Bureaucratic delays are particularly cruel. It doesn’t make an announcement. It shows up subtly—in a voicemail from HR, a work permit that has expired, or a morning when it seems dangerous to leave your own apartment. That is not a hypothetical situation for thousands of DACA recipients nationwide. That represents the final few months of their lives.
Immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday, requesting explanations for what they claim are significant and inexplicable delays in the processing of DACA renewals. The Immigration Institute of the Bay Area and East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, represented by Mayer Brown and Justice Action Center, are not requesting an expansion or reorganization of the program. They are posing a more fundamental query: why are renewals that were previously completed in four to six weeks now being delayed for at least six months?
DACA, which was established during the Obama administration, permits individuals who were brought into the country as minors to live and work here without having to worry about being deported right away. Every two years, recipients are required to renew their status. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has long advised applying at least 120 days prior to the expiration of your status. That advice was precisely followed by thousands of people. They have yet to receive their renewals.
One of the lawsuit’s cases sticks out because it makes it impossible to dismiss the stakes, not because it is unusual. While his DACA renewal is pending, a 26-year-old graduate of a prestigious medical school is unable to start his anesthesiology residency. Another doctor has not been able to work since February after completing a fellowship in orthopedic surgery in New York. He was scheduled to begin working at a rural Pennsylvania underprivileged medical facility. That job is still on hold.
These are not examples of edge cases. This year, one of the lawsuit’s advocacy groups submitted renewals for 500 clients. After more than six months, 319 were still pending as of the filing. Not only is the volume impressive, but so is the randomness. A month is all it takes to approve some renewals. Some people sit still for six months. “That unpredictability makes it unreasonably difficult for these young people to manage their lives and careers,” stated Immigration Institute of the Bay Area Legal Director Catherine Seitz. Planning around a system that doesn’t seem to follow any logic is challenging.
A 30-year-old nurse described having to deplete his savings and rely on family while waiting more than five months for a renewal he applied for on time. The nurse spoke to NBC News anonymously because of how precarious his situation feels. He has years of experience working in a hospital. Soon after its launch, he was granted DACA, which he has since renewed without any problems. “It’s affected every facet of my life,” he stated. That sentence has a subtly devastating quality. Not overly dramatic. It’s true.
The organizations filed a Freedom of Information Act request in May, requesting internal records (such as policy changes, guidance documents, and processing data) that could provide insight into the changes that occurred within the agencies that handle renewals. The government remained silent. The lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday, asks a federal court in the Northern District of California to order the government to make those records public in response to that silence.
The timing is important to note. The lawsuit was filed on the same day that the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration two major immigration wins, including the ability to revoke temporary protected status for Syrian and Haitian nationals. The legal environment surrounding immigration is rapidly changing, and DACA recipients won’t find much solace in this.
It’s difficult to shake the impression that the delays aren’t just a backlog of processing in the conventional sense. There are trends, justifications, and anticipated clearance times in backlogs. Here, advocates are characterizing something more ambiguous. Some renewals go through without a hitch. Some don’t move at all. “People shouldn’t lose jobs and livelihoods because of unexplained government delays,” stated Hillary Li of the Justice Action Center, adding that the government has yet to provide an explanation. That framing is important. This has nothing to do with divergent views on immigration law or policy disagreements. It concerns individuals who have complied with all regulations and submitted all necessary paperwork, yet their lives continue to stagnate as they await an unanswered question.
