DHS deported valid DACA recipient Jessica Treviño, then cited her own deportation to try to terminate her status

On March 25, 2026, U.S. immigration authorities deported Jessica Treviño, a 34-year-old DACA recipient, to Matamoros, Mexico. Treviño and her husband had been arrested by federal agents in a Home Depot parking lot in South Texas in December 2025; both were deported, leaving their three U.S.-citizen children with family on the U.S. side of the border. Treviño had received DACA status at age 20 after being brought to the United States as a child, and her status and work permit were most recently authorized through April 2027 — as a DACA recipient she was barred from international travel but was not subject to deportation while her status remained valid.

An immigration judge had issued Treviño a voluntary departure order in February 2026 while she was in ICE custody, but her valid DACA status legally prevented DHS from deporting her. Despite that, DHS deported her on March 25. The following week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent her a notice of intent to terminate her DACA status, citing "unauthorized travel outside of the United States on or about March 25, 2026" — the same deportation DHS itself had just carried out.

Treviño's attorney, David Rozas, filed a federal petition in Brownsville arguing the government had no lawful basis to remove her and asking a judge to declare her expulsion unlawful, order the government to facilitate her return, and restore her DACA status. "The government had no lawful basis to remove her, and we filed this petition to demand she be brought back home," Rozas said. As of the lawsuit's filing, the Trump administration had deported 86 DACA recipients and arrested 241 others, according to a DHS letter sent to Sen. Richard Durbin.