Andrew Hertzberg
800,000 people nationwide enrolled in a program to protect work eligibility may be about to lose their legal status.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was signed into policy in June 0f 2012. Last month, Donald Trump announced that he was rescinding the program.
The current administration is only allowing those with expiring benefits between September 5th of this year and March 5th of 2018 to reapply. The deadline for this renewel is October 5th, but applications must be received, not just postmarked.
Approximately 154,000 of DACA recipients (or “Dreamers”) fall into this group.
The New York Times reported on the work of the Pilsen-based Resurrection Project that has held clinics for people from Korean, African, and Latino communities. While they used to process only a couple of applications per week, that number has increased to 45 per week since September 5th.
Julie Reiter Pellerite of the Resurrection Project told ABC 7 that there are other roadblocks for those trying to apply. “We are also seeing a lot of applicants, who DACA expired before Sept 5th. They were waiting to see what happened on the September 5th deadline, now they are blocked out from applying.”
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After the Trump Administration’s announcement, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined a lawsuit to attempt to block his decision. Financial experts predict Illinois would lose $2.2 billion GDP annually with the repeal of DACA.
More information on applying for DACA in Chicago can be found on the city’s website.
