By Cindy Von Quednow

(CNN) — They had been separated for 40 days, the longest they’d ever been apart.

She had hugged her daughter countless times, but after being forcibly separated for weeks, their embrace felt like the first time again. It lasted for five minutes, the mother and daughter holding each other tightly, as if they might be pulled apart again if they loosened their grip.

“You did it, mama,” Damaris Bello, 22, told her mother.

María de Jesús Estrada Juárez had accomplished the seemingly and increasingly impossible: She returned to the United States after being deported by the federal government.

Estrada Juárez, who came to the US as a teen and was protected under an Obama-era program for about 13 years, had been deported from Sacramento to Mexico, where she was born.

She’s among hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the US under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. And she’s one of dozens of DACA recipients who have been deported, even though recipients are supposed to be protected from removal.

Between January 1 and November 11, 2025, 261 DACA recipients were arrested and 86 were deported, according to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS did not give CNN updated figures when asked.

With the help of an attorney, Estrada Juárez sued the federal government, and a judge ordered officials to facilitate her safe return to the country she has called home for nearly 30 years.

“Today, justice was done,” Estrada Juárez, 42, told CNN en Español after crossing back into the US last month. “If my case can help other people who fight to be back with their families, then the pain might be worth it.”

Nerves over detainment became reality

Estrada Juárez made a life in the US after arriving from Puebla, Mexico, at 15. She came, like many immigrants, in search of a better life, and to help her mother and siblings, she said. Her DACA status gave her a sense of security and belonging, she said.

The DACA program, which began in 2012, protects about half a million undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children.

It allows recipients, or “dreamers,” to work and study legally in the US. Though the Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump from fully shutting down the program in 2020, it continues to face legal challenges.

But critically, DACA doesn’t provide lawful status, according to DHS. Still, Estrada Juárez wanted to become a resident and began the process.

When her interview to adjust her immigration status was scheduled for February 18, she became nervous. She had heard of people being detained and deported at immigration hearings.

But she had a protected status, Estrada Juárez thought to herself, even if it wasn’t permanent. And she had a clean record, with no criminal charges.

“If I was doing the right thing and I was going the right path, why would I ever be afraid?” she recalled asking herself. “Why would you ever be afraid at home?”

As her appointment date approached, Estrada Juárez reflected on the future that permanent residency would bring her and her family: a better future, she thought. A hopeful one.

“It was a life-changing appointment,” she said. “This is the next step to move forward.”

The moment she had dreamed of for years was about to become reality.

“But the dream,” Estrada Juárez said, “shattered.”

She was in handcuffs.

“I couldn’t say goodbye. I didn’t have a real chance to speak before a judge or defend myself. Everything happened so fast,” Estrada Juárez said.

Her first thought was her daughter, her only child.

“I am the head of household. She depends 100% on me,” Estrada Juárez said. “Being ripped away from my daughter like that, it was a devastating moment. I feel very hopeless, very helpless. I feel like they took my life away.”

Being pulled away from her child felt like the air was being sucked out of her lungs. Being separated for such a long time was so difficult; sometimes she found it hard to breathe, she said.

“It’s hard to describe what it feels like to lose your mother so suddenly, especially when you believed she was safe,” Bello said at a news conference upon her mother’s return to the US. “It was like grieving someone who is still alive… but we fought. Every single day we fought to bring her home.”

The fight to bring her home

Estrada Juárez first entered the US alone when she was 15 years old. She was issued an order of expedited removal and returned to Mexico, according to court documents. She came back to the US two weeks later and has lived here since, the documents say.

She enrolled in high school and graduated. Her daughter was born in 2003, and Estrada Juárez raised her on her own while working. In the summer of 2013, Estrada Juárez was granted DACA status, according to her attorney Stacy Tolchin.

She took a brief trip to Mexico in 2014, her attorney said, with DHS’s knowledge and authorization.

But when Estrada Juárez went to that fateful interview, officials found the original 1998 removal order, Tolchin said.

She knew she had been deported when she was 15 years old, her attorney said. But the interview was the first time Estrada Juárez learned about the formal order, court documents say.

She wasn’t given a copy of the original order, nor the new 2026 one, her lawsuit against the federal government alleges. Instead, she was issued a document stating she was barred from returning to the US because she had been ordered removed by an immigration judge in removal proceedings. But Estrada Juárez says she’s never been in removal proceedings before a judge.

“There’s just so many layers of error that happened here,” Tolchin said, calling the deportation “completely unlawful,” “eye opening” and “really disappointing.”

After her lawsuit was filed in district court, the judge ordered the government to facilitate Estrada Juarez’s return to the US, lambasting its legal arguments justifying her deportation in a scathing order.

“Despite any interest the government may have in promptly executing removal orders, ‘our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends,’” Judge Dena Coggins wrote in her ruling.

“ICE follows all court orders. This is yet another ruling from a Biden-appointed activist judge,” DHS said in a statement to CNN.

The judge gave the government seven days to facilitate Estrada Juárez’s return to the US. Seven days after the order, she crossed the border through the San Ysidro port of entry, the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere, on March 30.

Hope for the future

Weeks after her return to the US, Estrada Juárez is grappling with how to rebuild her life after her deportation.

While in Mexico, Estrada Juárez was with her mother, sister, brothers and nephews, but she missed her daughter every day she was away.

“You can’t enjoy life when the most important part of your life is not there,” Estrada Juárez said at the news conference. “It’s not like I was having a good time. I was very stressed … I think I aged a lot.”

Her days were filled with media interviews, Zoom meetings with her attorney and conversations with her daughter.

“My days were really sad,” Estrada Juárez said. “There was a little bit of moments where I tried to enjoy, but I couldn’t.”

Her arrest has left her with lingering anxiety: Recently, she encountered a security guard at a store dressed in all green, a disconcerting reminder of the uniforms worn by the officers who handcuffed her at immigration court.

“I had to leave the store because I started getting very bad anxiety,” Estrada Juárez said. “It was a really bad, bad experience. And I didn’t think I was going to feel like that ever again, but it’s definitely something that is going to take a lot of time for me to be able to move on.”

She also canceled a recent trip to Los Angeles to visit her grandmother’s grave because her daughter did not want her to fly over fear that she would be detained again.

“I don’t want to be stuck. I wanted to flip the page. I want to move on. But I think it’s going to take a long time,” Estrada Juárez said.

She hopes becoming a legal resident will help her no longer feel fearful, like becoming a DACA recipient did.

She credits the program for helping her go from working at a gas station to becoming an auto insurance broker and a business owner.

“It does make a difference. It opened a lot of doors for me,” Estrada Juárez said.

Her goals have changed after her deportation, like they did after her daughter was born, she told CNN, but she is still planning for a future in the US.

“We have a lot of plans. I am hoping to be able to reach out for more opportunities,” she said. “Live today because you don’t know if you’re going to be here tomorrow.”

Estrada Juarez’ DACA status expires April 23. Her renewal application remains pending.

CNN’s Gonzalo Alvarado and Uriel Blanco contributed to this report.

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