The Biden administration has now formalized the final details of the regulations that will protect former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday published the new regulations which are set to take effect on Oct. 31. DACA was created more than a decade ago to protect children who entered the country illegally from being deported.
Caucus Chairman Raul Ruiz (D-CA) said in a statement that The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) was in full support of the Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen and protect the DACA program. However, he has maintained that having another 10 Senate Republicans join the Democrats to pass the bipartisan Dream and Promise Act to establish a framework for Dreamers to gain citizenship.
DACA was created by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in 2012 during the Obama era. However, both immigrant advocates and immigration restrictionists have sued DACA and caused the program to go on pause. This has led to more than 800,000 being at risk of losing all of their work documents.
DACA also allowed noncitizens under the age of 31, who had entered America before the age of 16 to formally request that the government not deport them. DACA recipients are also given the necessary documents to work within the United States legally. The protections apply for two years after which they would need to reapply for renewal.
DACA has previously been threatened by Former President Donald Trump who in 2017 had announced plans to terminate the program. This was part of the restriction efforts made by the administration.
Texas and eight other states have also filed lawsuits against DACA.
