The main purposes of DACA was to get immigrants to "come out of the shadows" and have individuals self-report and turn themselves in, in exchange for temporary benifits to, primarily, their children. As stated at the time:

“Deferred action is not a pathway to citizenship. It is not legal status. It simply says that for three years, you are not a law enforcement priority and are not going to go after you, It is temporary and it is revocable.”

It was part of a series of incredibly smart, effective and efficient moves which resulted in record high deportations without needing a bunch of jackbooted thugs cracking skulls in the street.

For a while. Now we're in the "jackbooted thugs" phase which is less efficient, but plays better with the base it's trying to appease. It's less efficient and less people are getting deported overall, which is good. But the majority of those are switching from self-deportations to direct expulsions which are getting increasingly violent, a process that started back in 2021.