When Juana Flores heard the news — that she’d be able to return home to Santa Barbara — she couldn’t believe it.
She’d spent the last two years in her native Aguascalientes, Mexico, suddenly deported in 2019 after the Trump administration suspended the humanitarian waiver permitting her legal residence in the U.S.
Flores had spent most of that time alone, away from her husband, Andrés, and her 10 children and 18 grandchildren in Goleta, where she’s lived and worked for 30 years.