddened that it ever came to this. This ruling confirms what we already knew: the government acted unlawfully. DACA recipients deserve to live with dignity—not under threat of deportation—and this administration has increasingly targeted them.
"The government must comply with this order immediately and ensure her safe return. Maria’s case is not isolated, and we call on the government to halt the troubling rise in DACA recipients being detained and even deported, despite the program’s protections.
"DACA has long shown that providing legal status benefits families and our country. As lawmakers consider tens of billions in additional funding for ICE and CBP [Customs and Border Protection]—on top of the roughly $150 billion already allocated—this case is a stark reminder of the human cost of expanding these already overreaching systems.”
Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, said earlier this month: “DACA recipients did everything right and followed all the instructions laid out in the program. They took the United States government at its word, and they’ve kept their end of the deal. But now we know that Donald Trump and [former DHS Secretary] Kristi Noem are breaking the government’s promise.”
What Happens Next
The judge directed the Trump administration to facilitate Estrada Juarez’s return to the U.S. by March 30.
Update 3/25/26, 9:15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from the DHS.
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