DACA Updates
On July 28, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security announced its consideration of rescinding the DACA (Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program – a program that was enacted in 2012 under the Obama Administration. This was in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss the Trump Administration’s proclamation to end the program. In the interim, the Department of Homeland Security has decided to make the following changes to DACA immediately:
- Reject all initial requests for DACA and associated applications for Employment Authorization Documents;
- Reject new and pending requests for advance parole absent exceptional circumstances; and,
- Limit the period of renewed deferred action granted pursuant to the DACA policy after the issuance of this memorandum to one year (previously two years).
Areas of concern the Department addressed were 1) Concern about whether, as a matter of policy, a continuation of a broad, class-based deferred-action policy like DACA should be resolved by Congress; 2) Concern about whether any discretion to not enforce the law or afford deferred action should be exercised rarely and only on a truly individualized, case-by-case basis; 3) Concern that the existence of a program like DACA may send mixed messages about DHS’s intention to consistently enforce immigration laws as Congress has written about them; and, 4) Concern that the existence of a program like DACA may encourage individuals to take a perilous journey to this country, needlessly endangering children.