Maria Rocha was 6 years old when her parents brought her from Mexico to Phoenix. She is now 29, a registered nurse in a Level I trauma center, and one of roughly 535,000 people living in the United States under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Every two years, she fills out a renewal packet, pays $555, and waits. Every two years, she wonders whether it will be the last time.

That anxiety is not paranoia. It is an accurate reading of the legal situation. DACA has survived a decade of court challenges, a presidential attempt to rescind it, and a pandemic. It has not survived intact. The program in 2026 is smaller, more legally exposed, and more dependent on Congress than at any point since it began in 2012.

What DACA Actually Is

DACA is not a visa. It is not lawful permanent residency, and it is not a path to citizenship. It is a policy of prosecutorial discretion: the Department of Homeland Security agrees not to deport you, and in exchange you get a work permit, a Social Security number, and protection from removal for two years at a time.

President Obama created it by executive action in June 2012 after Congress failed to pass the DREAM Act. To qualify, applicants had to have arrived before their 16th birthday, be under 31 as of June 15, 2012, have continuous residence since 2007, be in school or have a high school diploma or military discharge, and pass a background check. Roughly 800,000 people have received DACA at some point. About 535,000 held active status as of the most recent USCIS data.

The program has always rested on shaky legal ground. In 2018, a federal judge in Texas, Andrew Hanen, ruled that DACA was unlawful because the executive branch had created a immigration program without Congress. He stayed his ruling for existing recipients while the case moved up the appellate chain.

Where the Courts Left It

In 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Hanen's conclusion that DACA is illegal, but sent the case back to him to consider a new Biden-era regulation that was meant to shore up the program. That regulation did not save it. Hanen ruled again that DACA is unlawful, and the case returned to the Fifth Circuit, which is widely expected to strike the program down again.

From there, the case goes to the Supreme Court. The Court has already weighed in once, in 2020, when it blocked the Trump administration's attempt to end DACA on the narrow ground that the administration had failed to follow proper procedure. That ruling did not say DACA was legal. It said the government ended it the wrong way.

The current Court is more conservative than the one that decided Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California. Most immigration lawyers expect the justices to uphold the Fifth Circuit and find DACA unlawful. The open question is what happens to the people who already have it.

The realistic best case is that the Court allows existing recipients to keep renewing while Congress works on a fix. The worst case is that it sets a date certain for the program to end.

What Recipients Can Still Do Right Now

As of now, USCIS continues to accept and process renewal applications from people who currently hold DACA. First-time applications are not being processed. If you have DACA and your status is set to expire, the practical advice from immigration attorneys is consistent:

  • Renew early. USCIS recommends filing 120 to 150 days before your expiration date. Processing times have stretched, and a lapse in status means a lapse in work authorization.
  • Do not travel abroad without advance parole. Leaving the country without it can trigger a three- or ten-year bar on reentry. Even with it, the risk of being denied reentry has increased.
  • Keep your documents current. An expired work permit can get you fired even if your employer supports you. Under federal law, employers must reverify work authorization when it expires.
  • Talk to a licensed attorney or accredited representative. Not a notario. Not a consultant. The wrong advice can cost you a future immigration benefit.
  • Know your backup options. Some DACA recipients qualify for an employment-based visa, a U visa if they were victims of crime, or adjustment through a family member. These are narrow, but they exist.

The Work Rights Question

DACA's work authorization is what makes the program matter economically. Recipients pay an estimated $6.2 billion a year in federal taxes and $3.3 billion in state and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. They work in health care, education, construction, food service, and technology.

If the Supreme Court strikes DACA down, those work permits do not vanish overnight. Any ruling would almost certainly include a wind-down period, and Congress would face enormous pressure to act. But employers should be preparing now. Human resources departments at hospitals, school districts, and tech companies have been quietly reviewing which employees hold DACA and what the contingency plans are.

For recipients, the practical reality is that a work permit tied to DACA is not portable to another status. If DACA ends and you have no other pathway, you lose the legal right to work. That is why attorneys push recipients to explore every alternative now, while there is still time to file.

What Congress Might Do

Congress has tried and failed to pass a Dreamer bill for more than two decades. The DREAM Act was introduced in 2001. It has never become law. The closest Congress came was 2013, when the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill with a path to citizenship for Dreamers. The House never took it up.

There is one narrow opening. A bipartisan group of senators has floated a bill that would give current DACA recipients a renewable work authorization and protection from deportation, without a path to citizenship. It is less than what advocates want, but it may be what can pass a divided Congress. Whether leadership brings it to a vote is a political question, not a legal one.

Some states have moved on their own. California, New York, and Illinois allow DACA recipients to hold professional licenses in fields like law, medicine, and teaching. A handful of states offer in-state tuition and financial aid. These are stopgaps, not solutions, and they do not protect anyone from deportation.

The Human Math

Maria Rocha has a mortgage, a 401(k), and a younger brother who is a U.S. citizen. She has been a nurse for six years. If DACA ends, she does not know what she will do. She has looked into an employment-based visa through her hospital, but the wait for a green card for Mexican-born applicants in her category stretches into decades.

That is the trap at the center of the DACA story. The program gave hundreds of thousands of people a life in the United States without giving them a legal status they can keep. It bought time. Time is running out.

For recipients, the message from attorneys and advocates is the same: renew now, do not travel, get real legal advice, and press your member of Congress. For everyone else, the question is whether the country will let half a million people who grew up here, work here, and pay taxes here stay, or whether it will wait for a court to decide for them.