Carmen, 31, worked at a major statewide food bank as a program supervisor for five years. She loved her job; the mission of food justice is close to her heart. “Nobody should go hungry in a quote-unquote first world country,” she said.
But since April 10, Carmen hasn’t been able to go to work. Her work authorization has expired. Her employer waited for a month before they filled the position. She lost her employee-sponsored health care in June.
She is spending her time off work going for walks, volunteering at a local food shelf, and in the company of her mother and boyfriend. But losing her job felt isolating, “almost like losing your identity.”
Carmen, who is using her middle name in fear of retaliation against her case, has been a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program since it started 14 years ago. Her work authorization is tied to her DACA status, both of which expired in April, and she is still awaiting her renewal. This, despite doing everything right — she planned ahead and applied for a renewal in December, 120 days before the expiration was due, just as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recommends.
But legal experts and DACA recipients like Carmen are experiencing unusual delays in renewal applications processing; what would’ve taken a month or two before is now taking five or six months.
“I try my best to not get swallowed up in the black hole of despair, because I tried everything, and I don’t know what else I can do, other than just wait, and you know, time and money are catching up to me,” she said.
DACA was introduced by the Obama administration in 2012. The program allows undocumented immigrant children who were brought to the U.S. to seek temporary protection from deportation and have the ability to work in the U.S.
Recipients, who are often referred to as Dreamers, must renew their DACA status every two years which also renews work authorization for the same time period. Currently, DACA and work authorization renewals cost a total of $605.
There are 4,050 DACA beneficiaries in Minnesota as of September 2025, a small portion of the 506,000 nationwide.
The program has been repeatedly targeted by President Donald Trump, who has made attempts to cancel it altogether. Experts also worry that an ongoing case in Texas could lead to the cancellation of work authorizations for DACA recipients in that state, with similar outcomes potentially extending to other states.
Following a court ruling in January 2025, USCIS stopped processing new initial DACA requests but continues to accept and process renewal requests and accompanying applications for employment authorization. As part of the vetting, beneficiaries were expected to appear for in-person biometrics starting late 2025.
Extended vetting, and consequent delays
Chhun Hour Chea was 7 when he immigrated to the United States from Cambodia. Twenty-one years later, he is now a mechanical engineer living with his wife in Shakopee. They became homeowners last week, a longtime dream and one that Chea said “has been a very long process to get to where we are today.”
Chea has been a recipient of DACA ever since it started. Without DACA, Chea can’t work, and is also vulnerable to deportation. “Without DACA, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” he said. “It’s essentially my lifeline.”
This “lifeline” is set to expire in August; his renewal has now been pending for over four months. It’s the longest he has had to wait since he has been a DACA recipient. He is worried about the delay in the renewal, now that he has a house to pay for.
This year, USCIS reported 2.3 months processing time for DACA and work authorization renewals, but local attorneys say wait times are stretching much longer.
“Their normal recommendation is to apply four to five months before expiration, and clearly that’s not soon enough,” Sheila Stuhlman, an immigration attorney and founder of Stuhlman Law, said.
When Carmen flagged the delay in her renewal to USCIS after it had crossed the normal processing time, she received contradictory responses. An email notice said that her “immigration benefit request has not been pending longer than what is normal” for DACA. An agent told her on the phone that they’re “sorry for the delay.”
The inquiry she had asked U.S. Sen. Tina Smith’s office to file on her behalf received a notice that acknowledged “the difficulties caused by any delay in processing.” It also said that USCIS is not able to give a timeframe “to process this workload.”
USCIS did not explicitly confirm or deny delays in processing DACA renewals in a written statement to Sahan Journal. “Under the leadership of President Trump, USCIS is safeguarding the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens,” USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler said.
“With the change from it being very quick to now taking over six months, we are seeing a lot of folks have gaps in employment and needing more support services because they cannot work lawfully,” said Tracy Roy, legal director at Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
She added that the government has issued several policy changes in recent months, including additional screening requirements like mandatory biometrics. Government officials have also said they are rerunning fingerprint data through expanded FBI databases, a step that could result in slow processing across all case types — like DACA — that require biometrics.
