In updated guidance released this afternoon by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Obama Administration confirmed that recipients of deferred action are authorized to be in the United States and therefore considered to be “lawfully present” under federal immigration laws. The guidance should clarify the debate over whether beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are eligible for driver’s licenses. Acting under the belief that DACA recipients are not “lawfully present” under federal law, four states—Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, and Nebraska—have refused to issue driver’s licenses to DACA recipients.
Separately, the administration also released updated statistics on the DACA program. Through Thursday, USCIS had received 407,899 requests for deferred action (an average of 80,000 per month since the program began), of which 394,533 had been accepted and 154,404 approved. USCIS received an average of less than 1,500 requests per day in January, down from a high of more than 5,700 per day in October soon after the program began accepting applications. The majority of DACA recipients continue to hail from Mexico and reside in California.
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Forrest Blount
January 21, 2013 at 6:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s interesting to note that even though there were far fewer applications in Jan, the application backlog barely decreased. As far as we can tell, application approval times will continue to increase through January beyond the already high 100 day national average.
Review our approvals data or submit your own timeline at DACAmented.
BREAKING: Administration Confirms DACA Recipients Are “Lawfully Present” « @DavidLeopold
January 18, 2013 at 4:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] Originally posted on Immigration Impact [...]
Obama administration crafts new DACA rule to exclude more dreamers | Amoachi & Johnson, Attorneys at Law, PLLC
January 26, 2013 at 1:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] update is by now widely known for its affirmation that those who are granted DACA are considered by DHS to be lawfully present in the United States. [...]
Guest Voz: Obama administration crafts new DACA rule to exclude more dreamers | Latina Lista
January 28, 2013 at 1:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] update is by now widely known for its affirmation that DACA recipients are considered by DHS to be lawfully present in the United States. This was [...]
Illegal Immigration & Obama’s War on the States » Choosing Life - God's Gift To The Unborn
January 29, 2013 at 4:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] breaking the news, the website Immigration Impact claimed that the adjustment was a direct affront to four states, the aforementioned Arizona, Iowa, [...]