Immigration:
Undocumented residents scramble to renew thousands of permits before an Oct. 5 deadline.
President Trump’s decision to wipe out deportation reprieves for young undocumented immigrants has unleashed a frenzied rush to renew 154,000 permits before an Oct. 5 deadline, a process advocacy groups say will cost millions of dollars in fees and stretch their resources to the limit.
In hurricane-ravaged Houston, lawyers are clearing their calendars to help immigrants fill out the forms. Nationwide, immigrants and nonprofits are raising money online to help cover the $495 renewal fees.
“It’s definitely one disaster after another: one of natural causes and one man-made,” said Maria Rodriguez, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition in Miami, which is coping with Hurricane Irma. “It’s heartbreaking.”
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will eliminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an Obama-era executive action that protected hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Almost 700,000 people — who have come to be known as “Dreamers” — have that protection now, government officials said last week. Critics say then-President Barack Obama did not have the authority to create the program when he set it up in 2012, and they say DACA beneficiaries take jobs and other benefits that should go to legal residents.
Those whose deferredaction status is expiring between Sept. 5 and March 5, 2018, have a month to apply to renew their work permits. A successful application would be only a reprieve, valid for two years.
“It fell on people like a bag of bricks ... and it’s only starting to sink in,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of organizations providing legal services to immigrants. “It’s 5,133 (renewal applications) every day, including today. That’s 214 per hour, if we work all night long.”
Advocates are urging Trump to extend the Oct. 5 deadline to give immigrants a chance to raise money to pay the renewal fees. They also say immigrants in Texas and Florida, which have large undocumented populations, could miss the deadline because of the extreme disruption caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Barring action from Congress, thousands of DACA recipients will begin losing their legal status in March. About 200,000 will be phased out of the program in 2018, followed by 320,000 in 2019. The program would cease to exist by 2020, federal officials said Friday. Multiple bills are pending in Congress to address the situation of young immigrants.