CRLAF Celebrates 10 Years of DACA and Calls on Congress to Act

Wednesday, June 15, 2022 marked the tenth anniversary of the announcement of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that paved the way for more than 825,000 immigrant youth across the United States to break every barrier and realize their potential. Our communities have been enriched by this exceptional group, who have benefited from the critical safety and security offered by DACA. To all DACA recipients and immigrant youth, we at CRLAF are so inspired to see what you have overcome and accomplished over the past ten years. We commend you on your resilience and we thank you for your countless contributions to this country.

Throughout the life of the DACA program, CRLAF has worked with thousands of exceptional DACA applicants – many sharing their talents directly with our organization as dedicated employees. We have had the privilege of standing alongside this group and witnessing their unwavering strength as the ever-changing political landscape carelessly toyed with their fate. Together we have advocated, marched, lobbied, and fought.

To be sure, the fight for and with immigrant youth is far from over. By itself, DACA status does not provide a permanent status or a pathway to citizenship. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of individuals cannot qualify for DACA because of their age or inability to satisfy the strict eligibility requirements of the DACA program. And while the Supreme Court’s June 18, 2020 decision allowed the DACA program to continue, the court limited the program to renewing DACA applications for current recipients and eliminated eligibility for first-time applicants. This decision has precluded many newly potentially eligible young immigrants from obtaining the protective status afforded to older generations. Even now, the DACA program’s survival is vulnerable to pending litigation contesting the program’s existence or the changing politics of presidential administrations.

CRLAF will continue to advocate alongside immigrant youth and our community partners until there is a pathway to permanent status for all. We remain firmly committed to immigrant youth and to seeing this reality through. Congress and our President should adhere to their decade-long commitments and promises they have made to the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients, awaiting young immigrants, and their families. DACA recipients and their families cannot live in fear and uncertainty for another decade. We call on Congress to ACT NOW and create a permanent solution for all childhood arrivals and their families.

For questions about DACA renewals or a free immigration consultation with CRLAF’s attorneys, please call our Citizenship and Immigration Project at 916-446-7901 and leave a voicemail with our scheduling team.

If you would like to dedicate a donation to CRLAF’s DACA work or to assist a DACA applicant in paying their application filing fees (currently $495 each), please indicate this intention in your donation submission here.