Washington, D.C. — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson demanding answers about changes made to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that encourage fraud and abuse, and information about the scope of the program. Earlier this summer, Obama Administration officials quietly made several changes to DACA, including weakening the educational requirements and stating that for any documentary evidence provided by an applicant to meet DACA requirements, officials “may verify information,” as opposed to actually verifying the veracity of the documents.
Since USCIS is not regularly verifying the validity of the documentary evidence provided to it, Chairman Goodlatte and Senator Grassley write that “applicants will undoubtedly take advantage of this fraud loophole.” They further state that “the American people deserve to understand why their own government would be encouraging fraud and potentially even helping some who want to do us harm game the system in order to do so.”
In the letter, Chairman Goodlatte and Senator Grassley ask 25 detailed questions about the DACA program, including the number of applications that have been approved, rejected, and denied as well as information about what immigration benefits DACA applicants have received. Of particular importance is obtaining information on the individuals who received DACA but later had the benefit terminated. Additionally, Chairman Goodlatte and Senator Grassley ask if gang members have benefited from DACA and if taxpayer dollars are being used to cover the cost of the program. To read the letter, click here.
Changes to the DACA program can be found on USCIS’ website in the FAQ section.
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