Immigration lawyers and advocacy groups are advising undocumented immigrants not to enroll in a federal deferred-action program created by President Barack Obama over fears that the Trump administration will use their personal information to detain and deport them.
The caution reflects deepening anxiety over sweeping new enforcement guidelines from Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly that aim to ramp up deportations of the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Kelly’s directives do not overturn the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which has granted renewable, two-year work permits to more than 750,000 immigrants who came to the country illegally as children. But lawyers said that the broad expansion of the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement powers has heightened the risk for immigrants who have registered with the agency.
Under the program, applicants are required to present proof of their identity, such as a passport or birth certificate, and show documentation of where they go to school or work.
"The main risk is bringing attention to yourself," said Gregory Chen, advocacy director for the 14,000-member American Immigration Lawyers Association, which is advising people not to enroll. "Our reading of the DHS memos, and we’ve looked carefully at the language that creates an exception for and retains DACA, is that they really are cold comfort to anyone concerned about the viability of their immigration status."
Read more at The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/advocates-warn-dreamers-to-lie-low-as-trump-ramps-up-deportation-plans/2017/02/26/4483abaa-f1fd-11e6-b9c9-e83fce42fb61_story.html