US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a 35-year-old man in Texas while he was delivering milk to his 12-day-old daughter, who was receiving treatment in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Juan Chavez Velasco, a DACA recipient, was detained on February 18 in Weslaco and is now facing deportation to Colombia.
Chavez Velasco, a medical laboratory scientist who worked on the front lines during the Covid-19 pandemic, has three children and a wife, Stephanie Villareal, who is a US citizen. Their daughter Elianna, born prematurely, requires 24-hour blood transfusions due to an inability to produce red blood cells. Villareal noted that her husband has the right blood type to be a potential donor.
According to a GoFundMe appeal, Chavez Velasco was on the phone with his wife when agents stopped him. He told them he was a DACA recipient, but they allegedly replied, “That doesn’t matter.” He was taken to the Webb County Detention Center in Laredo.
Chavez Velasco was brought to the US from Colombia by his parents at age eight in 1999. The family overstayed their visa and had a removal order issued in 2005, which was never enforced. His parents later obtained legal residence, but his DACA renewal application from November last year went unanswered, and his status expired on March 10 while he was in custody.
His attorney, Jodi Goodwin, said the best outcome would be for US Citizenship and Immigration Services to renew his DACA status and for ICE to release him. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson stated that DACA does not confer legal status and that recipients may be subject to arrest, adding that “being in detention is a choice” and urging self-deportation.
Chavez Velasco expressed heartbreak, saying, “I feel betrayed … I would have thought the Trump administration would be more compassionate towards people like me who contribute to the country.” Villareal emphasised that her husband has no criminal history and “did everything right.”
