'Dangerous' moment, as Trump's DHS ignores DACA protections, advocates say

Immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children are the latest target of the Trump administration's mass-deportation campaign, and the future of the Obama-era program that has protected hundreds of thousands from removal — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA — is increasingly in peril, advocates say.

Recent arrests of immigrants with DACA protection, including a 27-year-old Arizona man arrested by Yuma border agents this month, have spurred outrage and will likely lead to a legal showdown, possibly in the nation's highest court, legal experts said.

In Tucson, advocates are fielding calls from worried DACA recipients amid the recent arrests, said Carolina Silva, executive director of Scholarships A-Z, a nonprofit that supports undocumented youth and those with DACA status in accessing higher education.

"This is really scary. DACA recipients should be safe," she said. "It opens up the door to, who else is going to be targeted? And what can we do about it when it literally feels like DHS is not following their own rules?"

Though President Donald Trump previously said he supported creating a path to permanency for "Dreamers" — immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, including DACA recipients — the U.S. Department of Homeland Security now argues that DACA recipients may be subject to arrest and deportation, and encourages them to "self deport."

"It's an abuse of power," said Alba Jaramillo, a Tucson immigration attorney and co-executive director of the Immigration Law and Justice Network. "When they created the program, and by giving all these Dreamers the opportunity to apply, they’re promising them deferment of deportation. So this could result in a legal challenge against the administration for arresting people that already have been granted relief from deportation, even if it's a temporary relief."

In an emailed statement, the White House press office ignored the Star's query about Trump's position on DACA and the recent arrests of DACA recipients, but provided a statement about prioritizing the removal of violent criminals.

Established in 2012, DACA grants work authorization and temporary protection from removal to qualifying undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children prior to 2007.

DACA recipients must reapply for the program every two years, must have entered the U.S. before age 16 and cannot be a threat to public safety or national security, federal guidelines say.

The 2012 DHS memo announcing the program was codified in the Code of Federal Regulations.

The Trump administration hasn't altered the code, but has simply rejected its premise — that DACA temporarily protects enrollees from removal — without explanation, said Tucson immigration attorney Rachel Wilson.

"We all agreed on that, because that's what the words say," Wilson said. "Now Trump is trying to take the position that, 'I don't think the words mean that.' Basically saying, 'Make me. Make me stop trying to deport this person.'"

Wilson relates it to DHS's efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and Columbia University student, for his pro-Palestine political activism, she said.

"Before, we always assumed, because the law says it, that you can’t be thrown out (of the U.S.) for speech-related issues. But Trump is saying, 'Oh really? Let me try,'" she said. "It's the same tactic. ... He is taking every institution and pushing it in every way he can, to find the parts that break."

Ultimately, the courts will have to weigh in, which will first require detained DACA recipients to file a legal challenge, Wilson said.

"It's not going to be settled until it makes its way through various district courts, and possibly even the Supreme Court," she said.

Rallying for DACA recipients will become part of Tucson organizers' "overall resistance strategy," said Jaramillo, an organizer with Coalición de Derechos Humanos in Tucson.

"We’re seeing so many people unlawfully being detained by ICE," she said. "At this point, if you're not a U.S. citizen, there’s really no saying what the government is going to do to try to strip your status and put you at risk of arrest. It’s a very, very dangerous time."

'Perfect is not enough'

Today, there are more than 525,000 active DACA recipients, who are mostly under age 36. About 81% are from Mexico.

In his first term, Trump tried to end DACA, but in 2020 was blocked by the Supreme Court. The program was reopened to new applicants that year, but processing of those applications was shut down again in 2021, when a Texas judge ruled the program unlawful and blocked new applicants. The ruling allowed existing DACA recipients to maintain their status as the case went through appeals.

Most with DACA were taught from a young age to be high achievers and avoid any bad behavior, said Luna Lara, 30, a Tucson-based DACA recipient, who works as an insurance adjuster. Lara's mother moved her children to Texas from Nuevo Leon, Mexico when she was 3 and her brother was 6 months old.

"We're still trying to prove ourselves," she said. "It's a lot of weight on everybody’s shoulders. ... It's like a DACA unspoken rule that we have to keep showing our best."

Tucson videographer Liz, who asked to be identified only by her middle name, said her parents moved with her to the U.S. in 2001, when she was 1 year old, after her older sister died from medical problems that couldn’t be treated in Mexico.

Growing up in Tucson, Liz, now 25, said she was told not to tell anyone she was born in Mexico, but didn't understand what "undocumented" meant until years later. She applied for and received DACA as a teen, but threats to the program have brought uncertainty, and some heartbreak, to her life.

