3 minPolitics
Jeffries backs returning deported DACA recipients and offering them assistance
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said he backs bringing back deported DACA recipients and offering them remedial assistance, a proposal that drew sharp criticism from conservatives.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he supports bringing back DACA recipients who were deported, and he proposed what he called "remedial assistance" for those he says were treated unfairly by the Trump administration. The remarks, made in a PBS NewsHour interview on Tuesday, quickly drew backlash, with critics arguing that the plan goes beyond simply returning people to the country and amounts to paying deported immigrants.
Jeffries did not specify what the assistance would involve, and it remains unclear whether it would include financial compensation. That ambiguity has become the center of the dispute. Conservative commentators, including Benny Johnson and other accounts on social media, condemned the remarks, portraying the proposal as a payout to people who were removed from the country.
DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, offers temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to people brought to the United States as children. It does not confer legal immigration status, and recipients remain deportable. The Department of Homeland Security has stressed that point in recent statements, saying the program provides no legal status.
The debate has also drawn in the administration's own position. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has floated a path to permanent status through Congress, and the White House has left the door open to a deal for long-term residents who have no other criminal record. Both President Donald Trump and Mullin have ruled out amnesty, which keeps any such arrangement tied to legislation rather than executive action.
DHS has also released enforcement figures to frame the discussion. According to the department, 264 DACA recipients were arrested between January 2025 and September 2025, and more than 92 percent of them were charged or convicted of a crime. Those numbers have been cited by critics of any broad accommodation for the group.
Jeffries framed his position as part of a larger push to fix the immigration system comprehensively. He called on Congress to move the Dream and Promise Act, legislation that would provide a path to legal status for many young immigrants. He also said Democrats would not fund the administration's deportation effort, setting up a potential clash over spending priorities.
Whether Jeffries's proposal for remedial assistance will advance beyond the interview remains uncertain. The specifics he has not yet offered, particularly on compensation, are likely to determine how the idea is received in Congress and in the wider public debate over DACA recipients who were removed from the country.
Source: foxnews.com
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