DHS officials said that DACA requirements stipulate that recipients who commit crimes or have ties to gangs can be stripped of their protections. Since 2012, about 1,500 people have been removed from DACA over such infractions, said Christensen, the spokeswoman.

“People have a lot of anxiety and fear,” said Cristina Jiménez, executive director of United We Dream, the largest advocacy group for dreamers.

Jiménez said her organization, which has received more than 400 calls and thousands of emails since the ICE raids, is advising undocumented immigrants not to sign up for DACA and cautioning those already in the program not to travel outside the country even though the rules allow them to do so.

“We don’t feel that we have certainty about the program,” said Jiménez, whose brother is a DACA recipient. “The Trump administration has emboldened agencies to do what he promised during the campaign, which is mass deportation. People are terrified.”