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Two separate but linked crises are unfolding simultaneously. A USCIS processing backlog is quietly letting DACA status lapse for thousands of holders who filed renewals on time — stripping work authorization and health coverage without any new executive order. Separately, Denver's September 2026 federal lawsuit argues that armed federal agents deployed near polling locations suppress civic participation among eligible voters in mixed-status households. Both mechanisms, the lawsuit contends, share a structural logic: enforcement visibility reshaping behavior before any formal action is taken.
DACA recipient counts peaked around 2016 and have declined gradually — not through mass deportation but through bureaucratic attrition: deaths, voluntary departures, and an inability to renew due to legal uncertainty. The Fifth Circuit's 2022 ruling barred new applications entirely, so the population is a closed set, slowly shrinking.