Juana Flores, the Goleta grandmother who fought to stay in the country, was deported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thanksgiving Day.

Her attorney, Kraig Rice, told Noozhawk that Flores went in for a routine check-in with immigration authorities in Santa Maria and was told that she would be immediately deported.

Flores came to the United States illegally in 1988 and has raised her family in the Goleta area, including her son Caesar Flores who serves in the U.S. Air Force.

“What a wonderful statement from the U.S. government to thank an active service member by deporting his mother on Thanksgiving Day,” Rice said.

Flores, 62, entered the United States from Mexico without a visa in 1988, two years after then-President Ronald Reagan signed the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granting status to illegal immigrants.

Between 1988 and 2019, she married and settled down in California, where she and her husband, Andres — a permanent resident since 2009 and a U.S. citizen since 2015 — bought a home and raised a family.

In 1999, Flores traveled to Mexico to visit her sick mother and attend her funeral. When she returned to the United States, she was stopped by Customs and Border Protection.

Although she received several extensions to be allowed to stay in the United States on humanitarian grounds, those ended on Feb. 26, 2019. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office ordered Flores back to Mexico, and she voluntarily left the country.

In 2021, Flores returned to Santa Barbara County and was granted humanitarian parole for three years.

Rice said she applied for an extension last year and it was denied. She was ordered to meet with immigration authorities in Santa Maria to check in. When she did so last Wednesday, she was told she could not leave, and would be deported, according to Rice.

He hoped that Flores could at least go home and gather her things.

“The new administration doesn’t want to give anyone a warning,” he said. “I guess they don’t trust anyone.”

Rice said that Flores spent last Wednesday night in a detention center in Los Angeles before she was driven to the border. Her husband and family members met her on the other side and they planned to head to the state of Aguascalientes.

Rice is not optimistic about seeing her return under the current federal administration. Retired Judge Frank Ochoa, who has worked on Flores’ case for free, called the deportation “abject cruelty” on Thanksgiving Day.

Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, previously introduced the Protect Patriot Parents Act, which would provide redress to Flores and thousands of others who have military family members. It has not passed in Congress.

Rice said Flores has 22 grandchildren and many of them would go to her house in Goleta after school.

“She feeds them and makes them do their homework,” Rice said. “Why would we want to get rid of someone who takes care of 22 U.S. citizen kids?”

Ochoa told Noozhawk:

“Deporting the Goleta Grandmother, Juana Flores, for a 2nd time can only be explained as an act of abject cruelty.  Unmooring her from her family structure on Thanksgiving Eve was a brutish act.”

He said she is the matriarch of a family with 10 children and 20 grandchildren, all of whom live in the United States. 
“Juana’s contributions to our country are pronounced,” Ochoa said. “And her presence in our community harms no one.  Mrs. Flores is simply a number to this administration.  Another notch on the deportation belt.  The fact that Mrs. Flores is a person who adds greatly to our local community is not part of the calculus.  And, the fact that she was deported during the 1st Trump administration, allowed to return home during the Biden administration, and now deported again in the second Trump administration demonstrates the law’s flexibility.”