DACA Program Reinstated in Full by USCIS Following Court Order

On December 4, 2020, Judge Nicholas George Garaufis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a court order required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take the necessary actions to fully reinstate the DACA program. As a result of this court order, effective December 7, 2020, the USCIS will implement the DACA program as follows:

• Accepting first-time requests for consideration of deferred action under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) based on the terms of the DACA policy in effect prior to September 5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4,2020, order;

• Accepting DACA renewal requests based on the terms of the DACA policy in effect prior to September5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4, 2020, order;

• Accepting applications for advance parole documents based on the terms of the DACA policy prior to September 5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4, 2020, order;

• Extending one-year grants of deferred action under DACA to two years; and

• Extending one-year employment authorization documents under DACA to two years.

The USCIS also announced it will take the necessary steps to provide sufficient evidence to those applicants who were approved for one year extensions of deferred action and employment authorization confirming this additional one year extension beyond their current DACA and EAD expiration dates.

Finally, while the USCIS did announce their compliance with Judge Garaufis’ order, they did reserve the right to potentially challenge and seek relief from this order in the future.