AUSTIN, Texas (KEYE) — The system that processes immigration requests and renewal permits for the United States is in crisis. A new tide of requests from recent immigrants is flooding the processing centers across the country.

The growing backlog of work is on top of routine assignments like renewing permits for DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program provides legal immigration status to children who were brought into the country without proper authorization.

DACA allows these children who are now adults to live and work in the U.S.

Julio Acevedo has been in the U.S. since he was 12. He renews his DACA permit every two years as required, but this year approval of his permit has been delayed.

The biggest problem that I will have is not only not being able to work, but also I depend on my health insurance from work," he said. "And if my health insurance lapses, then I can't have access to the medication that I need on a daily basis.”

Even though Acevedo has been waiting for his permit for three months, he still considers himself lucky.

“It's a nationwide problem where there's a lot of DACA recipients that have been waiting for over five months for their renewal to be processed," he said.

With the recent influx of new immigrants overwhelming the system that also processes DACA renewals, some offices are now months behind in their work.

We see backlogs happen in different types of immigration cases," immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfish said. "Often there's lots of different processing centers, and sometimes one of the processing centers can get behind."

One office in Vermont estimates that it can wade through 80% percent of the DACA applications it receives within 29.5 months. They're processing a permit that's only good for 24 months.

Lincoln-Goldfinch adds the best thing that a DACA recipient can do is to plan ahead for the renewal and file the renewal six months or maybe even more before the expiration of the current work permit.

“Because you could be in one of those buckets of people that are taking longer to be adjudicated," she said. "And what you don't want to do is end up with a period of time where your work permit has expired, and your next one hasn't started yet.”

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