Immigrant advocates criticized the Biden administration’s new rule to fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which aims to preserve the embattled program amid legal challenges but does not expand eligibility to younger immigrants.
During a press call Thursday, advocates from immigrant groups condemned the administration’s decision to leave in place eligibility requirements laid out in the original 2012 Homeland Security Department memo creating the program. DACA protects more than 600,000 so-called Dreamers from deportation and allows them to live and work legally in the U.S.
But the rule requires DACA applicants to have arrived in the U.S. before June 2007 to qualify, which bars young immigrants who arrived in the past 15 years. Applicants also must have been younger than 16 when they entered.
