Eva Santos Veloz spent her days walking New York City neighborhoods, attending community meetings, and occasionally traveling out of state for her job as a community affairs organizer at a local nonprofit. Since mid-February, she has not worked. Her work permit, tied to the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, expired after 143 days without being renewed. The process historically took roughly six weeks and averaged three months before renewals were digitized.

DACA, created under President Obama, grants temporary deportation protection to certain undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. Recipients can apply for an Employment Authorization Document, valid for the duration of their protected status, which must be renewed every two years; without it, they cannot legally work and lose their shield against removal. The renewal backlog comes during a broader immigration enforcement surge: city court records show that 76 percent of people swept up in the Trump administration’s New York immigration enforcement actions had no criminal record.

As of September 30, 2025, the most recent available figures showed 505,940 active DACA recipients nationwide, with 19,580 of them in New York state, according to reporting by Documented. More than 250 DACA recipients have been arrested by ICE since Trump returned to office. Federal immigration enforcement in Bushwick has drawn sustained scrutiny, including an incident in which ICE agents removed a handcuffed man from a neighborhood emergency room.