DACA renewal workshops in Iowa City available for those hoping to renew status

IOWA CITY - Eastern Iowans who are part of the federal Deferred Action Childhood Arrival - or DACA - program are getting the chance this week to renew their status during workshops at the Iowa City Public Library.

The first of two workshops took place Thursday, but saw just one family come in to check on their eligibility.

The second workshop takes place at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Meeting Room A at the library, 123 S. Linn St.

The event, hosted in part by the Eastern Iowa Center for Worker Justice, allows DACA recipients to apply to renew their status, which they can do until Oct. 5. Volunteers publicized the event with fliers throughout the Iowa City Community School District and at Kirkwood Community College.

President Donald Trump said earlier this month he plans to phase out the program put in place in 2012 by the Obama administration that allows young people - so-called 'dreamers” - brought to the United States illegally by their parents to get a renewable two-year reprieve from deportation. It also allows them to get a work permit, study or obtain a driver's license.

Though Trump expressed leniency for enforcement for DACA recipients, Rafael Morataya, executive director at the Center for Worker Justice, said it's still difficult for recipients to face the uncertainty of the policy's future.

'The future is unclear,” Morataya said. 'DACA recipients are the people who drive in the ambulance, work defending this country, they are doctors and lawyers. They are part of the society like everyone else.”

To be eligible for renewal, a current DACA recipient's status must be expiring between Sept. 5 and March 5, 2018. However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is only accepting applications until Oct. 5 of this year.

Eligible Eastern Iowans who go to the renewal workshop can receive help from a volunteer attorney in filling out paperwork, seeing if they are eligible for other assistance programs and checking with Morataya to see if they are eligible for financial assistance. The Center for Worker Justice began a fundraiser to help pay the $495 fee associated with a DACA recipient's renewal.

Attendees also are able to receive a Johnson County community identification card that gives residents the ability to identify themselves, something Mazahir Salih, a Center for Worker Justice organizer, said should not be taken for granted.

'The community ID makes our community safer, organized, and if people are witness to crime, they can report it to the police because they are not afraid and can identify themselves,” Salih said.

Laura Seelau, an attorney in Cedar Rapids, is volunteering at the renewal workshop. Seelau said she became involved with a University of Iowa group of professors, law students and other professionals concerned about immigrants' rights after the presidential election. The monthly meetings have spurred know-your-rights sessions for immigrants and the Eastern Iowa Community Bond Project, a not-for-profit raising money for immigrants who may need to be bonded out of jail if arrested based on their immigration status.

To donate, go to http://bit.ly/2xlKqFf.

Seelau said she's happy to lend her knowledge to any workshop attendees.

'These are individuals that were brought here as children,” she said. 'This is the only place they know.

Seelau said she also understands how difficult it could be for DACA recipients to receive protections years ago and now be subject to policy change.

'To have that taken away is a pretty significant change,” she said. 'These are also kids that are in school or graduated. They're pretty low enforcement status and to have them come out of the shadows, it enables them to get a driver's license, to work, to be able to participate in society,” Seelau said. 'I think that's important.”

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