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Acevedo's visa expired months later, but his family stayed in the United States. Although Acevedo didn't have legal immigration status, he managed to attend Brophy College Preparatory on a private scholarship and went on to study communications at Santa Clara University in California. Now, at 22, he has graduated from college, moved back home, and found a job working at a marketing agency with a work permit he received through the Obama-created DACA program.

But the stability he's worked so hard for could vanish in a matter of months.

Acevedo is one of thousands of Arizonans personally impacted by lengthy processing delays under President Donald Trump's administration that have beset DACA.

Former President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program through executive action in 2012 to protect from deportation immigrants such as Acevedo who were brought to the U.S. as children and grew up in this country but have no legal immigration status.

Under the DACA program, the government defers deportation of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children and meet certain requirements, such as graduating from high school. The Obama administration created the DACA program after Congress failed to pass legislation that provided a pathway for undocumented immigrants who came as children to gain legal immigration status.

DACA helps undocumented immigrants get work permits

Undocumented immigrants approved for DACA get work permits that allow them to gain legal employment. DACA recipients must reapply to renew their DACA authorization and work permits every two years.

But immigrant advocates say increased vetting by the Trump administration, which for years has tried to legally kill the program, has resulted in long renewal delays that are causing DACA recipients to lose jobs when their work permits expire before they receive new ones.

Renewal delays dragging on for months instead of weeks are also causing DACA recipients to lose their driver's licenses when their work permits expire, advocates say.

"We are receiving calls every day from people who say they are not receiving their DACA authorization on time," said Anita Enciso, program director at the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, an advocacy group that helps people with DACA and renewal applications.

She said some people who applied for DACA renewals as far back as November, six months ago, still have not been processed.

She estimated thousands of DACA recipients in Arizona have already been affected by the long renewal delays, including losing jobs or driver's licenses.

In the past, USCIS rarely required DACA recipients applying to renew authorization and work permits to submit new biometric information, such as photographs and fingerprints.

But under tougher new screening and vetting implemented by USCIS in 2025, nearly all DACA recipients applying for renewals are being asked to submit updated biometrics, adding to the delays, Enciso said.

The Trump administration appears to be applying extra scrutiny on DACA recipients as part of efforts to deport as many immigrants as possible under the administration's aggressive mass deportation campaign, Enciso said.

"Maybe that's why there is the delay, because I believe the government wants to update the criminal records from the people that are getting those permits," Enciso said.

What's more, USCIS has stopped accepting personal checks or money orders to cover the $555 renewal fee to apply online or the $605 fee to apply by mail, plus the $85 biometrics fee, Enciso said.

The only acceptable forms of payment now are credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, or direct payments from a U.S. bank account, Enciso said.

DACA recipients waiting 5 to 6 months

Before the current Trump administration implemented the changes, most DACA renewal applications took about two months, and often were processed in less than a month, but rarely more than four months, Enciso said.

Now, DACA recipients are waiting five to six months or longer for their renewal applications to be processed, Enciso said.

Median wait times for DACA renewals have jumped from two weeks in 2025 to more than two months in 2026, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Democratic lawmakers say wait times are at their highest since 2016, a year that technical issues disrupted the renewal application process. (USCIS is still accepting new applications for DACA, but they are not being processed amid the ongoing legal battle over the program's legality.)

Under the leadership of President Trump, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that administers immigration benefits, is "safeguarding the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens," USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler said in a statement.

DACA, Kahler added, "does not confer any form of legal status in this country. Illegal aliens claiming to be recipients of DACA are not automatically protected from deportation. Any illegal alien who is a DACA recipient may be subject to arrest and deportation for a number of reasons, including if they committed a crime.”

Having DACA authorization and work permits that expire because of the long renewal delays creates "incredibly big challenges" for immigrants with DACA, said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center.

"If somebody's DACA authorization expires, and someone's work permit expires, that leaves them unable to work," Gelatt said.

Employers are increasingly jittery about keeping employees on their payroll who don't have valid work permits amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, Gelatt said.

"I think it's correct for the employer to put them on leave and not pay them if they don't have active work authorization," Gelatt said.

Losing DACA authorization even temporarily because of the long delays also makes DACA recipients vulnerable to deportation at a time when the Trump administration has taken a hostile stance toward the program and court rulings have further weakened DACA protections, Gelatt said.

"DACA itself is becoming more uncertain, but when there are these delays, it puts people in a really difficult position," Gelatt said.

She noted that some DACA recipients from countries such as Venezuela cannot apply to renew their DACA authorization or work permits at all under a travel ban the Trump administration implemented in 2025 that covers 39 countries.

Under the Biden administration, USCIS eliminated huge backlogs in processing immigration benefits by increasing efficiency, Gelatt said. The Trump administration is now creating backlogs again by requiring USCIS to increase vetting, she said.

"They're now creating another hole that is slowing everything down and leading to all of these delays that are forcing some workers out of the workforce at a time when employers are really looking for workers," Gelatt said.

USCIS has always tried to balance enforcing immigration laws and ensuring the integrity of the immigration system, while also helping employers and people get through the immigration system in a timely way, Gelatt said.

"The Trump administration has tipped the balance very strongly in favor of vetting over efficiency and speed," Gelatt said.

DACA recipients have some of the highest levels of public support of any undocumented migrant group: Most polling shows strong majorities of Americans oppose deporting people who were brought to the United States as children.

Democrats have seized on the topic, accusing Trump of slow-walking the renewals on purpose. The administration has been "hostile" towards immigration in general, Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Arizona, said May 11 at a news conference in Phoenix.

"The fear that that puts in them, the uncertainty for them and their families, is bad for them, and it is bad in this country," Stanton said. "We deserve answers, and we're going to get those answers."

Hardworking people left in limbo

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, highlighted the case of Annie Ramos, a DACA recipient and Arizona State University student who was detained by immigration authorities in April, days after her wedding to a U.S. soldier.

"In what world does it make sense for us to focus our time and our effort, chasing down and holding people like Annie? We should be chasing down serious criminals," Kelly said May 12 in a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol.

The processing backlog "seems intentional," Kelly said, and "leaves hardworking people, who have done everything right, in limbo."

There are about 506,000 immigrants approved for DACA, as of September, according to the Migration Policy Institute. More than 80% of active DACA recipients are from Mexico, according to the institute. About 19,000 DACA recipients live in Arizona, the seventh highest number of all states, according to MPI.

Arizona had the highest DACA application rate of any state when it launched in 2012.

Most DACA recipients are in their 30s or older.

Acevedo has applied for renewal twice since he became a DACA recipient in 2021. Two years ago, his application was approved in a month and a half. This time around, he applied nine months early, bracing for disruptions by the Trump administration. He has heard nothing in the five months since then.

His DACA status is scheduled to expire in September, two days after his 23rd birthday.

"How can I have some sort of certainty when I have no stable foundation?" he said. "I have abided by the law. I've done everything in my power to be able to be successful, to help my family, to build a successful professional career for myself."

Democrats have demanded information and explanations from the Homeland Security Department. But no Republicans have taken up Democrats' calls to address the delays, Stanton said at the May 11 news conference.

Receiving DACA was "life-changing," Acevedo said.

DACA provides no legal immigration status or access to public benefits, only protections from deportation and work permits. But for the first time in his life, he had a Social Security Number. He could apply for jobs, get a driver's license, and take domestic flights. "Things that people don't really think about on a daily basis," he said.

"It's unfortunate that we have to bang on the table to get people to pay attention to what's happening," he said. "But unfortunately, that's what we have to do."