The election of a president who opposed his predecessor’s immigration proposals has led many people who qualified for DACA to ask if they should even bother to renew their DACA application under the Trump administration.
The answer is yes. While Donald Trump spoke about targeting dreamers during the election campaign, he hasn’t said much about it since he was elected.
While DACA is often discussed in relation to Obama’s unsuccessful attempts to extend the program, many people forget that 800,000 plus undocumented youths who came to the country as children were allowed to apply for DACA a few years earlier. They were made eligible for work authorization, stated U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
DACA is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Our Austin family immigration lawyers describe the program here.
There are many reasons to renew your DACA application
There are many good reasons for renewing your DACA application and not many for giving up.
Even if Trump were to rescind DACA, it usually takes time to abandon a major program of this nature. You could still benefit from having it until then. If you file an application and the program is terminated before the application is granted, you will get the fee back. You have nothing to lose if you file.
Typically, when a discretionary program like DACA or Temporary Protected Status is ended, the termination will not be immediate.
Bills to Protect Your DACA Application
There are also some moves to protect dreamers. In December, a bipartisanbill called the Bridge Act, was submitted to Congress.
It would grant the young people who were granted DACA status protection from deportation should Trump follow through with his pre-election pledge.
The new bill would put DACA recipients into a new status, “provisional protected presence.” They would be protected for at least three years from enactment.
If you don’t renew your DACA application you will be allowing Trump to inflict your worst case scenario on the basis of a pre-election threat. We have seen Trump backtracking on a raft of threatened immigration measures including the building of the wall between Mexico and the United States.
At Peek Law Group , our Austin immigration attorneys can advise you of your rights if you are facing deportation and help you plot a course of action.
Call us today for a consultation at (512) 399-2311.