NYC woman suspended from banking job due to delay in DACA renewal

JACKSON HEIGHTS, Queens (PIX11) -- With the spotlight on the migrant crisis in New York, a group of immigrant children known as dreamers are waiting for their renewals on their path to citizenship. 

“Now I’m over four months, 138 days where I haven’t gotten my approval, waiting and it’s not just me, multiple other people are waiting in the same predicament,” said Dani Villacis.  

Villacis is currently waiting for a Daca renewal, she has spent 90% of her life living in the US. 

Her family initially arrived in this country 23 years ago seeking political asylum from Colombia. 

Villacis has faithfully submitted her DACA renewal form every two years, this is required five months before it expires.  

This time around there has been no renewal in the usual one-month period. Instead, Villacis has been waiting 138 days and was just suspended from her AI marketing job at a bank until her DACA renewal comes through. 

“I cannot work. I cannot travel outside the city, the state,” Villacis told PIX11 News. “I have to pay my rent,” she added. 

There are over 600,000 people in the deferred action for a childhood arrival or DACA program, and most are not children anymore. 

The program was started in 2012 as a pathway to citizenship, but for many, it has been a morass of red tape. 

At the Make the Road New York immigration center, the staff conducts workshops, trying to help those navigate the system. 

“We have folks who have been waiting six months a year even waiting for their DACA to be approved,” Carlos Vargas, an immigration negotiator at Make Road New York, told PIX11 News. 

For Danny Villacis, she has written to her Congresswoman, Nydia Velasquez for help. She has also joined a Reddit chat for other dreamers, waiting for renewal. Many say the delays this time around are caused by the influx of migrants, trying to get work visas. 

“The US is a country that is constantly having multiple immigrants coming in,” Villacis told PIX11 News. “Attention is going to help them out as it should, but we don’t want to be forgotten as well.,” she added.