DACA in Jeopardy Again

After 9 years of having the DACA program in place, a federal judge has chosen now as the right time to determine that when it was put in place 2 presidents ago, the rules were not properly followed in starting the program.

Frankly, it’s inexplicable. If this were an issue, it should have come up at the time it was instituted, not now. That being said, it is what it is at this point, and we need to consider how to move forward in light of the order from the court.

DACA Program On Hold

In short, the court has found that the Obama Administration did not follow the law in instituting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA for short. The consequence of that finding is that the program is on hold for now, while the government and those who brought the lawsuit against the government seeking to end the program respond to the judge’s concerns.

USCIS has stated it is committed to continuing to fight for the DACA program and those who have benefitted from it and may benefit from it in the future. Renewal applications at this time are not affected. If you are seeking to renew DACA, at this time, you can still do that.

However, those who are now eligible or ready to seek DACA for the first time will find their applications on hold pending the outcome of the decision from the judge. Those eligible can, and should, consider filing the DACA application. The more applications that are filed, the more encouraged USCIS will be in continuing to fight for those of you in this unfortunate situation.

USCIS Appealing Case To Protect DACA

USCIS has also stated it is committed to appealing the case to the appeals court and to keep fighting. That’s good news because with how things are shaping up now, it appears they may have to do that.

Being optimistic, we hope that the action taken by the judge in this case will renew calls in Congress to make a statutory change for those people who were brought to the US at a young age and otherwise meet the criteria for DACA benefits. Perhaps this is what they need to get moving in the direction of real change rather than leaving the administration with the only option of temporary change.