Federal immigration brokers arrested 261 beneficiaries of the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, throughout the first 10 months of the second Trump administration, based on official U.S. authorities statistics that had been shared with Congress and obtained by CBS Information.
The statistics point out the overwhelming majority of DACA recipients taken into federal immigration custody throughout that interval had legal data.
The federal government figures present essentially the most complete official accounting to date of what number of DACA recipients, also referred to as “Dreamers,” have been swept up by President Trump’s nationwide deportation crackdown.
These enrolled within the Obama-era DACA program got here to the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas as kids. They had been granted short-term work permits and deportation protections after passing background checks and assembly a number of necessities, together with coming to the U.S. earlier than June 2007, not having severe legal histories and graduating from an American highschool or serving within the army.
In a letter to Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned that between Jan. 1 and Nov. 19, 2025, ICE arrested 261 DACA beneficiaries and deported 86 of them. That timeframe contains the ultimate 19 days of President Joe Biden’s time period, although it’s unclear how lots of the arrests occurred below his administration, which not often focused DACA beneficiaries.
DHS mentioned in its letter that 241 — or 92% — of the 261 DACA enrollees taken into ICE custody had “legal histories” outdoors of civil immigration violations. DHS usually considers pending legal prices and convictions as legal histories. The letter, signed by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, didn’t specify the severity of the alleged legal data.
CBS Information reached out to representatives for DHS, together with to request extra particulars on the character of the costs or convictions of the DACA recipients recognized as having legal histories.
In a press release in response to the DHS letter, Durbin and fellow Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Mark Kelly known as the arrests of DACA recipients “deeply troubling,” saying the detentions “disrupt households, hurt communities, and inflict pointless social, emotional, and financial prices.”
The Democratic senators additionally questioned the legal figures supplied by DHS, noting they’re demanding extra particulars.
“Secretary Noem’s response to our letter claims that 241 of the 261 DACA recipients arrested had ‘legal histories,’ with out offering any additional particulars,” they mentioned. “DACA recipients undergo strict background checks each time they renew this safety, and the Trump Administration has not hesitated to arrest immigrants with no severe legal convictions and falsely label them the ‘worst of the worst.'”
The arrests and deportations of DACA recipients characterize a major enhance from unofficial estimates by advocates about what number of “Dreamers” had been arrested below Mr. Trump’s deportation marketing campaign. However additionally they characterize a small fraction of the tons of of hundreds of immigrants with lively DACA standing.
As of the tip of June 2025, roughly 516,000 Dreamers had been enrolled in DACA, with the bulk residing in states like California, Texas, Illinois, Florida and New York, based on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies knowledge.
DACA has been one in every of uncommon immigration packages created below a Democratic president that the second Trump administration has not but moved to finish, although the coverage stays in authorized peril.
Since taking workplace for a second time, Mr. Trump has moved swiftly to undo quite a few Obama and Biden-era immigration insurance policies, together with by revoking the Non permanent Protected Standing of tons of of hundreds of immigrants from crisis-stricken nations. However Trump administration officers, together with USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, have declined to say publicly what they intend to do with DACA.
The primary Trump administration tried to terminate DACA, arguing it was unlawful. However the Supreme Courtroom blocked that effort on technical grounds in 2020, permitting the coverage to outlive, although in a zombie-like type.
Lately, federal courts in Texas and Louisiana have declared DACA — and the Biden administration’s efforts to codify the coverage — unlawful. However they’ve allowed present recipients to proceed renewing their two-year work permits and deportation deferrals.
The Republican-led states difficult DACA’s legality, nonetheless, requested a federal decide in Texas final fall to order the Trump administration to step by step terminate the coverage. It is unclear when or how the decide will rule.
In its letter to Congress, DHS famous DACA is simply a short lived safety that may be revoked.
“It comes with no proper or entitlement to stay in the US indefinitely. Aliens with sure legal histories won’t be thought-about for DACA,” DHS mentioned. “Additional, those that violate the phrases are additionally topic to termination and elimination.”
The excessive share of DACA arrestees with legal histories, as outlined within the DHS letter, stands in sharp distinction with the decrease criminality ranges among the many general variety of individuals taken into ICE custody below the second Trump administration.
In President Trump’s first 12 months again within the White Home, ICE arrested almost 400,000 immigrants suspected of being within the U.S. illegally. In keeping with an inside DHS doc obtained by CBS Information, lower than 14% of arrestees had violent legal data. General, 60% of these arrested by ICE over the previous 12 months had legal prices or convictions, and about 40% didn’t have any legal data, past civil immigration violations.
