Only eight days are left for DACA recipients to renew their applications if their permits to stay in the U.S. expire on March 5, 2018.
On Sept. 5, President Donald Trump rescinded the program leaving DACA recipients in uncertainty.
As reported in a Sept. 11 issue of The Rider, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) provides about 800,000 young people who were brought to the United States as children with temporary protection from deportation if they can demonstrate that they meet several criteria, according to whitehouse.gov.
The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services department will only be accepting “DACA renewal requests received by Oct. 5, 2017, from current beneficiaries whose benefits will expire between Sept. 5, 2017 and March 5, 2018,” according to www.uscis.gov.
Two weeks ago, UTRGV hosted information forums regarding the DACA changes for campus community members.
Student Success Vice President Kristin Croyle said that the legal status of any DACA student will not interfere with their admission or financial aid status at UTRGV.
“Even though the DACA situation right now is pretty stressful, they are still and always welcome,” Croyle said in an interview with The Rider.
She also mentioned that if students are eligible to qualify for renewal, they need to take care of it right away.
“It’s not a university process, so they need to look at reliable sources of information, such as from the federal government,” Croyle said. “We have a Web page for undocumented students that has the information that they would need.”
The website offers answers to most common questions and provides other resources to help students. The link to the website is http://www.utrgv.edu/studentlife/faculty-staff-resources/support-for-students-who-are-undocumented/index.htm.
Croyle said that if students have questions or if they are looking for resources, they are always welcome to visit the Dean of Students office.
“We are here for them; the university is here for them,” she said. “Any student that is admitted to the university, they are considered part of our UTRGV family. So, they will always have the support of the university.”
