Trump's Trials - DACA has bipartisan support in Congress, but Republicans are following Trump's lead

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

Congressional Republicans are waiting on President Trump to signal he is ready to negotiate a permanent solution for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. NPR's Ximena Bustillo reports.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. We're going to be doing all sorts of things. Nobody ever thought was even possible. President Trump has brought back string to the White House. We can't just ignore the president's desires. This will be an entirely different country in a short period of time. Every episode of Trump's terms, we bring you NPR's latest coverage of the 47th president.

With a focus on actions and policies he is pursuing on his own terms and in the process, taking the presidency into uncharted territory. Today's story starts right after this. Sources and methods, the crown jewels of the intelligence community, shorthand for how do we know what's real, who told us? If you have those answers, you're on the inside, and NPR wants to bring you there, from the Pentagon to the State Department to spy agencies, listen to understand what's really happening and what it means for you.

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not to over-commit creatively. What can happen and where ambition is let me stray is you end up with a bunch of freaking campfires and no bonfires. Listen or watch that wildcard conversation on YouTube, the NPR app, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. President Trump has vowed to conduct a mass deportation

of everyone who's in the country without legal status. But there are a few groups of people who live in a great area, including DACA recipients. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is supposed to protect people from immigration enforcement, but several DACA recipients have been arrested and detained. NPR's immigration policy reporter Jimena Bustillo has been following this and joins us now. Hi, Amena. Hi. So the DACA program was created in 2012. Where does it stand today?

The program was created to protect children who arrived in the country. country illegally prior to 2007 from deportation. But DACA is not an immediate path to citizenship or even a green card. Participants instead have to renew their protection every two years. They can also be removed from the program and lose protections if they commit crimes. Currently, about half a million people are on DACA, and now many of them are in their 30s and 40s. It provides a work permit and can be adjusted if a person leaves the U.S. and comes back with a visa, or marries a U.S. citizen, among other options to adjust status. And since it was created, there has been no successful effort to provide a pathway to legal status for those who are on the program.

Plus, the president had already tried to repeal DACA in his first term, and he failed to do so. Since President Trump couldn't get DACA repealed then, how is he approaching the program in his second term? So far, no regulatory changes have been made to formally end the program. But parts of Trump's administration have made moves to strip benefits. For example, the Health and Human Services Department said in June, DACA recipients would no longer be eligible to buy insurance through the federal health care marketplace. Then in July, the Education Department launched an investigation into five universities that offer financial help directly to DACA recipients. And as the Homeland Security Department has increased the rates of arrests, there have been reports of DACA recipients being caught up in worksite raids and even deportations. At one point, I asked DHS about this, and they told me that DACA did not confer legal status and that those without legal status are encouraged to self-deport.

Now, that's a very strong message that deviates from the first public statement Trump made after he won the election last year. So what did he say then? At the time, Trump said on NBC's Meet the Press that he would be open to negotiating a deal for DACA with Democrats. Now, both Republicans and Democrats have hung on to that statement made in December as a sign. that someday Trump may say he's ready to come to that negotiating table, though there has since been nearly no discussion on the issue, and instead the focus is still on deportations. DACA could be addressed not just by the president, but particularly by Congress. What can Congress do? Right. Ultimately, any permanent solution has to come from Congress. But the coalition that cares

about this issue is a little bit fractured right now. I spoke with several GOP senators and representatives that have all previously supported finding a pathway for DACA recipients, and Senate Democrats have been increasingly vocal about the urgency to find a solution because arrests are happening. Still, Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and there was the consensus that nothing would happen this year. There are simply other concerns at the top of lawmakers' minds, like keeping the government from shutting down, for example. And they also said that they were waiting for the president himself to say that it's time to broker a deal. There are a few efforts in the House and Senate, individual bills that would provide a pathway to legal status

for DACA recipients, but there isn't a sense that they will move anytime soon, even as Trump's deportation efforts only grow. That's NPR's immigration policy reporter Jimena Bustillo. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Aisha. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news

with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thank for listening to Trump's terms from NPR. With a major shift in our politics underway in this country, 1A is drilling down on what's at stake for you and our democracy.

In our weekly series, If You Can Keep It, we put these changes into focus and answer your questions about the impact of the Trump administration on the U.S. Join us every Monday for If You Can Keep It on the 1A podcast from NPR and WAMU. Hello? Can you hear me? If you can, it means you and I were left behind. The Christian rapture was predicted to happen this past week. It didn't, but that doesn't change the fact that a lot of you all feel like we're living in the end times. And it's been a minute, I'm getting into what, regardless of religion, you're doing with that feeling? Listen to It's been a minute on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.