A senior official with the Department of Homeland Security clarified Wednesday that current recipients and those who have filed two-year application renewals of their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status will not be arrested or deported despite the program’s expiration earlier this week.
“With regard to enforcement actions against current and expiring DACA recipients, DHS has repeatedly stated that, absent additional negative factors, DACA recipients are not a priority or target group for arrest or removal,” acting DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon.
“With the general exception of certain classes of aliens — including those who otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety — an individual who is a current DACA recipient, or who was a previous DACA recipient but has filed for renewal, will not be targeted for arrest nor will be removed from the United States while the individual has DACA protections or while the DACA renewal request is pending,” Houlton added.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the DHS agency tasked with overseeing DACA since former President Barack Obama created the program through an executive order in 2012, will continue to accept applications for renewal, but not new requests.
At the request of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, DHS announced on Sept. 5 that it would begin winding down the program over the course of six months.
Sessions told DHS he had legally determined DACA “was effectuated by the previous administration through executive action, without proper statutory authority and with no established end-date, after Congress’ repeated rejection of proposed legislation that would have accomplished a similar result.”
Under the program, people under the age of 18 who were brought to the U.S. illegally can apply for deportation protection and work permits for two years at a time.
Before March 5, 154,230 DACA recipients were eligible to renew, and all but 21,790 did.
However, multiple states filed lawsuits against the Trump administration stating it overstepped its bounds by rescinding a former president’s executive action.
Judges in two of those lawsuits – in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California, and the Eastern District of New York – imposed preliminary injunctions that prevented the program from ending March 5 and allow the more than 535,000 DACA recipients whose protections expire between now and September 2019 to apply for renewal.
The Supreme Court then refused to take up the case, which means it will be decided in the coming months by federal court decisions.
“We encourage qualifying persons to file a request, and ask that the public understand that there will be cases of DACA recipients who lose their deferred action due to violations of the terms of DACA – including criminal conduct. This is not unusual and under the prior administration more than a thousand recipients were removed from DACA,” Houlton said. “These rare instances do not indicate a change in the Department’s current position and should be viewed in that light.”
DHS said it implores Congress to create a legislative solution to the executively created program because only the legislative branch has the power to determine immigration admittance policies.
President Trump slammed Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday for failing to work with Republicans to pass a bill after his administration gave Congress six months to solve the issue.
“It’s March 5th and the Democrats are nowhere to be found on DACA. Gave them 6 months, they just don’t care. Where are they? We are ready to make a deal!” Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
