On Capitol Hill this spring, the familiar rhythms of debate over immigration reform once again echoed through the marble corridors. At the center of the conversation: the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, a policy that has shielded roughly half a million young people from deportation since its creation in 2012. But as 2025 unfolds, the political landscape around DACA appears more uncertain than ever, with bipartisan support flickering but real progress stalled by a single, unmistakable obstacle—President Donald Trump’s stance.
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Florida, stepped to the podium during a Capitol Hill event on May 1, 2024, determined to press the issue. Earlier in the year, she introduced a bill offering a pathway to legal status for DACA recipients and others—a move that garnered rare bipartisan backing. Salazar, acknowledging the legal limbo many DACA recipients face, summed up her pragmatic approach: "I understand they are undocumented. I get it that they broke the law. I get it. But they're needed in the economy and someone gave them a job." According to NPR, she went on, "President Trump is a guy who gets things done and he can do it. And I am sure that he will come to the realization that this is what's good for America so we can make America greater."
Despite Salazar’s optimism, her bill’s fate—and that of DACA’s nearly 500,000 beneficiaries—remains tightly tethered to the White House. Over the past decade, Republican support for DACA has ebbed and flowed. In 2017, 34 GOP lawmakers signed a letter urging then-House Speaker Paul Ryan to pass a permanent fix after Trump first tried to rescind the program. Yet by 2025, only eight of those Republicans remain in the House, and the coalition’s urgency has all but evaporated. As Muzaffar Chishti of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute told NPR, "Allowing DACA to go forward became a political hot potato for the Republicans. Congress always tries to kick the can down the street."
For DACA recipients, that political indecision has had real consequences. Despite the program’s protections, nearly 20 DACA recipients without criminal records have been detained by immigration officials in 2025 alone, according to the immigrant rights group Home is Here. The detentions have fueled anxiety among recipients and advocates, especially as Trump’s administration, buoyed by record congressional funding, has expanded the reach of its deportation efforts. Immigration advocates and Democrats warn that DACA recipients could easily become collateral damage in broader enforcement campaigns.
The White House, however, remains steadfast in its priorities. As spokesperson Abigail Jackson explained, "The Trump Administration's top immigration enforcement priority is arresting and removing the dangerous violent, illegal criminal aliens that Joe Biden let flood across our Southern Border – of which there are many. America is safer because of President Trump's immigration policies." While Trump has occasionally floated the idea of a legislative solution for certain groups, such as farmworkers, there has been little concrete effort to advance those proposals. Republican lawmakers open to a DACA deal continue to defer to the president for direction. As NPR reported, nearly every Republican previously supportive of a DACA solution insisted that Trump must be the one to initiate talks.
That dynamic has left the DACA debate in limbo. During his first network interview after winning the election, Trump said he’d be open to negotiating a deal for DACA with Democrats. Yet more recently, border czar Tom Homan signaled a lack of urgency, telling reporters, "no one is prioritizing DACA" for enforcement. Republican strategists say that as long as the administration views border security as the only essential immigration issue, legislative progress on DACA is unlikely. "The Trump administration's position is that the only thing that is important on immigration is shutting the border. Almost everything [else] to this administration looks secondary," Chishti told NPR. "As long as that doesn't change as a signal from President Trump, I don't think we're going to see much movement from Republicans in the House or the Senate."
Still, efforts to broker a bipartisan solution persist, if somewhat quietly. Rep. Salazar remains the most visible Republican champion for DACA on Capitol Hill. In an interview, she told NPR, "I have no doubt that we have started a national conversation as to what are we going to do with those people, including the DACA kids, who have roots in the country, who have children, who have been working, paying taxes and do not have a criminal record. That is the national conversation that we need to sit down on the table and specifically the GOP, my party and my president. We can definitely solve it."
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, echoed that sentiment. He affirmed his unwavering support for DACA and, along with fellow caucus members, recently announced a framework to kickstart negotiations on broader immigration legislation. "I look in America and look [at] how immigrants built this country," he reflected, adding, "So it's really a question for my colleagues as to whether they view America that way." Earlier this year, the caucus sent a letter to the White House requesting a meeting to discuss a bipartisan compromise, with the immediate goal of developing a general framework. But as Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, pointed out, real progress hinges on a clear signal from the top: "The political reality here is he could snap his fingers and tomorrow we'll have an intelligent conversation."
The Senate, for its part, remains a tough sell. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who cosponsored the Dream Act in 2024, stressed the need to prioritize enforcement over legalization: "If you start legalizing anybody now, that's just another magnet. So I want to turn off the magnets before we do anything," he told NPR. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has also introduced measures for DACA recipients, predicted little movement before the new year. "I hope the president goes back to what he said in his first term – he thinks there's room for legal immigration and more people immigrating legally here," Tillis remarked. Meanwhile, Sen. John Cornyn, who once spoke forcefully in favor of a DACA fix, now believes other immigration priorities take precedence. "These young people who've now grown to be adults have found themselves in a very bad situation but don't see any prospects for immigration bills, including for them, any time soon," Cornyn said. "Thankfully, the border has settled down, but we still have a lot of people in the country who are under final orders of deportation shouldn't be here. And I think at some point, hopefully, we can have that conversation. But I don't think any time soon."
As summer approaches, the fate of DACA and its recipients remains suspended in a familiar Washington holding pattern—caught between bipartisan goodwill, shifting political winds, and the singular authority of a president who, for now, holds all the cards. For the hundreds of thousands who have built lives under DACA’s uncertain protection, the wait continues.
