With the Oct. 5 deadline to reapply for DACA looming, nonprofits around New England have established funds to help undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers’’ pay the $495 fee to reapply for the program that’s ending under the Trump administration.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, status protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the United States as children and allows them to work in the country legally. It was created five years ago during the Obama administration, and even though President Trump announced last month the end of the program, recipients can reapply until Thursday, but only if their expiration date is before March 5, 2018.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that “106,000 of 154,000 immigrants eligible for renewals had applied,’’ according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“One of the most common calls we’ve been getting are from individuals who have DACA and now fall outside the renewal period trying to figure out what’s their next option is,’’ said Cristina Dacchille Freeman, immigration attorney with the Irish International Immigrant Center, which has given out more than $6,000 provided by the Boston Foundation and other donors to help more than a dozen local DACA applicants pay the fee.
“The sad fact is if these kids stop qualifying for in-state tuition and their work permits expire, you’re left with kids who have no options,’’ she added. She said she knows of a student who dropped out of UMass-Boston last week because he couldn’t renew his DACA status.
Over the past month, immigration advocates have helped finalize their clients’ documentation and in many cases used donated funds to cover application fees. Nonprofits around the state, such as Greater Boston Legal Services, the Justice Center of Southeast Massachusetts, and the Northeast Justice Center, have held free walk-in clinics for DACA renewals.
Nonprofits are not the only ones rushing to support Dreamers.
Last month, Rhode Island secured more than $170,000 in commitments, some of which it has used to cover fees for approximately 100 eligible DACA applicants around the state, according to John Willumsen-Friedman, deputy director of the Rhode Island Center for Justice.
Monday night, Cambridge adopted an order to determine whether the city can legally reimburse the application fees through private donations.
Marc McGovern, vice mayor for the city of Cambridge, said Wednesday that the potential reimbursements would be part of an effort “to protect our most vulnerable community members.’’
Emmanuel Lusardi, the liaison for immigrant affairs for McGovern’s office who drafted the Cambridge policy order, said the weekend before President Trump made the decision not to renew DACA, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
“Some are successful business owners,’’ he said. “They were asking me, ‘Is my driver’s license going to be any good? Is my Social Security number any good? I had no answers. And we still really don’t. It’s still up in the air.’’
The Boston Foundation is administering a DACA fee program to several local nonprofits with $65,000 in funding from several local companies. The city of Boston’s Office of Immigrant Advancement reached out to advocacy groups to make them aware of the funding.
“As the DACA termination deadline is fast approaching, nonprofits continue to see DACA applicants scrambling to file their paperwork to make the deadline,’’ Daniel Sherman, senior director of donor partnerships for the Boston Foundation, said last week. “The organizations are pleased this philanthropic resource exists to help DACA applicants.’’
He expects to make grants to nonprofits in a couple of weeks, reimbursing them for fees paid to file DACA renewals.
Nonprofits CityLife/Vida Urbana, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Center, and other partners have joined to crowdsource nearly $8,000 for DACA fees. Immigrant legal services provider Agencia Alpha is allocating those funds to immigrant clients.
Waltham resident Karla Ponce, 21, applied last week with Agencia. They walked her through the paperwork and the process of sending a check for $495 to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Ponce’s DACA work permit expires in February. If her status gets renewed, Ponce would be allowed to stay in the United States another two years.
“It was a lot of money all at once,’’ Ponce said. “Thank God they helped me.’’
Under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, many DACA recipients are afraid, and that may have affected whether they renewed their status, said Marion Davis, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
Renewing means applicants have to give the federal government their current addresses.
Two recent DACA clinics were canceled. One woman who came into the MIRA office tried to put a false address on her renewal application out of fear of deportation.
It’s very likely that applicants were filling out applications on their own, Davis said.
“It’s hard to know’’ why people didn’t come, Davis said. “We have been encouraging everybody through Facebook ads, tweets, Instagram — for God’s sake, do it. We’re definitely encouraging people to apply. We saw renewal as important to buy people time.’’
Cristela Guerra can be reached at cristela.guerra@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristelaGuerra. Sarah Betancourt can be reached at sarah.betancourt@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @sweetadelinevt.
