DHS: One-in-Ten DACA Migrants Have an Arrest Record

An immigration detainee sits in a high security unit at the Theo Lacy Facility, a county j
Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images

Roughly 80,000 DACA migrants, or one-in-ten, have an arrrest record, says an updated report from the Department of Homeland Security.

“The release of this report reflects the agency’s ongoing focus on transparency,” said a Saturday statement from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It continued. The report shows the arrest rate among the 888,818 migrants who requested DACA status, and the arrest rate among the 765,166 migrants who received the DACA work-permits and no-deportation cards:

 The report provides updated information on known arrests and apprehensions of DACA requestors. The data may include arrests that did not result in convictions or where the charges were dropped or otherwise dismissed. Among the findings of the release are the following:

Nearly 110,000 DACA requestors out of nearly 889,000 (12%) had arrest records. Offenses in these arrest records include assault, battery, rape, murder and driving under the influence.

Of approved DACA requestors with an arrest, 85% (67,861) of them were arrested or apprehended before their most recent DACA approval.

Of approved DACA requestors with an arrest, more than 31% (24,898) of them had more than one arrest.

Of all DACA requestors, 218 had more than 10 arrests. Of those, 54 had a DACA case status of “approved” as of October 2019.

The report shows that 67,861 migrants got into the DACA program despite prior arrests, and 15,903 were approved despite a subsequent arrest.

The data shows that 25,000 people got into the DACA program despite a prior arrest for driving offenses.

The enrolled DACA people include 7,926 people with theft or larceny arrests, 6,892 with drug-related arrests, 4,210 for drunk-driving, and 3,421 with arrests for battery.

They also include 587 migrants with hit-and-run arrests, 269 with arrest for robbery, 15 with arrest for murder, and 62 with arrest for rape.

The numbers are large, but the arrest percentage is a small share of the 765,166 who got into the program. The percentage is low, partly because migrants recognize they will likely be deported if convicted for major crimes. For example, 750,000 of the DACA requesters had no recorded arrests.

But when politicians and law-enforcement officials allow illegals to stay in the United States, they are also making the decision to allow subsequent crimes against Americans and immigrants. For example, the federal data show that 24,898 migrants were arrested at least twice, and 9,799 were arrested at least three times.

The vast majority of the arrested DACA migrants — 91,272 — are Mexican, according to the report. The majority of the crimes were committed in California, Texas, and Florida, along with Illinois and New York.

The report follows the Democrats’ hostile reaction to a tweet from President Trump about criminal activities among the 890,000 younger migrants who have been given the DACA  work permit and exemption from law-enforcement:

For example, Politifact responded to Trump’s tweet with a post headlined, “Donald Trump says some DACA recipients are ‘very tough, hardened criminals.’ That’s False.”

Vox.com claimed, “Trump’s attempt to smear DACA recipients as “hardened criminals” is untethered from reality.”

Few media outlets recognize crime among migrants — even though the crime rate is lower than among other demographics in the United States. For example, the New York Times wrote:

…as the court took up its future on Tuesday, Mr. Trump struck a different tone. “Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from ‘angels,’” he wrote on Twitter. “Some are very tough, hardened criminals.”

In fact, the program has strict requirements. To be eligible for DACA status, applicants had to show that they had committed no serious crimes, had arrived in the United States before they turned 16 and were no older than 30, had lived in the United States for at least the previous five years, and were a high school graduate or a veteran.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.