Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017 | 7:57 p.m.
Despite the repeal of the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program, undocumented immigrants living across Nevada and the United States are entitled to basic civil rights and should not allow Immigration Customs Enforcement officers to enter their homes without a warrant signed by a judge, a panel of three immigration experts said Saturday.
Speaking at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, the panel urged just over 60 listeners, nearly all young adults and university students, to have their DACA permit renewal forms filled out and submitted to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by the end of September.
“At this stage remember we’re only talking about renewals,” said panelist attorney Michael Kagan of the UNLV Immigration Clinic. “The government already has your information so there’s no reason to fear, despite this political climate. The only downside is the $495 DHS fee.”
Kagan joined Martha Melendez of CUNY Citizenship Now and Ebru Cetin of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada for Saturday’s two-hour workshop, which came less than two weeks after United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Sept. 5 that the program would be rescinded.
More than 800,000 DACA beneficiaries, known also as dreamers, including an estimated 13,000 to 20,000 people living in Nevada, have been awarded a temporary stay in the United States. Those whose two-year DACA permits are scheduled to expire before March 5 of next year have until Oct. 5 to renew their permit for an additional two years through Oct. 2019.
Nearly a dozen students remained after the panel to receive professional assistance from attorneys on-site, who helped assemble their application papers to extend their DACA permits.
Karina Fernandez, who was born in Jalisco, Mexico, said the program, and the chance to renew her permit with free help through UNLV, was “a great service.”
“I feel worse for the thousands of people here that won’t get the chance to renew their DACA permit,” Fernandez, 21, said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty right now.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has stated that it hopes the six-month period before DACA’s expiration will allow Congress time to pass legislation to protect DACA recipients.
Kagan said despite UNLV’s outspoken support in favor of keeping DACA and its recipients here in the United States, the university has no legal authority to protect undocumented immigrants from ICE intervention.
