Two Reversals in Ten Days

The Trump administration has had to walk back two separate DACA deportations in less than 10 days — a pattern suggesting operational difficulties with its enforcement approach.

Luis Roldán-Cerda crossed back into his hometown of McAllen, Texas this Wednesday after being deported to Reynosa, Mexico on February 17, according to El País English. He'd gone to a routine ICE appointment to have his fingerprints taken for a visa application. He left five weeks later, reunited with his wife and two children — ages two and four.

His attorney, Wendy Rodríguez, filed a federal lawsuit. The administration backed down before it ever saw a courtroom. "The government realized we had filed a federal lawsuit. They got nervous," Rodríguez said, according to El País English.

The Second Case: José Contreras Diaz

The other reversal involves José Contreras Diaz, 30, a Texas resident deported to Honduras after a routine ICE check-in in January, according to Newsweek. Contreras Diaz came to the United States at age 8. He's lived in the Rio Grande Valley his entire adult life, working in pool maintenance.

He had active DACA protections when ICE detained him. He is now expected to return to the United States, Newsweek reported.

Here's what DHS told Newsweek directly: "The fact is Jose Contreras Diaz is an illegal alien from Honduras who has a final order of removal from a Department of Justice immigration judge. He chose to remain illegally in the U.S. DACA does NOT confer any form of legal status in this country. The end result will be the same — he will not be able to remain in the U.S."

The administration is simultaneously bringing him back and asserting he still must leave — a contradiction that reflects broader confusion over enforcement policy.

The Legal Reality

DHS is legally correct that DACA doesn't confer legal status. It never did. Obama created DACA via a Department of Homeland Security memorandum in 2012 as a prosecutorial deferral — it delays deportation, it doesn't eliminate the underlying removal order.

Contreras Diaz had a removal order issued over 20 years ago — from when he was a child. That order was legally valid and never rescinded. ICE executed it.

Why did the administration backtrack? Executing legally valid removal orders on people with active DACA protections creates political and legal exposure. Courts have intervened. Lawyers file suits. Judges issue temporary restraining orders.

The administration's legal argument appears sound in abstract terms, but the execution has proven vulnerable to legal challenge.

The Bigger Picture: 300 Detained, 90 Deported

This isn't two isolated cases. According to El País English, immigration agents have detained nearly 300 people with DACA protections. About 90 have already been deported.

Previous coverage reported DHS sending self-deportation letters to 525,000 DACA recipients. The enforcement machinery is clearly running. The question is whether it can continue without generating legal reversals.

Two reversals in ten days suggests operational challenges.

Democratic Response

A group of Democratic senators has accused the Trump administration of "lying to the American people about its treatment of Dreamers," according to Newsweek. The underlying complaint — that the administration said DACA holders were safe and then deported nearly 90 of them — has factual basis.

The White House has NOT publicly clarified what the actual policy is for DACA recipients with existing removal orders versus those without. That ambiguity is fueling both the lawsuits and the reversals.

What This Means for DACA Recipients

If you're one of the roughly 525,000 active DACA recipients, your status does NOT protect you from a removal order, active or dormant. If there's an order in your file — even one issued 20 years ago — you are exposed.

For taxpayers, the government is now funding deportations that it is then reversing under legal pressure, with no clear enforcement standard.