17-year-old honors student left alone after mother deported to Mexico following ICE arrest
May 12, 2026·Location: New Jersey, NJ
Country of origin: Mexico

Patricia Balbuena Soto, a 49-year-old mother who had lived in the United States for 30 years, was arrested at her workplace in Atlantic City on July 24, 2025, on criminal charges including home invasion burglary and weapon possession. She was transferred to ICE custody on July 25 and held at Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey, then Port Isabel in Texas. On August 5, 2025, she was deported to Mexico, leaving behind her 17-year-old U.S. citizen daughter. The teenager, an honors student, was forced to abandon her college plans and assume financial responsibility for herself at age 17.
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