(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Despite claims from Democrats and immigration activists that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would not allow minors with criminal histories to enter the states, many of them appeared to have gang affiliations and arrest records when they received benefits from the program.
According to Just the News, the Center for Immigration Studies released a report showing the number of juvenile criminals that may qualify for DACA without fear of consequences for their records.
“Despite the successful framing of Dreamers and DACA recipients as young people with no criminal records, it turns out that many were affiliated with gangs and many had arrest records when granted DACA benefits, and many others saw their DACA status terminated because of criminal activity,” the report stated.
The release of the study comes just before the House Democrat’s final push to provide the DACA kids with a pathway to citizenship. The Obama administration established the program to prevent the “Dreamers,” or immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, from deportation.
Democrats, the main supporters of the act, insist that only “young people who are poised to contribute to our country and have met strict requirements regarding moral character and criminal history would be eligible.”
“These individuals do not pose a risk to public safety,” said then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. “They do not pose a risk to national security.”
The recently released report revealed that “in actuality, the DACA program is more lenient.”
Certain misdemeanors are often not significant to expel them from DACA eligibility.
The form that Dreamers are required to fill out asks if the they were an active member of a gang, killed or injured someone, committed sexual assault, or been charged with a felony or misdemeanor.
However, the instructions on the form later state that even if the applicant says “yes” to any of these things, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency may grant the applicant DACA protections despite their crimes.
The USCIS released data in 2019 that 7.8% of approved DACA applicants had an arrest record, coming to nearly 60,000 individuals total.
Of those individuals, 53,792 had a record before receiving DACA benefits and 7,814 had a later arrest.
Former USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna revealed that criminal arrests were barely a factor in their consideration process.
“The truth is that we let those with criminal arrests for sexually assaulting a minor, kidnapping, human trafficking, child pornography, or even murder be provided protection from removal,” Cissna explained.
