BRING THEM BACK HOME:

Jesus Lopez says he feels like a stranger in the place he was born.

He's from Guadalajara, Mexico, but his life was in Chicago. After 15 years in the city, he was deported a year ago during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I want to go back because I belong there. That's where I have my friends, my family," said the 25-year-old, who was once a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that gives protections to immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

Lopez, who said he didn't renew his spot in the program because he couldn't afford it, hopes to benefit from new efforts by advocates, groups and attorneys to bring back immigrants they believe were unfairly deported from the United States.

With President Joe Biden in office, one of the new proposals from advocates urges creating a centralized Department of Homeland Security office to consider requests from deported immigrants trying to reunite with their families in the U.S.

"We have deported hundreds of thousands of individuals, and to do that and not even have an effective safety valve to review bad decisions violates due process," said Nayna Gupta, associate director of policy for the National Immigrant Justice Center, the Washington-based nonprofit that proposed the idea.

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