The Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program provides amnesty from serious job-related felonies and other crimes committed by DACA-eligible illegal aliens (often called Dreamers) and their employers while providing no assistance to the American citizen victims of their crimes.

Under President Trump's executive order on immigration enforcement, many Dreamers currently protected by or eligible for DACA would be eligible for deportation because of the crimes that they have committed or are committing. In addition, President Trump's Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement office (VOICE) will help the victims of illegal alien crimes by facilitating "engagement with the victims and their families to ensure, to the extent permitted by law, that they are provided information about the offender, including the offender's immigration status and custody status, and that their questions and concerns regarding immigration enforcement efforts are addressed."

Many Deamers Have Committed Felonies and Other Crimes

DACA applies to individuals up to age 31 (as of June 2012, so 35 now) — hardly children; consequently, many Dreamers have long-since terminated their studies and most have committed multiple felonies in order to get jobs — Social Security fraud, forgery, perjury on I-9 forms, falsification of green cards and drivers' licenses, identity theft, etc. Dreamers continue to commit these job-related crimes right up to the day their DACA status is approved and they obtain work permits and their own genuine Social Security numbers.

In addition, many illegal aliens qualifying for DACA status have previously been arrested and convicted of multiple misdemeanors and some have previously been or continue to be associated with violent gangs, as evidenced by a report in the Seattle Times that states that over 1,500 Dreamers have had their DACA status revoked since 2012 due to their involvement with criminal gangs.

DACA Grants Dreamers Amnesty for Felonies and Other Serious Crimes

In spite of this widespread criminal behavior by Dreamers, the current DACA guidelines only exclude individuals who have been convicted of a felony, a significant misdemeanor, or three or more other misdemeanors as long as they do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.

Thus, the DACA guidelines give illegal aliens committing multiple felonies and significant misdemeanors a total pass as long as they have not been convicted of their criminal activity. This means that Dreamer gang-bangers, Dreamer identity thieves, Dreamer sexual predators, Dreamers who haven't paid income taxes, and Dreamers committing a wide range of other crimes all qualify for DACA status as long as they haven't been convicted of their crimes.

These guidelines conflict with President Trump's Executive Order 13768 on immigration enforcement, which makes other illegal aliens committing the same crimes eligible for deportation even if they have not been convicted of their crimes.

It is also important to note that the United States government currently instructs illegal aliens and their employers to hide their criminal activity and/or promises not to hold them accountable for their violations of U.S. and state laws.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) guidance provided in their "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)" tells illegal alien Dreamers to exclude their fraudulently obtained/used Social Security numbers in item 9 of Form I-765 even though this item specifically asks for a list of Social Security Numbers previously used (my explanations are in brackets):

Q73: How should I fill out question 9 on Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization?

A73. When you are filing a Form I-765 as part of a DACA request, question 9 is asking you to list those Social Security numbers that were officially issued to you by the Social Security Administration [not numbers you illegally obtained and used].

USCIS further promises employers that any information about illegal employment practices that they disclose in support of a Dreamer's DACA application will not be used against them:

Q. If I provide my employee with information regarding his or her employment to support a request for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals, will that information be used for immigration enforcement purposes against me and/or my company?

A. You may, as you determine appropriate, provide individuals requesting deferred action for childhood arrivals with documentation which verifies their employment. This information will not be shared with ICE for civil immigration enforcement purposes pursuant to INA section 274A unless there is evidence of egregious violations of criminal statutes or widespread abuses.

USCIS also instructs employers to ignore Dreamers' job-related felonies committed when the Dreamers entered fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers on their original I-9 forms under penalty of perjury. In addition, employers are not required to end the employment of Dreamers committing felony Social Security fraud, perjury, and identity theft. Rather, they are instructed to replace the Dreamers' original I-9 forms with new ones containing the Dreamers' newly issued Social Security numbers. This rewards illegal aliens for their felonies and leaves the Americans who are victims of their identity theft and other criminal actions holding the bag.

GUIDANCE FOR EMPLOYERS OF EXISTING EMPLOYEES.

Employers must have a properly completed Form I-9 on file for every employee hired after November 6, 1986. Deferred action recipients who are currently working [illegally] may provide updated documentation to their employers. An employer receiving updated documentation from an employee should review the employee's previously [fraudulently] completed Form I-9 [under penalty of perjury] and….complete a new I-9 form when any of the following information has changed in Section 1 of the previously completed Form I-9: The employee's name, Date of birth, [perjured] Attestation, [illegally obtained] Social Security number, if a [illegally obtained] social security number was provided on the previously completed Form I-9.

Thus, these USCIS instructions, both independently and taken together, put an agency of the United States government in the position of advising Dreamers to hide their criminal acts and telling employers that if they have (1) employed illegal aliens and (2) if they fail to report Dreamers' criminal activities that neither they nor the Dreamers will be held accountable.

Therefore, the Obama administration's DACA program puts the U.S. government in the position of rewarding Dreamers and their employers for their illegal actions while at the same time turning its back on the American citizen and legal resident victims of the illegal alien Dreamers' crimes.

DACA Must be Ended or Significantly Restructured

As currently structured, DACA is seriously flawed and needs to be either ended or significantly restructured to ensure that Dreamers are not granted amnesty from serious crimes and that their American citizen and legal resident victims are not left holding the bag. In addition, the United States government must stop advising illegal aliens to hide their criminal activities and granting amnesty to employers who have unlawfully hired the illegal alien Dreamers.



