Officials at the Department of Homeland Security are refuting a report that the Trump administration deported a young man protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, despite the president’s pledge to protect such immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

The story, published Tuesday by USA Today, documents the deportation of 23-year-old Juan Manuel Montes-Bojorquez, who lived in the U.S. since he was 9 years old and had been twice granted protections under DACA.

According to the USA Today story, after spending an evening with his girlfriend, Montes-Bojorquez went out to eat and was approached by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer afterward while waiting for a ride. The story says he was unable to produce his ID and proof of DACA status because he left his wallet in a friend’s car and was specifically told by agents that he could not retrieve them. Three hours later, after signing documents he claims not to have understood, he was back in Mexico, USA Today reports.

The report says that two days later he attempted to re-enter the U.S. illegally by climbing over a section of border wall. He was re-arrested and deported again.

If the story is true, it would be the first case of deportation for a DACA recipient.

But officials from Homeland Security tell a much different story, stating that they have no record the first encounter ever occurred and instead suggested Montes-Bojorquez had violated his status by voluntarily crossing the border.

“Juan Manuel Montes-Bojorquez was apprehended by the Calexico Station Border Patrol after illegally entering the U.S. by climbing over the fence in downtown Calexico,” a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday morning. “He was arrested by Border Patrol just minutes after he made his illegal entry and admitted under oath during the arrest interview that he had entered illegally.”

His DACA status expired in August 2015, the spokesperson said, and he was notified at that time of the expiration. That fact was later corrected in a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, also released Wednesday morning, which noted that his DACA expiration date was, as the USA Today story reported, Jan. 25, 2018.

But the DHS statement goes on to underscore that Montes-Bojorquez lost his DACA status when he left the U.S. without advanced parole on an unknown date prior to his arrest by Border Patrol.

“During Mr. Montes-Bojorquez’s detention and arrest by the United States Border Patrol on February 19, he admitted to agents that he had illegally entered the United States and was arrested,” the DHS statement reads. “He later admitted the same under oath. All of the arrest documents from February 19, 2017, bear Montes-Bojorquez’s signature.”

The statement continued: “During his arrest interview, he never mentioned that he had received DACA status. However, even if Montes-Bojorquez had informed agents of his DACA status, he had violated the conditions of his status by breaking continuous residency in the United States by leaving and then reentering the U.S. illegally.”

Notably, the deportation comes as the Trump administration cracks down on illegal immigration by stepping up enforcement and promising to hire thousands of new border agents. However, the president has drawn a line when it comes to not targeting the 750,000 young immigrants, also known as dreamers, who were granted protection by DACA under the Obama administration – protections Trump has pledged to leave in place.

"They shouldn't be very worried," Trump said in January. "I do have a big heart."

Reaction was swift from Democrats in the House and Senate, but less so from Republicans.

“Instead of honoring the protections of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative, President Trump has unleashed an indiscriminate deportation dragnet of appalling inhumanity,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement Tuesday evening.

“Secretary Kelly promised that no one [with] DACA would lose protection unless they violated the [program's] terms,” Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois wrote on Twitter. “I intend to hold him to this commitment.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he was “deeply concerned” about the deportation and plans to ask Department of Homeland Security John Kelly for an immediate explanation.