According to a letter from the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Todd Lyons, the agency deported 174 individuals who were renewing their protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program between January and September 2025. The letter, sent to Illinois congressional representative Delia Ramirez and reviewed by the Guardian, also confirmed that 270 DACA recipients were arrested during that same period, which covered the first nine months of Donald Trump's second presidency.
Clarifying Conflicting Information
Prior to this revelation, the number of DACA recipients targeted for arrest and deportation in 2025 was unclear due to conflicting information provided by former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem in two separate letters to members of Congress. Lyons' letter, dated April 7, attributed the confusion to a "scripting issue" and clarified that a January 12 letter from Noem to Ramirez contained the accurate figures, while a separate letter to US senator Dick Durbin of Illinois included inaccurate data.
Political Context and Reactions
The figures cited by Lyons represent a significant rebuke by the Trump administration against the DACA program, established in 2012 during Barack Obama's presidency. This program allows undocumented individuals who arrived in the US as children, often referred to as "Dreamers," to live and work in the country with certain protections from deportation. DACA has been embroiled in ongoing contentious litigation, placing its recipients at constant risk.
In a statement to the Guardian, Representative Ramirez condemned the deportations as evidence of a "white nationalist agenda" orchestrated by the Trump administration and White House adviser Stephen Miller. She asserted that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has refused to abide by DACA protections, putting Dreamers in great danger. "The mandate from Trump and Miller is clear: our neighbors will continue to be terrorized, detention will continue to be unsafe and fascists will continue to try to profit from our pain," Ramirez stated, calling for the abolition of ICE and dismantling of DHS.
DHS Response and Additional Arrests
In response, a DHS spokesperson emphasized that DACA does not confer any form of legal status in the United States. "Any illegal alien who is a DACA recipient may be subject to arrest and deportation for a number of reasons, including if they've committed a crime," the spokesperson said. The majority of arrested DACA recipients had been charged with crimes, according to the DHS.
The DHS also disclosed that between late September and mid-November 2025, an additional 73 DACA recipients were arrested by ICE, bringing the total number arrested in the first eleven months of 2025 to at least 343. This escalation aligns with the Trump administration's commitment to targeting individuals who immigrated to the US without permission, including those whose deportations were not prioritized under previous administrations.
Broader Immigration Enforcement Trends
An analysis by the Guardian indicates that the Trump administration has expanded its enforcement actions to include refugees, people with temporary protected status, asylum seekers, victims of crime, and other immigrants with existing deportation protections. This aggressive approach marks a significant shift in US immigration policy.
Data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) shows there are approximately 533,000 active Dreamers nationwide. DACA recipients are required to undergo vetting when reapplying to the program, a process that has now been overshadowed by increased enforcement actions.
Lyons, who is set to retire from ICE at the end of May, provided these critical figures amid a politically charged environment. The arrests and deportations of DACA recipients highlight the ongoing volatility of immigration policy in the United States, with profound implications for hundreds of thousands of Dreamers and the communities they call home.
