Another significant development coming out of the Presidential reforms announced yesterday is the expansion of DACA beyond its original parameters established in 2012. For descriptions of the original DACA requirements, please see here.
The executive reforms announced yesterday make the following reforms to the DACA program:
The date of entry for DACA eligibility has been changed from June 15, 2007 to January 1, 2010. Individuals who entered the U.S.
On June 5, 2014, the renewal process for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals starts for more than half-million DREAMERs who are already enrolled in the program. DREAMERs or DACA beneficiaries will continue to benefit from renewing driver’s licenses, working, and obtaining in-state tuition in at least 16 states.
To renew DACA, applicants must complete the recently released dual-use Form I-821D for initial and renewal DACA applications.
Recently, the Citizenship & Immigration Service sent out thousands of notices to people with applications pending notifying them that their application has been transferred to the California Service Center. Many DACA applicants with applications pending in the Vermont Service Center received this notice as did many individuals with applications for adjustment of status. Clients often called, panic-stricken, and ask “what does it mean??”
Quite simply, it means that there was an imbalance in the workload between the two Service Centers.
I had the best tacos I have ever had this weekend in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The whole Benach Collopy attorney gang headed out to the country to meet in the quiet of the mountains. And, of course, in the middle of rural America, we found tacos. Delicious tacos.
I used to work with a colleague who used to discuss the virtues of America’s unique immigrant history by pointing out the benefits to American cuisine.
The past few days have revealed tremendous silliness in the immigration reform debate. It is a true pity given the serious stakes involved for everyone persecuted by the U.S.’ brutal immigration laws.
Just today, we saw prominent immigrant rights groups’ applauding the honesty of ICE bureaucrat representative, Chris Crane because he stated in some forum or another:
For this pearl, Mr. Crane has been lauded by all sorts of ostensibly pro-immigrant types as a whistleblower.
What a week it has been. There has been more positive discussion of immigration reform in the last week than in the past decade and while none of it is perfect, it is a huge improvement over Mitt Romney endorsing self-deportation and SB 1070. Hard to believe that that was just six months ago. In the past week, there has been two major comprehensive overhaul plans, word of a third, and the introduction of independent bills that would make discrete but needed improvements to the system.
Back in November, we made some predictions about what might occur in a Trump presidency as it relates to immigration. Generally, we were very pessimistic and presumed that almost all areas of immigration would become more difficult and challenging for immigrants, families and communities. This has proven to be true, but not in all of the ways we anticipated. In some areas, such as refugees and admission policies, the administration has been as bad as expected. 
