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Deported, then DACA revoked
Jessica Treviño, a 34-year-old Texas mother of three, was deported to Mexico and then had her DACA status terminated after U.S. officials cited “unauthorized travel” tied to her removal.
“unauthorized travel outside of the United States on or about March 25, 2026”
The Associated Press reported that Treviño and her husband were arrested in December after federal agents followed them and two of their daughters into a Home Depot parking lot in South Texas, and that both were deported and are living in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas.
After being brought to the country as a child at the age of 7, Treviño received legal permission at 20 to remain in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and the notice to terminate her status cited “unauthorized travel outside of the United States on or about March 25, 2026,” the same day she was deported by the Department of Homeland Security.
Newsweek said her lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and it stated that her DACA status was valid through April 2027 as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The case centers on whether the government can revoke DACA protections after a deportation, with the filing asserting that “Petitioner was in valid DACA status at the time she was removed.”
Court fight and competing claims
Treviño’s attorney, David Rozas, filed a petition asking a federal judge in Brownsville to declare her expulsion unlawful, order the government to facilitate her return to the U.S., and allow her DACA status to remain valid.
In the Associated Press account, Rozas said, “The government had no lawful basis to remove her, and we filed this petition to demand she be brought back home,” while DHS said Treviño “knowingly accepted voluntary departure and waived appeal.”
Newsweek reported that DHS sent Treviño a notice to terminate her DACA status because she had “engaged in unauthorized travel” outside the United States on or about March 25, 2026, the same day she was deported to Mexico.
Treviño denied signing any forms at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility and told the Associated Press she did not want to be deported.
Advocates framed the case as part of a broader effort to undermine DACA, with Todd Schulte of FWD.us saying, “This is what a deliberate and systematic effort to destroy DACA looks like in practice: target recipients one by one, manufacture justifications after the fact, and leave their children to grow up without them.”
What happens next for her family
The lawsuit seeks restitution of Treviño’s status while her three U.S.-citizen children remain in the United States with family near the border, and the Associated Press said their mother wants to be there as they prepare to start school next month.
“The current Trump administration has deported 86 DACA recipients”
The Associated Press reported that a voluntary departure order was issued in February while Treviño was in ICE custody, but it said a valid DACA status prevents the Department of Homeland Security from deporting her.
Newsweek said the lawsuit names DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons as defendants and seeks an order of “immediately returning” Villegas to the United States due to her unlawful removal.
The dispute also includes DHS’s position that Treviño’s husband was in the country without permission and that after a collision between the couple’s vehicle and an unmarked Homeland Security Investigations vehicle, the couple was arrested.
According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration has deported 86 DACA recipients and arrested 241 others, and the DHS letter cited Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois as the recipient of that information.
