By Roujin Mozaffarimehr
On July 28th, Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf issued a Policy Memorandum titled, “Reconsideration of the June 15, 2020 Memorandum Entitled ‘Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children.”[1] This new memorandum was issued after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on June 18th which determined that recent actions attempting to rescind DACA through policy memorandum had not complied with certain requirements. MPLG’s analysis of last month’s Court decision can be found here.
While the memorandum does not rescind DACA, it provides a lengthy discussion of the Acting Secretary’s concerns regarding DACA, which appear to align with the administration’s ultimate goal of ending the DACA program. Effective as of the issuance of this memorandum, the following changes are in effect:
- DHS will reject all initial DACA requests and Employment Authorization Document (EAD) requests and refund all associated feeds, without prejudice to re-filing such requests should DHS determine to begin accepting initial requests again in the future.
- DHS will adjudicate all pending and future properly submitted DACA renewal requests and associated applications for EADs from current beneficiaries.
- Limit the period of any deferred action granted pursuant to the DACA policy after the issuance of the memorandum (and thereby limit the period of any associated work authorization) to one year.
- DHS will refrain from terminating any grants of previously issued deferred action or revoking any EADs based solely on the directives in this memorandum for the remaining duration of their validity periods.
- DHS will reject all pending and future I-131 applications for advance parole from beneficiaries of the DACA policy and refund all associated feeds, absent exceptional circumstances.
- DHS will refrain from terminating any grants of previously approved advance parole based solely on the directive in this memorandum for the remaining duration of their validity periods.
- DHS will exercise its discretionary authority to terminate or deny deferred action at any time when immigration officials determine termination or denial of deferred action is appropriate.
- DHS will continue to comply with the information-sharing policy as reflected in the DACA Frequently Asked Questions issues alongside the Napolitano Memorandum, and as set forth in USCIS’s Form I-821D instructions. Nothing in this memorandum makes any change to that policy.
If you have any questions about the DACA program and the impact of this new memorandum, please contact MPLG for assistance.
[1] https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/20_0728_s1_daca-reconsideration-memo.pdf