ACLU Statement on the Trump Administration’s DACA Roll Back

WASHINGTON — The White House announced today that it is rolling back the full Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and replacing it with a skeleton program that will accept no new applicants and renew protection for only one year, instead of two. This comes just over a month after the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s first attempt to end DACA and jeopardize the lives of over 700,000 DACA recipients.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has fought the Trump administration’s termination of DACA since September 2017, and filed an amicus brief in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California in 2019. In a separate case, the ACLU and the ACLU of Southern California won a nationwide preliminary injunction on behalf of a class of young immigrants challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful revocations of their DACA status. The ACLU has also been active in the fight for the American Dream and Promise Act, legislation that passed the House last year and is sitting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. It would provide permanent protections for Dreamers.

The following is a statement from Andrea Flores, deputy director of immigration policy for the American Civil Liberties Union:

“For the past three years, President Trump and Stephen Miller have pledged to end DACA, a critical program that protects hundreds of thousands of young Americans in waiting. After losing this issue in the Supreme Court, Trump took yet another step today toward his ultimate goal of destroying the lives of Dreamers.

“Unlike most issues confronting our nation, DACA — and the fate of Dreamers — is a bipartisan issue with bipartisan support. More than three out of four American voters and 69 percent of Trump voters support DACA and Dreamers. Make no mistake, the vast popularity of the program, combined with a looming election, prevented Trump from immediately ending the program. But this policy memo makes his intentions clear: His next move is a complete end to the DACA program to destroy the lives of Dreamers once again. It appears everyone but the president knows that Dreamers belong at home in the United States.

“Today is another cruel day for Dreamers, their families, and all Americans. But we promise, just like the Dreamers, who have fought for decades, we won’t stop fighting.”