Full DACA Program Restored by a Federal Court
A U.S. District Court in New York ordered USCIS to fully restore the DACA program to its original Obama program version. This is fantastic news since it means that the program will once again have to accept new applicants who qualify, many of whom “aged into” the program after it was curtailed by the Trump administration. The judge has also ordered USCIS to go back to issuing two year EADs (work permission), rather than the shortened one-year EADs from the most recent Trump policy, and he has ordered that USCIS issue a Memo this Monday, detailing how they will implement this new order.
This last part of the order was motivated by the fact that USCIS temporarily ignored the U.S. Supreme Court’s verdict that struck down Trump’s attempt to end the program, which should have reopened the program in its entirety earlier. Instead, USCIS did not accept new applicants, waiting until a new Trump policy implementing the current, limited DACA program was put in place (the policy that this Judge just struck down).
This time, we are more hopeful that USCIS will be compliant in following this ruling based on the Judge’s specific order and based on the fact that a new Sheriff will be in town soon! January 20th, 2021 can’t come any sooner!
If you think that you, a friend or family member may now be eligible for the DACA program, contact us at 303-872-6985.
See the link below for the Judge’s full order: