Immigrant advocacy and legal aid groups sued the Trump administration Thursday, demanding answers about “severe delays” in renewals for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients that are causing people to lose their jobs, livelihoods and legal immigration status.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.Under DACA, over half a million qualified undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S.as young children are allowed to work and study in the country where they were raised without fear of deportation.
But thousands of them have had their status lapse because of delayed renewals, which must occur every two years, resulting in the loss of their work permits and leaving them more vulnerable to detention and deportation.The delays have stopped a 26-year-old graduate from a top medical school from beginning his residency in anesthesiology while his DACA review is pending, according to the complaint, filed Thursday against ICE and the U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Another DACA recipient who graduated from an orthopedic surgery fellowship in New York has been unable to work since February and cannot begin his role at an underserved medical center in rural Pennsylvania later this year as he waits for his renewal, the lawsuit said.A 30-year-old man from Mexico who isn’t a party to the lawsuit told NBC News he was able to pursue a career in nursing after he obtained DACA shortly after it was implemented by the Obama administration.He said all of his previous renewals typically took about four to six weeks.
But this time, his status lapsed, and he has had to take unpaid leave for three months from his job at a hospital while he waits for his renewal, which he applied for more than five months ago.“It’s affected every facet of my life,” he said.
The DACA recipient spoke on condition of anonymity because of his fears around his immigration status.He said he has had to “...