Articles Posted in Deferred Action and DREAM Act Students

Yesterday, July 24, 2012, USCIS San Diego Field Office held a meeting with attorneys, local community based organizations, local governmental organizations and other interested agencies to address the implementation of Deferred Action. Paul Pierre, District Director of San Diego District Office, ICE and CBP representatives were present at the meeting. Attorney Ekaterina Powell from our office was also present at the meeting and her summary is provided below.

During the meeting, DHS provided updates on the implementation of Deferred Action, which is now referred to as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).

DHS emphasized that DACA is discretionary DHS decision not to pursue enforcement against a person for a specific period. A grant of deferred action does not confer lawful immigration status or alter an individual’s existing immigration status. DACA is not the Dream Act, and the use of deferred action provides no pathway to citizenship or permanent residency. Only the Congress may confer these rights.

DHS has announced that it will likely issue guidance on the DACA application process on August 1, 2012 and will start accepting petitions August 15, 2012. Until that time, individuals who want to apply for DACA should gather the required documentation to demonstrate their eligibility.

What Documents may be required?

Documentation of presence and continuous residence may include, but is not limited to, financial records, medical records, school records, employment records, and military records. It is unclear what level of documentation will be required. It is also unclear whether in absence of required documentation USCIS will accept alternative forms of documentation, such as affidavits from individuals who could attest to physical presence or continuous presence requirements. DHS should issue additional guidance about acceptable documentation in the coming weeks.

While DHS continues its efforts to increase staffing of the Service Centers to accommodate DACA filings, it is difficult at this point to predict processing times of the requests. DHS has stated that processing times will be determined once the application process begins depending on the number of applicants. DHS stated that it is likely that the process will take 6-12 months.

While it is still unclear whether there will be a separate fee for DACA request, DHS has announced that it will not exempt DACA applicants from Work Authorization Application fee and biometrics fee, which amount to $465 per applicant.

After an application is filed, DHS will capture biometrics of DACA applicant. If the applicant does not provide the required documentation to demonstrate eligibility, USCIS will use its established process of issuing Requests for Evidence. DHS has informed the public that certain applicants selected randomly as well as applicants meeting certain fraud profile or criminal profile will be referred to a local CIS office for an interview.

Although the meeting with DHS has clarified some of the important concerns of the public, it left unanswered many important questions regarding the implementation of DACA.

Specifically, it is still unclear whether individuals granted deferred action will be able to travel abroad. Even if overseas travel is permitted, it may not be in the best interests of the DACA applicants. Although unlawful presence will not accrue during any deferred action period, prior periods of unlawful presence may render individuals who leave the Untied States inadmissible for 3 or 10 years under existing law. Thus, it is critical for DACA applicants to first consult an immigration attorney before leaving the U.S. even if travel is permitted.

Major Concerns

Another issue that keeps many individuals from considering DACA is fear for themselves, if they are denied deferred action, and fear for their family members. It is not clear at this point whether the information regarding legal status of applicants’ parents will be taken and whether this information will be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration Advocacy groups are currently in the process of discussing confidentiality concerns with DHS and advocating for guidance prohibiting information provided from being used to initiate or continue to pursue removal proceedings.

Before DHS issues guidance on the application process, individuals who would like to apply for Deferred Action should gather as much documentation as possible to demonstrate eligibility.

If you believe that you meet the eligibility provisions of DACA, feel free to contact our office for a consultation and preliminary review of your records. We are now forming an interest list.

Watch all our You Tube Videos on Deferred Action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rk_RsfDGo4&feature=relmfu

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According to the Center for American Progress the Deferred Action Order will be good for the economy, here is Why?

The policy makes good economic sense in addition to the self-evident humanitarian reasons for letting undocumented youth remain in the country, work, and live with legal status. The following are the top five ways the president’s announcement will benefit our economy.

It will promote economic growth for all Americans

This issue of criminal offenses and who may be excluded because of this from the Deferred Action changes, is a subject of concern for many people. The American Immigration Council issued a Guide on the subject and you can see a discussion below on this subject.

Individuals are not eligible for deferred action if they have been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety. The FAQ issued by DHS provides important information regarding how these categories will be defined.

A “felony offense” includes any federal, state or local criminal offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year. Thus, some state misdemeanor offenses may be characterized as felonies for purposes of the new memorandum.

This information may be interesting to people and advocates who are planning on filing for benefits under this program in the near future (hopefully mid August), this is regarding a call we got from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) yesterday. It seems that ICE HQ in Washington are pre-selecting candidates for Deferred action, and are doing so nationwide.

The message from the ICE official was clear, your client was pre selected for Deferred Action under the new order and you will be contacted in the next few weeks with information on how to proceed. We have several clients with cases we managed to close before the Court (all for DREAMERS), and the clients will be eligible for this benefit. With all the confusion on how and when to file, it seems that the system is also working from within to create a list of clearly qualified applicants, I am curious to know if any other practitioners got the same call/contact?

So what do we do now? No one can file anything, but there are things applicants could do in the next few months.

Very Important information: DREAMers NOT currently in proceedings ( should NOT apply affirmatively for Deferred Action at this time. USCIS has stated that they will begin accepting affirmative applications by mid-August—stay tuned to our Blog for information about when this affirmative process will be available.

USCIS has stated that they will begin accepting affirmative applications by mid-August—stay tuned to this page for information about when this affirmative process will be available. Individuals who are about to be removed and who believe they can demonstrate that they satisfy the eligibility criteria should immediately contact either the Law Enforcement Support Center’s hotline at 1-855-448-6903 (staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) or the ICE Office of the Public Advocate through the Office’s hotline at 1-888-351-4024 (staffed 9am – 5pm, Monday – Friday)

Be careful of non lawyers trying to push you to file as you may be putting yourself at risk.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association released a great point by point discussion list for the new Policy, here is something to consider:

This action by the Department of Homeland Security stops the unjust deportation of promising youth—

These are some of the most compelling victims of our broken immigration system.

We just got the word that a major announcement will be made shortly. DHS will formally announce this morning that it will offer deferred action to DREAMers.

Who are these DREAMers? These are kids who were brought to this country illegally by their parents or perhaps another relative. They had no choice in entering America, but they were raised as Americans with American dreams. And they did what was expected of them to achieve that dream — stayed out of trouble, studied hard, got good grades. But as they look forward to college many of them won’t be able to pursue the career they want because of the actions of an adult in their lives years ago.

Preliminary information indicates that eligible applicants must:

We have received so many emails of support since the ESPN story about Ayded Reyes came out last week. Obtaining a fast and timely termination of her deportation was our main goal here at the office, and we did it.

We need the Dream Act, and cases like Ayded’s should bring us closer to that goal. By not approving the DREAM Act, politicians are turning their backs on the future of the nation and denying the opportunity of thousands of talented young people to transform their communities.

The bi-partisan bill was originally introduced in Congress in 2001. A subsequent version was passed by the House of Representatives in December 2010, but in the Senate the legislation failed passage short of five votes.