Youth fear losing their legal permits

Thousands of young immigrants protected by DACA are afraid of losing their legal residence in the US for not being able to renew the permit.

What is DACA?

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) refers to a protection program that President Barack Obama established back in 2012.

This program protects immigrants called “dreamers” who entered the US before turning 16.

They obtain a two-year legal residence permit with the possibility of renewal.

DACA currently protects more than 750,000 minors who legally reside with this permit in the US.

DACA’s current situation

After the two-year legal permit ends, they must contact the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in order to extend their legal residence in the country.

With the current situation of the Coronavirus, the USCIS offices are temporarily out of service at least until May, 2020.

Thus, youth protected by the program who must renew their permit due to its prompt expiration are running out of alternatives because there is currently no face-to-face appointment available with USCIS.

The concern is that in order to renew their residence permits, they must personally go to the USCIS offices to verify their data in the biometric system.

Because the offices are not working right now, they must wait until the COVID-19 situation gets better and the level of contagion slows down before USCIS resumes its services as normal.

What will happen with the “dreamers”?

Given the emergency of the pandemic, USCIS has not been able to establish all the necessary guidelines for them.

Therefore, they stated last Monday that they were going to give more directions to those protected by DACA.

What USCIS is going to do temporarily is reuse the biometric data previously submitted by DACA’s youth.

In this way they do not have to return to the offices to carry out the face-to-face process.

This is excellent news for young people since they have the possibility to extend their residence permit virtually.

It is important to remember that President Trump wanted to remove DACA’s program since he took office in 2017, argumenting that no one has the right to cross a border illegally, even if they are children.

However, the Supreme Court of Justice continues protecting them as they are vulnerable people who want to create a better future for their lives and there is no reason to deny them legal residence in the US.

What does this mean for other permits?

The current government does not completely agree with DACA and if USCIS decided to help young people protected by it in the middle of the pandemic, it is because there are possibilities for any other scenario.

If you are the holder of a residence permit or a visa that expires soon, then, surely you have possibilities to extend your permit.

USCIS created methods to receive applications online.

Therefore, you do not have to worry because there is always a solution and specialists who can guide you in the best way.

If you have any questions about an immigration issue or relating to a case you may have currently in Progress, then please don’t hesitate to contact us for a FREE Phone Consultation with one of our expert immigration attorneys.

Simply call Motion Law today at: (202) 918-1799.