Dreamers Meet Nightmares: Ensnared by ICE, Another Reason Americans Are Rejecting Mass Deportation

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Washington, DC — As America’s Voice details in our polling memo, the more Americans witness the Trump administration’s mass deportation crusade in action, the more they reject it. Detaining and deporting Dreamers with and without DACA status are among the myriad of reasons “why.”

According to Mario Carrillo, Campaigns Director for America’s Voice:

“It was always a lie. I never believed that the same candidate who proudly presided over a RNC that featured ‘mass deportation now’ signs and who ran the ugliest anti-immigrant campaign in modern history would only focus ICE on the ‘worst of the worst,’ as some in the Trump world tried to claim. The lie is now clear as day. The administration has made it abundantly clear that they are going after everyone, including detaining and deporting Dreamers with and without DACA. With dreams turning into nightmares, it’s little wonder that the public is rejecting mass deportation and calling for policies that would offer Dreamers citizenship in the country they’ve long called home.”

For NBC News, Nicole Acevedo writes, “Detentions of DACA recipients show they’re not shielded from Trump’s mass deportations,” noting a series of recent examples of DACA recipients being detained and writing:

“[Fears] of possible deportation are becoming a reality for some undocumented young adults with legal permission to work and study in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA … Anabel Mendoza, director of communications at United We Dream, the nation’s largest immigrant youth-led network, told NBC News the organization is starting to notice a ‘growing pattern that is exposing the vulnerabilities’ DACA recipients face under Trump’s immigration crackdown … Polls and surveys have consistently shown that most U.S. adults favor granting permanent legal status and a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers” — young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.”

To the above point, polling released this month from Gallup found that 85% of Americans, including 71% of Republicans, support a way for Dreamers to become U.S. citizens.

Yet as Susan Collins, Chief of Staff and Government Affairs of TheDream.US, wrote in a recent op-ed in the Deseret News (UT), “Targeting Dreamers like Caroline Dias Goncalves is not a mistake. It’s the policy.” As Collins wrote:

“[Caroline] was pulled over in Mesa County, Colorado. The officer knew her story — knew she had come to the U.S. as a child of just seven years old, was raised in Utah and was now studying to become a nurse at the University of Utah as a TheDream.US scholar. She had no criminal record. He didn’t even issue a traffic ticket. But he still flagged her for ICE — likely in violation of Colorado law. And ICE detained her anyway.

…And worst of all? They strapped a blinking, beeping GPS ankle monitor to her. It needs to be charged several times a day. It’s bulky and clumsy. It’s humiliating. And it is a constant reminder that our government considers her a threat. Not a college student. Not a future nurse. Not a beloved daughter and friend. Not the young woman who loves to listen to country music and wear cowboy boots. But a criminal.

This is not a glitch in the system. This is the system. And unfortunately, Caroline’s story is not an isolated one … Instead of more detentions and deportations, America’s interests and values are better served by delivering education, enforcement protections and permanent legal status for Dreamers. Caroline and countless others in her shoes should not have to live in fear or with tenuous futures in the only home many have ever known.”

And as David Bier, Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute reminds in a MSNBC op-ed:

“The [Trump] administration can’t achieve ‘mass deportation’ by targeting criminals. There simply are not ‘millions and millions of immigrant criminals, and they are often more difficult to find and arrest than immigrants who play by the rules.”