DACA recipients win permits to journey outdoors the U.S.

Several dozen immigrants received travel permits to study abroad after an education organization in Long Beach sued the Biden government last month.

The permits came in time for the student trip to Mexico, which is part of a Cal State Long Beach program and is scheduled to begin on Saturday.

All applicants were spared deportation under the Postponed Measures on the Arrival of Children program, which temporarily protects so-called dreamers who came to the United States as children and lived here without legal immigration status. A provision within the framework of the DACA enables legal travel for professional, school or humanitarian reasons.

The complaint The file filed against the Biden government in April had asked immigration authorities to respond to requests submitted by 84 Dreamers nine months ago. They had to postpone their trip by five months because of the late reply.

Attorney Jorge Gonzalez said some of the applicants had received notices that their filing would not be expedited. After the lawsuit was filed, he noticed a change – applicants received a notification that their travel documents were being issued.

“This is a timeliness issue,” he said. “If it is not granted in time, it is worthless.”

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said the agency had been working diligently to resolve the issue but would not comment on any pending litigation.

Last week, 22 members of Congress signed a letter from Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) urging immigration officials to reduce turnaround times.

“Applications for travel permits currently range from three months to more than two years, which prevents DACA recipients from traveling to attend to family emergencies or for legitimate educational reasons,” wrote Lowenthal.

Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, law professor and director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Penn State Law, said the result sends a signal that USCIS can process applications faster.

“I am cautiously optimistic that USCIS will continue to process probation requests for DACA recipients in accordance with the court order and the administration’s own obligation to uphold the DACA,” she said, using the formal term for the process after which Dreamers and certain other immigrants may proceed to apply for the trip.

“Going forward, USCIS should invest the resources necessary to ensure that all early parole applications by DACA recipients are processed in a timely manner – this should be done without congressional pressure or litigation.”

Winning the permits also removes some of the hurdles that kept these DACA recipients from gaining citizenship. That route had been blocked when President Trump completely ended the DACA in 2017. Despite a Supreme Court for 2020, it remained closed to many dreamers The Obama-era program that protected some 700,000 dreamers needs to be restored.

Before Trump ended the program, nearly 46,000 DACA recipients nationwide were approved for international travel under the pre-probation regime.

The California-Mexico Studies Center, a plaintiff named in the lawsuit, had led more than 160 DACA recipients to stays abroad prior to 2018. The program is not intended for academic credit.

Aside from helping dreamers reconnect with family, there is a deeper reason why it is important to be given probation beforehand. Immigrants who leave the US without a permit after entering the country will be punished. Returning to the US via an established port of entry clears these penalties and paves the way for a DACA recipient who has someone to sponsor them for legal residence, e.g. B. a parent or spouse of a US citizen.

For some, the news came too late. Following the recent death of her grandmother, one applicant said she no longer had any reason to attend. Four were eliminated and 79 of the 80 remaining applicants were allowed to travel.

Another 130 DACA recipients who would like to study abroad via the California-Mexico Studies Center later in the summer have still submitted applications for travel.

Gonzalez said the lawsuit piqued interest from immigration lawyers. The question now is whether the federal immigration authorities would start processing travel requests more quickly for all DACA recipients.

If the plaintiffs cannot reach a friendly settlement with the federal government, they could file a class action lawsuit. Gonzalez said the goal is to establish a timeliness standard for all future applicants.

He also sees the lawsuit as a catalyst for work on something bigger – removing the years of penalties associated with illegal entry.

“Biden is taking small steps about immigration reform,” he said. “We’re playing the long game.”