Relief for “Dreamers” and the March 5th DACA deadline

On September 5, 2017, the Trump administration terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and permitted only a subset of current DACA recipients, whose protections were set to expire on or before March 5, 2018, to file renewal applications. As a result, more than 20,000 young people (known as “dreamers”) did not renew, thus losing their DACA protections.

However, on February 26, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to bypass the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; returning the case back to the standard appellate process, starting at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

In the meantime, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must continue to renew all existing DACA permits and DACA recipients will continue in limbo, with the courts ensuring that renewals can continue for now.