DACA recipients face deadline to renew permits

Young undocumented immigrants face their final deadline Thursday to renew their status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. President Donald Trump announced he would no longer accept new DACA applications on Sept. 5 and gave recipients already in the program one month to renew their permits. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a final warning Tuesday, urging undocumented immigrants to file before the deadline. More than 154,000 DACA recipients’ permits were set to expire between Sept. 5 and March 5, 2018—the date Trump said DACA would officially end without congressional action. About 106,000 have submitted renewal requests or have applications pending, according to DHS. That means about 48,000 eligible DACA recipients could face penalties if they don’t renew by Thursday. Several bills floating around Capitol Hill could address the DACA dilemma. Most notably, Democrats and a handful of Republicans have endorsed the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. But most in the GOP think that bill offers too much leniency and want a more conservative solution paired with enhanced border security measures.