DACA Green Card Path: What DHS Secretary Mullin Said

A DACA green card path is back in the conversation. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Monday, Nov. 9, that Congress could create a way for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to become permanent residents, while insisting the administration will “never” accept amnesty, according to Fox News, Time and the Daily Wire. Mullin said President Trump had told him to start talking with the Democrats who have been calling him about legislation in the new Congress.

Fox News described the remarks as Mullin’s first public suggestion of such a pathway. Nothing changes in recipients’ paperwork today, but the cabinet secretary responsible for ICE, CBP and USCIS is now describing a DACA deal as Congress’s call rather than a nonstarter. The stakes are concrete: about 455,200 people held active DACA status at the end of March 2026, according to USAFacts, which compiles U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. Roughly 81 percent were born in Mexico, and California (about 126,910) and Texas (about 76,050) had the largest populations.

What Mullin said, and what he ruled out

Speaking to reporters at a counter-drone conference in Maryland, Mullin said that if lawmakers want an immigration reform that would “look at DACA and figure out a way that these individuals can become maybe legal permanent citizens or something like this, that’ll be up to Congress to do that,” according to the Daily Wire and The National News Desk, which credited Politico. He relayed Trump’s instruction as: “Let’s start working with them and then let’s meet at some point.”

The limits came in the same breath. “We’re never going to allow amnesty to happen,” Mullin said, the Daily Wire reported, and he added that the administration’s approach to enforcement “isn’t going to change.” Fox News reported that he said he and the president had not discussed changing enforcement policy.

The comments followed Trump’s Sunday interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” in which he said his deportation campaign might have been “too tough” and suggested working “a deal” for people who have lived in the country for 10 or 15 years (covered here on Nov. 8).

Why a DACA green card needs Congress, not DHS

Mullin’s phrase “legal permanent citizens” blends two different things. A lawful permanent resident holds a green card; citizenship comes later through naturalization, usually after five years.

Either way, the executive branch cannot deliver it alone. DACA is deferred action, a decision not to pursue removal, plus a work permit. It is not a lawful status, a point DHS itself made in a March post on X quoted by Fox News, which said DACA “does not confer any form of legal status in this country.” Most recipients entered the United States without inspection, and Section 245(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act generally lets a person adjust to permanent residence inside the country only after being inspected and admitted or paroled. That is why only recipients who traveled on advance parole and returned, and who have a qualifying family or employment petition, have had a route to a green card; the majority have none.

A statute would have to waive or rewrite those requirements. The closest model is the American Dream and Promise Act, which passed the House in 2019 and again in 2021 but never received a Senate vote. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries named that bill on CBS on Monday as a starting point that would restore protections for DACA and TPS holders, Time reported.

The math of a deal in the new Congress

Democrats will control both chambers next year, The National News Desk reported, but most legislation still needs 60 votes to clear the Senate. That means any DACA bill would need Republican support, and the opening positions are far apart. Jeffries said reforming ICE and ending mass deportation would also be part of the conversation, according to Time, while the House Freedom Caucus posted on X that it rejects amnesty.

If an agreement emerges, it is likely to resemble the trade that has stalled for two decades: permanent status for people who arrived as children, paired with enforcement measures Republicans can call a win. Mullin’s split between DACA relief and “amnesty” suggests the administration would treat people brought as children differently from the broader undocumented population. The open question is whether Trump’s comments survive pushback from his own base, which the earlier round of deal talk already drew.

For recipients, DACA protection still lasts only as long as each two-year grant, so renewal timing matters more than any statement from Washington. Background on the program’s status is in DACA After the Midterms, and the competing legalization proposals are compared in the Dignity Act explainer and the look back at the 1986 law.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds an LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Diego and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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