Yessenia Ruano, a teacher's aide at a bilingual public school in Milwaukee who fled El Salvador in 2011 to escape gang violence, was later victimized by human trafficking in the United States. She had a pending T-visa application for trafficking survivors when immigration officials told her she would be removed from the country. Facing the prospect of arrest and separation from her twin daughters, who are U.S. citizens, Ruano chose to self-deport to El Salvador in June 2025 after 14 years in the U.S., taking her daughters with her. In May 2026, a federal judge ordered that Ruano and two other plaintiffs must be allowed to return to the United States, finding that immigration officials had violated federal law and due process rights by automatically deporting crime victims without considering their applications to remain. Her attorney stated that once Ruano returns, the government is obligated to review her T-visa petition.