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| - Jorge Benitez received the precious documents he needs to live and work in the US under a program that protects migrants who, like him, arrived illegally as children. His brother Bayron may never get them. They were sent from El Salvador together as young boys, but a slight age difference caused a delay for Bayron that has left him shut out of the document application process indefinitely, thanks to tougher new rules issued this week by President Donald Trump. Like many young migrants in the same position, these two young men's lives have been a roller coaster of hope and fear since 2017, when Trump tried to terminate the program they rely on, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). "He (Trump) treats us as a pawn, as a game. He's using us, our lives," said 21-year-old Jorge, who got his crucial Social Security card after applying for the program in 2015. DACA was put in place by then-president Barack Obama in 2012 to regularize the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of young people, known as "Dreamers," who had arrived illegally as children. It has been hailed by immigration advocates as a humane approach to a thorny issue, yet it has also faced an existential threat from Trump's "America First" presidency. The program requires applicants to be older than 15 when they apply -- which meant Bayron, now 17, was not old enough when his brother Jorge sent in his application. That question of timing has become a fiercely stubborn barrier. In mid-June, following a long legal battle, the Supreme Court handed Trump a rebuke by declaring his effort to shut down the program was "arbitrary." Following the ruling, Bayron's family immediately launched the application process for him. But on Tuesday, they and others like them were told not to bother -- the Trump administration announced no new applications would be accepted. "It came out of the blue," said Bayron. Without the program, he cannot drive or work legally, and there is the persistent threat of deportation to a country he doesn't even remember. Some 66,000 young migrants find themselves similarly blocked by the new rules, according to the American Immigration Council. About 700,000 are already under DACA's protection. "My brother has so much to contribute to society," said Jorge. "Our mother doesn't want him to have a job like her, where she kills herself every day for work that pays very little." Their mother arrived in the United States in 2004 to escape the bloody gang violence that has killed thousands. Her sons joined a year later, when they were three and five. "We had no choice, we had to fly. El Salvador at the time was just emerging from a civil war, our country was basically in ruins," said Jorge. "I remember our neighbors walking down the street with blood on their head," he added. He said the news of the suspension of new applications made him angry because the paperwork is expensive for migrant families working minimum wage jobs. "DACA is not cheap, families use all their savings because this is hope for them," he added. On top of that Trump administration said that DACA beneficiaries would now have to renew their status once a year, instead of every other year. Jorge said that change would make the application process a constant battle and worry for hundreds of thousands of people like him. For Jorge, the coming months -- the run up to the US presidential election in November -- would be crucial. "I think Latinos will definitely realize, like, Trump is not doing anything that he said he was going to do for us," he said. The alternative is Trump's challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, who has fiercely criticized moves to end DACA. "President Trump will stop at nothing to push his anti-immigrant political agenda, even at the expense of young people who have grown up in this country and are Americans through and through," he said. Biden has promised, if elected, to propose legislation that would put "Dreamers" on a path to citizenship. an/la/jme/caw/
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