Manuel Antonio Cano Pacheco came to the U.S. when he was three years old. His parents brought him illegally into the country, and they soon settled in Iowa. When he was a teenager, he was granted temporary protection and a work visa through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In November 2017, he was arrested and, several weeks later, he was convicted of two misdemeanor drug offenses, which meant he would lose his DACA status. On April 24, at the age of 19, Cano Pacheco was sent back to Mexico, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents escorting him to the Laredo border. He was killed in Zacatecas 3 1/2 weeks later on May 18.
Cano Pacheco isn’t faultless — he clearly had a record that threatened his legal status. Still, his story perfectly illustrates the fault in the “send them back to where they came from” mentality. For many of these immigrants, especially those who have been protected under DACA, America is their home, not their country of origin.
