<p>The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allows qualified undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deportation deferral and makes them eligible for work permits. In September 2017, the Trump administration announced that it would take no new applicants and would draw down the program over the course of several years. A federal court ruling in January 2018 required the Trump administration to partially continue to run the program as legal challenges remain. The government is now accepting DACA renewal requests but not new applications. The Trump administration says they are appealing the ruling and will ask the Supreme Court to hear the case. In the meantime, DACA recipients are awaiting a solution from Congress to help them to keep their temporary status or to gain a path to legal residence and citizenship.</p>
Politicians in the nation’s capital are debating immigration policy changes. Activists are lobbying for an urgent deal to protect those affected by the Trump administration dismantling the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.