Kaine, Warner: start processing DACA applications again

Virginia’s U.S. senators last month urged ICE to resume processing DACA applications following an appeals court decision.

Mark Warner and Tim Kaine with other Democrats in the U.S. Senate in a letter urged U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to resume processing applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program following a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in June in Texas.

Currently, more than 100,000 initial DACA applications are pending with USCIS, according to a release. The letter came in advance of the 13th anniversary June 15, 2012, of President Barack Obama establishing the DACA program.

Since then, more than 825,000 people have received deferred action. DACA recipients contribute an estimated $140 billion to the U.S. economy in spending power and $40 billion in combined federal, payroll, state, and local taxes, according to the senators.

In the letter to USCIS Acting Director Alfonso-Royals, the senators stated, “Noncitizens brought to the United States as children, often known as Dreamers, are American in every way but their immigration status. Many only know this country as their home, and they contribute every day to this great nation by paying taxes and serving in critical roles, such as police officers, teachers, and nurses.

“Americans overwhelmingly support providing Dreamers a path to citizenship, and in December 2024, President Trump stated that he supported protections for Dreamers to remain in the U.S. We implore you to use your authority to resume processing initial applications for DACA and provide such protections for Dreamers immediately,” the senators said.