DACA Update
It would seem that, with the election behind us, we are finally beginning to see some good news for immigration policy. On December 4, 2020, Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York ordered the government to reinstate the DACA program fully and immediately! U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated their website on December 7, 2020 in compliance with the federal court order.
Effective December 7, 2020, USCIS is accepting first-time requests, renewal requests, and applications for advance parole documents, as well as extending one-year grants of deferred action and one-year employment authorization documents to two years.
As a reminder, we had seen some back and forth action on this issue over the past year, with the Trump administration insisting on terminating the program, and then numerous courts, first local and federal, and finally the United States Supreme Court, ultimately upholding the program.
For now, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief, as the nearly 700,000 existing participants, and another 1.3 million people who have become eligible for the program since the Trump administration first stopped accepting new applications in 2017, can now again take advantage of these benefits. However, this program remains under siege in the courts.
We are sure this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of meaningful change to immigration policy under the Biden administration.
Please contact our office to schedule an appointment if you are eligible for DACA or have questions about your DACA eligibility! Let’s file those DACA applications!!! 🎉
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