Des Moines Dreamer Killed in Mexico Weeks After Being Sent Back by ICE

An Iowa high school student brought to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of 3 was killed less than a month after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent him back to one of the most dangerous states in Mexico. Manuel Antonio Cano-Pacheco, who was allowed to remain in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, was escorted back to Mexico by ICE officers under a “voluntary departure” late last month, according to the Des Moines Register. According to an ICE statement cited by the Register, he’d attracted the attention of immigration authorities after several misdemeanor charges, including one for driving under the influence. Three weeks after arriving in Zacatecas, a state known for violent drug wars, Cano-Pacheco had his throat slit while going out for food with an acquaintance. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Juan Verduzco, a friend of Cano-Pacheco, told the Register. Verduzco blamed his friend’s misdemeanor convictions on a spiraling depression triggered after his father was sent to prison.