On Monday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting new applications, as well as renewal requests, and extend the one-year grants of deferred action and employment authorization documents to two years after President Trump tried ending the Obama-era program which shielded undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation.
According to the Department of Homeland Security website, on November 14, The Honorable Judge Nicholas George Garaufis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued an opinion regarding the July 28 memorandum signed by Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf.
According to DHS, on December 4, Judge Garaufis required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take certain actions to implement his November 14 opinion. As a result, effective December 7, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is:
- Accepting first-time requests for consideration of deferred action under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) based on the terms of the DACA policy in effect prior to September 5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4, order;
- Accepting DACA renewal requests based on the terms of the DACA policy in effect prior to September 5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4, order;
- Accepting applications for advance parole documents based on the terms of the DACA policy prior to September 5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4, order;
- Extending one-year grants of deferred action under DACA to two years; and
- Extending one-year employment authorization documents under DACA to two years.
In 2017, the Trump administration halted DACA, but the US Supreme Court blocked its attempt in June.
According to the DHS website, USCIS will take appropriate steps to provide evidence of the one-year extensions of deferred action and employment authorization documents under DACA to individuals who were issued documentation on or after July 28, with a one-year validity period under the Wolf Memorandum.