Mariana Juarez, a University of Nebraska at Omaha graduate with an aviation degree, plans to leave the United States this September despite a well-known congressman’s intervention. The 24-year-old former student of Omaha Central High School had been pursuing a commercial pilot’s license but faces removal from the country due to an immigration order issued in 2018.
Family hardships in Guerrero, Mexico, forced Juarez out of school at age 14. Two years later, she and her mother fled to the United States without authorization. The family was allowed to stay while the federal government weighed their cases, but her mother returned to Mexico shortly afterward due to depression, leaving Juarez with relatives in Omaha.
With the help of a cousin, Juarez enrolled in high school and won a full-ride private scholarship. She graduated from UNO with honors, worked full time, and obtained a private pilot’s license. Her UNO degree reflects a concentration in air transport administration, and she had been in the process of achieving certification as a commercial pilot.
Her attorney, Roxana Cortes-Mills, said she did not learn until later that an immigration judge had ordered Juarez removed from the country in 2018. The notice of hearing had been sent to a residence Juarez shared with her mother and marked as “return to sender.” The teen did not attend the hearing.
Legal Roadblocks and Denial
Cortes-Mills, the legal director for the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement, noted that Juarez was a minor under the law at the time. A subsequent effort to reopen Juarez’s case due to not receiving the hearing notice was denied by the Board of Immigration Appeals in April 2024.
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Federal officials did offer a form of relief to Juarez — a temporary stay of removal — which allowed her to obtain work authorization while in college and cleared the way for a private pilot license. However, this summer, immigration officials denied Juarez another extension for a third year on the stay of removal.
Homeland Security officials, in a response to a request for comment, pointed to the 2018 removal order. A spokesperson’s email stated that Juarez and her mother had applied for admission through the San Ysidro Port of Entry without legal documents. The department noted that an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 675,000 deportations occurred in the first year since President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025.
Juarez said she chose to buy a one-way ticket out rather than risk detention amid the administration’s mass deportation push. She left a job greeting clients at CIRA and is preparing to return to the homeland she hasn’t seen in eight years.
Despite the legal hurdles, Juarez remains focused on her career. She hopes to validate her training in Mexico and resume her quest to be a professional commercial pilot. Her roots are in the southwest Mexican state of Guerrero, where she recalls visiting an airport as a child and seeing the joy on people’s faces as a plane connected them to family or adventure.
Political Response and Broader Context
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska’s 2nd District met Juarez and spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin seeking a different outcome. He was told there would be no exception. Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, called the policy “an unchristian policy” and a “terrible overreach” in an interview with the Examiner.
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Bacon believes the current immigration enforcement strategy will hurt his party in the midterms. He cited a recent Gallup poll showing that 73% of Americans believe immigration is a “good thing” for the country. The representative, who has been critical of the president, said the “real issue” is an outdated system of immigration laws and policies.
Bacon is a backer of the stalled Dignity Act of 2025, a bipartisan bill that would offer a path for contributing migrants to legally stay. He argues for “common sense and humanity” in the equation. Bryan Slone, a former chief executive of the statewide Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry who is currently a pilot trainee, echoes this view, urging bipartisan solutions to help the state’s labor shortage.
While the focus often remains on border security, analysts point out that the exodus of young educated talent can be viewed as “brain gain” for other countries. The Mexican government, for example, has tried to capitalize on this phenomenon through programs like “Mexico te abraza”, which offers reintegration resources ranging from food to employment assistance.
Juarez, who sat in university aviation classes dominated by males, said her resolve strengthened over time. She hopes her journey will inspire young immigrants with U.S. voting power to speak out on issues facing their community. With her eye on a flight program in Mexico, she said she will “keep chasing my dreams,” albeit in a country other than the U.S.