Many Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) students were still uncertain Sunday about whether or not their status expires tomorrow, after the Trump administration’s announcement to end the DACA program completely.
In September the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced two key dates that put many immigrants on high alert. Sessions said October 5, would be the last day DACA applications would be accepted and that the DACA program would end entirely tomorrow, on March 5.
However, the United States District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, William Alsup said this proposal violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The act protects citizens, and grants the judiciary oversight over all agency actions including establishing new regulations.
In order for the Trump administration to eliminate the DACA program they would have to go back to the drawing board, and this time follow the APA guidelines.
This would include filling the cancelation proposal formally in the Federal Register, announcing the DACA cancellation to the public and taking public comment for a period of time.
Even though the DACA program does not end tomorrow, no one can ever apply for DACA until the age of 15, so as of last October those applications are no longer being accepted.
At this time Homeland Security is only processing DACA applications for renewals if you had DACA status in the past and if it expired after September 5, 2017.
