Rep. Susan Davis led 78 of her colleagues in the House of Representatives in calling on the Trump administration to protect the Dreamers’ personal information from use in immigration enforcement activity.
The 800,000 immigrants who were brought to America as children provided the Department of Homeland Security with their name, address and other personal information in order to register under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Davis and her house colleagues are worried this information makes the Dreamers easy targets for deportation after the program was ended Tuesday.
“We have heard from countless young people who are terrified of their information being given to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and used for enforcement purposes…We urge the Department of Homeland Security to protect this critical information, and ensure that this personal data will not be used for deportation purposes,” the Congressional group wrote in a letter Thursday to the acting head of the department.
Davis was joined by other Democratic members of the San Diego delegation, including Rep. Juan Vargas and Rep. Scott Peters, in signing the letter.
While senior DHS officials have said the Dreamers are not targets for immediate deportation, a White House “talking points” memo urges “DACA recipients to use the time remaining on their work authorizations to prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States.”
