With President Donald Trump’s administration announcing plans earlier this month to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, recipients are now halfway through a tight, month-long window to renew their work permits.

But groups that are trying to assist these young immigrants meet an Oct. 5 deadline say they’ve noticed a troubling problem — few people are calling them and asking for help filling out paperwork, and it appears to be a statewide problem.

“We know people are scared,” said Martha Menendez of CUNY Citizenship Now Las Vegas — a group that offers DACA renewal clinics — during a panel discussion Saturday at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law. “But we need anyone here who knows anybody to explain to them that right now, this is the best way to protect themselves and their family.”

Some 13,000 Nevadans who were brought to the country illegally as children are enrolled in DACA, which gives them a Social Security number, work authorization and relief from deportation. The Trump Administration is no longer accepting new applicants to the program that President Barack Obama created by executive order and that was threatened this summer with a lawsuit from 10 attorneys general and a governor. But the federal government is allowing recipients whose permits expire between now and March 5, 2018 to renew their work authorization for another two years.

“The Department of Justice cannot defend this type of overreach. We are a people of compassion and we are a people of law. But there is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said earlier this month when he announced the program’s end. “This does not mean they are bad people or that our nation disrespects or demeans them in any way. It means we are properly enforcing our laws as Congress has passed them.”

Congress can help step in through one of several proposals on the table, including the Dream Act, the Bridge Act, the American Hopes Act and the Recognizing America’s Children Act — all of which offer some sort of deportation protection for so-called DREAMers and some of which offer a pathway to citizenship. There’s also the fact that the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients are a highly sympathetic subset of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, although Boyd immigration law Professor Michael Kagan cautioned against leaning too much on the popularity of the program.

“It’s quite possible that Congress will do nothing,” he told attendees at the forum, which was organized by law student groups and offered free assistance filling out renewal forms. “The mere fact that public opinion is in DREAMers’ favor is no guarantee. There are a lot of things the public says they favor in opinion polls that Congress does not enact.”

Local activists are hard at work trying to organize the community and lobby Congress to act during the six-month window the Trump Administration allowed.

“Right now our families are suffering. My cousin is being removed next month. This is what the reality is for our families,” said Nevada DREAMer Astrid Silva on a teleconference hosted this week by Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. “We’re gonna continue to organize until our senators and Congress members take a close look at what the consequences of not passing the Dream Act are.”

They’re also trying to educate immigrants about crucial deadlines and what rights they have in the face of impending deportations.

To renew or not to renew?

Advocates say the slow trickle of people seeking help on their DACA renewal paperwork could stem from a fear that a tough-on-immigration administration would use the personal information to later deport them or their families.

The Department of Homeland Security’s position, as listed on its website, offers a mixed outlook.

“Generally, information provided in DACA requests will not be proactively provided to other law enforcement entities … for the purpose of immigration enforcement proceedings unless the requestor poses a risk to national security or public safety, or meets the criteria for the issuance of a Notice To Appear or a referral to ICE under the criteria,” it says, adding that the policy “may be modified, superseded, or rescinded at any time without notice.”

Panelists conceded there’s always a risk that the information will be shared with a law enforcement agency, but they still recommend that eligible DACA recipients renew the documents.

“At this point we’re only talking about renewals, so the calculus of risk is different,” Kagan said. “With someone who’s considering making a first application, the trade-off is giving your information to the government. If you have DACA, the government already has your information. You’ve already made that trade. So you might as well do the renewal.”

Menendez said the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services has long avoided giving information about applications it receives to enforcement agencies.

“USCIS has a policy — and it’s policy, it’s not law — that they don’t share information about DACA, citizenship renewals and all that with ICE or with Customs and Border Protection,” she said. “It’s not the most comforting thing because a policy can change from one day to the next, but until now, they’ve followed that so there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t continue to do so.”

When and how to renew

The deadline for submitting a renewal application is Oct. 5, but Kagan advised DACA recipients to get prepared earlier. The deadline is the day the government must receive the paperwork, not when it must be postmarked.

“If you’re not at the post office the morning of Oct. 2, you’re too late,” he said. “So think Sept. 29.”

Others suggested sending it by certified mail to ensure it’s been delivered.

The renewal fee is $495, and at least one state — Rhode Island — is paying that for DACA recipients. Panelists also suggested other resources, including a California group that has put $1 million toward application fee scholarships and the Mexican Consulate, which provides variable amounts to recipients.

If applicants aren’t hearing back from the government on their renewals within 4-5 months, Kagan said the best place to go is to the office of Nevada’s six congressional representatives.

“That’s the best mechanism we know of to dislodge an application that’s not being moved on for an unusually long period of time,” he said.

Can DACA recipients leave the country?

