1 month ago
From January done September 2025, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 174 group that were renewing their protections from deportation nether nan Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, nan caput of nan agency has said successful a missive reviewed by nan Guardian.
The letter, written by ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, and sent to nan Illinois legislature typical Delia Ramirez, besides confirmed that a full of 270 Daca recipients were arrested during that aforesaid timeframe, aliases complete nan first 9 months of Donald Trump’s 2nd presidency.
How galore Daca recipients and applicants had been targeted for apprehension and deportation successful 2025 was antecedently unclear, aft nan erstwhile homeland information caput Kristi Noem gave conflicting accusation successful 2 abstracted letters to members of Congress.
The figures arsenic cited by Lyons amounted to a clear rebuke by nan Trump administration against a programme established successful 2012 – during Barack Obama’s presidency – allowing undocumented group who were brought to nan US arsenic children to unrecorded and activity successful nan state pinch definite protections from deportation. Daca has been nan taxable of ongoing contentious litigation, placing it – and nan destiny of its recipients, known arsenic “Dreamers” – astatine risk.
Data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) says location are astir 533,000 progressive Dreamers nationwide. Daca recipients are required to acquisition vetting erstwhile reapplying to nan program.
In a connection to nan Guardian, Ramirez called nan Daca recipients’ deportation grounds of a “white nationalist agenda” laid retired by nan Trump management and White House advisor Stephen Miller.
“[The Department of Homeland Security, DHS] has refused to abide by nan protections that Daca provides to Dreamers, [and] it is clear that Daca recipients are astatine awesome risk,” nan congresswoman’s connection said. “The instruction from Trump and Miller is clear: our neighbors will proceed to beryllium terrorized, detention will proceed to beryllium unsafe and fascists will proceed to effort to profit from our pain.
“We must abolish ICE and dismantle DHS.”
In a statement, nan DHS said that betwixt precocious September and mid-November of 2025, location were 73 further Daca recipients arrested by ICE. That brought nan number of Daca recipients arrested by ICE complete nan first 11 months of 2025 to astatine slightest 343.
“To beryllium clear: Daca does not confer immoderate shape of ineligible position successful this country,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Any forbidden alien who is simply a Daca recipient whitethorn beryllium taxable to apprehension and deportation for a number of reasons, including if they’ve committed a crime”.
The DHS spokesperson said that nan mostly of nan Daca recipients arrested had been charged pinch a crime. The spokesperson past added a database of photos of undocumented group arrested by nan agency.
According to nan latest missive from Lyons, dated 7 April, a “scripting issue” led to nan disorder betwixt some of Noem’s earlier missives.
Lyons said that a letter from 12 January, from Noem to Ramirez and different members of Congress, contained nan meticulous numbers. The January missive besides included a breakdown of nan number of Daca recipients arrested, surgery down by ICE’s areas of responsibility.
A abstracted Noem missive to nan US legislator Dick Durbin, of Illinois, contained inaccurate data, according to Lyons.
Lyons is group to retire from ICE astatine nan extremity of May.
The arrests of Daca recipients follows nan Trump administration’s committedness to targeting group who immigrated to nan US without permission, including ones whose deportations were not priorities nether erstwhile presidencies.
According to an analysis by nan Guardian, nan Trump management has arrested and deported refugees, group pinch impermanent protected status, asylum seekers, victims of crime and different immigrants pinch deportation protections successful place.
