April 5, 2024 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, and U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with 26 Senators, urged U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director (USCIS) Ur M. Jaddou to protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and process renewal applications in a timely manner. 

Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

Many applicants for DACA renewal have reported waiting well over five months for their applications to be processed this fiscal year. USCIS median processing times doubled from fiscal year (FY) 2022 to FY 2023, and so far in FY 2024 (through February 28, 2024) are 90 percent longer than in FY 2023.

“The DACA program has allowed more than 834,000 Dreamers an opportunity to pursue higher education and meaningful careers while remaining in the only home they have ever known. We thank you for your efforts to fortify the DACA program through rulemaking and for the Department of Homeland Security’s defense of that rule in litigation,” wrote the Senators. “Despite these important efforts, DACA recipients face significant uncertainty given litigation challenging the DACA program, and threats by presidential candidate Donald Trump to end the program. Delays in processing DACA renewals are adding to the instability and uncertainty that DACA recipients already face each day.”

The reported median processing time of 1.9 months for renewals for FY 2024 thus far is the highest since FY 2017. USCIS data also shows significant increases in pending application volumes (to their highest total in three years) in addition to past decreases in the quarterly rate of adjudication. At the same time, deferred action for over 150,000 active DACA recipients will expire between March and September of this year, likely resulting in a significant number of new renewal filings.

The Senators cited various ways DACA recipients, their employers, and their families are facing significant disruptions due to these processing delays. In addition, DACA recipients accrue unlawful presence during the period between the expiration of their status and USCIS’ adjudication of their renewal applications, even when they apply well in advance of that expiration. This can have significant negative consequences for them, including potentially making them ineligible for other benefits under our immigration laws.

To reduce these disruptions and uncertainty for DACA recipients, the Senators urged USCIS to make a “focused effort” to reduce pending cases and processing times for DACA renewal applications. They also requested that USCIS start an approved renewal applicant’s DACA period on the date of expiration of the previous period, rather than the current practice of starting the renewal period from the date of approval, to prevent undue harm to DACA recipients and mirror USCIS’ approach for managing the renewal or extension of other immigration benefits.

In addition to Senators Padilla and Durbin, the letter was also signed by Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

More than 800,000 Dreamers have come forward and received DACA since 2012, which has allowed them to contribute more fully to their country as teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, and small business owners. Last year, the Biden Administration issued a regulation fortifying and strengthening the DACA program. Dreamers are protected from deportation for now, but due to lawsuits by extreme MAGA Republicans, their fates are in the hands of a Republican-appointed judge who has repeatedly found DACA and other programs like it unlawful.

Last September, a federal judge in Texas declared the new DACA regulation illegal. Though the decision left in place protections for current DACA recipients while an appeal is pending, they live in fear that the next court decision will upend their lives.

Senator Padilla is a leading voice in the Senate for immigration reform. He has fought relentlessly to expand pathways to citizenship, including through legislation to expand a pathway to permanency for millions of long-term U.S. residents. He repeatedly condemned the proposed threats to the asylum system and lack of legalization provisions in the national security supplemental aid package considered by the Senate earlier this year, and he called on his colleagues and the White House to include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other long-standing undocumented residents in the supplemental.

Padilla’s bill, the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929 Act, would update the existing Registry statute so that an immigrant may qualify for lawful permanent resident status if they meet certain conditions, providing a much-needed pathway to a green card for more than 8 million people, including Dreamers, TPS holders, children of long-term visa holders, essential workers, and highly skilled members of our workforce. Last month, he joined Senator Durbin and 17 Senate Democrats in recommending executive actions to streamline immigration relief for the undocumented population and DACA recipients in the United States. Padilla previously introduced the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act to create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented essential workers, including Dreamers.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Director Jaddou,

We are concerned by recent reports from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients regarding significant increases in processing times for DACA renewal applications.  We urge you to take all steps within your power to protect these noncitizens and process renewal applications in a timely manner.

The DACA program has allowed more than 834,000 Dreamers an opportunity to pursue higher education and meaningful careers while remaining in the only home they have ever known.  We thank you for your efforts to fortify the DACA program through rulemaking and for the Department of Homeland Security’s defense of that rule in litigation.  Despite these important efforts, DACA recipients face significant uncertainty given litigation challenging the DACA program, and threats by presidential candidate Donald Trump to end the program.  Delays in processing DACA renewals are adding to the instability and uncertainty that DACA recipients already face each day.

Many applicants for DACA renewal report waiting well over five months for their applications to be processed this fiscal year.  USCIS median processing times doubled from fiscal year (FY) 2022 to FY 2023, and so far in FY 2024 (through February 28, 2024) are 90 percent longer than in FY 2023.  The reported median processing time of 1.9 months for renewals for FY 2024 thus far is the highest since FY 2017.  USCIS data also shows significant increases in pending application volumes (to their highest total in three years) in addition to past decreases in the quarterly rate of adjudication.  At the same time, deferred action for over 150,000 active DACA recipients will expire between March and September of this year, likely resulting in a significant number of new renewal filings. 

DACA recipients, their employers, and their families face significant disruptions due to these processing delays.  For example, a financial analyst who filed for renewal several months before his status was to expire was forced to take unpaid leave due to the delay in processing his application.  Similarly, a young woman raising five children in the Chicago area applied more than four months before the expiration of her status and had yet to receive a response from USCIS three days before that expiration, putting her and her family at risk.  In addition, DACA recipients accrue unlawful presence during the period between the expiration of their status and USCIS’ adjudication of their renewal applications, even when they apply well in advance of that expiration.  This can have significant negative consequences for them, such as making them ineligible for other benefits under our immigration laws.

To reduce these disruptions and uncertainty for DACA recipients, we urge you to make a focused effort to reduce processing times for DACA renewal applications and reduce the volume of pending cases.  We also request that you amend your practices to prevent undue harm to DACA recipients, by starting an approved renewal applicant’s DACA period on the date of expiration of the previous period, rather than the current practice of starting the renewal period from the date of approval.  This would prevent DACA recipients from accruing unlawful presence through no fault of their own due to processing delays.  It would be consistent with USCIS’ approach to the renewal or extension of other immigration benefits.  Senator Durbin previously suggested this approach to USCIS in July 2021, as did many commenters on the DACA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.  In the DACA final rule, the Department of Homeland Security stated that it would consider implementing this approach through subregulatory guidance “to improve efficiency and reliability for the DACA population.” Given the negative impact that recent processing delays have had on the DACA population, we urge you to implement this practice now.

We appreciate your attention to this important issue.

Sincerely,
Source: Senator Alex Padilla