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- The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was declared “illegal” on July 16, 2021, by a judge in Texas. The court order blocked the immigration authorities from approving new applications for the program. Current DACA recipients are unaffected, and renewals are still being granted.
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On August 30, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security will issue a new regulation that formally establishes the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. The text was posted on Wednesday, August 24th. This is an effort from the Biden Administration to strengthen the policy, but this rule does not make any changes to who is eligible for DACA, and will not protect DACA from ongoing or future legal challenges.
Ultimately, the final rule mostly reiterates the DACA policy as it already exists. The rule does not reopen DACA for first-time applicants, nor does it change the eligibility requirements. Moreover, unfortunately, the rule is very unlikely to remove the urgent and existential threat to DACA that currently exists in the court.
The rule does not go into effect right away, so DACA recipients should understand that nothing changes for them right now. Not only is there a 60-day period before enactment, but it is entirely possible—if not likely—that there will be efforts to stop enactment via new or existing litigation.
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