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Every two years for more than a decade, Melani Candia has gotten approved to stay in the U.S. with her husband and two cats and \u2014 more recently \u2014 continue to work in special education in Florida.<\/p>\n
But this year, delays in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals<\/a>, a program that has shielded her and hundreds of thousands of others from deportation, led to her missing her renewal deadline, losing her job and fearing detention in the country she has called home since she was 6 years old.<\/p>\n She said that as an immigrant in the U.S., fear has become her \u201cnew baseline.” \u201cBut now, having a new level of vulnerability, it was a very quick increase in the fear,” said Candia.<\/p>\n Renewal wait times for the Obama-era program that allows people who were brought to the U.S. as children to temporarily remain in the country and work have increased to levels not seen since 2016 when there were significant technical issues.<\/p>\n Some of the program\u2019s more than 500,000 beneficiaries, often referred to as \u201cDreamers,\u201d have waited months for an answer only to see their deadline pass without a decision. Now they\u2019re stuck in a type of limbo in which their work authorization disappears, oftentimes along with their driver\u2019s license, and their ability to stay in the U.S. is at risk.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just anecdotal; it\u2019s happening at a larger scale than we\u2019ve ever seen before,\u201d said Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream, an immigrant youth-led network. <\/p>\n No numbers were available on how many people have recently missed their renewal deadline despite applying 120 to 150 days before their DACA lapses, which is what U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recommends.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder the leadership of President Trump, USCIS is safeguarding the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens, which can lengthen processing times,” Zach Kahler, an agency spokesperson, said in a statement.<\/p>\n DACA grants those who qualify two-year, renewable permits to live and work in the U.S. It does not confer legal status but is meant to offer protection from deportation.<\/p>\n From October 2025 to the end of February 2026, the median wait time for renewals was about 70 days, compared to about 15 days in fiscal year 2025, according to USCIS. This is the longest median wait time since 2016, when it was about 79 days, according to the agency\u2019s data, which did not include 2020 because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security attributed the 2016 delays to technical issues that emerged as it transitioned to fully processing DACA renewals in its electronic immigration system. <\/p>\n At the end of April 2026, USCIS was reporting that the majority of renewal requests were being completed within about 122 days. That marked a two-week increase from the processing times listed earlier that month.<\/p>\n Federal lawmakers and immigrant groups say some applicants recently have had to wait 6 months \u2014 about 183 days \u2014 or longer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe delays that people are concerned about used to be sort of a matter of weeks at a time,\u201d U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said in an interview. \u201cNow it\u2019s from a few months to many, many months.\u201d<\/p>\n He is one of dozens of lawmakers behind letters sent to federal agencies that question the inflated wait times and whether people who have missed their renewal deadline are being targeted for arrest or deportation.<\/p>\n More than five months after Elsa Sanchez submitted her DACA renewal request, she is still waiting for an answer. When the deadline passed at the beginning of April, she was put on leave at her job at a healthcare IT company and now, as a single mother of a college freshman, has no income.<\/p>\n It’s made her worried about everything from traveling to spending money on pricier household products like shampoos and detergents.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t know, maybe I can cut down on that. Maybe I don\u2019t need this,'” she said. \u201cBecause I\u2019m saving every penny.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanchez said something similar happened about a decade ago, but this time she’s scared of the possible repercussions amid President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportations agenda. <\/p>\n Since DACA’s introduction in 2012, it’s faced myriad legal battles, including two that made it to the Supreme Court<\/a>. And now, while the government is still approving renewals, a 2025 federal court decision<\/a> means it isn’t processing first-time applications and has left the door open for another possible trip to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n In the first 11 months of 2025, more than 250 DACA recipients were arrested and 86 deported, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier this year. She said the majority of those arrested had \u201ccriminal histories,\u201d without indicating the nature of the crimes or if they were arrests, charges or convictions. In a separate response to a Democratic congresswoman\u2019s inquiry, DHS reported conflicting numbers saying that 270 were arrested and 174 DACA applicants were removed in the first nine months of 2025.<\/p>\n Their eligibility is dependent in part on not having a felony conviction, a significant misdemeanor or three misdemeanors. Previously, if their status was in jeopardy, they would get a warning and still have the chance to fight it before immigration officers detained them and began efforts to deport them.<\/p>\n Kahler, from USCIS, said that DACA recipients are not automatically protected from deportation.<\/p>\n \u201cAny illegal alien who is a DACA recipient may be subject to arrest and deportation for a number of reasons \u2014 including if they committed a crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to questions about whether DACA beneficiaries were being targeted after missing their renewal deadlines.<\/p>\n But federal lawmakers have recently noted people picked up by ICE after their DACA lapsed. <\/p>\n Their protections may have been further eroded with a precedent decision last week in which the Board of Immigration Appeals determined that DACA status alone is not enough to stop deportation.<\/p>\n Experts have suggested the longer wait times could be related to the biometric appointments, which were paused during the pandemic, being restarted. Some may also not be getting approved by their deadline because they’re not sending it in by the recommended time.<\/p>\n Maria Fernanda Madrigal is an immigration attorney and DACA recipient who submitted her renewal application about a month and a half before the deadline because she said that\u2019s all the processing time that\u2019s been needed in the past. She said she was also waiting for her job to hold a DACA workshop so that she could get the more than $550 fee for renewal waived.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, her DACA lapsed and the mother of three was let go from her job.<\/p>\n \u201cMy first concern was my cases, to be honest, because I knew I was going to have to hand off everything, and my team is already overworked,\u201d said Madrigal.<\/p>\n Immigration attorneys have also said that USCIS has paused processing renewals for people from dozens of countries the agency described in recent policy memorandums as \u201chigh-risk\u201d following presidential proclamations. The National Immigration Law Center estimated that as many as 3,000 to 4,000 people could be impacted.<\/p>\n \u201cThis process that has no timeline is leading to people from certain countries experiencing a pause. And we don\u2019t know how long that pause will be in place,” said Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, attorney at the National Immigration Law Center.<\/p>\n Every day, Candia checks on her renewal. She said she’s most afraid of being locked up in bad conditions in an ICE detention facility<\/a>, but also thinks about what it would be like returning to Bolivia after more than 25 years.<\/p>\n \u201cIf God forbid that happened, it would break my heart because I\u2019ve been in this country since I was 6,” she said. \u201cMy entire life is here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n