Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin and Rep. Delia Ramirez vowed on Thursday to continue pressing the Trump administration to stop targeting immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and bring back some of the people it already deported.
The Trump administration has deported more than 86 people who had protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era policy President Donald Trump tried and failed to eliminate in his first term. The Democrats appeared in a virtual press conference with one of the deported DACA recipients, Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, to back her return.
The Department of Homeland Security arrested more than 261 DACA recipients last year, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem notified Congress last month. In a letter to Durbin, Noem said 241 of those arrested had criminal histories, but did not provide details.
Ramirez, whose husband was a DACA recipient, said she believes DHS isn’t being transparent about its detention and deportations of the protected immigrants.
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“I’m following up with Secretary Noem, because while her days in office are in fact numbered, may it be so, we demand that she abide by the law while she’s still in fact secretary,” Ramirez said just before Trump announced Noem would be replaced as head of DHS.
“Frankly, we demand the truth. Whether it is incompetence or an intentional attempt to mislead us, DHS is not being forthcoming about their encounters with Dreamers,” she continued, referring to unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as kids.
Estrada Juarez, who came to the U.S. at age 15 and was here for 27 years, lived in Sacramento with her daughter until two weeks ago, when the Trump administration detained her at her green card interview and deported her to Mexico within 24 hours.
“I was wrongfully deported,” she said. “In a single moment, nearly 30 years of my life were taken away from me. My home, my work, my community, the place where my memories and my future were, were suddenly gone. But the greatest pain is not losing a place, the greatest pain is losing time with my daughter.’
During her Wednesday testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Noem sidestepped Durbin’s questions about the detention and deportation of DACA recipients. The Illinois senator brought up Estrada Juarez’s case, which Noem said she would look into.
“We ensure that we follow the law that applies to our department in who we detain and who we deport,” Noem said.
This story has been updated to include Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez’s full name.
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