In early November, almost 100 applications for immigrants’ permit renewals to stay in the United States legally were denied because of mail delays. The Postal Service took responsibility for at least 74 rejected applications in New York and Chicago due to the delays. Originally, USCIS claimed the decisions were final despite the mail issues.
But, on Wednesday, November 15, USCIS decided that renewals for DACA could be resubmitted. According to the Department of Homeland Security statement, the decision was made “because the DACA policy has been rescinded and individuals can no longer request deferred action under DACA.”
The Trump administration cancelled the DACA program, which allowed undocumented immigrant children to attend school and work without the fear of deportation, in early September. DACA recipients whose permits were expiring prior to March 5, 2018, were allowed to renew their application by October 5th, 2017, for a two-year period.
According to USCIS, 132,000 applications were submitted. The New York Times reported, “at least 4,000 renewals were rejected because they were late.”
Elaine Duke, the Department of Homeland Security’s acting director, said that applicants can resubmit if they can present proof that their renewals were mailed on time and that the October 5th deadline was missed due to United States Postal Service delays.
Despite USCIS originally claiming they were “not responsible” for any of the delays, it was found that 18 applications that had arrived at the Chicago location on October 5th were not accepted until the next day. DHS admitted the discovery of these cases in the November 15th statement. DHS said, “USCIS will proactively reach out to those DACA requesters to inform them that they may resubmit their DACA request.”
The deadline for resubmitting applications has not been announced yet.
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