DACA Advocates Launch New Abduction Tracker Amid Trump's Attacks

The Struggle for DACA Recipients

On Thursday, immigrants' rights advocates and lawmakers voiced strong opposition to the Trump administration's targeting of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. As part of their efforts, they launched a new abduction tracker highlighting the plight of these individuals.

The Home is Here campaign introduced this tracker, which lists nearly 20 DACA recipients with valid status, along with more immigrant youth currently held in U.S. custody. This initiative aims to shed light on the ongoing challenges faced by these vulnerable communities.

DACA provides protection from deportation and work authorization to approximately 525,210 people known as Dreamers. According to survey data released in August, these individuals must have arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16 and have continuously resided in the country since June 15, 2007.

In January, a U.S. appeals court allowed current DACA recipients across the country to maintain their protections as long as they met their requirements and renewed their status. Despite this legal support, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has targeted DACA recipients as part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to undermine immigrant communities. Government officials have claimed that the Obama-era program does not confer legal status in the U.S.

"DACA is and always has been lawful. That is why every attempt to try and end DACA through the courts over the last 13 years has failed," said Deya Aldana, director of the United We Dream campaign and a former DACA recipient, during a press call on Thursday.

"What we are seeing is a blatant and alarming escalation in the effort to chip away at and weaken DACA – not in one fell swoop, but piece by piece in the hopes that the American people aren't paying attention," she continued.

"But we are paying attention, and we will be tracking every single piece of evidence to make it undeniably clear the threats DACA recipients and immigrant youth face in this moment."

Heartbreaking Stories of Separation

During the same press call, relatives of detained DACA recipients shared deeply emotional stories about the impact of the Trump administration's actions on families.

Alejandra, the wife of 28-year-old Paulo Cesar Gamez Lira, described her husband's abduction on August 13 by plainclothes officers who showed no warrant as he was leaving his mother's home in El Paso, Texas. "They violently ripped him away in front of his children. It was only through the ring camera at his mother's home that I could hear the kids' screams. No family should ever have to endure that kind of terror," Alejandra said.

Alejandra added that she and her husband, who is currently being held at the Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico, recently welcomed a new baby daughter, now three months old. "Even at her young age, I can feel her longing for her dad. She calms when I show her his picture, but she doesn't have him here to hold her, to rock her to sleep, or to see her first smiles," she said.

"No child should be denied the love and comfort of their father, and no father should be forced to miss the earliest and most precious moments of his child's life."

Commitment to Action

Democratic lawmakers who participated in the call vowed to continue their fight against the attacks on DACA recipients and their families. Representative Sylvia Garcia emphasized the importance of supporting Dreamers. "We will continue this fight today, tomorrow, and every day until we get it done because Dreamers deserve the stability, they deserve dignity, and they deserve a future. And we will not stop until this country keeps its promise to help them and protect them fully and forever."

Garcia reintroduced the American Dream and Promise Act earlier this year, aiming to create a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, Temporary Protected Status holders, and people with Deferred Enforced Departure. "We are going to stand up for these DACA recipients. They are the best of America, and they deserve protection," said Senator Dick Durbin.