Local school districts have been overwhelmed with an “onslaught” of records requests after the federal government announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
According to the National Immigration Law Center, the program allows undocumented people to apply to stay in the United States and work for up to two years if they can prove they have lived in the country continuously since June 2007.
Eligible people must have been brought to the United States before they were 16 and be 15 to 30 years old when they apply.
School transcripts are the way most students are proving their residency, according to Marlin Sumpter, director of pupil services for the Santa Barbara Unified School District. He said the records requests came in “fast and furious” after Aug. 15, when applications started being accepted, and his staff members had to tell people it could take a few weeks.
Now, the requests have slowed down and they’re being processed within a few days. Current and former students are filing requests, though current students can ask their individual school sites for their transcripts, Sumpter noted.
Click here for the form to make a records request from the Santa Barbara district.
The federal government is charging $465 per application, which includes filing fees and fingerprinting costs.
The huge Los Angeles Unified School District expects 200,000 current and former students to be eligible, according to The Associated Press.
The California Legislature recently approved a bill that would let people eligible for the federal program use their work permits to apply for driver’s licenses, the Sacramento Bee reported. Assemblyman Gil Cedillo proposed the bill, which he estimates would apply to about 400,000 people in the state, and now it awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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