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Obama's planned action on immigration has a precursor in DACA

 
President Barack Obama reacts to a protester as he speaks at the Copernicus Community Center on Tuesday in Chicago. The potential successes and shortcomings of Obama’s planned executive actions to prevent deportations could be similar to those of the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
President Barack Obama reacts to a protester as he speaks at the Copernicus Community Center on Tuesday in Chicago. The potential successes and shortcomings of Obama’s planned executive actions to prevent deportations could be similar to those of the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Published Dec. 1, 2014

WASHINGTON — As President Barack Obama moves forward with his plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation, an existing program to protect young migrants in the country illegally demonstrates the promise of executive action but also its shortcomings, according to experts and government documents.

The 2012 initiative has given temporary protection to slightly more than 700,000 people brought to the United States illegally as children. They say the program has helped them emerge from the shadows, making possible a work permit, a Social Security number and enhanced self-respect.

But hundreds of thousands who are eligible, advocacy groups say, have not applied under the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Some immigrants say they are afraid they will be rejected and deported, while others are daunted by DACA's $465 application fee and educational requirements. Yet others remain unfamiliar with the program because of language and cultural barriers.

The DACA initiative is in many ways a template for the measures that Obama announced Nov. 20 that could give about 4 million undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents relief from deportation for up to three years. And the record of the earlier program highlights both the potential and the pitfalls of Obama's new undertaking.

Neither program has backing from Congress, and that limits their scope and durability. The next president could reverse either one with the stroke of a pen.

But people on all sides of the immigration debate point to DACA as a success, though a severely qualified one.

"We know it has made a tremendous beneficial impact in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,'' said Patrick Taurel, a legal fellow at the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration group. "But it's not enough. We ultimately need Congress to step in and create a permanent solution.''

Although the rollout of DACA has been relatively smooth for a large government program put together in weeks, there have been problems. Immigration advocates say it can take a long time to process applications, and those who want to renew their status are facing a growing bottleneck.

Those difficulties have led some immigration experts to warn that the government could be overwhelmed by the even larger wave of applications anticipated under Obama's latest executive action.

"DACA was a bit of a trial run, and overall it's gone pretty well,'' said David Martin, a University of Virginia law professor who was a senior legal official in the Department of Homeland Security. "But if we're talking 4 million people with this new program, that's going to be an even bigger challenge to gear up to handle it.''

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The same agency that administers DACA — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a part of the Homeland Security Department — will oversee the new program, along with an expansion of DACA that could make up to 300,000 more young immigrants eligible.

A spokesman for the immigration agency said it is processing DACA applications, including renewals, in a timely fashion.

Many of those granted DACA status say it has been a godsend. A survey of DACA recipients found that 60 percent had gotten a new job and 57 percent had obtained a driver's license, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an advocacy group.

Although DACA offers immigrants something closer to a normal life, there are critical things that it is not and was never intended to be. It does not grant immigrants legal status or citizenship, or a pathway to either. And for many recipients, the benefits have proved bittersweet because their parents and other family members cannot apply.

"I was so excited because I really wanted to get a driver's license and a Social Security number," said Monica Camacho, 20, who came to the United States from Mexico in 2002. Two years ago, she obtained DACA status and is now a student at Baltimore Community College in Essex, Md.

But Camacho said her parents and two older siblings remain illegal. "My dad has worked every day of his life, just for our future," she said. "If you want to call my dad a criminal for wanting to give us a better future, it's really unfair."

Hundreds of thousands who are eligible for the program have not applied. Advocacy groups estimate that up to 1.2 million people were eligible for DACA when the program began and up to 2.1 million could qualify when they got older or went back to school. The Obama administration has never provided an official estimate.

Of the immigrants who have applied, 95 percent have received temporary relief from being deported.

Advocates say instances of immigrants being deported after applying for DACA are rare.