A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official has told Newsweek a significant proportion of Dreamers should be granted legal status, arguing that deporting them would be unnecessary and unjust.

"If a child came here at eight years old and they're 35 now, living a productive life, supporting a family—we don't need to be deporting them," said Scott Mechkowski, a retired ICE agent who worked for the agency from the mid-1990s until 2019.

Why It Matters

ICE has been thrust into the forefront of the national conversation surrounding immigration enforcement amid President Donald Trump's election-mandated plans to carry out the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history.

Dreamers protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children without legal authorization. The DACA program grants them temporary protection from deportation and allows them to live and work in the country legally. While DACA is intended to shield recipients from ICE detention and removal, these protections are not permanent and can be revoked under certain circumstances.

Trump has suggested he wants a deal to protect Dreamers, but his plans to expel migrants who are in the U.S. illegally have left millions of DACA recipients uncertain about their fate in a country they've long called home.
Calls for Reform Amid Political Stalemate

Calls for Reform Amid Political Stalemate


Amid his concerns about crime and border security, Mechkowski emphasized that many immigrants with no legal status—especially Dreamers—deserve a path to legal residency. He criticized both political parties for failing to address the immigration system's deeper problems.

Mechkowski, who rose to the position of Deputy Field Office Director in New York City, expressed frustration over the lack of legislative action on immigration reform. He criticized politicians who, he said, use immigration as a political talking point rather than working toward real solutions.

"There are a percentage of people who deserve, at this point, to be legalized," said Mechkowski in an interview with Newsweek.

Mechkowski, who identifies at the center of the political spectrum said he does not support mass amnesty or catch-and-release policies.

"There's other DACA recipients, there are people who just filed for DACA that were not eligible but you know got it or whatever, you know, we suck at record keeping sometimes," he said.

He pointed to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) hosting "Know Your Rights" sessions for immigrants with no legal status and criticized the move. Other Democratic lawmakers have promoted the sessions without any backlash.

Mechkowski recognized that AOC's session was entirely legal, but wanted to see members of Congress take more action to reform the broken immigration system.

"AOC did it for clout. But I think it's despicable behavior that she could spend time doing that and not calling members of Congress to the table to do some reform," he said.

DACA recipients are often called Dreamers, after the DREAM Act—Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors—which offered many of the same protections but never passed Congress, notes The Associated Press.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-agent-d...status-2042767