The Department of Homeland Security urges DACA recipients to leave the US voluntarily

The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is pushing for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) to voluntarily self-deport.

In a statement to NPR, DHS Assistant Press Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that, "illegal aliens who claim to be recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are not automatically protected from deportations.” She also added that the program does not offer any form of legal status in this country and that any DACA recipient can be arrested and deported for a number of reasons, including if they've committed a crime. 

McLaughlin then called on recipients to self-deport. “We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way,” she said to NPR.

DACA was created in 2012 to protect children who arrived in the country illegally prior to 2007 from deportation. It also offers participants benefits such as work permits and the ability to buy health insurance. 

Since President Donald Trump took office, he has kept his promises of mass deportations and has eliminated several immigration programs. His administration also tried to take DACA benefits away earlier this year but no regulatory changes have been made to end the program.

On July 16, 2021, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the DACA program “is illegal.” The court sided with the plaintiffs, canceled the original DACA policy created in 2012, sent it back to DHS for review and issued a permanent order stopping the government from continuing or restarting DACA unless it follows proper legal procedures.

However, the court temporarily paused its decision to cancel the program's protections for people who received DACA on or before July 16, 2021, including those who are renewing their status. Currently, recipients can still apply to renew their status, but DHS can approve or deny those requests based on the current rules.

As of September 30, 2024, there were roughly 538,000 active DACA recipients in the U.S. Over one in four (28%) active DACA recipients reside in California, with another 17% living in Texas, 5% in Illinois, 4% in New York, 4% in Florida and the remaining 42% distributed in other states across the country. The top countries of birth for active DACA recipients include Mexico (81%), El Salvador (4%) and Guatemala (3%), according to KFF, a health policy organization. 

Other efforts to try to rid DACA holders of certain benefits occurred two months ago when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would make recipients ineligible for the federal healthcare marketplace. Just last week, the U.S. Department of Education said it was opening investigations into five universities that offer financial help to DACA recipients. 

This is not the first time that the Trump administration has encouraged individuals to voluntarily leave the U.S. In March, the self-deportation reporting feature in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home app was released. 

This mobile app, which was originally developed by DHS to facilitate asylum appointments under the Biden administration, requests that all undocumented immigrants add their personal information and then leave the country. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the app gives undocumented immigrants the option to self-deport and potentially return legally in the future. However, it doesn’t explain precisely how. 

In a previous interview with CALÓ News, immigration attorney Alma Rosa Nieto urged people to be cautious when filing any documentation on the CBP Home app because it sounds more like a trap, she said, and Noem's promise seems unrealistic. She said this is a way to encourage immigrants to add their information and leave the country without guaranteeing re-entry.

“No U.S. Embassy or personnel is going to give someone a way to come back in if they've been here undocumented for a number of years,” said Nieto. She advised individuals to seek legal counsel and consult with an experienced immigration attorney to explore their options, as some may be unaware that they are eligible to pursue a case.