USCIS Approved More Than 20,000 New DACA Applications Since Pres. Trump’s EO

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Thursday that it approved 20,572 new DACA applicants between October 2017 and June 2018 in addition to already having renewed status for 185,086 DACA beneficiaries.

Despite the Trump Administration’s rescission of the DACA program in September, 2017, USCIS continued to accept new applications between October 2017 and June 2018, 7 months before Federal District Judge John Bates ruled that the Trump Administration’s rescission of the DACA program was illegal in April 2018. Between October and June, the federal government approved 20,572 initial applications, but only accepted 1,495 new applications.

Following Bate’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen rejected a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Texas and six other states that challenges the legality of the DACA amnesty program in May 2018. Hanen’s ruling gave the the federal government until June 8 2018 to respond to the states’ preliminary injunction bid, until June 15, 2018 for them to disclose the experts, and until June 29, 2018 for them to complete the discovery.

The federal government has approved 819,337 DACA applications since 2012.

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