Associated Press
June 4, 2014
WASHINGTON — Young immigrants who have won government protection from deportation can apply for another two years of safety.
The
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will start taking renewal
applications from the more than half-million immigrants already enrolled
in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program starting immediately.
Renewal
applications are being sought now to ensure that immigrants already in
the program don’t fall out of status, Alejandro Mayorkas, the deputy
secretary of the Homeland
Security Department, said Wednesday. Renewals, like new applications,
carry a $465 fee. The program remains open for first-time applicants.
DACA,
as the program has come to be known in immigration circles, was
launched in advance of the 2012 presidential elections and the first
applications were approved in
September of that year. Since then, more than 560,000 immigrants who
arrived in the United States as children but didn’t have legal status
have been given permission to legally stay for two years.
Mayorkas
announced the renewal program in the midst of President Barack Obama’s
latest push to get Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration bill in
advance of November’s
midterm elections. Last month the White House announced that a Homeland
Security-led review of deportation policies would be put on hold until
the end of the summer.
The delay is aimed at giving Congress time to act on immigration before the August recess.
DACA
was hailed by immigration advocates as a good interim fix to a larger
problem of what to do with the more than 11 million immigrants thought
to be living in the country
illegally. Since the program’s launch, those advocates have pushed
Obama to do more for a larger group of immigrants.
DACA
is open to immigrants who came to the United States before they were 16
years old, were younger than 31 on June 15, 2012, and had been in the
country since at least
June 15, 2007, and have no criminal history. They also must be in
school, have graduated from high school or earned a GED certificate or
served in the military.
Republican lawmakers have derided the program as “backdoor amnesty.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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