A San Diego mental health therapist lost one of their jobs after their DACA expired while they wait for a renewal, as recipients nationwide face longer processing times that threaten their ability to work and their protection from deportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do what I’m supposed to do, right? And the constant question is like, \u2018Why don’t you\u2026 try to get your residency and all that? Well, it’s not easy. It’s not easy,\u201d said Em, who asked NBC 7 not to identify them further over concerns for their safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system isn’t really built that way,\u201d Em continued, \u201cand you can do all the things that you’re told to do and, you know, follow all the rules, but it doesn’t \u2013 it feels like it doesn’t matter at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Em is undocumented, brought to the U.S. from Mexico at age 3 and raised in Southern California. They\u2019ve had DACA for almost a decade, since they were eligible.<\/p>\n
DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program created in 2012 for people brought to the U.S. as children, to shield them from deportation and provide work authorization. Recipients must renew every two years and be in good standing, with no criminal history.<\/p>\n
Em submitted to renew in February, four months before their DACA was set to expire on June 17. That renewal has usually taken just a few weeks, Em said, but this year, the deadline came and went with still no word.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that this day was coming,\u201d Em said. \u201cIt just sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The median processing time for a DACA renewal last year was about two weeks, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that processes those applications. It\u2019s since grown to nearly three months.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the leadership of President Trump, USCIS is safeguarding the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens,\u201d USCIS Spokesman Zach Kahler said in a statement, adding, \u201cDACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Em got their master\u2019s degree in San Diego and stayed in the city to work two jobs as a mental health therapist. One of Em\u2019s workplaces said they would hold Em\u2019s job until they received their DACA renewal, while the other gave Em a two-week grace period after the expiration before they would move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were like, \u2018I don’t know if it\u2019s going to make you feel better, but we did have to let someone go last week because of a similar situation to you,\u2019\u201d Em recounted, \u201cand to me, I was like, \u2018How is that supposed to make me feel better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just makes me feel very, like, disposable,\u201d Em added.<\/p>\n
And without DACA, Em and others technically have no protection from detention or deportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat dawned on me last week and I was like, \u2018Oh, I need to be extra careful,\u2019\u201d Em said. \u201cIt kind of feels dystopian.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those overseeing the system, Em had a message.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn’t a game. It’s not a game. It\u2019s people\u2019s livelihoods,\u201d Em said. \u201cIt\u2019s angering, and there’s a lot of injustice happening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Diego mental health therapist lost one of their jobs after their DACA expired while they wait…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":886370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,75716,409,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-886369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-daca","tag-immigration","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116797483702632433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}