It has been three months since Miguel was able to perform his job as a sustainability and inclusion manager at a professional services firm in San Francisco.
The 32-year-old Philippines native, who asked that The Times not identify his company or use his full name, was not fired or suspended. Instead, he was placed on temporary unpaid leave, all due to a bureaucratic delay in processing work permit applications for participants in DACA, the Obama-era program that offered protection from deportation. to immigrants without legal status who arrived when they were young.
Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program must reapply for protection and work permits every two years. But many of the approximately 530,000 current DACA holders have recently reported long delays in processing.
For some, like Miguel, that has meant unemployment for months while he and his employer waited for the necessary paperwork. The delays have cost others their jobs, immigrant advocates say.
“The whole situation makes me reimagine the worst-case scenario,” he said, referring to fears of one day being deported to a country he hasn't considered home since he was 7 years old. “I recently went into a pretty depressed state. as a result of all those 'what ifs'.”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services aims to process each renewal fairly and efficiently, said spokesman Matthew Bourke. But he acknowledged that some DACA recipients have experienced processing times of more than 120 days in recent months.
He blamed the delays on technology upgrades, but said the issues have been resolved and most DACA renewal applications are processed within the targeted 120-day period. Agency data shows that the average processing time doubled from two weeks in fiscal 2022 to one month last year. This year the median is just under two months, as of April 30.
In a letter last month, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and 27 other senators urged USCIS Director Ur Jaddou to process renewal applications in a timely manner.
“DACA recipients face significant uncertainty given litigation challenging the DACA program and threats by presidential candidate Donald Trump to end the program,” Padilla and the other senators wrote. “Delays in processing DACA renewals add to the instability and uncertainty that DACA recipients already face every day.”
Program administrators encourage DACA recipients to apply for renewals early. Nearly 87% of renewals are submitted after the recommended minimum deadline of 120 days, Bourke said.
Assuming the process would be as quick as previous renewals, Miguel submitted his application in early January. Two months later, his work permit expired and his company was forced to grant him a leave of absence.
He sought help from elected officials, asked that the case be expedited and called U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services several times. She checked online for updates daily.
Filing fees recently increased from $60 to $555, and those who pay a lawyer to review their application can spend hundreds more. The immigration agency recommends that DACA recipients reapply between 120 and 150 days before their work permits expire.
But there is a downside to applying too early. New permits go into effect as soon as the agency approves them, meaning recipients lose any remaining time on their previous permit.
That “practically makes it a one-year permit if you do it too early,” Miguel said.
Miguel said growing up undocumented means he's used to dealing with the uncertainty of the immigration process. But the delays made him think about what will happen after the DACA case is heard by the Supreme Court.
Former President Trump moved to end DACA shortly after taking office, but the program narrowly survived when the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that his administration had done so improperly. A case challenging its legality is expected to reach the Supreme Court, where some legal experts predict the conservative majority will overturn it.
Many DACA recipients view this year's renewals as potentially their last. That also contributed to decisions to wait beyond recommended filing times, said Karen Tumlin, director of the immigrant advocacy organization Justice Action Center.
If Trump is elected to a second term and DACA ends, those in the program are seeking protections for as many days as possible before his administration institutes mass deportation plans.
“Everyone starts by saying, 'I need this before the election,'” he said.
Tumlin said he is in contact with a DACA recipient who applied for renewal in October. When his work permit expired in January, she lost his job at the university he attends in the South. Another person, who applied 105 days before his permit expired, received his renewal in the mail the day before a work trip and narrowly avoided losing his job.
“For each individual, the result is catastrophic,” he said. “It's not like you can always get rehired.”
Tumlin said advocates have worked hard to make sure DACA recipients understand that the agency is behind across the board. Still, he said the delays are unusual: he doesn't remember hearing about so many in the program's history.
But even some who applied on time faced delays. That's what happened to Edvin Dapcevic, 35, an executive who leads a sales team at a major technology company in Los Angeles. Dapcevic asked that The Times not name the company publicly.
Born in Yugoslavia (now Montenegro), Dapcevic grew up in Chicago from the age of 4.
After reading online about other DACA recipients who had experienced delays, she submitted her renewal application in November, five months early.
Still, his work permit expired at the end of March, forcing him to take two weeks off work.
“These chronic delays are just another example of how DACA is not a permanent solution,” he said. “You live your life two years at a time.”
One solution, advocates said, would be for USCIS to implement automatic extensions of DACA renewals. The agency has done so for certain categories of work permit applicants, such as asylum seekers and those with temporary protected status, extending their validity by 540 days.
But Bourke, the agency spokesman, said the regulations limit automatic extensions to employment authorization categories that do not require processing an underlying application. Therefore, DACA does not qualify.
Miguel, an avid journalist, began listing his fears if the renewal did not come to fruition: losing his job; end up in debt; He can no longer financially support his parents.
The situation also raised the question of marriage. Miguel is in a relationship with a US citizen.
“I have always considered marriage to be a sanctity,” he said. “I don't want to feel pressured just because I need a document.”
Miguel has managed financially with his savings, a small loan, and emergency support through his business foundation, which helped him pay rent and utilities.
On Wednesday the permit finally arrived.
Relief washed over him. He said he hopes to return to work in the next week. And those chronic worries about “what if” have dissipated, for now.
