The end of DACA would have far-reaching implications for those who are undocumented, their families and the economy as a whole. Unless Congress acts, the futures of 600,000 current DACA recipients across the country - nearly 13,000 of them in Colorado - will be in jeopardy and hundreds of thousands of immigrants who would have been eligible for the program’s protections will lose a legal pathway to live and work in the U.S. Supreme Court, where the conservative majority is expected to strike the policy down. Experts predict the matter soon will reach the U.S. under its protections have been in limbo amid multiple challenges to the federal program’s legality. Since 2017, DACA and those who’ve been able to remain in the U.S. Had they come in a few months ago, the lawyer told them, they wouldn’t have missed the deadline - but now Aviles-Zamora was locked out. President Donald Trump halted new applications for DACA protections in 2017, allowing only existing recipients to renew. “I was gutted,” said Aviles-Zamora, now a 21-year-old student at Metropolitan State University of Denver who has since found an alternative to DACA that offers her comparable benefits. The mother-daughter duo entered the office buoyant, preparing for celebration. But they were too late, the attorney informed them. The Obama-era program provided two years of renewable protection from deportation and work permits to people who were brought to this country without documentation as children. When Aviles-Zamora’s mother learned about DACA, she thought it could guarantee her hardworking daughter a normal life. Aviles-Zamora craved a driver’s license and a job like her friends, but being brought from Mexico to the United States when she was 4 years old precluded her from the same opportunities. In the sterile office of an immigration attorney, 15-year-old Annie Aviles-Zamora tuned out the lawyer’s words as she felt her world crumble.Īviles-Zamora and her mother met with the attorney in 2017 to begin the teen’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, application process. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
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