LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Juliana Macedo do Nascimento signed up for an Obama-era program to shield immigrants who came to the country as young children from deportation, she enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles, transitioning from jobs in housekeeping, child care, auto repair and a construction company.
Beneficiaries have become homeowners and married. Many have U.S. citizen children.
The rule was “a missed opportunity,” said Karen Tumlin, an attorney and director of Justice Action Center. DACA, she said, was “locked in time, like a fossil preserved in amber.” Texas, in a court filing Thursday, said the rule can’t save DACA. The states conceded that it’s similar to the 2012 memo that created the program but that they “share many of the same defects.”
DACA has been closed to new enrollees since July 2021 while the case winds its way through the New Orleans-based appeals court but two-year renewals are allowed.Uncertainty surrounding DACA has caused anxiety and frustration among aging recipients.