Judge’s brutal ruling against Trump DHS calls out 'fragrant violation' of Constitution

President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Florida on July 1, 2025 (DHS photo by Tia Dufour/Flickr)

In 1998, Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez was 15 when she arrived in the United States from Mexico — and 15 years later, in 2013, she was granted protection under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). But during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, Estrada (who had been living in Sacramento, California) was deported back to Mexico.

Now, a federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden is ordering the Trump Administration to bring her back to the U.S. and is highly critical of the way the deportation was handled by the Trump-era U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Politico's Kyle Cheney, in an article published on March 24, reports, "On February 18, Estrada — with her daughter in tow — attended a hearing as part of the process to attain lawful permanent residency. There, federal immigration officers denied her application, informed her that she was the subject of a decades-old removal order and detained her. She was deported to Mexico the next morning, despite protesting that her DACA status remained active."

But U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins, in an order issued on Monday, March 23, attacked the deportation as a "flagrant violation" of DACA and the due process Estrada enjoys under the U.S. Constitution.

According to Cheney, "Coggins, a [Joe] Biden appointee, directed the administration to facilitate Estrada's return by March 30. The Justice Department argued that the judge had no power to intervene in the dispute, saying Estrada was subject to a valid deportation order and that her DACA status merely deprioritized her deportation rather than eliminated the threat of it altogether. But Coggins said the Supreme Court's 2020 ruling preserving DACA underscored that DACA was not simply a matter of executive discretion, but rather, 'a program for conferring affirmative relief.'"

Cheney continues, "Coggins said her power also extended to demanding the return of someone illegally deported, which courts have blessed under 'extreme circumstances.'"

Estrada's daughter, now 22, is a U.S. citizen.

Coggins, in her ruling, wrote, "It is difficult to argue that Petitioner's removal constitutes anything less than an 'extreme circumstance.' Less than 24 hours after Petitioner's good faith appearance to pursue lawful permanent resident status in this country — she was removed to a nation where she had not lived in over 27 years pursuant to an order purportedly entered against her when she was fifteen years old."

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