WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) has joined legislation to prohibit the sharing of sensitive personal data, like taxpayer and health information, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act would provide a statutory guarantee to current and prospective Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program applicants, also known as Dreamers, that the private information they provide in their applications will not be used against them. This comes as the Trump Administration increases information sharing to advance its mass deportation agenda.

The Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act will prohibit the DHS Secretary from disclosing information included in an individual’s application for the DACA program to law enforcement agencies, including ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), for any purpose other than the implementation of the DACA program, with limited exceptions.

“Dreamers are productive, established members of our community woven into the fabric of our lives; neighbors and friends that go to school, work at the local store, and contribute honestly to American society no matter the passport they hold,” Senator King said. “The Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act would allow thousands of law-abiding Dreamers to continue living their lives and making contributions to society without fear of their personal information being misused by those enforcing the administration’s misguided deportation agenda.”

Since 2012, more than 825,000 people have received deferred action pursuant to DACA, contributing an estimated $140 billion to the U.S. economy in spending power and paying $40 billion in combined federal, payroll, state, and local taxes. In 2021, a federal district court judge paused the DACA program and prevented USCIS from approving any new DACA applications. In March 2025, however, a Fifth Circuit decision giving United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) the authority to start processing initial DACA applications from states other than Texas went into effect.

Last month, the Trump Administration gave Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personal data, including immigration status, on millions of Medicaid enrollees and announced it would require some undocumented immigrants to register with DHS. The Administration also finalized an agreement giving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to taxpayer data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, the Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recently gained access to key immigration databases, including the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) Courts and Appeals System (ECAS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Data Business Intelligence Services, which contains information on noncitizens who have applied for DACA, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Unaccompanied Alien Children portal.

Specifically, the Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act will:

1. Direct the DHS Secretary to protect the information included in an individual’s application to the DACA program from disclosure to ICE, CBP, and any other law enforcement agency for any purpose other than the implementation of the DACA program;
2. Prohibit the DHS Secretary from referring anyone with deferred enforcement protections pursuant to the DACA program to ICE, CBP, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and any other law enforcement agency; and
3. Provide limited exceptions for when an individual’s application information may be shared with national security and law enforcement agencies, namely:
1. To identify or prevent fraudulent claims;
2. For particularized national security concerns; and
3. For the investigation or prosecution of a felony, provided that the felony in question is not related to the applicant’s immigration status.

In addition to King, this bill is cosponsored by Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Brian Schatz (D-HI), John Fetterman (D-PA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Patty Murray (D-WA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Peter Welch (D-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Jack Reed (D-RI), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).

Senator King is a strong opponent of the Trump Administration’s continued efforts to repeal protections for DACA recipients. He has repeatedly sought a legislative solution to provide stability for DACA recipients. Most recently, he sent a letter to Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Angelica Alfonso-Royals, highlighting the popular support for providing Dreamers a pathway to citizenship and request that the Trump Administration comply with the recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling to resume processing applications for DACA. Previously, Senator King joined a group of his Senate colleagues in a letter urging former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to immediately take up the bipartisan House-passed American Dream and Promise Act, which would establish a path to citizenship for Dreamers and immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). In addition, King led a bipartisan proposal with Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) that would have provided legislative protections for Dreamers.

A one-page summary of the bill is here.

The text of the bill is here.

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