Cortez Masto, Colleagues Press Todd Blanche on Decision Weakening Legal Protections for DACA Recipients

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz), alongside U.S. Representatives Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas-29) and Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.-03), led over 50 of their colleagues in pressing Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on the Board of Immigration Appeals' (BIA) recent decision to weaken legal protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. Today is the 14^th Anniversary of DACA, and Senator Cortez Masto is committed to protecting the program from repeated attacks by the Trump Administration.

In a letter to Blanche, the lawmakers raise legal concerns with the decision, highlighting inconsistencies between BIA's ruling and the forbearance protections provided by DACA and upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We are troubled to see the Board, and by extension, the Department of Justice, attempt to circumvent legal protections for DACA recipients, which have been codified in regulation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and affirmed in a recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. We urge you to take steps within your authority as Attorney General to ensure the Board's rulings regarding DACA are interpreted in a manner consistent with current law," the lawmakers began.

"DACA is well established as a 'a form of enforcement discretion not to pursue […] removal.' As the Board noted in its decision, a DACA recipient 'cannot be removed from the United States while she has DACA protection.' DHS established DACA in 2012 by memorandum, and codified it in regulation in 2022. […] By regulation, immigration judges may, in the exercise of discretion, terminate removal proceedings for individuals who have received grants of deferred action," they continued.

"The Fifth Circuit also maintained the nationwide stay for current DACA recipients, acknowledging the 'immense reliance interests' of current DACA recipients and the potential for significant disruption to others reliant on the program. Most important, in its decision, the Fifth Circuit stated that it would 'not disturb DACA's policy of forbearance.' DACA's policy of forbearance, as explained in the DACA regulation, 'is a form of enforcement discretion not to pursue the removal of certain aliens," they wrote.

"By concluding in Matter of Santiago-Santiago that an immigration judge may not terminate removal proceedings based solely on the fact that the respondent has been granted DACA, the Board acts in a manner that is inconsistent with the Fifth Circuit's decision and the Department of Justice regulation permitting termination based on deferred action. The decision fails altogether to consider the DHS regulation's stringent requirements for maintaining and renewing DACA and the Fifth Circuit holding preserving DACA's forbearance from removal. Thus, the Board's decision paves the way for DACA recipients to be detained and placed in removal proceedings without regard for their societal contributions, clean records, or public support, and even though they cannot be removed while their DACA remains valid," they concluded, before making a series of information requests.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

The first and only Latina senator, Senator Cortez Masto has consistently supported immigrant communities in Nevada, including Dreamers. Alongside Senator Durbin, she is leading the bipartisan Dream Act, which would create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. She has consistently raised the alarm about the DACA recipients who have been caught up in the Trump Administration's cruel mass deportation regime and has urged the Department of Homeland Security to end the delays in processing DACA renewals.

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