“As of June 2016, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that they had received 844,931 applications for DACA status. Of these, only 7% percent (60,269) were denied. Over half of these applications came from people living in California and Texas.”
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions held a press conference on Tuesday, September 5th, he announced that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy enacted by President Obama was being rescinded and would expire in six months.
The overturn of DACA had been one of President Trump’s campaign promises during the 2016 presidential election, and the Attorneys General of ten states had announced that if President Trump did not end DACA by September 5th they would be filing a lawsuit against him.
Among the states that vowed to sue the President for rescinding DACA include California, New York, and Washington. According to Washington’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson, they “have been working closely with legal teams around the country, and we expect to be joined by other states in this action.”
The DACA program was enacted via executive order by President Obama in June of 2012. He signed the executive order authorizing DACA after attempts to craft legislation that would create a path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants had repeatedly fallen short, stalled out, or failed outright. DACA allowed DREAMers (illegal immigrants who entered the United States before 2007, were under 16 when they arrived, and either have or are working towards a high school diploma) to obtain temporary protection from deportation and attain a renewable two-year long work permit.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stated that they will not be targeting DACA holders, but that anybody whole loses their DACA status will be treated like any other person in the United States illegally.
Upon DACA being enacted, it was estimated that as many as 1.7 million illegal immigrants could be eligible for the protections and benefits offered under the policy. As of June 2016, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that they had received 844,931 applications for DACA status. Of these, only 7% percent (60,269) were denied. Over half of these applications came from people living in California and Texas.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), they would continue to process all of the new DACA applications that had been received as of the day of the announcement, but would not be accepting any new applications moving forward. Any applications for renewal that had been received as of the day of the announcement would be processed as usual.
Illegal immigrants whose DACA status will expire between now and March 5, 2018 can still apply for a renewal by October 5, 2017. These renewals will still last for two years; illegal immigrants with DACA status will not have it stripped before the end of their two-year authorization. USCIS also announced that they would no longer be approving advance parole requests associated with DACA.
The DHS states that there are 275,344 illegal immigrants who will have their DACA status expire in 2018; of those, 7,271 have already applied for their renewal. Between January and August of 2019, another 321,920 people will have their DACA status expire; of these, only 8 have already applied for renewal.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stated that they will not be targeting DACA holders, but that anybody whole loses their DACA status will be treated like any other person in the United States illegally.
There is no public plan for what will happen at the end of the six-month rollback, if Congress does not take legislative action.
