The feds deported a young man back to his native Mexico in apparent defiance of President Trump’s pledge to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children — the first time a so-called Dreamer had been given the boot, a new report said Tuesday.
Juan Manuel Montes, 23, who has lived in the US since he was 9, was waiting for a ride in Calexico, Calif., on Feb. 17 when a US Customs and Border Protection officer confronted him and started barking questions, USA Today reported.
Montes had twice been granted deportation protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by then-President Barack Obama and left in place by President Trump.
But the luckless Montes had left his wallet in a pal’s car, so he couldn’t produce an ID or proof his DACA status and was told by agents he couldn’t go get them, the paper reported.
He was back in Mexico three hours later, with the dubious distinction of becoming the first undocumented immigrant with active DACA status deported by Team Trump’s rigid immigration policies.
“Some people told me that they were going to deport me; others said nothing would happen,” Montes told USA Today in his aunt and uncle’s home in western Mexico.
“I thought that if I kept my nose clean nothing would happen.”
Trump talked tough about building a border wall throughout his campaign, and since taking office has tried to limit immigration from several Muslim majority nations as well crack down on illegal immigrants with criminal records.
But the president decided to not revoke the DACA protections Obama had granted to more than 750,000 undocumented immigrants, repeatedly saying they had made new lives here and should be allowed to stay if they play by the rules.
“They shouldn’t be very worried,” he told ABC News in January. “I do have a big heart.”
Even so, DACA enrollees are being targeted by immigration authorities. At least 10 are in federal custody, according to United We Dream, an advocacy organization.
Greisa Martinez, the group’s director who has DACA protection, said Montes’ case proves that people like herself are at risk despite what Trump said.
“We’ve seen Trump and [Department of Homeland Security Secretary] John Kelly say, ‘The DACA program is alive and well.’ We’ve seen [House Speaker] Paul Ryan look straight into the eyes of one of our members and say, ‘You have nothing to worry about,’” she told the paper. “And then this happens.”
Customs and Border Protection said it could not discuss Montes’ case because of its privacy policy.
Lawyers in California are working on his behalf.