Dreamers, those who are granted legal status in the U.S. as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, are losing that status "due to criminality or gang affiliation concerns," in larger numbers than in previous years, federal data shows.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that 622 have lost their deferred action status this year, already surpassing the number who had theirs revoked in 2014 and nearly reaching last year's number with several months left to go, The Washington Examiner reports.
Although compared to the hundreds of thousands who obtain deferred status through the program, the number who lose that status for criminal activity or gang affiliation remains low.
According to USCIS, "The deferred action terminations were due to one or more of the following: a felony criminal conviction; a significant misdemeanor conviction; multiple misdemeanor convictions; gang affiliation or arrest of any crime in which there is deemed to be a public safety concern.
Most DACA terminations were based on the following infractions (not ranked): alien smuggling, assaultive offenses, domestic violence, drug offenses, DUI, larceny and thefts, criminal trespass and burglary, sexual offenses with minors, other sex offenses and weapons offenses."