Published: December 14, 2012
As of December 13, 2012, more than 350,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (“DACA”) applications have been received by U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DACA applicants are also known as “DREAMERS” since they make up the demographic that would presumably benefit from previously proposed legislation known as the DREAM Act – i.e. young adults brought to the U.S. as children and who have remained in the U.S., through no fault of their own, for an extended period. The vast majority of DACA applicants have been scheduled for, or have completed, their biometric fingerprinting process. Importantly, to this point, more than 100,000 applicants have been approved and issued 2 year deferred action status notices and 2 year employment authorization documents (EAD). These numbers and milestones are consistent with developments our office has seen with our clients’ applications, with clients receiving approvals and EAD’s within 8 weeks of filing in most cases. In general, our office has been seeing processing times range from 60 days to 90 days, although as more applications are received by DHS, an expanded processing time frame can be expected. Further, to extent an applicant’s background may involve a complicating factor, such as a criminal arrest or pending removal proceedings, application processing may be a bit slower.
Demographic Breakdown of Applicants:
Country of Origin and States of Residence
Origin Received to Date
Mexico 258,708
El Salvador 15,697
Honduras 9,998
Guatemala 8,960
Peru 5,607
South Korea 5,167
Brazil 4,807
Colombia 4,249
Ecuador 4,143
Philippines 2,862
Top 10 States of Residence Received to Date
California 98,531
Texas 57,542
New York 21,635
Florida 17,241
Illinois 17,224
North Carolina 13,314
Arizona 12,924
Georgia 11,914
New Jersey 11,779
Colorado 7,124
PUBLISHED December 14, 2012 – “IMMIGRATION LAW FORUM”
Copyright © 2012, By Law Offices of Richard Hanus, Chicago, Illinois