KQED61%
Bay Area Democrats Demand Answers on DACA Renewal Backlog
By Katie DeBenedetti69%
5/21/2026, 11:00:46 AM
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Bay Area congresspeople raised concerns Tuesday about processing delays for DACA renewals, which have left some residents unable to attend school or work, and at risk of deportation, amid the federal government’s immigration crackdown.
In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services leaders, the representatives said their constituents have experienced up to five-month processing times to renew Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival grants, which allow undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children to live in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
“When renewals lapse, DACA recipients face disruptions to employment, income stability, and daily life — effects that ripple beyond individual households into the broader regional economy,” the letter from Silicon Valley Rep.
Sam Liccardo, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and the nine other Bay Area representatives said.
“The consequences are already visible in our state: school districts are placing Dreamer educators on unpaid administrative leave mid-year, and other workers are missing shifts, because timely, properly filed renewals remain unadjudicated.”
DACA was created in 2012 and has never been considered a long-term solution — it isn’t a pathway to citizenship or legal status and requires renewal every two years.
That renewal process has generally been considered fairly simple and quick, but Liccardo said that’s changed in recent months.
“This was a process that was very simple and took a couple of weeks before, and now it’s taking four or five months,” he told KQED.
USCIS data shows that the agency’s typical processing time has fluctuated between as few as 15 days last year and nearly 60 in 2019.
Currently, it lists the processing time for DACA renewals as four months, though the Bay Area representatives wrote in their letter that some residents have waited even longer, leading to lapses in their work authorizations or protections and causing them to lose jobs and health insurance in some cases.
Xochilt Cruz Lopez, a 27-year-old Richmond resident, told KQED’s Forum this week that she was let go from her job after her DACA status lapsed in February.
Cruz Lopez, who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years, and been a DACA recipient for 10, said she submitted her renewal paperwork four months before it was set to expire in February.
When her status lapsed, her job offered her a 60-day unpaid leave, but on April 15, she said they had to let her go.
“It offered a lot of protection,” Cruz Lopez said on Forum.
“It also allowed me to work, and my job offered benefits: health insurance, vision, dental.
All the basic necessities.
That’s what I relied on.”
She also said DACA status offers protection from Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a growing concern as the Trump administration ramps up detention and deportation efforts across the country.
The letter says between January and September 2025, at least 270 Dreamers were arrested, and 174 were deported.
“This administration, at a minimum, is exploiting bureaucratic sloth, but it could be much worse,” Liccardo said.
“This could be deliberately stalling these DACA renewals to help DHS make its numbers for deportations.”
The letter asks USCIS to respond with a list of what, if any, data it shares with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It also requests that DHS and USCIS provide the current processing times and pending application totals for each Bay Area district, as well as details about how any policy or procedural changes since the Trump administration took office might be affecting those timelines, and what steps are being taken to accelerate processing.
It requests responses in writing by next Friday.
“It is certainly my belief that sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Liccardo said.
“If we’re able to force disclosure of this kind of information to the public, we may actually prod some better action in the bureaucracy.”
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