It was announced on September 5, 2017 that the executive order on the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) would be rescinded by the Trump Administration on March 5, 2018. This summary is provided to employers who may have employees currently working on Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) that were issued pursuant to DACA. This summary only addresses issues relating to employees who currently hold work authorization pursuant to DACA and not to any new potential applicants for DACA.
First, the rescission of DACA will go into effect on March 5, 2018. The USCIS will continue to accept DACA EAD extension requests until October 5, 2017. Any currently valid EAD cards will continue to be valid through their current expiration dates. Any applications that are filed and received by October 5, 2017 for extensions of previously approved DACA EADs should be granted for an additional two years. These applications for extensions can be filed 180 days prior to the expiration date on the current document.
We recommend that no one who has been granted DACA travel outside of the U.S. even if they are in possession of a valid Advanced Parole document that was previously issued. All pending Advanced Parole travel document applications will be administratively closed and refunded. The administration seems to be signaling that travel is not advisable and since we cannot control the risk here, we are advising against any international travel.
We recommend that you attempt to identify any employees currently working pursuant to DACA, and that they be informed that they can speak to one of the attorneys at Graham Adair about their status in order to determine what steps, if any, can be taken to protect their status going forward. This should happen as soon as possible to ensure that all eligible extensions are filed by October 5, 2017.
While this does give Congress some time to act and to legislatively protect the work authorization and status of these individuals, it is not a significant amount of time and therefore any employees currently working pursuant to DACA may be forced off of payroll when their EAD cards expire. We recommend that companies confirm that their I-9 re-verification processes are active and in place to catch any potential issues with expiring work authorization cards.