DACA renewal period ends Thursday as Dreamers enter 'limbo'

Young undocumented immigrants who were granted two-year work permits and deportation relief under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program are rushing to extend their protected status before the federal government stops processing renewal applications Thursday.

President Donald Trump on Sept. 5 announced he was phasing out DACA in the next six months, giving Congress a last-ditch opportunity to step in during that time. DACA recipients whose status is set to expire during the six month period - which ends March 5 - have been given until Oct. 5 to re-apply.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services, the agency that processes DACA applications, received an estimated 39,000 renewal requests nationwide between Sept. 5 and Sept. 27, according to spokeswoman Sharon Rummery.

Recipients whose status expires after the March 5 deadline cannot submit applications for renewal, and federal officials have stopped taking new applicants. An estimated 207,000 DACA protections will expire between March 6, 2018 and Dec. 31, 2018, according to Rummery.

Local nonprofits, politicians and other agencies doubled up on funding, legal resources and workshops to assist Dreamers, as the young immigrants are known, with their applications. Some advocates worried the hefty $495 fee to re-apply would prevent many DACA recipients from doing so. California Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders last month announced a plan to allocate $30 million in financial aid and legal services to help Dreamers.

Fernanda Garcia submitted a renewal application a few weeks ago during a DACA renewal workshop at the Center for Employment Training in San Jose. Garcia, 23, was brought to the U.S. from Michoacán, Mexico when she was 11 months old.

"It's helped me get further ahead in life," she said of DACA. "It helped me not be scared to do a lot of the things that all my friends were doing. It kind of made me feel normal."

Garcia has had DACA protection since former president Barack Obama implemented the program in 2012. Now, her future's uncertain.

"I think everybody is just really worried," she said. "Even if I do renew it, it's only for two years. Trump is still going to be president in two years."

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on DACA Tuesday, Senators from both parties expressed a willingness to protect Dreamers, though some committee members said it won't happen without enhancing border security.

"If (Democrats are) willing to work with us on real border security ... we can then as part of that process solve the DACA problem," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, according to USA Today.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said any deal on DACA would have to include significant enhancements to border security.

"We've got to make sure that any deal includes meaningful interior enforcement." he said.

In Oakland, staff at Centro Legal de la Raza organized two major DACA clinics and did one-on-one, in-house renewals since Trump announced the end of the program on Sept. 5. They also set up a phone line that people could call for DACA-specific questions.

"A lot of the calls were people just checking to see if they had to renew or not," said Barbara Pinto, immigration managing attorney with Centro Legal. "We had some people call where their DACA expired right before Sept. 5 or right after March 5."

Pinto said the organization's outreach and education efforts will continue even as Congress mulls the fate of the program in the following months.

"It's hard because people think that ICE isn't going to go after DACA recipients after the program officially ends," she said. "But at the same time, they're the low hanging fruit."