FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2017

CONTACT
Email: [email protected]
Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Hayley Burgess, 202-384-1279

With the Window for DACA Renewals Closing, Congress Must Pass a Clean Dream Act Now

WASHINGTON — Today marks the last day that the federal government has said it will accept renewal applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, except on a case-by-case basis for a limited number of applicants in hurricane-impacted areas.

The government has refused to extend the Oct. 5 deadline for DACA renewals, set arbitrarily just a month ago, despite repeated requests and warnings of the potential for harm from a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, overseeing a case challenging the Trump administration’s decision to end the program.

When the administration announced it was ending DACA, it gave DACA recipients whose work authorization would expire between Sept. 5, 2017, and March 5, 2018, one month to submit renewal applications. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), approximately 154,200 DACA recipients were eligible to renew. On Tuesday, Oct. 3, DHS said it had received just over 106,000 applications.

Kamal Essaheb, policy and advocacy director at the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:

“Ending DACA was cruel. Imposing this arbitrary deadline that gave eligible DACA recipients just a few weeks to renew only compounded the cruelty. By the federal government’s own records, tens of thousands of immigrant youth will start losing protections over the next few months—some as early as tomorrow. Overnight, these young people who are contributing to communities across the country will start losing access to their jobs, will have a harder time providing for their families, and will be stripped of their sense of security and belonging in the country they call home.

“The time for talking has passed. The urgency to act to finally provide a permanent solution for immigrant youth has never been clearer. Congress must pass a clean Dream Act now.”

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