Campaign Action
Osman Enriquez, a 27-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient who was waiting for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to contact him about how to resubmit the DACA renewal application that was rejected in October through no fault of his own, is now sitting in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and could face possible deportation:
On Monday morning — six days before his son’s first birthday — as Enriquez drove down Route 83 to his contracting job, he was pulled over by a Pennsylvania State Police officer. The officer told him his vehicle registration had expired. Enriquez’s fiancée says the family thought they had kept their registration current; since Pennsylvania doesn’t put registration-date stickers on license plates, Carranza speculates that the only way the trooper would have known Enriquez’s registration had lapsed would be if she’d run his license plates when he drove by.
Enriquez was ultimately issued a ticket not for the expired registration, but for his expired driver’s license. But in the meantime, Carranza says, the state police officer had called Immigration and Customs Enforcement to come pick up Enriquez. ICE agents took him to the York detention center and served him with a notice to appear in immigration court — formally starting deportation proceedings against him.
“Two days later, Enriquez is still in detention,” writes Vox’s Dara Lind. “Unless something changes, he’ll miss his son’s birthday on Saturday.”
As both the New York Times and Vox reported last month, hundreds of renewals were rejected because they arrived past the government’s October 5 deadline, despite some being mailed weeks in advance. Even though the U.S. Postal Service took responsibility for some of the delays (other applications were rejected because they were delivered to the USCIS mailbox on time but were not picked up by a courier service until after the deadline), only after public pressure did the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finally agree to give the rejected applications a second chance. But, a catch was some of this would be done on a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” basis. Lind:
Both groups will need to resubmit applications, which had been sent back to them with notices that the application had been rejected for being “untimely.” (USCIS does not keep the application fees for late applications, so immigrants who reapply won’t be getting charged twice.)
The difference between the two groups is whether the government is reaching out to immigrants to reapply, or whether immigrants will have to reach out to the government.
The Trump administration is taking a more generous attitude toward immigrants whose DACA renewal applications were sitting in US Citizenship and Immigration Services mailboxes as of October 5, but were marked late because they weren’t picked up by a courier service until October 6.
As Vox first reported Wednesday morning, this happened in at least two of the three USCIS mailboxes, and could have affected hundreds of applications. “USCIS will proactively reach out to those DACA requestors,” the administration’s new guidance says, “to inform them that they may resubmit their DACA request.”
It’s not clear exactly how that notification is going to happen, or how much time USCIS will give immigrants to resubmit their applications.
Waiting is what Enriquez—and many other DACA recipients whose renewals were rejected due to delays—were doing. Enriquez had mailed his renewal on September 18 with the help of Church World Service, but it didn’t arrive to USCIS until October 10, five days after the deadline, and was rejected. “We told him, ‘We’re so sorry this happened; you did everything right; it was just a fluke, a debacle, out of your control,’” said Church World Service’s Carrie Carranza. Even though his DACA status and driver’s license were now expired, Enriquez still had to work in order to support his family. It was then that he was pulled over:
Enriquez might be the first known case of an immigrant getting detained by ICE after his DACA expired under the administration’s new rules. He’s almost certainly the first known case of an immigrant getting detained while waiting to reapply for DACA renewal.
His presence there is perhaps the most vivid reminder yet that as Congress drags out what to do about DACA recipients, it will probably be too late for some.
Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell passed tax scam legislation in the dead of night but also dared to call addressing legislation like the bipartisan DREAM Act “a non-emergency.” He should tell that to Enriquez and the over 11,000 DACA recipients who have lost their protections since Donald Trump announced the end of the program this past fall. And every day McConnell and Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan don’t allow a vote on the DREAM Act, another 122 DACA recipients fall out of status and become vulnerable to deportation, just like Enriquez.
As immigrant rights groups America’s Voice said in a press release on Enriquez’s arrest and detainment, “the details of this profoundly disturbing story underscore why Dreamer relief is needed urgently and why a vote for an end-of-the-year spending bill that does not include Dreamer relief is a vote to deport Dreamers such as Osman.” America’s Voice executive director Frank Sharry:
Members of the Pennsylvania delegation who say they support Dreamers – like Representatives Ryan Costello, Charlie Dent, Brian Fitzpatrick, Pat Meehan, and Glenn Thompson – should work to ensure that Osman is returned to his family immediately. They should also take this example directly to Speaker Paul Ryan and demand inclusion of Dreamer relief in the year-end spending package.
For months, Republican leaders have been trying to kick the can down the road when it comes to taking up the Dream Act. Speaker Ryan has been more worried about trying to contain the Freedom Caucus than about conducting the business of the People, or even protecting his own Republican moderates.
“This month, Congress has a clear opportunity to pass popular legislation on a bipartisan basis—and allow Dreamers like Osman to continue to build their lives in America,” Sharry continued. “Pennsylvania’s House Republicans can and must do more to ensure that their leaders pick the right path forward.” Every day that Republicans delay is a political game that costs real lives. Enough is enough. Call Speaker Ryan and Senator McConnell and tell them that immigrant youth like Enriquez can’t wait—now is the time for the DREAM Act.