Immigrants scrambling to complete DACA paperwork amid hurricanes
Tens of thousands must overcome hardships and renew their applications by the Oct. 5 deadline.
As Harvey struck Houston, Esti Garza fled her home with a change of clothes, a Bible and her immigration paperwork.
Days later, she brought several manila envelopes containing the documents to a Houston office, where lawyers and immigrants sat in pairs around a long conference room table.
Having just survived Harvey, they had moved on to the next urgent matter in their lives: rushing to get their applications renewed for a program protecting young immigrants that the White House began dismantling this week.
“You’re just trying to cope with everything all at once,” said the 20-year-old Garza, whose family was forced out of their home for a week due to the flooding. “First your residence, and now your legal status.”
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that his administration would begin phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that grants a temporary reprieve from deportation to nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. The program will no longer take new applicants, but current participants whose permits are set to expire in the next six months are allowed to submit renewal applications by Oct. 5.
The deadline set off an immediate scramble for tens of thousands of immigrants to renew their applications over the next four weeks, most dramatically in Houston and Miami as they deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and threat of Hurricane Irma.
In Texas, Harvey displaced thousands of people, flooded roads, destroyed homes and shut down many lawyers’ offices for several days. Irma is threatening to do the same to Florida. Texas has about 124,000 DACA recipients, and Florida more than 30,000.