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After Supreme Court Victory, DACA Hopefuls Wait To Apply -- With No Guidance Yet From Feds
DACA supporters drive around Macarthur Park honking and chanting during a rally celebrating the Supreme Court decision to let DACA continue for now. (Chava Sanchez/ LAist)
It’s been a couple of weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program protects younger immigrants without legal status from deportation, and many people are now eager to apply for DACA for the first time. Until the recent decision, only existing DACA recipeints could renew their status following the Trump administration's attempt to end the program in 2017.
But there’s a problem: The federal government has not said if and when it will take new applicants for the program.
"They may delay instructions and we may not know what to do in the meantime," said Luis Perez, legal services director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
Last week, CHIRLA mailed off a new DACA application to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services -- a test case of sorts. They haven’t received a response yet.
"As soon as we do, we'll be able to share the status of that of that application, maybe as a way to encourage others to do the same," Perez said.
In the meantime, CHIRLA has been advising DACA hopefuls to get their documents in order. They must show they were born after 1981 and entered the country before age 16.
Federal immigration officials had no comment at this time other than a statement from a USCIS official referring to DACA recipients as “illegal aliens.”
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The high court ruled last month against the Trump administration, saying the way in which the administration rescinded DACA in 2017 was "arbitrary and capricious."
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