The Border Patrol announced its third arrest of an illegal immigrant “Dreamer” on smuggling charges this week, saying agents nabbed a 26-year-old man who had picked up four illegal immigrants who sneaked into the U.S. from Mexico.
Agents said they spotted the four men’s footprints and radioed to other agents who spotted the four getting into a pickup truck in a nearby citrus grove.
After stopping the truck, they discovered the driver was in the U.S. under protection of the Obama-era DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — deportation amnesty.
On Monday, the Border Patrol announced arrests of two other Dreamers in California for separate smuggling incidents.
Last year, Border Patrol agents manning a highway checkpoint in Texas snared two other Dreamers in separate smuggling cases.
The spate of arrests is a black eye for the DACA program, which President Barack Obama ordered created in 2012 to protect young adult illegal immigrants from deportation and give them a foothold in U.S. society.
Many have taken full advantage of the chance, but thousands have squandered it.
As of last summer, more than 2,100 Dreamers had had their DACA status revoked for gang or criminal behavior.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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