Jessica Treviño, a 34-year-old mother who arrived in the United States as a child, has initiated a lawsuit against the federal government following her deportation to Mexico. Treviño, who held a valid DACA status and a clean criminal record, was notified by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that her legal permission to remain in the country was being terminated due to “unauthorized travel” that occurred on March 25, 2026—the same day she was deported by the Department of Homeland Security.
The legal challenge, filed this week by her attorney David Rozas, seeks to have a federal judge in Brownsville declare the expulsion unlawful. The petition requests that the court order the government to facilitate Treviño’s return to the U.S. and restore her DACA status, which had been authorized until April 2027. Rozas maintains that the government had no legitimate legal basis to remove his client, noting that a valid DACA status should have prevented the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out the deportation.
The sequence of events leading to her removal began in December when federal agents followed Treviño and her husband into a Home Depot parking lot in South Texas. Following a collision between their vehicle and an unmarked Homeland Security Investigations vehicle, the couple was arrested. DHS officials stated that Treviño’s husband was in the country without permission and was driving at the time. The department further claimed that Treviño knowingly accepted voluntary departure and waived her right to appeal, a assertion she disputes. In an interview, Treviño stated that she did not sign any forms at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility and had no intention of being deported.
Treviño, who arrived in the U.S. at age 7, had received DACA protections at age 20. Under the program established in 2012, recipients are required to maintain a clean criminal record and are prohibited from traveling outside the U.S. Currently residing in Matamoros, Mexico, Treviño remains separated from her three children, all of whom are U.S. citizens living with family near the border. “I would be so blessed to be able to go back home, because that’s what I long for most right now,” Treviño said. “I’m really desperate. It’s been seven months since I’ve been home.”
The case has drawn attention from immigration advocates who argue that Treviño’s situation reflects a broader, systematic approach to dismantling the DACA program. Todd Schulte, president of the policy organization FWD.us, described the incident as part of a pattern where the government targets individual recipients, creates justifications after the fact, and separates families. According to a February letter from the Department of Homeland Security to Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the current administration has arrested 241 DACA recipients and deported 86 of them. An immigration judge under the Justice Department had previously issued a voluntary departure order for Treviño in February while she was in custody, but her legal counsel emphasizes that her DACA status should have provided immunity from such removal.
