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Editor’s Note: This sponsored article was contributed by an attorney Karl Kuck as part of Look Baxter Immigration‘s annual advertising partnership with Global Atlanta.
A newly updated version of the Deferred action for infancy arrival (DACA) program is good news for Georgia Employers who want to hire the nearly 10,000 immigrants who qualify for the program but have been barred from applying—immigrants who may fill needed positions in our state.
After considerationon more than 16,000 public comments that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will publish a final rule in the federal register Oon August 30, 2022, which preserves and strengthens DACA.
We’re expecting them fifth circle US Court of Appeals in Texas to find that a lawsuit over the legality of the original 2012 DACA program is now moot in light of the newly published regulations. Currently, the new DACA regulations of August 2022 are set to accept new applications from October 30th.
It was at the end of 2021 19,700 DACA recipients in Georgia. Under the new DHS rule, they can still renew their work permits. More importantly, the new rule allows hundreds of thousands of new DACA applicants to apply, including those who subsequently came of age president Trump card and the Texas court stopped new filings in September 2017 and again in May 2021. At least 10,000 of those new applicants reside in Georgia.
The new regulation restores the original DACA Program to do exactly what it has been doing for more than 10 years – and no more: Protect qualified “Dreamers” from deportation and give them the opportunity to legally work in the USA
The new regulation will:
- Allow current, qualified DACA recipients to renew their status
- Resumed processing of 80,000-90,000 pending new DACA applications nationwide
- Open the application process for 100,000 to 200,000 more applicants, including an additional 10,000 in Georgia, who will be eligible to submit once the new regulation goes into effect on October 30, 2022
- Allow current DACA recipients to travel internationally with an extended permit from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
Travel requirements are important because most Dreamers entered the US without a visa and now, if married or have a 21-year-old child, can travel abroad, receive legal entry upon their return, and are then eligible for a green card apply for [a legal permit to live and work permanently in the U.S.].
DACA recipients who obtained their DACA status before the age of 18.5 can continue to be sponsored by their US employer through a complicated process called “work certification” for a green card.
The requirements for DACA recipients under the administration’s new regulation remain unchanged. DACA applicants must have entered the United States before age 16 and before June 15, 2007. The last eligible DACA recipient would have come of age to apply for DACA on June 14, 2022, when he turned 15 and entered at the age of one day. Thus, under the new regulation, there are no new eligible DACA recipients; their number is finite.
IF rRecipients must also have maintained a continuous physical presence in the United States since June 15, 2007. They must have or be working toward a GED or high school degree, or be enrolled in some other continuing education, and also be of “good moral character.”
This new regulation is essential for current and eligible dreamers. The DACA program means the difference between being able to legally work and live in the United States – which is often the only home they have ever known – and being forced to return to their country of birth, a country to which the most cannot remember. It is a lifeline for these young men and women.
But what DACA means for business is almost as important.
dreamers than workers
Employers in Georgia and across the US already rely on DACA recipients as employees. More than 600,000 dreamers are currently protected under DACA. But appreciated 3.6 million It is believed that undocumented immigrants under the age of 18 – a third of the total undocumented population – live in the US
These immigrants form the future – and current – workforce of America. but tHere is a finite universe of potential DACA recipients.
A third of DACA recipients in Georgia are now married and have children. They typically came to the US more than 20 years ago and are now in their late 20s. Nearly 100 percent are employed, 90 percent have high school diplomas, and a third have college degrees.
Extending DACA to eligible recipients to help solve our state’s labor shortage crisis should be a no-brainer. But obstructive politicians stood in the way.
Consider this timeline:
- June 2012: Tue Obama administration implemented the DACA program.
- September 2017: The Trump administration announced a Revocation of the DACASuspending new applications and expiring renewal applications.
- In January 2018, USCIS resumed accepting DACA requests following a federal court order.
- August 2018: A federal district court ruled that no first-time DACA applications would be accepted, but existing recipients could renew their DACA status.
- June 2020: The Supreme Court reigns opposed the Trump administration’s termination of DACA and sent the case to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for reconsideration, with the program being maintained in the meantime.
- December 2020: A US District Court ordered the DHS to fully reintroduce the DACA program.
- July 2021: A federal judge in Texas reigns DACA is illegal and has blocked new applicants, but existing recipients have still been able to renew.
- July 2022: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the Biden administration’s appeal of last July’s ruling, calling for the return of DACA’s legal status.
- August 3, 2022: Pending first-time DACA applications and recipients whose DACA status expired more than a year ago were denied by one Eastern District from new Yorks decision. But this decision does not change the status quo; current DACA holders or those whose status expired less than a year ago can still apply for an extension.
What now?
What happens next will be crucial.
There were 181,180 DACA receivers whose status would expire between now and the end of March 2023 if they had not applied for an extension by August 2021. You can now renew according to the new regulation.
Even if the Fifth Circuit finds the old DACA illegal (because it was created through a DHS memorandum rather than a formal regulatory rulemaking process with public notice and comment), the new DACA regulation will continue to work and allow it to do so New Applications on October 30th
The reality is that only if we stop demonizing immigrants can we begin to use the immigration process to solve our workforce problem.
That’s all good news. However, a better scenario would be if the Biden administration would adjust DACA entry date requirements with a simple regulatory solution. There is nothing stopping the administration from moving the DACA eligibility dates forward to allow pending dreamers to remain eligible. there is no need to approval congress in order to do this. The current government simply suffers from a lack of imagination and leadership when it comes to immigration.
DACA is a way forward for many people. Until Congress does the right thing – and they eventually will – DACA is their lifeline to pretty much normal life in America
However, the best-case scenario would be to fix our broken immigration system. Congress has already thought about a sensible solution. That US House of Representatives HB 6 happens that American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, which would allow 2.7 million dreamers and 400,000 temporary protection status (TPS) recipients to apply for conditional legal status. Sense. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) introduced a Senate version of the bill that Dream Act of 2021but did not win the support of nine others republican Senators needed to pass the law.
If only we had 10 Republican senators with foresight and political courage, we would have green cards for DACA recipients. Unfortunately, at a time when politicians are looking for a place to divert attention from their own shortcomings and failures, that is unlikely.
The reality is that only if we stop demonizing immigrants can we begin to use the immigration process to solve our workforce problem.
immigration as a solution
We clearly have a labor shortage in this country, and not just for the grape harvest. We have a shortage of technology experts, manufacturing workers, pilots and almost every profession. Where could we possibly get more workers? Immigration is the obvious solution.
First, we could legalize the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants already living in the US, 96 percent of whom are employed.
We could also increase legal immigration. The number of work- and investment-based immigrants admitted annually is set at 140,000, including their spouses and children. So that means only around 60,000 new workers and investors allowed to enter an economy with just under 80 million jobs each year 11 million Positions that need to be filled.
If we raised the legal limit to half a million, two things could happen:
- We could reduce our labor shortages and control inflation because, in theory, immigrant workers would reduce wage increases.
- We could solve our illegal immigration problem because more immigrants could come here legally.
Unfortunately, self-interest and fear of immigrants (something we have long possessed as a country) prevail over common sense in our current political system.
USCIS now accepts DACA renewal requests electronically. Contact us at Kuck Baxter Immigration for assistance in dealing with your current legal issues.
