‘Dreamers’ are losing their jobs waiting for renewals under Trump: ‘It feels like a personal attack’

Donald Trump attempted to eliminate the Daca program during his first term, but was ultimately blocked by the supreme court in 2020. Despite the ruling, litigation against Daca is ongoing and the administration has remained focused on targeting program recipients through new work restrictions and processing delays, immigration advocates said.

“Daca delays are pushing recipients out of the workforce, jeopardizing the stability of working families, employers and local economies,” said Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, deputy director of advocacy and campaigns at United We Dream, an immigrant advocacy non-profit.

Along with the processing delays, the Trump administration recently proposed a new rule that would impose new work authorization restrictions on Daca holders, including a requirement that their employer be enrolled in using E-Verify. It also implemented a rule that prohibits Daca holders from obtaining commercial driver’s licenses.

Macedo do Nascimento said the new policies come as the administration carries out a “quiet unraveling of temporary programs across the board”, from Daca to humanitarian parole.

It’s “a mass delegalization effort to push out millions of people who have built careers, families, and homes here, and contribute billions to the US economy year after year”, Macedo do Nascimento said.

Claudia emphasized that Daca recipients grew up in the US and want to contribute to the economy.

“We’re just people trying to study and work,” she said. “We aren’t asking for special treatment, we just want a fair opportunity to keep moving forward.”

In a statement, Zach Kahler, a spokesperson for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that “Daca does not confer any form of legal status in this country” and that the agency “is safeguarding the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens”.

Immigration advocates point out that lawmakers in Congress can support Daca recipients by passing the Dream Act, a bipartisan bill that would grant recipients with permanent residential status and a pathway to citizenship.

“The idea that people who have spent years contributing to their communities could lose everything because of bureaucratic delays and political attacks is both cruel and deeply damaging to America’s future,” said Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of TheDream.US, a non-profit that offers scholarships to undocumented students. “What we are seeing right now is the slow unraveling of stability for hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who have done everything this country has asked of them.”

Cesar said that the process of waiting for his renewal had been an “emotional rollercoaster”, teetering between faith and overpowering stress.

“We have now lost our jobs, we have lost our security. We don’t feel safe being in public,” Cesar said. “We had reached the American Dream, but suddenly it vanished.”