DHS Issues Regulation to Preserve and Fortify DACA

The Department of Homeland Security has issued a final rule that will preserve and fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy for certain eligible noncitizens who arrived in the US as children, deferring their removal and allowing them an opportunity to access a renewable, two-year work permit. Since its inception in 2012, DACA has allowed over 800,000 young people to remain in the only country many of them have ever known, with their families. The final rule:

• Maintains the existing threshold criteria for DACA;

• Retains the existing process for DACA requestors to seek work authorization;

• Affirms the longstanding policy that DACA is not a form of lawful status but that DACA recipients, like other deferred action recipients, are considered “lawfully present” for certain purposes.

The final rule is effective Monday, October 31, 2022.