To: Elaine Duke, DHS Secretary
DHS Secretary Duke: Delay Trump's cruel DACA deadline, Give Dreamers a chance
Trump has thrown 800,000 lives into chaos with his decision to terminate the DACA program. The cruel and arbitrary deadline of Oct. 5th for Dreamers to renew legal paperwork (or face deportation) must be changed. Fix this. Extend the deadline 3 months, as Congress determines a way forward.
Why is this important?
Immigration experts believe that the decision to require all DACA recipients whose permission expires in the next six months to have their renewal submitted by October 5 is a deadline that is arbitrary, unworkable, and cruel.
It will result in tens of thousands of current DACA holders losing their protection from deportation and ability to work legally and contribute to our nation. We must ask Sec. Duke, Acting DHS Secretary, to meet with immigration advocates to discuss several policy recommendations, extend the deadline, and restore some measure of sanity to this process.
154,000 DACA beneficiaries have expiration dates between September 5, 2017, and March 5th, 2018. The actual effect of this Oct. 5 deadline is that there must be 5,133 applications filed every single day, including weekends, if the 154,000 current DACA holders whose permissions expire over the next six months are to be able to apply to renew their DACA. This would mean 214 applications must be filed every single hour, all night long, for 30 days.
This is a mess.
Furthermore, many DACA recipients will not have saved for the unexpected $495 expense.
The result of this artificial Oct. 5th deadline is that tens of thousands of DACA recipients could lose their status, their jobs, their homes, and their security and be pushed back into the shadows.
We urge DHS Secretary to take swift and immediate action to extend the DACA renewal deadline to January and meet with immigration legal experts immediately to hear other ways to rectify the current chaos created by Trump's decision.