Select beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program have approximately 48 hours to return inaccurate permits to the federal government.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been notifying DACA recipients to return their three-year work permit but only if the beneficiaries received the permit after Feb. 16 this year. USCIS, an agency with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is only allowed to grant two-year work permits. Under President Barack Obama's November 2014 immigration executive actions, the DACA program would expand to three-year work permits, but this action is currently on hold and awaiting judgment in the courts.

The USCIS, however, still distributed three-year permits to a number of DACA applicants. The agency said letters and contacts have been made to the three-year DACA recipients. Those who have received the three-year permits must return it immediately as all employment authorizations will be terminated starting July 31. The USCIS advises beneficiaries to call their customer service before returning the work permit card.

The USCIS launched a verification website that would automatically notify recipients if they received the three-year Employment Authorization Document (EAD) after Feb. 16. DACA recipients will be asked to enter their respective USCIS and card identification numbers.

The DACA recipients with three-year work permits will receive the appropriate and lawful two-year EADs. According to USCIS, nearly 2,100 DACA recipients are affected due to their mistake.

Nearly 108,000 eligible undocumented immigrants were granted three-year EADS on or before Feb. 16, but those recipients are not affected by the USCIS' mistake -- the recall is only for three-year EADs distributed after Feb. 16.

A coalition of national and regional Latino groups are not pleased with USCIS' actions. The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a coalition of 39 Latino-based organizations, called on the Obama administration to dismiss the USCIS' "threat" to take away the affected DACA recipients' work permits and deferred action status by the agency's error.

"Punishing DREAMers for a bureaucratic error made by the government is farcical at best, cruel at worst," said NHLA Chair Hector Sanchez, who also serves as the executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). "The government's sloppiness in handling this matter has the potential to affect the livelihoods of many individuals who depend on their work permits to support themselves and their families. The government needs to fix this problem in a fair way."

Sanchez said DACA recipients should still comply to USCIS's notices in order to ensure their work eligibility is not jeopardized.

"Government must be guided by universal values of fairness and justice if it is to carry out its principal function of serving the people," stated NHLA Immigration Committee Co-Chair Jose Calderon, who also serves as president of the Hispanic Federation. "Clearly, it has failed to do so in this case, which is made all the more egregious by the fact that it is punishing a very young and vulnerable population."

Calderon added, "While we encourage those DREAMers affected to comply with the request, our government needs to resolve this situation in a way that's just and does not harm the very same people the original law was designed to protect."

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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