Federal immigration records show that pending DACA renewals have more than quadrupled, leaving some recipients without valid work permits as the government increases background checks and shifts resources toward immigration enforcement.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
WASHINGTON — More than 125,000 applications to renew deportation protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program remained pending as of June 30, 2026, following a significant slowdown in federal processing that has left some recipients unable to work legally while awaiting decisions.
The growing backlog comes as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services implements stricter background checks and security reviews under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has made expanded immigration enforcement a central policy priority.
Federal data analyzed by CBS News in a report published Thursday, Oct. 8 showed that the number of pending renewal applications more than quadrupled between September 2025 and the end of June 2026.
During the same period, the number of active DACA recipients declined 14%, reaching 436,350.
The figures represent a substantial change for a program that allows qualifying immigrants brought to the United States as children to receive temporary protection from deportation and obtain authorization to work.
Recipients must seek renewal every two years to maintain those protections. When approval does not arrive before the previous authorization expires, affected individuals can lose their ability to work legally and become more vulnerable to immigration enforcement.
The latest figures do not establish how many recipients lost their protections specifically because of processing delays. The decline in active participation may also reflect other factors, including individuals who did not renew, became eligible for another immigration status or otherwise left the program.
Nevertheless, the increase in pending applications has created difficulties for recipients whose employment and financial stability depend on timely federal decisions.
USCIS defended its processing procedures, maintaining that the administration’s enhanced screening requirements are necessary to protect national security and ensure that applicants satisfy immigration rules.
Agency spokesperson Zach Kahler told CBS News that officials have “placed a renewed emphasis on robust alien screening and vetting, eliminating policies the former administration implemented that prioritized aliens’ convenience ahead of Americans’ safety and security.”
The department’s position reflects the Trump administration’s broader effort to expand investigations of immigration applications and prioritize enforcement against individuals who do not qualify for immigration benefits.
However, the additional reviews have coincided with a substantial reduction in the number of DACA renewal decisions issued during parts of the past year.
According to CBS News’ analysis of records obtained through the Deportation Data Project, USCIS had been processing approximately 4,500 to 6,000 DACA renewal applications per week before November 2025.
That month, weekly adjudications dropped below 1,900.
The decline represented a major change in the agency’s processing activity and contributed to the accumulation of pending cases.
The data examined by CBS covered processing activity through mid-February 2026, while separate quarterly USCIS reports provided information about subsequent developments.
Those reports indicated that processing accelerated during the spring.
Between April and June, USCIS completed approximately four times as many DACA renewal adjudications as it had during the January-through-March quarter.
Despite that increase, the backlog remained elevated because additional renewal applications continued arriving.
The figures suggest that the agency’s processing capacity improved during the second quarter but had not sufficiently reduced the number of pending cases.
USCIS said it had completed 80% of renewal applications within seven months during the preceding six-month period.
That timeframe exceeds the agency’s recommended renewal filing window, which creates difficulties for individuals attempting to avoid interruptions in their authorization.
According to USCIS’ official DACA renewal guidance, recipients are generally encouraged to submit renewal requests between 120 and 150 days before their existing protections expire.
The window represents approximately four to five months.
The agency cautions that filing more than 150 days before expiration can create complications, including overlapping periods of authorization or the possibility that an application will need to be submitted closer to the expiration date.
The current processing delays have created a conflict between the filing guidance and the amount of time some applications require.
A recipient who follows the recommended timeline could submit an application several months before expiration and still face a gap in protection if adjudication takes seven months.
The consequences can be particularly serious for individuals whose employers are required to verify that they remain authorized to work in the United States.
Federal employment eligibility rules generally prohibit employers from continuing to employ workers who lack valid authorization.
As a result, some DACA recipients have been placed on unpaid leave or lost their positions entirely while awaiting decisions on renewal requests.
Juan Carlos Cerda, Texas director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, described the financial and personal consequences of a six-month wait for his application to be approved.
Cerda told CBS News that he was forced to take unpaid leave because his employment authorization expired before USCIS completed the renewal.