Menendez urged DACA recipients not to leave the country now, even if they have what’s called “advance parole” — permission from USCIS to go abroad.

“Our recommendation right now is that nobody DACA leave the country anymore because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “It’s not worth it.”

USCIS gave advance permission to DACA recipients who tell them when and why they’re leaving. While the agency has stopped issuing it, some people already have valid permission for future travel.

But she said there have been reports from Texas that people who are returning to the country under advance parole are being asked at the border to fill out and sign forms that ask them where they live and whether they know other undocumented people.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do with that information. It’s not like they can use it right now. But i think it’s a fear tactic and it works,” Menendez said.

Are DREAMers at risk of losing their jobs?

One of DACA’s biggest perks was that it allowed recipients to get a good job — not just something under the table. But Kagan said the disadvantage is that those better jobs often come with more organized human resources departments that will be pestering DACA recipients to get their work permits renewed.

But if there’s a lapse in the permit, job loss is a real prospect. And the lag time between renewals is a problem that plagues not just DACA recipients, but other immigrants who need work authorization.

“That constantly expires and constantly has to be renewed,” Kagan said. “And the slow processing time at USCIS is a constant headache.  And it looks like just paperwork to the government but it’s got a huge human hardship for people losing their job, having to find a new job.”

What should DREAMers do if ICE comes to their door?

Kagan advised DREAMers that if Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers show up, they should ask the officer to slip a warrant under the door. People are not required to let an officer in their home unless the officer presents a valid warrant signed by a judge — and getting a judge’s clearance is a step that ICE doesn’t often take, he said.

ICE may present a form that says it’s a warrant but the title associated with the signature on the bottom says “immigration officer.”

“If it’s signed by an immigration officer, it’s not a real warrant. Slip it back and say thank you very much,” Kagan said.

ICE agents might return later with a warrant signed by a judge, “but they might find someone easier than you to fill the van,” he said.

If ICE officers do come inside, Kagan says DREAMers should exercise their right to remain silent to avoid incriminating themselves.

“If the immigrants aren’t answering their questions, they would have trouble meeting their burden of proof,” he said. “Often because people answer their questions and say ‘yes, I’m undocumented,’ that actually becomes the central evidence that allows them to be deported.”

What they shouldn’t do: lie, present any fake identification or claim to be a U.S. citizen. Doing so is a serious federal offense that ICE could aggressively pursue, Kagan said.

Lawsuits

Several lawsuits have been filed in the wake of the Trump Administration’s decision, including one from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, which argues that the move violates due process guarantees by substantially changing course on the government’s assurances on how personal information will be handled. Another suit filed by 15 Democratic attorneys general argues that the policy change is discriminatory.

Kagan said that while he likes DACA and dislikes the motivations of people trying to end the program, he thinks the lawsuits filed in the wake of the decision to rescind DACA are on shaky legal ground.

“I have been critical of Republicans like [Nevada Attorney General] Adam Laxalt for using lawsuits as press releases. I feel this is what’s being done by Democratic attorneys general,” he said.  “I think eventually they will lose and then the press releases against them will actually be a public relations defeat.”

The DACA program was created with presidential authority, and can be rescinded by presidential authority, Kagan said.

“Right now we need the judicial branch more than ever,” he said. “But we have to preserve it — it’s a very delicate thing. Some things are for the political branches — for the president and Congress.”

In Congress

Four bills in Congress seek to address the DREAMers’ plight, and each of Nevada’s congressional representatives are involved in at least one of them.

• The BRIDGE Act, which stands for Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy, codifies the DACA program into law and extends it for three years, which would allow Congress more time to come up with long-term immigration reform. The Senate version has a bipartisan group of nine co-sponsors including Republican Sen. Dean Heller.
• The American Hope Act would cover people who entered the U.S. before age 18 and excludes people who have been convicted of certain crimes. Eligible participants can apply for conditional permanent residency, then lawful permanent residency and after five years, U.S. citizenship. It’s sponsored by Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez and has 152 co-sponsors — all Democrats — including Nevada Reps. Dina Titus, Ruben Kihuen and Jacky Rosen.
• The Recognizing America’s Children Act codifies much of the DACA program but also provides a pathway to legal status for people who are vetted by the Department of Homeland Security and work, enroll in higher education or serve in the military. After 10 years of legal status, participants could apply for citizenship. The bill is sponsored by Republican Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo and has 32 co-sponsors, mostly Republican, including Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei.

The DREAM Act keeps many of the same protections as DACA and provides a path for legal permanent residency for those who meet certain work, educational or military service requirements. Participants would be eligible for citizenship after 13 years. It’s sponsored by Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham; a bipartisan group of nine co-sponsors includes Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.