Democrats push Homeland Security Department on DACA recipients

More than three dozen Democratic and independent senators are asking Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to clarify the agency’s position on beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Also known as DACA, the program was created in 2012 to protect from deportation children who arrived in the country illegally prior to 2007 and now benefits some half a million people.

The letter, which was shared exclusively with NPR, comes in response to a DHS statement to NPR earlier this summer which said that “illegal aliens who claim to be recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are not automatically protected from deportations” and that “DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country.” DHS assistant press secretary Tricia McLaughlin in the statement then encouraged those here illegally to self-deport.

The senators argue that policy flies in the face of DHS’s own guidance, which states that those who have deferred action from immigration enforcement are “not considered to be unlawfully present” in the U.S. The policy also states that anyone “who has received deferred action is authorized by DHS to be in the United States for the duration of the deferred action period.”

“In fact, DACA was created to provide protections from immigration enforcement for certain noncitizens brought to the United States as children, also known as Dreamers, who undergo strict background checks and meet specific educational or work requirements,” the senators wrote.

The DACA program is meant to offer temporary protection from deportation but is not an immediate path to citizenship or a green card. Participants in the program have to renew their protection every two years.

Polls conducted over the last five years have shown most Americans support the creation of a legal pathway for DACA recipients. In the past, immigration advocates have considered DACA to have bipartisan support, though there have been concerns raised with the temporary nature of the program.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has introduced the DREAM Act for several years, which would provide a pathway to legalization. The measure has received varying levels of GOP support in both chambers.

DHS’s call for DACA recipients to self-deport is another example of a mixed message in the administration’s immigration enforcement policy when it comes to DACA.

At the start of the 2024 presidential campaign, now-White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said President Trump would end the program. After winning the election, Trump said he wanted DACA recipients to stay.

Since then, there have been several reported arrests and detentions of DACA recipients including that of a disabled man without criminal history, someone who made an accidental wrong turns, and someone with a civil offense.

DHS can revoke DACA protections if someone is charged with a crime, which would make them vulnerable to deportation.

There are roughly 500,000 DACA recipients in the U.S., as of the second quarter of this year, from more than 150 countries. The majority are from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Most recipients are 35 years old or younger, but some are in their late 30s or early 40s.