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PHOENIX — Each day, about 120 of the young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers” lose their temporary protection from deportation.
The reason boils down to simple math: When President Trump announced on Sept. 5 that he would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on March 5, his administration gave DACA recipients with permits set to expire before then only one month to apply for a 2-year renewal.
A total of 21,790 DACA recipients failed to reapply, according to data provided to The USA TODAY Network by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that administers the DACA program.
When divided by 181 — the number of days between Sept. 5 and March 5—that comes to 120 DACA recipients on average losing deportation protections daily, along with the work permits that come with them.
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The number is frequently cited by dreamer advocates to illustrate why it is important for Congress not to wait until March 5 to address the DACA issue. Trump gave Congress until then to come up with a legislative fix that would allow dreamers to remain in the U.S. permanently rather than continuing their temporary deportation deferments without a way to legalize their immigration status.
"Every day (Congress) waits means that more people are at risk of deportation," said Karina Ruiz, director of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition. "It has to happen sooner rather than later."
About 14,600 dreamers have seen their deportation deferments and work permits expire since Sept. 5. All DACA permits will expire by the end of September 2019.
Why some didn't reapply for DACA
Ruiz said there are a number of reasons DACA recipients didn't reapply within the 30-day deadline, including the $495 application fee. Others were unaware the program was ending, or chose not to reapply out of fear any new information provided to government could be used to deport them if Congress fails to pass a DACA bill, she said.
"To me (the 30 days) was not enough time for people to apply for the benefits, and on top of that the program being ended discouraged people from applying because it did not say immigration would not come to their homes," Ruiz said.
Lawmakers ignored dreamers' pleas to pass the Dream Act before Christmas. A pending bill would have allowed an estimated 3 million undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to apply for legal residency and eventually citizenship, including some 800,000 people granted deportation deferments under the DACA program, which then-President Obama created in 2012 through executive action.
On Wednesday, three former Department of Homeland Security secretaries warned Congress that unless lawmakers pass immigration legislation that addresses dreamers by mid-January, the U.S. could face large-scale deportation problems and economic disruptions as thousands of former DACA recipients lose their deportation deferments and work permits.
Ruiz came to the U.S. from Mexico City when she was 15 and earned a degree in biochemistry from Arizona State University.
She said her DACA permit expires on Jan. 16, 2019. Although that is still a year away, she is worried she could become vulnerable to deportation and lose her work permit even if Congress passes immigration legislation soon. That's because it could take the federal government six months or longer to implement a legalization program and another six months to process applications.
Talk of a DACA deal
On Thursday, Trump said he is hopeful a deal can be worked out with Democrats to address the legal status of dreamers, but reiterated that any immigration fix must also include his promised border wall.
"I can tell you the Republicans want to see it work out very well. We have support from the Democrats. I think DACA is going to be terrific," Trump said following an immigration meeting with Republican senators.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators that includes Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a longtime supporter of legalizing dreamers, is working on a bill that would address dreamers and at the same time include changes to the nation's immigration system sought by the White House, including possibly curtailing family-based legal immigration, making it easier to deport unaccompanied minors from Central America, getting rid of the Diversity Visa Lottery Program.
Once DACA ends March 5, the number of people with DACA permits expiring will jump from about 120 a day to about 1,165 a day.
Since Obama created DACA in 2012, about 800,000 dreamers were approved for deportation deferments under the program, according to USCIS.
Of those, nearly 40,000 found ways to legalize their status and about 70,000 either failed to renew at the end of the two-year period, or were denied renewal. That left 689,800 people with DACA on the day Trump announced he was ending the program, according to USCIS.
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