Yessenia Ruano, a teacher's aide at a bilingual Milwaukee public school and mother of twin daughters who are U.S. citizens, fled El Salvador in 2011 to escape gang violence and later became a victim of human trafficking in the U.S. She had attended 19 in-person ICE check-ins over 14 years and had a pending T-visa application for trafficking survivors when, at her final check-in in May 2025, officials told her she had to leave within days. Facing arrest and separation from her daughters, she self-deported to El Salvador in June 2025, taking her daughters with her while her husband, Miguel, stayed behind temporarily before joining them. Her Milwaukee community rallied around her, gathering 2,800 petition signatures within 24 hours and raising nearly $16,000 for her family. In May 2026, a federal judge ordered that Ruano and two other plaintiffs be allowed to return to the U.S., finding immigration officials had violated federal law and due process by automatically deporting crime victims without considering their pending applications. Her attorney said the government must now review her T-visa petition once she returns.