Last week was the deadline for so-called “Dreamers” to renew their immigration status with the federal government. Early reports show that as many as 36,000 young people did not renew their status.
President Donald Trump announced that he was ending the DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Plan next March and, as part of that plan, young people already enrolled in the program had to renew their permits to avoid deportation. Last Thursday was the deadline for renewal applications.
Leo Morales is the Executive Director of the ACLU of Idaho. He says over 3,000 young people in Idaho have applied for a permit under the program since it started under President Barack Obama. But he’s not sure how many tried to re-up by last week.
He says there are many reasons why many did not try to renew their permits.
“Under this new administration, there’s also a tremendous amount of fear with what the government will actually do with the information that they have and I think that what has occurred is there’s a broken trust between the young men and women and the government,” says Morales.
Morales says those that did not apply for protection under DACA will eventually end up on a path to deportation, to countries many no longer have serious ties to. He says something must be done now, to help people whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally as children, leaving them in limbo.
“Congress seriously now has a responsibility, a moral responsibility to bring about a permanent solution to the life of these young men and women that call the U.S. their home and they should act on it,” Morales says.
DACA is set to expire in March. Those covered under the program will drop off in waves depending on when their permits expire.
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