How the end of DACA amnesty will roll out

tues, Sep 5th 2017 @ 3:33 pm EDT by Roy Beck

I'm already seeing a lot of confusion and some misleading reports on what Pres. Trump did today.

The following is based on what the Administration has issued publicly and on a briefing we received this morning from the White House.

There is NOT a 6-month delay on ending the DACA amnesty

I was extremely concerned when I first heard over the weekend that Pres. Trump was going to end the executive DACA amnesty but only after giving Congress six months to enact a legislative amnesty.

That would have provided six months for immigration expansionists inside the Administration to delay the end of DACA even further once the deadline approached.

The reality is not perfect but is far better than advertised.


  1. DACA ends today for anybody wanting to apply for the first time for a work permit or any other benefit.
  2. DACA ends Oct. 5 for anybody wanting to apply for a renewal of a work permit.

Perhaps the most important thing is that no applications of any kind will be accepted after Oct. 5.

For the Administration to be pressured to reverse its decision would require ramping up a whole new bureaucracy that will be closed down soon after Oct. 5.

Opening up jobs for Americans won't begin in earnest until March

My top concern about the DACA work-permit amnesty has always been the addition of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens competing in the legal labor market against struggling American workers and legal immigrants already here. This has created downward pressure on wages and meant that hundreds of thousands of Americans -- particularly Millennials -- do not have jobs at this time.

Atty Gen. Sessions noted this morning that around 800,000 DACA work permits have been given out since Pres. Obama created them in 2012. Those work permits were for two years but could be continually renewed under Pres. Obama's order.

We were told this morning that around 690,000 work permits are still in effect due to some recipients not renewing along the way for various reasons.

That attrition will continue and provide some relief for American workers immediately.

Here's how the order has been laid out:

  1. PENDING FIRST-TIME DACA APPLICATIONS: Young adult illegal aliens whose first-time applications for a work permit are still pending will be processed despite the end to accepting new applications as of today. (About 33,000 applications are said to be pending.)
  2. DACA WORK PERMITS THAT EXPIRE SEP. 5, 2017 THROUGH MARCH 5, 2018 or which have renewal applications pending right now:

    These illegal aliens will be allowed to renew for one more two-year period. But they will have to apply by Oct. 5, 2017. Many of these are likely to miss the deadline or decide for various reasons not to renew, which will begin to open up jobs as their employers are required to end their employment at the expiration of their work visa. (Presumably, as many as 150,000 to 200,000 illegal aliens might be given this gift of being allowed to renew for one more two-year work permit.)
  3. DACA WORK PERMITS THAT EXPIRE AFTER MARCH 5, 2018: These illegal aliens will not be allowed to apply for renewals for the Oct. 5 deadline. They will be able to hold their jobs -- or even get new jobs -- until the expiration date on their work visa. Perhaps a thousand work visas a day will be expiring starting March 6 and through 2019.

DON'T LISTEN TO THE SMUGGLERS

The White House is concerned that smugglers in other countries will entice people to fork over their savings to get to the U.S. before Oct. 5 in order to file for these work permits.

The fact is that nobody can gain anything under this order unless:
(a) they filed an initial application before today
(b) or they already have a work permit
When the DACA amnesty was created, it created the humanitarian crisis known as the Border Surge in which large numbers of children and youth were enticed to take the dangerous journey to the U.S. under the promise that our government would never require anybody here illegally to ever leave. The Trump announcement today should send the opposite message: There is no pathway for staying if you decide to come here and be an illegal alien.
THE THREATS BEFORE US

Huge efforts among the mainstream media, corporate lobbyists, the community of foundations and leaders of both parties in Congress are already underway to pass an amnesty for these DACA recipients. Typically, they do not include any provisions to reduce the harm to vulnerable American workers, or any provisions to keep foreign parents from putting their children into this situation in the future.

We will keep you alerted to each new challenge with ways to make a difference.
ROY BECK is President & Founder of NumbersUSA
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https://www.numbersusa.com/blog/daca-amnesty-rescinded