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Dreamers get help renewing permits before program ends

Christian Ramirez of Alliance San Diego spoke to the crowd at the County Administration building the day the DACA announcement came out before turning over the rally to DACA recipients.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)
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With the Trump administration’s deadline looming for dreamers to renew permits that protect them from deportation and allow them to work, organizations across the country are offering to cover the application fees.

While the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, created under former President Barack Obama for unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, won’t be phased out until March 2018, those whose two-year permits expire before then have until Oct. 5 to submit renewals.

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A renewal costs $495, and advocates say the sudden announcement of the program’s end means that some recipients will have to come up with the money to renew more quickly than they anticipated.

“Even though the DACA program has ended, many dreamers can still protect themselves against deportation by renewing their status right away,” said Andrea Guerrero, executive director at Alliance San Diego.

About 154,000 people out of 800,000 total recipients nationwide are eligible to renew. Alliance San Diego estimated that a little over 3,000 of them are in the San Diego area.

Alliance San Diego is hosting a workshop on Friday in Escondido at the Church of the Resurrection to help DACA recipients renew their permits. The organization will cover renewal fees for all attendees.

The advocacy group has raised enough funds to cover renewal fees for 125 people, according to spokesman Hiram Soto.

United We Dream, a national nonprofit led by immigrant youth, started a DACA renewal fund that has raised $150,231 and has already helped more than 700 dreamers across the country.

San Diego dreamers can contact the San Diego Dream Team, the local affiliate for United We Dream, via a Google form by Sept. 23 to request aid. The organization also has renewal clinics in Vista on Sept. 23 and in Escondido on Sept. 30.

Nestor Venegas, spokesman for the San Diego Dream Team, said they’re hoping as many people as possible who qualify for renewal will submit their applications by the deadline.

“One of the things we know all too well is that one of the obstacles to filing for the first time or filing a renewal is coming up with the filing fee,” Venegas said.

Some DACA recipients have to hold off for a few months and sometimes are temporarily unprotected by the program while they save up to reapply, he said.

Jewish Family Service is also hosting a workshop for DACA renewals on Sept. 27 with funding through the California Department of Social Services to cover fees for low-income applicants.

Dreamers who attend California community colleges, or universities in the California State system and the University of California system can get help through the Mission Asset Fund, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that is earmarking a portion of the money it raises to help California students.

The organization had raised about $2.5 million through its DACA renewal fund as of Thursday morning, according to Tara Robinson, its chief development officer, and expected to reach $3 million.

Mission Asset Fund has received about 4,000 requests for aid, Robinson said, and about half of those came from California.

“The need seems to be great,” Robinson said. “As an organization, we put everything else on pause to do this.”

She said the organization has already mailed about 2,000 checks.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must receive applications by Oct. 5, so Robinson anticipated the fund running through the end of September.

For DACA recipients in Rhode Island, the state’s governor has created a coalition to cover the fees for every resident who needs to renew.

Other legal aid and advocacy groups across the country, as well as individual DACA recipients, have created a slew of GoFundMe campaigns to help cover fees.

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