The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has long been both a political pawn and a lifeline for the hundreds of thousands of individuals who have taken advantage of it since its inception. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Texas v. United States, 50 F.4th 498 (5th Cir. 2022), brought the program to a standstill on Oct. 5, 2022. DACA has faced similar injunctions in the past; however, in a new act of cruelty, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has chosen a new interpretation: not only will the Fifth Circuit’s decision prevent any new applications from being approved, but many young people who have previously received DACA are left without status, without work authorization and without hope.

Brenda Quintanilla, a second-year law student at the University of California Davis School of Law, wrote about her own experiences with DACA for the American Immigration Lawyers Association in April 2023. While she is a DACA recipient, her nephew, a first-year college student, is not. He submitted his DACA application shortly before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that DACA was unlawful in July 2021, and as a result, his application is stuck in limbo.

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