Rush to renew work permits before United States ends program

The line stretches down the block before the sun rises in Los Angeles for immigrants seeking help to renew their work permits under a five-year-old program that has shielded them from deportation but is now nearing its end.

Ivan Vizueta, a 25-year-old from Long Beach, Calif., brought a folding chair and music to pass the time while waiting to renew the papers that enable him to work for a plumbing company and earn nearly twice the wages he once did loading and unloading cargo containers.

The lines have been a regular occurrence in recent days, with some people camping out as early as 3 a.m.

“I have to do this so I have another two years of safety,” said Vizueta, who was brought to the country nearly two decades ago from Mexico and hopes to run his own plumbing business someday.

For immigrants like Vizueta, it’s a race against the clock as they rush to renew their permits ahead of a looming Oct. 5 deadline set by the Trump administration. After that date, no one else can renew under a program that has let nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the United States as children work even though they lack legal papers.

The work permits have been a lifeline for many young immigrants who have been educated in American schools and know no other home than the United States.

The program created by President Barack Obama in 2012 also protected these immigrants, many of them in their 20s, from being deported to countries they hardly remember. Critics call it an illegal amnesty program that is taking jobs from U.S. citizens.