In early September of 2017, President Donald Trump made an announcement to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. As of March 6, 2018, DACA was not renewed and a replacement was not agreed upon. This leaves hundreds of thousands of immigrants confused as they struggle to renew their protections.
DACA is an American immigration policy that was established by the Obama Administrat
ion in summer of 2012. This policy allowed people who had entered the country illegally under the age 18 to get a renewable two-year time period from deportation and become eligible for a work permit. As of 2017, about 800,000 people were enrolled in this program.
Those 800,000 enrolled in this program will now be facing new challenges due to the fact that the Trump administration rescinded the program.
According to its website, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is once again accepting DACA requests for those who have previously been granted deferred action. This is after the site previously stated they would no longer be accepting initial requests for the program.
So everyone is asking the same question: what does this mean for me?
Many politicians are strongly urging Trump to find a permanent replacement for DACA.
The reason behind the 6-month deadline was to give a window for congress to come up with a new legislation plan to protect those still coming into this country, but no new plan was agreed upon. Unfortunately, it is unclear if Congress will actually be able to come up with a legislation protecting them.
In theory, the recipients of DACA will not be a first priority to be deported. Homeland Security stated that it will not be targeting the program’s recipients, although there is no guarantee that they will not be deported.
Lots of things are still uncertain and some details still need to be worked out. Overall, this repeal affects thousands of people in the United States and will have a heavy impact on the nation.
Many Americans also jumped to support the repeal in disagreement, standing with those trying to enter our country and build a better lives for themselves.
