The Trump administration’s ambiguous stance on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has left DACA recipients, known as “Dreamers,” feeling uneasy. While maintaining existing protections for DACA recipients, the Trump administration is also revoking their rights and intensifying crackdowns, further adding to the confusion.
DACA, introduced by the Obama administration in 2012, protects immigrants who entered the country illegally with their parents as children from deportation and allows them to work in the United States. However, under President Trump’s second term, these protections have been gradually weakened.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced in June that it would remove DACA recipients from Obamacare, and the Department of Education is investigating five colleges and universities that provided scholarships to DACA students. There have also been reports of DACA recipients being arrested and detained nationwide.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stated in an official statement that “illegal immigrants are not automatically exempt from deportation, even if they are DACA recipients. DACA does not confer legal status, and those with criminal records or other grounds may be subject to deportation.” It also urged DACA recipients to “consider opportunities to return legally” through voluntary removal.
Currently, there are approximately 500,000 DACA recipients, more than a quarter of whom live in California. Most are from Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and most are under 35. Immigrant rights groups are concerned that this administration’s move is effectively withdrawing legal protections for DACA recipients.
The youth immigrant group United We Dream has pointed out that the status of DACA recipients is increasingly weakened. Mexican American advocacy groups have also pointed out that “the arrests of DACA recipients are causing great anxiety among DACA recipients as a whole.”
In California, DACA recipients have been detained in raids on businesses and traffic accidents, and in Florida, some of the first detainees at a newly opened immigrant detention center are reportedly DACA recipients.