For 28-year-old Daniela Valladares Hernández, a DACA recipient building a finance career in Sacramento, the latest letter from immigration authorities landed like a gut punch. A removal case that had been quietly sitting on an Atlanta court’s shelf since 2014 was suddenly pulled back into action, and she was told she must travel across the country to appear in person. Her lawyer can call in by video, but Valladares says her own requests to move the case to California or attend remotely were rejected, leaving her to stand before the judge solo. The decision has lit a fire under local organizers and lawmakers and rattled other Dreamers who worry they could be hauled back into distant courts without warning.
Court reopened the case and denied venue moves
According to KPBS, the Atlanta immigration court unexpectedly reopened Valladares’s long-dormant case and ordered her to show up in person within days of getting the notice, even though the file had been administratively closed since 2014. Scrambling, she filed motions to move the case to California and to appear by video instead of flying to Georgia. Both of those motions were denied, even as the court allowed her attorney to attend the hearing remotely.
Policy changes at EOIR may be driving denials
Immigration attorneys say this is not a one-off quirk of the system. A recent internal policy shift has, in their view, quietly narrowed when judges will sign off on change-of-venue requests. The Executive Office for Immigration Review detailed the change in a policy memorandum that rescinded earlier guidance on how transfers should work and put new emphasis on written orders and tighter administrative requirements, as laid out in the EOIR memo.
Why Atlanta raises extra risk
For advocates, the fact that this case is anchored in Georgia is not just a travel headache, it is a strategic disadvantage. Data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse show Georgia immigration courts rank among the toughest in the country for asylum cases, with individual judges posting denial rates of roughly 57% to 98%. That kind of spread makes which judge you draw a very real factor when a case is dragged back into court. Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association told local reporters his organization has seen a sharp increase in DACA recipients pushed into removal proceedings, on the order of a few hundred recently, a trend that attorneys and advocates link to the rise in venue denials, as reported by CapRadio.
Community and lawmakers step in
On the ground in Sacramento, supporters are scrambling to fill in the gaps the court has left. Volunteers with NorCal Resist have stepped up with a simple but grueling offer: they will drive Valladares across the country rather than see her risk air travel, which she says she avoids because of fears about enforcement at airports. In Washington, Congresswoman Doris Matsui has weighed in as well, sending a letter to the Department of Justice urging officials to rethink the decision to keep the case in Atlanta and noting that Valladares lost her most recent job after the case was reopened, according to KPBS.
What happens next
Valladares is now staring down a hearing scheduled for next month, with advocates warning that if she fails to appear, she could be hit with an automatic deportation order. Volunteers are already mapping out a multi-day drive and organizers are fundraising to cover the cost, while community members and elected officials say they will keep pressing federal authorities for a clearer explanation or a decision to move the case back to California, according to coverage by CapRadio.
