DACA processing delays have resulted in permit renewals taking months to process. This poses serious employment risks for many of the approximately 600,000 persons seeking to rely on DACA to legally authorize their employment. Bureaucratic red tape and higher than ever volumes of applications have compounded an already uncertain situation for many DACA recipients. The problem has even caught the attention of the business community who find themselves at the whim of DACA renewal delays.
Without renewed processing, employment, health benefits and family obligations are all in jeopardy for many recipients. So too is the uncertainty of DACA renewal decisions a problem for employers who have come to rely on their workforce. Immigration advocates though are pushing the Biden Administration and Congress to tackle the renewal backlog and pass legislation that would give DACA recipients permanent relief. The existing U.S. immigration system they argue is inadequate for the needs of DACA recipients who have made their lives here and whose contributions to the U.S. economy are substantial.
The DACA processing delays underscore the need for a more stable and permanent system to ensure the safety and certainty of DACA recipients. Despite current litigation and political uncertainty, advocates stress the need for a permanent fix to DACA processing issues as well as the larger problem of securing the status of all DACA recipients.
All of these new developments serve to illustrate the tenuous nature of DACA recipient status and the need for legislative fixes. So long as the litigation and politics surrounding DACA remain in flux, living and working in the U.S. with DACA status will carry with it the very real risk of status loss due to bureaucratic delay.
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