In two weeks, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA) expires. But what the March 5 deadline actually means for Dreamers is murky at best.
The Obama-era program was created in 2012 to protect children brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents from deportation.
President Trump's administration announced in September it would be winding down the program, giving Congress six months—until March 5—to come up with a solution for the nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants covered by the program. There are more than 27,000 DACA recipients living in Florida, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.
Four separate votes on four different immigration plans aimed at making DACA permanent failed in the Senate last week.
Lawmakers are working on a plan that provides a path to citizenship, but President Trump has made clear that any deal must also include border wall funding and a narrowing of legal immigration by reducing family-based immigration known as chain migration.
“For them to not come up with a deal, the deadline is what, 15 days away, and we can’t put something together," asked 21-year-old Miriam Martinez, a Dreamer who joined about a dozen others along Gulf to Bay Blvd. in Clearwater Sunday evening to rally support. The group Clearwater #heretostay organized the event.
Martinez says the March 5 deadline brings uncertainty more than anything else.
Since the Trump administration stopped accepting new applications for the program in September, roughly 100 DACA recipients a day have watched their work permits expire, according to the Liberal Centers for American Progress.
But two federal court orders issued since Jan. allow DACA recipients to again apply for two-year renewals. It's an option that will remain until either the court order is struck down or Congress acts.
Martinez says her and others' demands are simple: "I want a clean Dream Act where all of us will have rights to legal citizenship.”
Trump has said he is willing to sign legal protections for up to 1.8 million DACA-eligible individuals, so long as he gets border security funding and some legal immigration reforms, which is something most Democrats and Dreamers like Martinez oppose.
The Trump administration has also said individuals whose DACA work permits have expired will not be actively targeted by ICE after the March 5 deadline.
Martinez says she doesn't trust that until a deal is reached.
"It feels like we were told that we were able to dream, that we were able to have the American dream, but with that deadline coming, it’s just ending our dreams," she said.
As for how the rest of the country feels, a recent Quinnipiac University poll showed 73 percent of Americans support protections for Dreamers. Among Republicans, 49 percent to 40 percent support protections.
With Congress on break for the next week, it's unclear if lawmakers will take up immigration again before the end of the month.
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