Miguel has been working as a sustainability and inclusion manager at a professional services firm in San Francisco for three months.
The 32-year-old Filipino, who was not fired or fired, asked The Times not to identify his company or use his full name. Instead, he was placed on temporary unpaid leave — all because of a bureaucratic backlog in processing work permit applications for participants in DACA, the Obama-era program that provided deportations for immigrants who arrived as young adults without legal status. Protect.
Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program must reapply for protection and work authorization every two years. But many of the roughly 530,000 current DACA holders have recently reported long processing delays.
For some, like Miguel, this means months of unemployment as he and his employer wait for the necessary paperwork. Immigration advocates say those delays have cost others their jobs.
“The whole situation reminds me of the worst-case scenario,” he said, referring to the fear of one day being deported to a country he has no longer considered home since he was 7 years old. The state is the result of all these “what ifs”.
USCIS aims to process each renewal fairly and efficiently, spokesman Matthew Bourke said. But he acknowledged that processing times for some DACA recipients have exceeded 120 days in recent months.
He blamed the delay on a technology update but said the issue had been resolved and most DACA renewal requests were processed within the 120-day target period. Median processing times doubled from two weeks in fiscal 2022 to one month last year, agency data shows. As of April 30, the median this year was just under two months.
In a letter last month, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and 27 other senators urged USCIS Director Ur Jaddou to process renewal applications in a timely manner .
“Given the lawsuits challenging the DACA program and presidential candidate Donald Trump’s threats to end the program, DACA recipients face significant uncertainty,” Padilla and other senators wrote. “DACA Renewal Delays in processing add to the instability and uncertainty DACA recipients face every day.”
Program administrators encourage DACA recipients to apply for renewal as early as possible. Bourke said nearly 87% of renewal applications were filed later than the recommended minimum period of 120 days.
Assuming the process would be as quick as previous renewals, Miguel submitted his application in early January. Two months later, his work permit expired and the company was forced to furlough him.
He sought assistance from elected officials to expedite the case and made multiple calls to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He goes online every day to check for updates.
The filing fee recently increased by $60 to $555, and those who pay an attorney to review their application may pay hundreds more. Immigration agencies recommend that DACA recipients reapply 120-150 days before their work permit expires.
But there is a downside to applying too early. The new license becomes effective immediately once approved by the agency, meaning the recipient will lose the time remaining under the old license.
“If you do it too early, it almost becomes a one-year license,” Miguel said.
Miguel said growing up undocumented meant he was used to dealing with the uncertainty of the immigration process. But the delays have him thinking about what will happen if the DACA case is accepted by the Supreme Court.
Former President Trump moved to end DACA soon after taking office, but the program barely survived when the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that his administration acted inappropriately. A case challenging its legality is expected to go to the Supreme Court, with some legal experts predicting the conservative majority will dismiss the case.
Many DACA recipients believe this year may be the last time they are renewed. It also contributes to people deciding to wait longer than the recommended time to apply, said Karen Tumlin, director of the immigration advocacy group Justice Action Center.
If Trump is re-elected and DACA ends, those in the program will fight for as much time as possible to provide protections before his administration enacts plans for mass deportations.
“They were all led by ‘I need this before the election,'” she said.
Tumlin said she is in contact with the DACA recipient who applied for renewal in October. When his work permit expired in January, he lost his job at the university he attended in the South. Another person submitted an application 105 days before his license expired, received his renewal in the mail the day before his business trip, and narrowly avoided losing his job.
“The results are catastrophic for everyone,” she said. “It’s not like you can always be rehired.”
Tumlin said advocates have been working to ensure DACA recipients are aware of the agency’s overall backlog of cases. Still, she said the delay was unusual — she couldn’t recall hearing of so many delays in the project’s history.
But even some who applied on time encountered delays. That’s what happened to Edvin Dapcevic, 35, a senior executive on the sales team at a large Los Angeles technology company. Dapcevic asked The New York Times not to publish the company’s name.
Dapcevic was born in Yugoslavia (now Montenegro) and raised in Chicago from the age of 4.
After learning online about delays experienced by other DACA recipients, he submitted his renewal application five months early in November.
Nonetheless, his work permit expired at the end of March, forcing him to take two weeks off.
“These long delays are just another example of why DACA is not a permanent solution,” he said. “You live your life two years at a time.”
Supporters say one solution would be for USCIS to automatically extend DACA extensions. The agency has done this for certain categories of work permit applicants, such as asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status, extending their validity by 540 days.
But agency spokesman Bourque said regulations limit automatic extensions to employment authorization categories that do not require processing of the underlying application. Therefore, DACA is not eligible.
Miguel, an avid journalist, began listing his worries if the renewal failed: losing his job; ending up in debt; no longer being able to support his parents financially.
The situation also gave rise to marital problems. Miguel is in a relationship with a U.S. citizen.
“I’ve always believed that marriage is sacred,” he said. “I don’t want to feel pressured into needing a document.”
Miguel manages his finances through his own savings, small loans and emergency support from his company’s foundation, which helps him pay rent and utility bills.
On Wednesday, the permit finally arrived.
He was relieved. He said he hopes to return to work within the next week or so. For now, those long-term worries about the “what ifs” have faded.
