Congressional Democrats fear the Trump administration might try to deport illegal immigrants with personal information they supplied to qualify for a temporary amnesty program, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.
"We write to urge you to keep the Trump administration's commitment to ensure that the information provided by individuals as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is protected and not used for enforcement purposes," more than three dozen House and Senate Democrats wrote in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security.
They expressed concern over the testimony of acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, who told a congressional committee last month that she could not promise to keep the personal information from being used in deportation moves.
In their letter, the Democrats argued that the United States made a promise to the young immigrants, often called "dreamers," who were brought illegally to the United States by their parents.
"The United States government committed to these young people that the information that they provided to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of the DACA program would not be used against them or their families for immigration enforcement purposes and people applying for DACA relied on this assurance in submitting applications," they wrote.
Former President Barack Obama imposed the program without congressional approval, and President Donald Trump suspended it in September. He gave Congress six months to come up with a solution to the problem.