Sign on letter to push back arbitrary and cruel DACA re-enrollment deadline

America's Voice, Make The Road New York, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), and United We Dream ​invite your organization to join a national sign on letter to Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, informing her of our disappointment in the Trump Administration's decision to rescind DACA, and pressing for an extension for the DACA permit renewal to at least January 15, 2018, rather than the current unworkable deadline of October 5, 2017.

The letter is below:

Dear Acting Secretary Duke,

We are writing to express our profound disappointment at the administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and to urgently request a meeting. Although we deeply disagree with the decision to terminate DACA, we write about one aspect in the implementation of this decision. We believe that the decision to require all DACA recipients whose permission expires in the next six months to have their renewal submitted by October 5 is a deadline that is arbitrary, unworkable, and cruel. It will result in tens of thousands of current DACA holders losing their protection from deportation and ability to work legally and contribute to our nation. We ask to meet with you to discuss several policy recommendations concerning the implementation of this decision.

As a result of the administration’s decision, close to 800,000 DACA recipients now face an uncertain future. 97% of DACA beneficiaries are employed or in school, paying taxes, and contributing to our economy. Ending it will cost an estimated 700,000 jobs and over $2 billion a year in tax revenue. It will force highly productive, skilled workers underground, harming US businesses and impoverishing our communities. This is why DACA has overwhelming support among employers, educators, political and faith leaders, and voters. The decision to rescind DACA is disruptive to our economy and devastating to these youth who have done nothing wrong.

As you know, DACA was instituted by the previous administration as a band-aid solution until Congress found the will to act. While we understand your desire to push Congress to act on this matter, relying on Congress to address the impact of the DACA rescission does nothing to address the immediate impact and significant burden of the October 5th deadline on current DACA recipients, their families and their employers and those legal and community organizations working to support them.

According to USCIS, 154,000 DACA beneficiaries have expiration dates between September 5, 2017 and March 5th, 2018. Your recent announcement gives all 154,000 of these youth until October 5, 2017 to submit their DACA renewal applications. The artificial October 5 deadline to submit 154,000 DACA renewal applications is unworkable and impractical. It will result in tens of thousands of current DACA holders missing the deadline due to lack of information, resources, or legal capacity to assist with application renewals. There are many practical reasons to extend the deadline, allowing a public information campaign to properly inform the youth of this sudden and unexpected change.

The actual effect of this Oct. 5 deadline is that there must be 5,133 applications filed every single day, including weekends, if the 154,000 current DACA holders whose permissions expire over the next six months are to be able to apply to renew their DACA. This would mean 214 applications must be filed every single hour, all night long, for 30 days. This is a very limited timeline for organizations like ours to locate and inform these DACA youth and assist them. Many DACA recipients will not have saved for the unexpected $495 expense. The October 5 deadline is simply unworkable.

The result of this impractical deadline is that tens of thousands of DACA recipients will lose their status, their jobs, their homes, and their security and be pushed back into the shadows from which they had once proudly emerged.

In the wake of this decision we respectfully request that the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services:

1) Extend the deadline for deferred action renewal to, minimally, January 5, 2018;

2) Inform each DACA recipient across the country, by registered letter, of the change in U.S. policy and of registration requirements and deadlines; and,

3) Establish tables at all DHS / USCIS offices for the final week before the deadline, to receive completed DACA Applications with time stamps and receipts, to facilitate renewal submission and minimize chaos during the final crush before the deadline.

Given the devastating consequences of the October 5 deadline for DACA renewal applications we urge you to respond to these requests in an expedited manner, and look forward to engaging with you and your colleagues on this critical issue.