Jeffries Backs Bringing Back Deported DACA Recipients With ‘Remedial Assistance,’ as ICE Posts Record Deportations
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is set to become speaker in January, says he would “certainly” support bringing back DACA recipients who were deported and giving “remedial assistance” to people he says the Trump administration treated unfairly.
Jeffries made the comments on “PBS NewsHour” on Tuesday. Asked whether he would support efforts to bring deported DACA recipients back to the U.S., he answered, “Certainly,” according to a transcript posted by his office.
“Anyone, whether they are a citizen, whether they were here lawfully, whether they’re DACA recipients, who’ve been treated unfairly and unjustly by the administration, we need to provide remedial assistance to them and undo the damage that’s been done to the country, to law-abiding immigrant families and to the American people over this last 20 months or so,” Jeffries said, Fox News reported.
He did not say whether that assistance would include money, and his office did not answer Fox News Digital’s question about it, the outlet reported.
Jeffries also repeated his pledge on enforcement funding. “We’re not going to provide a dime to the administration’s violent mass deportation machine,” he said, per the transcript, and suggested starting with the Dream and Promise Act.
‘Out of Whack’
The White House hit back. “Democrats show time and time again with their extremist, anti-American policies that they care more about illegal aliens than U.S. citizens,” spokeswoman Lauren Bis said, Fox News reported.
Even a Democrat piled on. Strategist Julian Epstein said he has yet to hear concrete plans on housing, energy and health care costs, “But the incoming speaker seems to have very specific plans on how to provide more welfare for illegal immigrants.” The focus, he said, is “a sign of priorities out of whack,” according to Fox News.
Podcaster Benny Johnson wrote that Jeffries “wants to re-import DACA recipients that have already been deported and pay them,” Fox News reported.
DACA shields some immigrants brought to the country illegally as children from deportation and lets them apply for work permits, but it grants no legal status. DHS has said more than 92% of the 264 DACA recipients ICE arrested between Jan. 20 and Sept. 28, 2025, were charged with or convicted of crimes, Fox News noted.
Record Deportations
The fight comes as DHS reports that ICE deported a record 483,200 people in fiscal 2026, which ended Sept. 30, beating the 442,640 removed the year before, CBS News reported. ICE also made more than 491,000 arrests.
The total is nearly 78% higher than the 271,484 deportations in fiscal 2024, the last full year under President Joe Biden, according to CBS.
“Fiscal Year 2026 saw the highest number of ICE deportations and arrests for any year in ICE’s history,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Thursday, CBS reported. “The total number of ICE arrests in Fiscal Year 2026 was more than all three full fiscal years under Biden combined.”
Researchers at Syracuse University’s TRAC found that formal removals made up just 63% of deportations in July and August, with the rest voluntary departures and returns, CBS noted.
Mullin himself said Monday that Congress could look at a path to permanent status for DACA recipients, though both he and Trump have ruled out amnesty, Fox News reported.
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