Eva Santos Veloz used to spend her days in neighborhoods across New York City, meeting residents and attending protests. As a community affairs organizer for a local nonprofit, her work — perhaps surprisingly — also required her to travel to other states sometimes. But it was always the personal interactions with people that the 36-year-old mother says she enjoyed the most.
However, since mid-February, Santos Veloz has been unable to work. Her work permit, tied to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, expired despite being filed 144 days ago — longer than the average 6 weeks that it had taken on multiple previous occasions she renewed since joining the program in 2014. Processing delays have left her without a job, and without the protection from deportation that the program had provided for more than a decade.
DACA is an Obama-era program that provides temporary protection from deportation to certain undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children, but it does not however confer legal status. Beneficiaries of the program can also apply for an Employment Authorization Document, valid for the duration of their protection from deportation (deferred action), which has to be renewed every two years. Traveling opportunities outside the country are also limited. Those with DACA status are commonly referred to as “Dreamers.”
“I am not entirely sure why, after 12 years of the program, it is worse than the beginning,” Santos Veloz said, adding that even before the renewal process had been digitized, renewals took on average three months to be processed. “I was never expecting for my permit to fully expire and for almost two months to go by.”
Santos Veloz’s case is not unique. Across the country, DACA recipients are losing employment as processing delays at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stretch well beyond expected timelines — leaving them without legal status to work or live in the U.S. through no fault of their own.
Some advocates and politicians believe that the Trump administration is intentionally delaying renewals of immigration benefits as a way to meet the president’s mass deportation agenda, which has already seen more than 250 DACA recipients arrested by ICE since Trump took office.
As of Sep. 30, 2025, the latest available figures, there were 505,940 active DACA recipients nationwide, and 19,580 of them live in New York. Documented spoke with beneficiaries of the DACA program who have been waiting for their renewals — some of whom have wait times that have surpassed the 120-150 day window recommended by USCIS to file a renewal. Those interviewed said losing employment has impacted their families financially, and many have chosen to limit leaving their homes due to fear of encountering immigration officers.
“I’m always outside yelling, trying to protest. I haven’t gone to a protest just because I’m super afraid,” said Santos Veloz, who is also the primary breadwinner for her three children. “There’s a lot of hiding on my end now that I didn’t have before.”
Earlier this month, Santos Veloz said she could not attend a family event on the West Coast due to fear of getting arrested by ICE at the airport, especially now that she’s living without protection from the program. Without a salary, she has had to use her savings to support her family. “I have three children. I have a son that is going to college this year. I have a mom [to support],” she said. “It’s not even an idea of like, ‘hey, we are taking this long, and by this time you’ll get a response’. It’s just completely in limbo.”
Pedro Chavez, an immigration attorney, believes the Trump administration is slowly trying to get rid of the program. “Death by a thousand cuts, it’s like how people say,” Chavez said, adding that the administration tried to end DACA in 2017, during Trump’s first term. “The courts have said that there is no way to truly get rid of DACA. So he has been looking for ways to eliminate this protection to make people panic, to stress them so that they auto-deport.”
Chavez explained that more of his clients have reached out to him lately who, like Santos Veloz, have also reached their expiration dates. “They did everything right. They sent their petitions, they asked for renewal 150 days before it expired, but now they are nearing that expiration date and will soon be unable to work,” he said.
He warned that many beneficiaries are running the risk of accruing unlawful presence during the lapse of their DACA. Unlawful presence bars individuals from re-entering the United States for either 3 years or 10 years, depending on the amount of time they accrued without any sort of immigration status, unless they obtain a waiver for reentry.
Zach Kahler, spokesperson for USCIS, told Documented that “under the leadership of President Trump, USCIS is safeguarding the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens, which can lengthen processing times. DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country.”
On April 20, 16 members of Congress sent a letter to Joseph Edlow, Director of USCIS, to demand answers regarding the current DACA renewal processing delays that have incurred since Trump took office, as well as inquire about what has changed in the renewal process since December 2024, when former President Biden was in office.
“The Trump Administration is intentionally processing DACA renewals slowly. This has resulted in Dreamers experiencing high levels of anxiety and uncertainty, and it has resulted in some of them losing their jobs due to a lapse in their status from the delays, which has caused many DACA recipients and their families to face economic challenges,” the letter said. “ Moreover, a lapse in their DACA status due to the Trump Administration’s slow processing times has also put Dreamers at risk for deportation, which impacts their families, communities, and workplaces.”
These DACA renewal delays come amid a new ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which on Friday issued a decision in Matter of Santiago-Santiago — a case about Catalina “Xóchitl” Santiago, an El Paso DACA recipient who was arrested at a U.S. airport and put on deportation proceedings.
Santiago’s removal proceedings were closed on Sept. 9 by an immigration judge, which was appealed to the BIA by DHS. “The Immigration Judge erred in terminating removal proceedings based solely on the fact that the respondent has been accorded DACA protection and without considering the reasons for any opposition to termination,” the BIA decision said.
Essentially, Chavez explained, the ruling restricts the ability to close a case in immigration court solely based on the person’s DACA protection, as it was in the past. What that means is that the judge will now have to consider if there is any opposition to the case before closing the case.
Also Read: Am I Still Protected from Deportation If I Have DACA?
For Giancarla C., 39, a beneficiary of the program living in Virginia, the consequences of losing her DACA extend beyond her immediate family, she said. She was put on leave of absence on April 10, after her work permit expired, even though she had sent her renewal on Nov. 23 — 158 days ago. As a legal representative accredited by the Department of Justice, Giancarla had been responsible for overseeing 200 clients, filing petitions and declarations U Visas for victims of crimes, asylum and other cases, and said her co-workers had to absorb many of her clients and rebuild trust with them.
“A lot of clients hear things on TikTok, or wherever. There’s a lot of fear-mongering,” she said.
Giancarla said has avoided driving to her usual gym, or taking her dog to a park 30 minutes away from her apartment complex due to fear of running into ICE agents. “Thankfully, the grocery store is next to my apartment complex,” she said. “I wake up and it’s just like I don’t have anything to do. I’ve been walking around with my dog in the neighborhood.”
Veloz Santos said that she also knows of other DACA recipients who have also been limiting their time outside, and in some cases, even moved from their neighborhoods due to ICE presence. “We see what ICE did to two great humans that were protecting our community,” she said, referring to Alex Pretti and Renee Good, who were killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year. “So even those that are trying to help us and protect us are taking steps back because they are being attacked.”
‘Death By a Thousand Cuts’: Longer Renewal Times Are Making DACA Recipients Deportable was first published by Documented and was republished with permission.
Rommel H. Ojeda is a bilingual journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. Ojeda is the Community Correspondent for Documented.
