Q: How many people in Georgia registered under DACA will lose their status before the March deadline for Congress to act?
–Nancy K. Samuel, Lawrenceville
A: According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, just over 28,500 people in Georgia were enrolled in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals as of spring 2017 and about another 18,000 were eligible for the program. DACA provides certain benefits to immigrants who entered the United States before the age of 16, specifically eligibility to request employment authorization.
All DACA benefits are provided on a two-year basis, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said those who currently have DACA will be able to keep it and their work authorizations until that two-year term expires.
In a memo earlier this month, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the Department of Homeland Security that DACA, created in 2012 without congressional authority, was an “open-ended circumvention of immigration laws” that faced legal and constitutional challenges in “potentially imminent litigation” by several states. Sessions recommended DHS wind down the program “in an efficient and orderly fashion,” which DHS began on Sept. 5 and will conclude in March 2018.
Individuals who had not submitted an initial request for DACA by Sept. 5 are no longer eligible to apply. However, USCIS will consider applications for those whose DACA benefits will expire between Sept. 5, 2017 and March 5, 2018 if a properly filed renewal request is received by Oct. 5.
President Donald Trump has asked Congress to pass legislation that would legalize DACA benefits past the expiration deadline, and has indicated he may revisit the issue if Congress doesn’t act.
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