When DACA was paused during Trump's first term, DACA recipients lost the ability to apply for "advanced parole," which allowed for travel outside the U.S. That meant Liz couldn't go to Mexico to see her grandfather before his death, she said.

Liz applied for 60 scholarships to piece together funding for college, since DACA recipients can’t apply for federal financial aid through FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid program. 

"I was a straight-A student and that didn’t matter," in terms of financial aid, she said. "It’s really weird. Being perfect is not enough."

After one year at Pima Community College, she transferred to the University of Arizona, where she took on as many classes as she could to ensure her scholarship funds would last.

"I knew I just needed to finish as soon as I could," said Liz, who graduated in 2021, after two years at UA.

Liz recently saw a therapist for the first time to address her worsening anxiety and "overthinking," due to the constant news about Trump’s mass deportations, she said. She’s not only worried for herself, but also for her undocumented parents, and has nixed plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue filmmaking so she can "watch over them" in Tucson, she said.

“Half the time I try not to even look (at the news), to try not to make myself more upset,” she said.

CBP declines interview

Several DACA recipients across the country have been detained in recent months, including a father of three who was arrested in June after a traffic stop and was among the first detained at "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida. The arresting agents told him that "DACA was canceled," the man told CBS News.

In Yuma, DACA recipient Jose Valdovinos, 27, was arrested by border agents on Aug. 10, despite having no criminal record and having renewed his DACA status every two years, his wife Jitzell Flores told local media. Flores said her family is now declining media interviews as her husband's case proceeds.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Dennis Smith declined the Star's request to interview Border Patrol's Yuma sector chief Justin De La Torre about Valdovinos' arrest, and about how the agency is handling DACA recipients.

CBP, which also declined the Star's request to interview Tucson sector chief Sean McGoffin on DACA, provided a written statement from DHS that said border agents stopped Valdovinos' vehicle — at the time, driven by his U.S. citizen wife — because it was "driving in a suspicious manner."

CBP would not elaborate on what that means, nor why Valdovinos and his wife were questioned about their citizenship, in response to the Star's follow-up questions.

The DHS statement described Valdovinos as "a citizen of Mexico with no legal status to reside in the U.S. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings."

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"Illegal aliens who claim to be recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals are not automatically protected from deportations," said the statement, attributed to DHS assistant press secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country. Any illegal alien who is a DACA recipient may be subject to arrest and deportation for any number of reasons."

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that processes DACA applications, says while DACA does not confer "lawful immigration status," it does mean the person is allowed to be in the country and is protected from removal.

"An individual who has received deferred action is authorized by DHS to be in the United States for the duration of the deferred action period," the website said. The status can be revoked, but DACA recipients are first supposed to receive notice and an opportunity to respond, except in the case of certain serious crimes.

DACA recipient Cata Xóchitl Santiago, an immigrant rights activist, was arrested by border agents Aug. 3 while trying to board a domestic flight at the El Paso airport. Her friend and fellow activist Belén Sisa, of Phoenix, helped organize a vigil for Santiago on Wednesday night in Tempe.

Sisa, also a DACA recipient, said she'll continue to be vocal in her fight for immigrant rights, despite her growing concern that she could be arrested for being so public in her advocacy.

She cited USCIS's recent move to expand scrutiny of immigrants' social-media posts for "anti-American activity," which she calls an effort to silence dissent.

"I don't want to give them the satisfaction of silencing me," Sisa said. "If that means I will be retaliated against, at least I will go down fighting, and I will go out with people knowing the truth about what this administration truly is doing to people. Because the moment that all of these things happen in darkness is the moment when we’ve lost."

Contributions of DACA

Arrests of DACA recipients are "meant to instill fear" in a population of young people whose contributions to the country are well-documented, and whose presence here has broad bipartisan support, said Anabel Mendoza, communications director for United We Dream, an immigrant-youth group.

"It's meant to make people who should be protected feel like they’re not, and that is something we should be outraged about," she said. 

A 2020 Pew Research Center survey found 74% of respondents supported a path to permanency for Dreamers, including 54% of Republican or Republican-leaning respondents.

An annual survey of DACA recipients, led by United We Dream and other immigrant-rights groups, found more than nine in 10 DACA recipients were in school or employed, earning an average of $66,300 a year and contributing to the U.S. tax base. DACA status increased their consumer spending, with 26% of DACA recipients reporting purchasing their first home, and 72% buying their first car, after receiving DACA. 

