Washington, DC — Republicans are gearing up to move forward their mass deportation and ballroom-focused reconciliation bill, despite the colossally misplaced priorities they represent. The bill would gift Stephen Miller with more than $70 billion in new funding without restraints or reforms, on top of more than $170 billion already directed to mass deportation last year.
Two powerful pieces focused on Dreamers and DACA delays offer a disturbing reminder about who Miller and his allies are targeting with this unfettered funding. In a Washington Post op-ed, “Yes, Trump is deporting ‘Dreamers.’ Now here’s the quiet part,” longtime Senate champion of Dreamers Dick Durbin (D-IL) highlights why bureaucratic delays in processing DACA applications and the recent BIA DACA ruling underscore the rising threats against Dreamers.
And in the America’s Voice Substack, Gabe Ortiz writes “Trump is Breaking DACA’s Promise,” making clear why the slow-walking of DACA applications is best viewed as part of Stephen Miller and allies’ plans to target Dreamers. Both opinion pieces are excerpted below.
According to Joanna Kuebler, Chief of Programs at America’s Voice:
“The GOP priorities are clear – and wildly out of sync with the American people. The latest move: build a billion dollar ballroom and gift Stephen Miller billions for ICE with no accountability, in order to deport Dreamers who have grown up in America. All of this while gas prices soar, healthcare is out of reach, and groceries rip a hold in our paycheck.
More constructive is Democratic Senator Dick Durbin who, like many in his party, is putting forward sensible solutions to protect Dreamers and fix our immigration system at a time when voters reject the extreme mass deportation agenda. Meanwhile, Stephen Miller is targeting Dreamers and other long-settled and deeply rooted immigrants, many of whom have legal status and protections that Miller is trying to strip and deny in order to make them deportable.
Republicans in Congress should own up to the reality – if they go along with the colossally misplaced priorities represented by the mass deportation and ballroom budget bill, they will be on the record for funding the deportation of Dreamers.”
Find key excerpts from the two Dreamer/DACA focused opinion pieces below:
A Washington Post op-ed from Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), “Yes, Trump is deporting ‘Dreamers.’ Now here’s the quiet part.”
“According to Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 261 DACA recipients between Jan. 1 and Nov. 19, 2025, and 86 have been removed from the country. These arrests and deportations are deeply disturbing. But the administration is also waging a quiet bureaucratic war on DACA recipients.
For months, there have been significant delays in processing DACA renewal applications. My office learned that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is applying “processing holds” on applications from recipients from 39 countries. There is no timeline for when processing will resume, and the indefinite holds on DACA applications have never been publicly announced.
…These delays may seem like a minor bureaucratic change, but when a person’s DACA authorization expires, they lose their ability to work and their protection from deportation. Then, on April 24, the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, which has been politicized by the Trump administration, issued a controversial decision holding that a DACA authorization is not a basis for stopping removal proceedings. This cruel decision means DACA recipients could be issued deportation orders.
…The Trump administration may be hoping that no one will notice these attempts to gut protections for hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients. But American communities, families and employers depend on the dreamers. Uprooting them will inflict unnecessary social, emotional and economic costs on all of us. … They are not a threat to this country. Instead, they prove that the American Dream is alive and well. And they deserve a path to becoming U.S. citizens.”
At America’s Voice Substack, Gabe Ortiz writes, “Trump is Breaking DACA’s Promise,” noting:
“The Trump administration has been hellbent on targeting immigrants who hold legal status and current protections – and not even the beneficiaries of one of the most popular immigration programs in recent U.S. history are being spared from this mass deportation agenda.
In an alarming new precedent, the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) – the highest administrative body for interpreting and applying U.S. immigration laws – issued a decision that could make it easier for mass deportation agents to arrest, detain, and kick out DACA recipients despite holding long-standing protections that have allowed them to live and work in the only country that many have known as home.
…These delays aren’t simply a matter of bureaucratic frustration, like experiencing a long line at the DMV. They’re intentionally destructive. The Heritage Foundation’s notorious Project 2025 proposed terminating the status of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients “by eliminating staff time for reviewing and processing renewal applications,” as the Niskanen Center noted in 2024.
…The administration’s agenda could not be more out of touch with American voters, who strongly support putting Dreamers on a pathway to legalization and allowing them to more fully contribute and keep their families together. Instead, Trump is breaking the promise that the federal government made to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, which said that if they submitted their information, paid their fees, and followed the rules, they could live their lives with some ease.”