“You feel like you don’t have agency, like nothing that you do is good enough because it’s outside of your control,” Cerda said.
He described having to reduce household expenses while waiting for the federal government to act.
“I had to pull back on spending and had to cut bills, things that were not necessary in order to make ends meet,” he said.
The uncertainty also affected his daily activities.
Cerda said he limited driving and avoided traveling outside Texas because he feared that an encounter with law enforcement could expose him to immigration detention while his DACA protections were expired.
He questioned why individuals who had maintained work authorization and contributed to the economy would be forced out of employment while awaiting administrative decisions.
“It just doesn’t make sense for us to not be productive, not be working every day, not contributing, and then to be sent back to a country that we’re really not a part of,” he said.
The experience illustrates how processing delays can affect individuals who have previously received DACA approval and are seeking to maintain protections they have held for years.
Another recipient, Javier Diego Jacinto, 27, experienced a longer interruption that cost him his position as a school associate principal.
Diego Jacinto came to the United States from Oaxaca, Mexico, with his parents when he was 6 years old.
He first received DACA protections in 2013 and said previous renewals had generally been approved within two or three weeks.
His latest application, submitted in December 2025, remained pending until September 2026.
During that period, his authorization expired at the end of March, forcing him to leave his job.
The loss of employment affected his family’s finances and required adjustments to household spending.
Diego Jacinto and his wife have two young daughters.
He told CBS News that the family reduced expenses, changed grocery shopping habits and became more attentive to fuel consumption.
Losing employer-provided health insurance also created concerns about medical expenses.
He said the family tried to avoid circumstances that might require expensive emergency medical treatment.
The interruption affected his education as well.
Diego Jacinto is pursuing a doctorate in Los Angeles, and the expiration of his DACA protections limited his ability to attend certain academic events.
He described the experience as a sudden loss of opportunities he had previously been able to pursue.
“I really feel like my dignity and my worth was just taken away,” Diego Jacinto said.
“As soon as this card expired, it felt like all the doors shut.”
By the time USCIS approved his renewal in September, his former employer had filled the associate principal position.
He subsequently obtained full-time employment at a local church where he had previously volunteered.
Although his authorization was eventually restored, the delay had already interrupted his career and affected his family’s financial circumstances.
The consequences extend beyond individual employees.
Businesses that employ DACA recipients may face staffing shortages or operational disruptions when previously authorized workers lose their eligibility because renewal decisions have not been completed.
John Martinez, president and CEO of the Regional Hispanic Contractors Association, said the problem can be especially difficult for construction companies operating under fixed schedules.
“DACA are some of the most well-educated people that we have in construction,” Martinez told CBS News.
He explained that the sudden loss of an employee can delay projects and create financial penalties for contractors.
“And even if that person comes back to you in a month, two months, 90 days, that project has already been impacted, and many of our members work on government-related projects,” he said.
Construction businesses often depend on workers with specific skills, training and familiarity with projects already underway.
When an employee must stop working because authorization expires, an employer may need to redistribute responsibilities or recruit a replacement.
Those adjustments can affect completion schedules and operating costs.
The same issue can arise in education, health care, nonprofit organizations and other sectors employing DACA recipients.
USCIS has maintained that additional security screening is necessary even when applicants have previously received immigration benefits.
The agency has expanded certain background checks and introduced additional scrutiny of applicants’ online activity.
According to CBS News, USCIS directed adjudicators in April to resubmit some pending immigration benefit applications for enhanced Federal Bureau of Investigation checks.
Earlier policy changes also required officials to review social media activity for indications of “anti-American” sentiment.
Those measures are part of the administration’s stated effort to identify potential national security concerns and ensure compliance with immigration laws.
The precise extent to which the changes have increased DACA processing times has not been independently established.
However, former immigration officials have suggested that shifting agency personnel into security and fraud-related work may have reduced the number of employees available to decide routine applications.
