DREAMERS/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Around the country, thousands of young undocumented immigrants like them have been lining up at legal clinics and scrambling to finish paperwork before the clock runs out on their chance to live and work legally in the United States.
Like Mr. Solis, who came to the United States from El Salvador when he was 7, they are hoping to renew their participation in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which since 2012 has allowed them to obtain work permits and reprieves from deportation, renewable every two years. But on Sept. 5, the Trump administration announced that it was winding down the program, and that it would accept no more renewal applications after Thursday.
Since the announcement, nonprofits and advocacy groups have rushed to offer free legal advice, help filling out applications and, in some cases, assistance covering the $495 renewal fee…
The Trump administration, facing the threat of a lawsuit from several Republican state attorneys general if it did not repeal DACA, argued that the program was unconstitutional and an overreach of presidential power. It said it would begin phasing out the Obama-era program, which covers about 800,000 people, on March 6, 2018. The president added that it was up to Congress to grant the protections, and he has urged it to do so…
Between Sept. 5 and last Wednesday, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said it had received 39,400 renewal requests, more than it typically receives in a whole month. That number does not include applications filed before Sept. 5, or the ones that have flooded into government processing centers in the final days.”
-Miriam Jordan, “‘Dreamers’ Rush to Renew Their Protections One Last Time,” The New York Times online, Oct. 2, 2017