Read the first story in this series here.
The Trump administration is renewing efforts to dismantle the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. The policy currently shields over half a million immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.
Roughly 300 DACA recipients, referred to as Dreamers, have been arrested and dozens have already been deported, according to a February memorandum from the Department of Homeland Security.
In Sacramento, one woman lost her job and is dealing with traumatic memories from childhood detention after learning of the sudden reopening of her case.
Daniela Valladares Hernandez, a 28-year-old Dreamer who came to the United States from Honduras as a child, said her life looked different just weeks ago prior to receiving the letter. She was studying for a life and health insurance professional certification for her finance job, planning a birthday celebration and looking for a volleyball league to join in Sacramento.
Now, she said she cries herself to sleep most nights.
“I held a stainless steel cup and in just holding that I immediately had a flashback to the coldness of the bars and the stuff within the facilities,” Valladares said, recounting her detainment after crossing the border as a 6-year-old.
“I was really excited and looking forward to celebrating my birthday,” she added. “I don’t want to say there’s not much to celebrate, but it almost feels more inhuman to myself to create this illusion that I can have a normal day or a fun day when every day there’s work to do.”
Unexpected disruptions
Valladares was ordered to report in person to an immigration court in Georgia — a state she hasn’t lived in for 10 years — despite having lived in California for four years.
She said she requested to transfer the case to Sacramento or appear remotely, but both were denied. Her attorney was allowed to appear remotely.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review declined to comment.
The sudden reopening of the case, which she said was administratively closed over a decade ago, has affected nearly every aspect of her life, including her job.
Valladares said her employer gave her a choice after learning she could be required to leave for court proceedings or potentially be detained: resign now or risk being fired and barred from working for the company again.
“They told me that if I were to get detained and I couldn’t contact my job, it would be considered job abandonment, so ultimately if that happened, I wouldn’t be eligible for rehire,” she said. “However, if I resigned, I could be eligible for rehire one day and focus on fighting my case.”
Valladares said she does not blame her employer, noting that the system wasn’t created to cater to people like her.
“I think it’s about the system,” she said. “As a manager, you are expected to plan for consistency and attendance and there’s no way to plan for this kind of uncertainty.”
But losing her job meant she had to drain her savings and retirement account to pay legal expenses. She also considered selling her car and belongings online but has avoided doing so because of a GoFundMe that was created to support her.
She has since received food assistance and legal support from NorCal Resist, a Sacramento-based immigrant advocacy and mutual aid organization.
Advocates concerned
NorCal Resist Program Director Giselle Garcia said a weeks-long battle to get the case moved to California, which included garnering support from Sacramento Congresswoman Doris Matsui, finally paid off. A second motion to change venue was accepted by the Atlanta court this week.
But Garcia says that doesn’t mean Valladares’ life is back on track.
“She lost a job that she worked very hard to get and to thrive in, she’s facing housing insecurity,” Garcia stressed. “She’s still going to be forced to engage in this procedure that is quite frankly not a fair one. The odds are always stacked against the respondent.”
Three immigration judges in Sacramento were fired last year as part of mass firings that seemingly targeted judges with low rates of asylum claim denials. One of them had a denial rate of less than 5% of claims, which was far below the national average of roughly 60%.
Data from Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, shows that judges in Sacramento now have denial rates that range from 15% to 89%. That potentially gives Valladares a greater chance of staying in the U.S. than if her case were heard in Atlanta, where denial rates from judges range from 56% to 98%.
Valladares now has to wait for the Sacramento immigration court to issue a new hearing date.
Legal experts and immigration attorneys say it’s difficult to know exactly how many people are in similar situations as Valladares because data from immigration courts is often delayed.
What’s happening with DACA?
Immigration lawyers and experts say Valladares’ case is part of a broader trend affecting DACA recipients.
The Department of Homeland Security has criticized the program saying it does not give undocumented immigrants legal status in the country. It previously signaled that recipients may be arrested and deported if they’ve committed a crime, but Valladares doesn’t have a criminal record.
Greg Chen with the American Immigration Lawyers Association previously told CapRadio the organization has seen a dramatic increase in recent months.
“It’s likely that there are more DACA recipients that are now appearing in immigration court removal proceedings just in the past several months,” Chen said.
Chen said roughly 300 DACA recipients have been confirmed to be placed in deportation proceedings in recent months, but that number has likely changed.
Hiroshi Motomura, an immigration law professor at UCLA Law, said efforts to target DACA recipients fit a longer pattern.
“The current administration is truly trying to go after people who thought that they were protected by status and had been filing papers and all that,” he said.
Motomura noted that common criticisms of the program giving undocumented immigrants green cards and citizenship are myths.
“All DACA gives you is protection from enforcement while Congress tries to sort this out,” he said. “It’s entirely consistent with the separation of power between Congress, which is the only entity that can give you green cards and citizenship, and the power of the president to control how immigration laws are being enforced.”
Researchers with TRAC are also hitting roadblocks when trying to find what should be public information. Susan B. Long with TRAC said data on DACA recipients and enforcement actions have been withheld.
“This is no accident, but a conscious policy of federal officials,” she said in an email. “Congress passed clear disclosure mandates over 50 years ago to ensure that the public has the information it needs to hold federal agencies accountable.”
But Motomura said official deportation numbers would not capture immigrants pressured to leave.
“The number of people who feel forced and so-called self-deport, that’s always a significant number when you compare it to the number of people who are actually apprehended and taken out of the country essentially by force,” he said.
Daniela Valladares Hernandez speaks during a multi-faith prayer and vigil Thursday, April 23, 2026, outside of the John Moss Federal Building in downtown Sacramento.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
