Deported DACA Recipient Home With Family After Harrowing Experience

Evenezer Cortez Martinez, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient who was denied reentry to the United States in late-March, returned home to Kansas on Tuesday afternoon, his lawyer, Rekha Sharma-Crawford, told Newsweek.

"When I went through customs and they told me everything was good, I felt a relief, you know, like I'm out," Cortez Martinez told local news outlet KSHB.

"I feel safer here," the Kansas resident said after returning to Kansas, saying: "There's peace in my heart."

Why It Matters

Cortez Martinez's detention and subsequent deportation to Mexico City came amid an ongoing immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, which has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history and has detained and deported thousands of people in recent months.

In 2012, then-President Barack Obama introduced the DACA program, offering protections and work authorizations for millions of undocumented residents who came to the U.S. as minors. The program, which has about 538,000 active participants, has been in legal and political limbo for years as courts have weighed its validity.

Cortez Martinez's return is among the first in several ongoing, high-profile deportation cases in recent weeks. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man deported to El Salvador due to an "administrative error," has not yet been returned.

What To Know

On March 20, Cortez Martinez, who came to the United States from Mexico as a 4-year-old, traveled to Mexico City to visit family and his grandfather's gravesite.

"At the time he left the country, Mr. Cortez Martinez had in his possession his approved DACA application and a legally valid advance parole document," which allowed him to travel outside the U.S., his lawyer, Rekha Sharma-Crawford said in a court filing. His advance parole document is valid until April 14, the attorney added.

The April 2 lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, provided an account of Cortez Martinez's deportation, saying he arrived at Dallas Fort Worth Airport on March 23 and was deported after CBP officers denied his entry.

CBP said he was inadmissible because he had been "ordered removed in absentia on June 11, 2024," and that the advance parole document had been "issued in error," according to the court filing.

"Ordered removed in absentia" means an immigration judge has issued a removal order without the person being present at the hearing.

Sharma-Crawford confirmed to Newsweek that her client "does have an in absentia order because he never had notice of his hearing despite his always renewing his DACA with USCIS [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] and providing them with his most recent address."

"It was a re-calendar hearing restarting the removal case. Under the first Trump administration they had started restarting cases unilaterally even though they were closed," she added.

After spending more than two weeks in Mexico after being turned back by CBP, the longtime resident of Roeland Park, Kansas, returned to his family, a wife and three children, on April 8.

"He returned via Dallas-Fort Worth Airport after negotiations with the government and before they had to formally respond to the Motion for TRO. My client's return was without incident," Sharma-Crawford told Newsweek.

What People Are Saying

Karla Castaneda, the executive director of the Workers' Rights Education Project, told Newsweek in March: "I could lose my DACA come December because I'm fighting against that administration, but at this point, I'm like, I don't care. At this point, it's like, we need to fight."

Then-President-elect Donald Trump, on Meet the Press in December: "The Dreamers are going to come later, and we have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age. And many of these are middle-aged people now. They don't even speak the language of their country. And yes, we're going to do something about the Dreamers."

What Happens Next?

Cortez Martinez's family has posted a GoFundMe to raise money for his legal fees.

In an April 8 post, the family said: "We are grateful to share that my father is back home. Thank you to everyone who has generously donated to support us during this time and our wonderful lawyer Rekha Sharma-Crawford. As we continue to navigate this journey, we now need assistance in covering legal fees. Your continued support means the world to us. God bless!"

Update 4/10/25, 1:21 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Sharma-Crawford.