The Trump administration says it is ending a program that shielded young undocumented immigrants from deportation, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
But the administration is phasing the program out instead of ending it immediately. Here are the details on how the wind-down will happen.
Immigrants who have current DACA status can remain on the program until their two-year work permits expire.
Those whose work permits expire before March 5, 2018 can apply to renew those permits for another two years, but they must apply to do so before October 5.
In addition, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will consider any pending initial or renewal applications received by September 5. As of August 20, nearly 35,000 new DACA applications and nearly 72,000 renewal requests were pending at USCIS.
USCIS will reject all DACA renewal requests filed after October 5.
The structure of the phase-out means that hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients will continue to be able to work in the United States legally through 2019.
Pro-immigrant advocates had raised concerns that immigration enforcement agencies will use the data the immigrants provided to target them for deportation.
Officials said on Tuesday that USCIS will not "proactively" provide a DACA recipient's information to law enforcement agencies, unless the individual presents a national security or public safety risk.
Nearly 202,000 DACA recipients' work permits have expired or will expire between August and December, and more than 275,000 will expire in 2018, according to DHS officials. The administration did not immediately have figures on how many DACA recipients will see their work authorisations expire between now and March.
Reuters
