GEOFF BENNETT: During this Trump administration, ICE has detained more than 260 people protected under DACA, also known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

More than 80 of them have been deported.

The Obama era program created back in 2012 shields undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S.

as children from deportation and allows them to work legally.

While DACA recipients can be removed for reasons such as criminal convictions, advocates say some with no criminal record are also being swept up in the broader crackdown.

Our Lisa Desjardins has one of their stories.

LISA DESJARDINS: Juan Chavez Velasco was detained on his way to the hospital NICU taking breast milk to his infant daughter, who was born almost six weeks premature.

Brought to the United States from Colombia when he was 8 years old, Juan is 35 years old now and a longtime part of the DACA program.

He renewed his DACA status every two years, became a college graduate, works in a lab in Texas doing blood and other medical tests.

His wife and kids are all citizens and he has no criminal history.

Juan has been held at a detention center in Texas for the past seven weeks.

His wife, Stephanie Villarreal, joins me now to talk about this.

Tell us what happened in February, the day that your husband was detained.

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL, Wife of Juan Chavez Velasco: Yes.

So I had had my youngest daughter on February the 6th, and, 12 days later, he was driving to the NICU to go take her some of my breast milk that I had been pumping.

And as he was driving out of the neighborhood, he saw a car parked on the side of the road.

And he pulled over.

And there was some ICE agents that approached him.

And, basically, they questioned him.

And he tried to let them know that he had DACA and a work authorization.

And he was detained as of that day on February 18.

LISA DESJARDINS: At that point, when it happened, as you say, he had DACA status right then.

How concerned before that were you or he that he could be detained?

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: I believe that we were just more under the impression that the administration had mentioned nothing would happen to DACA recipients.

We had started hearing rumors about DACA recipients being detained, and we just started to get really nervous about everything.

But, again, we just didn't think that it would hit home.

LISA DESJARDINS: I want to talk a little bit about that, because he had a DACA status when he was detained, but that status expired while he was in detention.

And he had applied for renewal last fall.

The Trump administration's under court order.

They're supposed to renew this status.

But your husband's hasn't been.

What do you think's happening here?

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: I feel like it's intentionally being delayed, but it is affecting the livelihood of many DACA recipients, and just like my husband.

He was picked up when it was active.

And, yes, it did expire while he was in detention.

LISA DESJARDINS: We did ask DHS for a statement about Juan's case.

And this is what a spokesman said -- quote -- "He is an illegal alien from Colombia and was issued a final order of removal in 2005.

He received full due process.

DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country."

How do you respond to that?

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: I just believe that they use that term so often about illegal aliens.

My husband is more than just that.

He's a father.

He's a husband.

He's done everything right.

He's come here.

And he's built his education.

He's built his family.

And the term illegal alien just has a very negative attachment to it.

LISA DESJARDINS: I know you speak with him daily.

How is he doing?

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: He's holding up.

He's having some medical concerns.

He just did some labs, and he came out with having kidney stones.

So he's dealing with that.

He doesn't have the healthiest of foods or the best drinking water.

So it's definitely heightened the pain that he has coming from that.

LISA DESJARDINS: This debate that you all kind of landed in the middle of right now, in many ways, it's about who Americans should be, who the Trump administration feels should be allowed to enter or stay in this country.

And I wonder how you see yourself and how your husband sees himself as Americans.

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: He feels American at heart.

He hasn't stepped foot in Colombia since he was 8 years old.

We love this country.

It's the country that provided him all of his opportunities, especially being on the DACA program.

He was -- like I mentioned, graduated with two bachelor's degrees, that he was able to work and provide and be able to accomplish that at the same time.

So he definitely is very thankful being here.

And he does feel like he's truly an American.

LISA DESJARDINS: You know, the argument from the Trump administration is that, even if he's done no wrong, his family shouldn't have brought him here and they shouldn't have entered illegally when he was a child.

How do you respond to that?

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: I feel like, as loving parents, you will do whatever it takes for your children.

And, sometimes, that comes with sacrifices.

I truly believe that that's what my mother and my father-in-law did for my husband.

They provided him an opportunity to live a better life.

LISA DESJARDINS: Have you thought about what you would do if he is deported?

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: Unfortunately, it would require us to possibly move to a different country just to be together as a family, just because my kids are so young and he deserves to be a part of their life and they deserve to be with their dad.

LISA DESJARDINS: What's the hardest part about that?

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: It's just uprooting everything that we thought we were going to do with our children.

We just bought -- we just purchased our home last year, and things were feeling perfect.

We just started building our family.

And we were ready to just build our lives.

We didn't think that anything like this could have ever happened.

LISA DESJARDINS: Given that, I think my last question is, do you look at America differently now because of this experience or no?

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: We do.

Unfortunately, there's so much hatred in this world right now.

And at one point, when we were growing up, we were always told that the United States of America was the best place for everyone to be.

And, right now, there's just so much hate, that I look at my children and try to teach them that we cannot normalize what's going on right now.

LISA DESJARDINS: Stephanie Villarreal, thank you so much for talking with us.

STEPHANIE VILLARREAL: Thank you.

Thank you for having me.