Immigrants living in the US who had come into the US as undocumented minors may soon look forward to good news. The federal government plans to resume processing initial applications under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for the first time since 2021.
The US federal government has filed a new DACA plan in the United states district court for the southern district of Texas Brownsville division on September 29.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, established in 2012, offers temporary employment authorization and deportation protection to undocumented minors in the US. Over 800,000 current beneficiaries continue to benefit, but USCIS adjudication of new applications has been suspended since a nationwide injunction in 2021.
In January 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled the DACA program unlawful, allowing existing protections to remain and narrowing the injunction on new benefits to apply only in Texas.
Now, the federal government plans to resume processing initial DACA applications after the 2021 injunction. However, applicants in Texas may be granted deferred action, but they are not eligible for employment authorization or lawful presence classification. DACA beneficiaries moving to Texas may lose their employment authorization due to the court’s ruling to continue the injunction in Texas.
A federal judge is set to decide whether to resume the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offers temporary deportation protection and work permits to certain undocumented immigrants.
The court may allow issuance of work permits to DACA applicants if the federal government’s plan is approved, excluding Texas residents.
The proposed plan allows DACA applications from all states, providing deportation protection and work authorization to individuals who entered the US before age 16, resided in the US since June 2007, and were under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012 (that is, you were born on or after June 16, 1981). However, DACA applications have not been accepted since July 2021 due to a court ruling.
USCIS proposes that the geographic limitation for initial DACA requestors be based on the individual’s state of residence (not based on state of employment), as reflected by the most recent physical address on record with USCIS.
DHS also intends to resume processing initial DACA applications that have been blocked since 2021 if they are accepted. However, Texas applicants would only be protected from deportation, and they would not be granted work permits.
On February 26, Congresswomen Sylvia Garcia and Pramila Jayapal reintroduced the bipartisan American Dream and Promise Act of 2025. The bipartisan American Dream and Promise Act would provide a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
‘Dreamers’ in America are those undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. A DACA recipient is an individual who has received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a US immigration policy that protects undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children.
DACA program has allowed more than 800,000 Dreamers to live, work, and contribute to their communities. DACA recipients pay approximately $6.2 billion in federal taxes and $3.3 billion in state and local taxes annually. The Center for American Progress estimates that the national GDP could grow by $799 billion over the next decade if Dreamers were provided a pathway to citizenship.
