Trump says some DACA Dreamers are ‘very tough, hardened criminals.’ Are they?
Administration cited nearly 60,000 arrests of approved DACA requestors, some for serious crimes. DACA protection is denied those with felony or serious misdemeanor convictions.
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to hear arguments Tuesday on the Trump administration’s plan to end the DACA program giving deportation protection to young immigrants brought to the country illegally by their parents, the president warned that some of those “Dreamers” are “very tough, hardened criminals.”
But the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program begun by President Obama in 2012 to protect young “Dreamers” from deportation specified that they would not be approved if they had convictions for felonies, serious or multiple misdemeanors.
So what was President Trump talking about? And why would the Republican president consider a deal with congressional Democrats for them to stay if they’re “far from ‘angels’”?
Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from “angels.” Some are very tough, hardened criminals. President Obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2019
Obama created the program after Congress couldn’t agree on a solution for the Dreamers living in the country after being brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. Trump in Sept. 2017 ordered that DACA be phased out after failing to negotiate a compromise with Congress that would include border funding. California and three other states immediately sued to block the move. California has most of the nation’s DACA recipients, 190,840 out of 669,080 recipients as of April.
After federal judges blocked the Trump administration’s effort to cancel DACA, Texas and six other states sued, arguing the program unlawfully bypassed congressional approval. The Supreme Court is now hearing arguments whether the Trump administration has authority to end the program.
The only recent report from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services department on the criminal histories of DACA applicants and recipients was issued in June 2018.
The report said the department had approved 770,628 of 888,765 DACA requestors. Of those, 59,786, or 7.76 percent, were approved with an arrest or law enforcement apprehension on their record. The agency listed the various offense categories of those approved with a prior arrest.
Most — 20,926, or 39 percent — were alleged driving offenses other than drunken driving. An additional 11,861, or 22 percent, involved alleged criminal and civil immigration offenses, followed by 6,629, or 12 percent, for thefts.
There were, however, some arrests for more serious crimes: 10 for murder, 31 for rape, 95 for kidnapping, trafficking or false imprisonment, 187 for robbery and 334 for sexual abuse, statutory rape, indecent exposure or lewd and lascivious acts.
“The truth is that we let those with criminal arrests for sexually assaulting a minor, kidnapping, human trafficking, child pornography or even murder be provided protection from removal,” L. Francis Cissna, the Citizenship and Immigration Services director at the time, said in a news release.
The agency however noted in the news release that “individuals may not have been charged with a crime resulting from the arrest, may have had their charges reduced or dismissed entirely, or may have been acquitted of any charges.” It said that since 2012, about 1 percent of approved DACA requestors have an arrest in any given year.
Citizenship and Immigration Services officials said Tuesday the information was its most up-to-date but did not respond to questions about whether those identified as having arrest histories for serious crimes have since been removed. DACA recipients must renew their status every two years.
Lynette Parker, an immigration law expert and associate clinical professor of law at the Santa Clara University School of Law, said the program is effective at screening those with serious convictions.
“If the person had a conviction that constituted a felony or significant misdemeanor or three misdemeanors or more, then they are no longer eligible,” Parker said. “The system is working for the majority of people who have no record and are doing amazing work. And I think this kind of takes away from all those out there who are studying and have taken on jobs that are very vital in their community.”
Alleged criminal behavior by illegal immigrants has been hotly debated in the battle over DACA and border enforcement. During his 2016 campaign, Trump called for building a “wall” along the southern border with Mexico and highlighted crimes like the 2015 fatal shooting of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant with a history of drug and immigration offenses. The man, who was not a DACA recipient, claimed it was an accident and a jury acquitted him of murder charges.
Advocates of the program have argued the DACA recipients are productive members of their communities whose citizenship status is no fault of their own. Cupertino computer and smartphone giant Apple said in a friend-of-the-court filing last month that it employs 443 Dreamers, saying their diverse backgrounds embody the company’s “innovation strategy.”
“DACA recipients are nurses and doctors, innovators at major businesses, teachers educating our children,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said on Twitter over the weekend. “They are indispensable to our communities.”
DACA recipients are nurses and doctors.
Innovators at major businesses.
Teachers educating our children.
They are indispensable to our communities. Their #HomeIsHere. pic.twitter.com/aNRrwqHlsq
— Xavier Becerra (@XavierBecerra) November 10, 2019