Jonathan Micale, a former USCIS official who held leadership positions at the agency’s Texas Service Center, told CBS News that changing staffing priorities could explain the persistent backlog.
Micale worked for USCIS from 2012 until leaving for private practice in October 2025.
He said he had monitored agency job postings and noticed increased recruitment for positions involving fraud detection, applicant interviews and national security responsibilities.
Many of those positions appeared to be filled through internal reassignment, he said, potentially reducing the number of employees performing application adjudications.
“That is indicative that a lot of employees are being moved from what I would consider to be adjudication roles to fraud and national security roles,” Micale said.
“If they’re moving to go do security and vetting, they’re not adjudicating the cases.”
He acknowledged that temporarily shifting personnel among different agency responsibilities is not unusual.
However, he suggested that the length of the current slowdown distinguishes it from previous periods of delayed processing.
DACA renewal wait times have fluctuated before, including periods in 2016, 2021 and 2024 when applicants experienced delays lasting several months.
Historically, those increases were followed by improvements in processing speed.
The latest slowdown has persisted for a longer period.
Micale said the available figures suggest the agency may have made a more lasting change in its allocation of personnel.
“I think what’s different this time is just there seems to be a decision to permanently pull these officer resources in a way that hasn’t occurred before and to just sort of accept that the backlogs are what they are,” he said.
The possibility of staffing changes raises broader questions about how USCIS balances additional security requirements with its responsibility to process immigration applications.
The agency handles numerous categories of applications, including employment authorization, lawful permanent residency, naturalization and humanitarian protections.
Changes in staffing or screening requirements can affect processing across multiple programs.
The slowdown in DACA renewals is not isolated.
USCIS records show that the backlog of employment authorization applications for noncitizens increased approximately 60% between December 2024 and August 2026.
Pending applications for adjustment of status involving asylum seekers increased by approximately 80%, while naturalization application backlogs rose about 50%.
Those figures indicate that delays have affected several immigration benefit categories, although the specific causes may differ among programs.
The administration argues that enhanced vetting is necessary to ensure immigration benefits are granted only after appropriate security checks.
Critics contend that prolonged delays can create unnecessary employment interruptions for people who have already passed screening requirements and are seeking to renew existing authorizations.
One notable finding is that the additional scrutiny has not coincided with a substantial increase in DACA renewal denials.
According to USCIS data cited by CBS News, the denial rate between November 2025 and June 2026 was approximately 1.1%.
Historically, the denial rate for renewal applications had been about 0.67% since USCIS began processing renewals in 2013.
Although the percentage increased, denials remained uncommon relative to the total number of applications reviewed.
The figures suggest that the most visible consequence of the revised processing system has been longer waiting periods rather than a large increase in rejected applications.
However, denial rates alone cannot determine whether additional screening has identified security concerns or whether the procedures have achieved their stated objectives.
That assessment would require more detailed information about the checks performed and their results.
The delays are occurring within a program that has faced persistent legal uncertainty since its creation.
President Barack Obama established DACA in June 2012 through an executive branch immigration policy.
The initiative was designed for certain immigrants who arrived in the United States as children and met specified education, residency and criminal history requirements.
To qualify, applicants generally had to have entered the country before turning 16, continuously resided in the United States since June 15, 2007, and satisfied additional eligibility requirements.
Applicants also had to meet education or military service criteria and avoid disqualifying criminal convictions.
DACA provides a temporary decision to defer removal action against an approved recipient.
It also allows qualifying recipients to request employment authorization.
The program does not confer lawful immigration status, permanent residency or citizenship.
It also does not independently create a path to obtaining a green card.
Protections are generally granted for two-year periods, after which recipients must apply again.
Because the program does not provide permanent legal status, individuals remain dependent on renewals and the continuation of the underlying policy.
DACA has been the subject of repeated federal litigation.
A federal judge in Texas ruled against the program in 2021, preventing USCIS from approving new initial applications while permitting renewals for existing recipients to continue.
Subsequent appellate proceedings have maintained significant restrictions, leaving the program largely limited to people who previously received approval.
