An immigration lawyer near San Diego was fired and a nurse in the East Bay area was placed on unpaid leave after their work permits expired.
Both rely on work permits and legal protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program created by President Obama in 2012 for immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. But recent processing delays at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are putting many DACA recipients at risk of arrest and deportation as their two-year work permits expire.
“It’s definitely an attack on the program,” said lawyer Maria Fernanda Madrigal. “My first thought was, ‘Oh, they’re very clever. They weren’t able to end the program through the courts, so that’s what they’re doing.'”
Over the past several years, the average processing time for DACA renewal lasted less than two months. Now most of the cases end within 3.5 months. According to Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The agency did not say what caused the delay in processing. Spokesman Zach Kahler wrote in a statement that “Under President Trump’s leadership, USCIS is protecting the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens.”
DACA does not provide any kind of legal status in this country, he said.
During his first term in office, Trump unsuccessfully attempted to rescind DACA.
This time, his administration has weakened its benefits.
Last year, Department of Homeland Security officials began urging DACA recipients to self-deport. Department of Health and Human Services designates DACA recipients ineligible for health insurance Through Obamacare.
And last month, a precedent-setting decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals, which will apply to immigration judges across the country, said Having DACA is not enough To save someone from deportation.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said ICE arrested 650 DACA recipients between January 20, 2025, and April 30, about 90% of whom were charged or convicted of a crime. The spokesperson did not say how many people have been deported.
DACA recipient Javier Diaz is welcomed by his neighbors, including Martha Avelar, in South Los Angeles after returning home from a detention center in Texas in July 2025.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
But in a letter from February To US senators, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency had deported 86 DACA recipients between January 1 and November 19, 2025. Federal judges have ordered the agency to deport some, including Sacramento mother Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, who was deported a day after her green card interview.
Lawmakers are concerned that DACA’s promise of protections is being undermined.
Last month, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee held a forum On the Trump administration’s “all-out attack on DACA”. The forum included Santa Ana Police Chief Robert Rodriguez, who testified that he was forced to fire a police officer because his work permit renewal was not processed on time.
Last week, House members from California’s Central Valley, including Representative David Valadao (R-Hanford), sent a letter Urged Homeland Security and Citizenship and Immigration Services leaders to expedite DACA processing.
The letter further said, “Our offices have witnessed a significant increase in constituent cases involving pending renewals, many of which have remained unresolved for more than six months.” “These extended processing times are creating avoidable hardships for our communities and our economy.”
More than a quarter of the nation’s roughly 500,000 DACA recipients are in California, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services data. On average, they are 31 years old.
To qualify for DACA, applicants must pass a background check and meet certain educational or work requirements.
During a press conference before a DACA forum last month, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) reflected on the day in June 2012 when DACA applications first opened. She said parents of young immigrants asked her if it was safe for their children to sign up for the program, which would require them to acknowledge their lack of legal status and home address.
“Are you sure the government won’t use that information against us at some point?” She recalled him saying. “I said, ‘Follow the law exactly as it is written and announced in the executive order, and we will stand with you. Just trust us to do that.'”
Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), foreground, speaks during a Homeland Security oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March.
(J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
Durbin added, “Well, I didn’t expect the current president and what he’s doing now.”
Sarah Krieger, a former Citizenship and Immigration Services official who is now senior policy adviser at the National Immigration Law Center, said the processing delay was caused, in part, by the agency temporarily halting an automated system to process DACA and other applications.
Krieger said the “streamlined case processing” was shut down about a month after Trump took office last year to audit whether each process had adequate security checks. The automated system was turned back on a few months later but was modified to include more manual security checks. Krieger left the agency last July.
Shutting down the automated system, he said, was “a purposeful choice that does not enhance national security.” “It all slows things down.”
Citizenship and Immigration Services recommends that applicants submit their paperwork and pay the $555 fee between 120 and 150 days before their benefits expire.
Those doing so include two nurses who work for Kaiser Permanente in the Bay Area. Both requested anonymity out of concern over their immigration status.
One of the nurses, who came to the United States from the Philippines as a child, said she applied for renewal on Dec. 1. His work authorization expired on 15 April.
Kaiser sent him on 30 days of unpaid leave, after which he would be fired. Eventually, his work permit was renewed, but only after Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and two other members of Congress lobbied the federal government on his behalf.
Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) speaks during a press conference on the DACA program outside the U.S. Capitol on May 12.
(Graeme Sloane/Getty Images)
Padilla said his office has made requests to hundreds of DACA recipients this year.
Another Kaiser nurse, who also submitted her renewal paperwork in December, is still waiting. He has been on unpaid leave for almost a month.
The nurse, who is from South America, said a Citizenship and Immigration Services officer told her her renewal process could take up to 10 months.
The nurse is pregnant and she and her husband recently bought a house. Losing her job would mean losing her health care and maternity leave benefits.
“I’ve spent many years taking care of others in my community, paying taxes, contributing to the health care system,” he said. “I worked through COVID and it’s heartbreaking to feel like you were so easily discarded.”
Another DACA recipient, 35-year-old Elsa Sanchez of Georgia, has maintained DACA status since 2012 and says she always follows the recommendation to submit a renewal application at least 120 days before the expiration date.
For the last three renewals, he said, they were approved within a week or two. This time, his work permit and DACA expired on April 1, more than four months after he submitted his application.
Elsa Sanchez, whose work permit expired due to DACA renewal delays, at her home in Atlanta.
(Emily Magnien/Associated Press)
The healthcare IT company where Sanchez works as a senior customer success manager allowed her to take 60 days of unpaid leave, but said she must terminate her employment after that.
Sanchez’s unpaid leave was set to end on June 1. On May 20, she received notice that her DACA renewal was finally approved. But by then Sanchez, a single mother, had to withdraw funds from a college savings account for her 19-year-old daughter, who was attending a local university. He spent the money on his nearly $2,000 rent and food.
“I’m so relieved and grateful,” she said in an Instagram video announcing the news. “I know many of us are still being impacted by these delays. I wish I could share my condolences with all of you and that we could all be celebrating today.”
Others have also turned to social media to share their experiences and swap resources. Fired lawyer Madrigal insisted on making daily videos. On Tuesday, he shared “35th day of unemployment.”
“Some days feel like a lot of emotion and uncertainty,” she wrote. “Other days look like walks, kids’ activities, cooking dinner and ending the night with tostadas. Trying to find happiness and normalcy in the middle of it all.”
