Federal government resumes DACA renewal applications for undocumented youth

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The federal government once again began accepting renewal requests for those looking for protection from deportation Saturday night.

"I'm excited that they may have some sense of relief," said Ivan Villaseñor Madriz. His parents brought him to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 10 years old. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 2016 and is now one of 800,000 undocumented immigrants covered under the DACA program started by President Obama.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA gives legal status to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

"One of the biggest fears that I have is that I'm going to see some of my friends be persecuted," said Villaseñor Madriz. He renewed his DACA credentials last year but the program's future has been up in the air. Trump administration officials announced last year it would wind down the program.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the administration to resume DACA.

Negotiations over a comprehensive immigration bill fell apart this past week.

President Trump tweeted this morning: "DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don't really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our military."

Congressman Ro Khanna from the South Bay addressed the issue during a town hall meeting Sunday. "There are those of us in Congress like me who believe that we need a clean Dream Act," said Khanna. "We need to give DACA recipients a path to citizenship and we are not going to vote for funding the government until that is done."

For 'Dreamers' caught in the middle of a political battle, the uncertainty is nothing new.

"It's definitely a limbo state and it's definitely very exhausting," said Villaseñor Madriz.

Now, only time will tell if democrats and republicans can put their differences aside to support a bipartisan immigration bill.