Trump administration sued over DACA renewal delays

DACA recipients are pushing to get answers about the government’s delays in approving DACA renewals, which have led recipients to lose work permits and their jobs.

Immigrant advocacy and legal aid groups sued the Trump administration Thursday, demanding answers about “severe delays” in renewals for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients that are causing people to lose their jobs, livelihoods and legal immigration status.

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Under DACA, over half a million qualified undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as young children are allowed to work and study in the country where they were raised without fear of deportation. But thousands of them have had their status lapse because of delayed renewals, which must occur every two years, resulting in the loss of their work permits and leaving them more vulnerable to detention and deportation.

The delays have stopped a 26-year-old graduate from a top medical school from beginning his residency in anesthesiology while his DACA review is pending, according to the complaint, filed Thursday against ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Another DACA recipient who graduated from an orthopedic surgery fellowship in New York has been unable to work since February and cannot begin his role at an underserved medical center in rural Pennsylvania later this year as he waits for his renewal, the lawsuit said.