Organizations in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program applauded outgoing Homeland Security Chairman Jeh Johnson on Tuesday for warning President-elect Trump’s administration against using government information in order to deport the 740,000 illegal aliens who enrolled as minors.
“I applied for President Obama’s DACA program in 2012 with the understanding that the information I gave the government would be kept confidential and not used for any reason other than to make a decision on my application,” Juan Escalante, the digital campaigns manager for America’s Voice Education Fund, said in a statement. “I’m pleased that DHS Secretary Johnson has reiterated DHS’ commitment that information contained in DACA applications will remain confidential.”
The National Immigration Law Center’s executive director Marielena Hincapie said Johnson’s Dec. 30 letter to congressional Democrats sent a message that they must continue to stand behind President Obama’s executive actions for so-called Dreamers as Republicans try to unravel it.
“Deferred action is an incredibly valuable tool of our immigration system that provides relief to many people in our most vulnerable populations and allows them an opportunity to contribute more fully to their communities,” Hincapie said in a statement. “At a time when many in our communities are grappling with great uncertainty, it is crucially important that our leaders reaffirm and uphold practices that are a longstanding part of how our immigration system works.”
Johnson’s letter was written as a means of clarification to congressional Democrats as to how they should respond to Trump’s statements that he will deport criminal illegal aliens and possibly others. Trump has said he plans to focus on building a border wall and removing those in the country illegally who have been arrested for criminal offenses before he considers others who came into the U.S. without legal permission.
“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” Trump told Time last month. “They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”