An anxious ‘subscription model’
For Nia, also a DACA recipient, the two-year renewals, however anxiety-inducing, felt standard. But this year, the processing delays have exacerbated that anxiety.
“Every time this [renewal] comes up, because it kind of makes you feel like the state is questioning your contributions to the country, to society,” she said. “Eight renewals in, it feels like a subscription model,” she said.
Nia, who asked to be identified by a nickname for fear of political repercussions and persecution, immigrated from Mexico with her mother when she was 10 years old. At around 18, she was granted DACA status. “There’s certainly a level of anxiety that comes with this process, and living on the two-year case-by-case,” she said.
This year, she plans to apply in August even though her current authorization does not expire until next April.
If she receives her renewal before April, she will lose time from the two-year period but Stuhlman said that’s a risk most DACA beneficiaries are willing to take to be able to continue working.
Vulnerable to deportation
Those with expired DACA status are vulnerable to deportation since it is a permit to live and work in the U.S., but does not offer a pathway to legal status.
A court decision in April has renewed concerns about the protections DACA offers. El Paso community organizer Catalina “Xóchitl” Santiago was arrested last year, but freed by a federal judge who said the federal government detained Santiago to seek her removal, but she was protected from deportation by her DACA status.
But in April, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that immigration judges may no longer terminate deportation proceedings solely because an immigrant has DACA. The decision requires judges to also consider the government’s reasons for pursuing removal and explain their reasoning in writing.
While the ruling does not end DACA or revoke its protections, advocates say it could make it more difficult for DACA recipients who end up in immigration court to have their cases dismissed.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported that ICE arrested roughly 260 DACA recipients in 2025, and as many as 174 DACA recipients had been deported.
“I think these delays are systemic procedures to push as many DACA recipients as possible to be vulnerable targets of deportation,” Nia said.
“We don’t have a path to legal citizenship. We don’t have rights, voting rights in this country, and we are also potential targets,” she said. “We are essentially dealing with the repercussions of being disenfranchised from a system that we don’t even have a say in.”
With Operation Metro Surge, those anxieties were further compounded. Nia said she was sheltering in place and continues to be vigilant. Carmen said that “not even DACA itself gave me peace of mind.” Now, with her status expired, she said she and her partner have a plan in place should she be detained.
“When my card expired, I gave him my lawyer’s information, and basically told him ‘If you’re not hearing from me, call my lawyer and try to figure out what’s going on, because there’s a possibility that I’ve been detained.’”
‘This is our home, this is all we know’
Carmen, Nia, and Chea have lived in Minnesota all their adult lives. From schooling to college and now employment and community engagement, their lives are grounded here.
But some DACA recipients are beginning to rethink their future in the U.S., as they navigate the increasing hurdles to their renewals and the narrow path to citizenship available to them.
“At this point I am exploring options beyond this country if there’s not a path to legal citizenship by the time I finish my bachelor’s,” Nia said. “This is just not the way to live life.”
There are currently no direct pathways to citizenship for Dreamers, and over the years, legislation has failed to provide any. The American Dream and Promise Act of 2025 sponsored by U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas,) is currently pending in Congress. The bill would provide a pathway to lawful permanent residence — and eventually citizenship — for many DACA recipients. It was referred to committee and has not received a House vote.
Dreamers can pursue simultaneous legal processes for more permanent status in the U.S. including family-based sponsorships, employee-sponsored visas, asylum and U-visas. But not everyone on DACA is eligible to pursue more permanent immigration pathways and some of the alternative pathways don’t provide work authorization.
Carmen has only ever been eligible for DACA. “It’s such a blessing to have, and such a great program and benefit, but it can only stretch so far,” she said.
“We’re still Dreamers, but we’re not kids anymore,” Carmen said. “A lot of us are 30-plus, some are into their 40s with kids and grandkids, possibly. We need a bit more of a final protection, something that will actually keep us here, [because] this is our home, this is all we know.”
