ICE detained DACA recipient Juan Chavez Velasco despite his active legal status

On February 18, 2026, ICE agents detained Juan Chavez Velasco — a DACA recipient who had held continuous status for 13 years — at the entrance of his Weslaco, Texas neighborhood as he drove breast milk to his 12-day-old daughter in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit. His wife, Stephanie Villarreal, was on the phone with him as agents boxed in his car. Velasco told the agents he had active DACA status; they told him, "That doesn't matter." He was transported to the Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, more than three hours from his family.

Velasco had held DACA status continuously since 2012 and had renewed it every two years without incident, according to his immigration attorney, Jodi Goodwin. His detention was tied to a 2005 final removal order issued after his family's asylum claim was denied -- an order ICE had never previously enforced against him. In a statement, a DHS spokesperson confirmed Velasco "was issued a final order of removal in 2005" and said that "DACA does NOT confer any form of legal status in this country," adding that DACA recipients "may be subject to arrest and deportation for a number of reasons" and urging him to self-deport. Goodwin said Velasco has no criminal history and called the timing of his arrest a product of changed enforcement priorities under the administration.

While in detention, Velasco developed kidney stones and, according to Villarreal, lacked adequate food and clean drinking water. His DACA renewal, filed in November 2025, lapsed while he was in custody in March 2026; Villarreal said she suspects the lapse was allowed to happen deliberately, though this remains her suspicion rather than a confirmed fact. Velasco was released in May 2026 after nearly three months in detention and reunited with his family. His case is one of roughly 260 DACA recipient detentions, and at least 80 deportations, that advocates say have occurred since the administration took office, part of what one advocacy group described as an effort to dismantle DACA protections "piece by piece."

Updates

2026-05-21 — Chavez Velasco released from ICE detention after nearly three months [4]

Chavez Velasco was released from ICE custody and reunited with his family in South Texas in mid-May 2026, after nearly three months in detention at the Webb County Detention Center. As of his release, his DACA status remained unrenewed.