Legal challenges to DACA mean young people who otherwise qualify are living in limbo, including Tucson DACA applicant Yaneth, 22, who asked to be identified only by her middle name, due to her fear of arrest.

The recent Grand Canyon University graduate is a "Dreamer" whose parents brought her to the U.S. when she was 3. But Yaneth was too young to apply for DACA when it first opened, and by the time she could apply, at age 15, the program was closed under the first Trump administration.

When the program reopened to new applicants in December 2020, Yaneth got her application in the next month. But in July 2021, USCIS stopped processing new applications, leaving about 90,000 applications pending, including Yaneth's.

"It was very hard. I got my hopes up. I was already envisioning what I would do," she said, such as getting her driver's license and work authorization. She said she's been able to obtain work in her field — business administration and marketing — by acting as an independent contractor.

Yaneth said she still checks her USCIS account every day to look for updates, despite knowing applications are frozen.

"It would change my life" to get DACA, she said. "It would alleviate a lot of my problems."

Yet considering recent arrests and ICE's apparent reliance on racial profiling, Yaneth said now she'd still fear arrest even if she had DACA.

"I look Mexican. It seems like that's all that matters now," she said.

Legislators weigh in

Republicans looking to echo Trump's views on DACA have to deal with his administration's backtracking on the president's earlier support for immigrants brought to the U.S. as kids. 

U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Arizona, did not respond to the Star's multiple requests for an update on his position on DACA, which he's previously supported.

In December, Ciscomani said on X, formerly Twitter, that he agreed with Trump that DACA recipients should be able to stay in the U.S., linking to a story quoting Trump on his support for Dreamers, reiterating that support in a May post.

"I agree with President Trump," Ciscomani said in the December post. "We must secure the border and DACA recipients should be able to stay in the country. It’s time to find a permanent solution for this critical issue that is near and dear to my heart and #AZ06. This has been a long time priority of mine and I look forward to partnering with President Trump and my colleagues to ensure these young people can have a well deserved shot at the American Dream!"

In an emailed statement, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, said the Trump administration should work with Congress on "real, lasting solutions" and that he'll keep pushing for a path to citizenship for Dreamers.

"President Trump’s decision to target DACA recipients is plain wrong," Kelly said. "Dreamers are as American as my own two daughters. Going after Dreamers instead of real criminals is ripping families apart, spreading fear, and wasting taxpayer money."

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, introduced immigration-reform legislation in July that included a path to citizenship for Dreamers.

"The U.S. is the only home most Dreamers have ever known," Gallego said in an emailed statement. "They have attended our schools, obtained degrees, grown our economy, and started families here — which makes our communities stronger. They’re just as American as my kids. Not only is this attempt to strip them of legal protections wrong, it is also self-defeating. This cruelty once again highlights the desperate need for Congress to deliver long-term solutions that fix our broken immigration system."

Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who is running for Congressional District 7 seat previously occupied by her father, Raúl Grijalva, said she's strongly opposed to DHS's current stance on DACA.

"If you’re a DACA recipient and have committed no crimes whatsoever, you should be protected," she said in an interview. "Just like in many other situations, this administration is blurring those lines, and innocent people are clearly being swept up for deportation efforts. ... This administration has thrown due process out the window. And unfortunately, what that means for so many families in Southern Arizona and across the nation is everything is a question mark."

Grijalva noted her support for the "American Dream and Promise Act," which provides a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers and was recently reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Grijalva's opponent, Republican Daniel Butierez, said he has friends with DACA, and he believes that status should protect them from deportation. He also supports a path to permanency for Dreamers, such as legal permanent residency.

"It’s not their fault they’re here," he said in a brief phone call Friday. "They should have legal status … and I absolutely agree they should not be arrested."

DACA was meant to be a temporary measure awaiting a permanent legislative fix, but lawmakers in Congress have failed to take action for more than a decade, Silva said.

"We talk about the law like it's this unmovable thing," she said. "But all of them (legislators) have decision-making power. All of them have the ability to choose what our laws look like. I don't know, I don't think it should be that hard. ... Especially in light of the political climate, this would be the right time for elected officials to stand up and put their money where their mouth is."

In the meantime, USCIS is still allowing existing DACA recipients to renew their status — at a cost of $555 online, or $605 via mail. But it's unclear whether that renewal provides real safety under an administration unbound by its own regulations, Silva said.

"The tactics of ICE and DHS have escalated so much that people are scared, even if they have that status and that protection," she said.