Roughly 800,000 undocumented young adults are now in legal limbo after President Donald Trump moved to end a program that protects them from being deported.
Here’s who will be affected by President Trump’s decision to end DACA — and when
Let’s take a closer look at today’s announcement targeting the Dreamers.
But the end of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — which covers immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children — isn’t going to happen immediately. And if the staunchest supporters of DACA succeed in their lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill, it won’t happen at all.
The key date to watch is March 5, 2018: That’s the official end date for DACA under the new policy announced earlier today by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Those already covered under DACA — with a work authorization that’s set to expire before that date — have until Oct. 5, 2017, to apply and obtain a two-year renewal.
Otherwise, the U.S. government will continue reviewing first-time DACA applications it received prior to today, but it will not accept any new DACA applications or renewals going forward. And immigrants that already have DACA status won’t have their protections cut short.
The move drew immense opposition from the tech industry, in large part because the change to DACA affects some Silicon Valley employees.
At Apple, CEO Tim Cook said over the weekend that the eventual elimination of DACA would affect about 250 of his “co-workers.” In a later note to employees, obtained by Recode, he said those people work for Apple in 28 states, spanning positions in retail as well as research and development.
Microsoft, meanwhile, estimated that about 39 of its employees would be affected by Trump’s change in policy, including engineers, finance professionals and people who work in sales.
At Uber, the end of DACA harmed about 11 employees, the company told Recode, but it did not immediately have a number on how many of its drivers, who are not employees, are DACA beneficiaries.
Facebook and Google did not offer a tally when asked on Tuesday. But they and other tech giants did stress their intention to press Congress to authorize its own version of DACA, hoping that lawmakers can take advantage of the six-month delay on enforcement to spare roughly 800,000 young adults, known as Dreamers, from fear of deportation.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
