What's next for DACA recipients as deadline approaches?
What's next for DACA recipients as deadline approaches?
By Rafael Bernal - 02/19/18 07:03 PM EST
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Both “Dreamers” and
their employers are worried about how the wind-down of the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals program will affect them, as a Trump
administration deadline to find a deal on the immigrants approaches.
The
Senate failed to pass a legislative replacement to the DACA
program Thursday, leaving Congress with few legislative options and only
four legislative days before President Trump's March 5 deadline.
Recipients
of the program, who were brought to the country illegally as children,
won't automatically lose their benefits at once after March 5.
In
fact, because of two court injunctions in California and New York,
existing beneficiaries are allowed to apply to renew their two-year DACA
permit, which grants them immunity from deportation and a work permit.
The
Supreme Court did not say after its conference Friday whether it would
hear the Trump administration's appeal of a lower court ruling that
blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from winding down the
Obama-era program. A decision on whether to grant or deny the case could
come as soon as Tuesday.
House Speaker Paul Ryan
(R-Wis.) said this week he still wants to pass legislation on DACA in
March, but minimized the importance of the deadline Trump set when he
canceled the program in September.
"We
think this deadline's an important deadline. Obviously, with the court
ruling it's not as important as it was before," Ryan said.
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end of DACA, there were 689,800 registered recipients, according to DHS.
Under
the terms of the memo ending DACA, only beneficiaries whose two-year
permit ended before March 6 were allowed to reapply; those whose permit
ended March 6 and onward were allowed to use up the remainder of their
permit, but not to apply for an extension.
The
latter group made up the bulk of the DACA population — 535,600
beneficiaries were not allowed to renew their status after Sessions'
announcement.
Had the courts not
enjoined Trump's order, DACA protections would start to run out for
recipients. In March, around 13,000 people would lose benefits, then
4,500 in April, 14,000 in May. That would continue until the last
recipients lost their protections inSeptember 2019, according to DHS.
Now
all recipients are allowed to reapply. But activist groups have
expressed concern that DHS may not have the resources to handle all of
the applications, leaving gaps in DACA protections for some recipients.
Recipients
with a gap between one DACA permit and another would lose their jobs —
at least temporarily — and be subject to deportation.
The
memo also rescinded DACA recipients' right to advanced parole, a
feature of the program that allowed beneficiaries to travel
internationally and return to the United States. Until a replacement is
legislated, DACA recipients who had not applied for advanced parole
before Sept. 5 cannot leave the country and come back.
And
an unknown number of Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who arrived in
the United States as minors — would have aged into the program had it
not been rescinded.
Some of those
potential beneficiaries were covered by the proposals rejected by the
Senate this week, but are not protected by the court injunctions.
If
the injunctions were lifted without legislation to replace DACA in
place, Dreamers would lose their benefits. That would bring high costs
to their employers and local economies, according to research by New
American Economy (NAE), a coalition of business leaders and mayors
launched by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
According
to NAE, businesses would incur $1,769,400 in daily re-staffing
costs if DACA ends without being replaced. The program's end would also
mean a loss of local, state and federal taxes, and $339,864 in spending
power lost every week.
"Right now, as
more Dreamers lose status and American companies feel the economic
pinch, it’s imperative the Senate get back to the drawing board and find
a path to 60 votes,” said John Feinblatt, president of NAE.
—Lydia Wheeler contributed.
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