Federal officials have explored changes intended to comply with court rulings, but the legal status of new applications remains constrained.
That environment makes the renewal process particularly important for the existing DACA population.
Individuals who have maintained protections for years may have established careers, purchased homes, started businesses or formed families while remaining ineligible for permanent immigration status through the program itself.
An unexpected interruption in renewal processing can therefore affect circumstances extending well beyond immigration paperwork.
According to the latest USCIS demographic data, approximately 82% of DACA recipients were born in Mexico.
Nearly half live in California or Texas, states with substantial populations of immigrants who arrived in the United States during childhood.
Many recipients have lived in the country for most of their lives.
Some have limited personal connections to their countries of birth and may have completed most or all of their formal education in American schools.
Those characteristics have contributed to longstanding debates over whether Congress should establish a permanent immigration status for qualifying childhood arrivals.
Lawmakers from both parties have introduced proposals addressing the issue, but Congress has not enacted comprehensive legislation providing a permanent solution.
Supporters of DACA argue that people brought to the United States as children should have opportunities to work and remain in communities where they have established long-term ties.
Opponents have argued that immigration protections of this kind should be enacted by Congress rather than created through executive action.
The dispute has shaped the program’s legal challenges and changes in federal policy across successive administrations.
Under the Trump administration, USCIS has emphasized that temporary protection under DACA does not erase underlying immigration violations or create lawful status.
That distinction has become more consequential as the government expands immigration enforcement.
Recipients whose DACA authorization expires while a renewal is pending may lose both their work authorization and the temporary protection from removal associated with an active approval.
The precise legal consequences depend on individual circumstances, including whether a person has another form of immigration status or protection.
Nevertheless, the prospect of losing employment authorization has created uncertainty for recipients who previously experienced relatively predictable renewal timelines.
The CBS investigation also highlights a discrepancy between USCIS’ recommended application window and its reported processing performance.
An agency that advises applicants to renew four to five months before expiration but completes 80% of cases within seven months leaves some recipients exposed to gaps even when they follow official guidance.
That discrepancy has practical consequences for employers that must comply with federal employment verification requirements.
It also raises questions about whether the agency will modify its filing recommendations or processing procedures as the backlog continues.
USCIS has not announced a specific timetable for eliminating the accumulated renewal cases.
Although adjudications increased during the second quarter of 2026, the continued arrival of applications prevented a substantial reduction in pending cases.
Future improvements will depend on whether processing capacity grows sufficiently to handle new applications while resolving older ones.
The denial figures also indicate that most completed renewal applications continue receiving approval.
For recipients awaiting decisions, however, the difference between eventual approval and timely approval can determine whether they retain employment and financial stability.
Cerda and Diego Jacinto both ultimately obtained renewals, but their experiences demonstrate that authorization granted after expiration does not necessarily reverse the losses caused during the waiting period.
One was forced to take unpaid leave, while the other lost a school leadership position that had already been filled when his approval arrived.
The consequences also extended to household budgets, health insurance coverage and concerns about immigration enforcement.
For businesses, interrupted work authorization can produce unexpected staffing changes despite employees’ prior eligibility to work.
The broader question is whether stricter screening procedures can be implemented without creating prolonged delays for applicants who have already participated in the program for years.
The Trump administration maintains that additional vetting strengthens national security and protects the integrity of immigration benefits.
Former agency officials and affected recipients have questioned whether changes in staffing and processing priorities have created an avoidable backlog.
The available data establish that pending DACA renewals more than quadrupled to over 125,000 by June 30, while active recipients declined to 436,350.
The figures also show a sharp reduction in adjudications beginning in November 2025, followed by a partial recovery during the spring.
With renewal denials remaining comparatively uncommon, the central issue for many recipients is not whether their applications will ultimately be approved, but whether a decision will arrive before their existing protections expire.
Until processing times shorten or federal policy changes, thousands of DACA recipients face continued uncertainty over their ability to work and remain protected from deportation while awaiting decisions from USCIS.
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