A firefighter, a child behavioral therapist, a city council member’s staffer and a video game tester are among those who say they’ve lost their jobs because the Trump administration hasn’t renewed their DACA status.

Federal government delays in renewing the immigrants’ status are putting them at a higher risk of deportation and financial strain as a result of losing their work authorization, pushing some to have to ask their community for financial help.

“It was tough getting help from other people, especially as … somebody that I like to give, and I don’t expect anything in return … but I had to come to accept that it’s OK to not be OK,” said Christian, a 33-year-old who migrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 7 years old.

NOTUS is referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients by their first or middle names only.

Christian, who worked as a community liaison for a city council member in a major Texas city, submitted his renewal applications on Dec. 5. He’ll be able to go back to his job once the Trump administration renews his work permit. In the meantime, he has had to rely on family, friends and colleagues for financial help.

President Donald Trump tried to eliminate DACA during his first term. The program has since 2012 granted work permits and reprieve from deportation to undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before they turned 16 and have lived here since at least 2007.

More than 505,000 people have DACA, according to the latest data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The program is under further threat as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration: Currently the federal government is only processing renewals, not new applications.

USCIS reported that as of February its median processing time for DACA renewals is 2.3 months in the current fiscal year, the longest since 2016. However, USCIS completes 80% of its cases in 3.5 months, according to the agency. USCIS recommends submitting DACA renewals four to five months in advance, according to its website.

The Department of Homeland Security and USCIS insist that any DACA recipients, regardless of their renewal status, are subject to detention and deportation. USCIS, which handles the renewals, argues that its stricter vetting can lengthen processing times. The agency did not respond to NOTUS’ questions about how it has changed the vetting for DACA recipients, and the White House referred NOTUS’ request for comment to DHS and USCIS.

Democratic lawmakers view the delays as a way to bureaucratically end the program and are pushing for answers from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow.

“Allowing USCIS to sit on renewal applications while DACA holders lose their protections from deportation is the President’s latest tactic to destroy DACA,” Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, one of the key figures behind the creation of the program, said in a statement to NOTUS.

DACA recipients who spoke to NOTUS described growing increasingly desperate as the expiration date for their work permits neared and USCIS provided no information.

For Cesar, a 25-year-old who has lived in the U.S. since he was 2 years old, the lapse in his work permit and DACA status led to losing his dream job as a video game tester in January. It was particularly bad timing, as he and his wife, a middle school teacher, were in the process of buying a house.

“I can’t even drive. I can’t really do much because I’m scared of being pulled over,” Cesar said. “That’s like a nightmare I keep having, and my family keeps telling me to stay positive, but there’s nothing to be positive about right now.”

Being out of work has meant that his wife has had to take on extra hours tutoring and working as a delivery driver. Now, he’s occupying his time obsessively checking the USCIS portal to see if the agency has renewed his DACA and work permit. He submitted his renewal Dec. 3, weeks before the Jan. 1 deadline, because the longest he said he had previously waited had been three weeks.

“I just punish myself thinking about all the money we could have had if I kept working and if it was different,” Cesar said.

The couple has an immediate concern.

“We’re just, like, in survival mode right now trying not to lose the house,” he said.

Edlow acknowledged the processing delays across the board at USCIS during a Thursday meeting with House lawmakers.

“I consider this to be short-term pain, which is going to really lead to long-term gain in the fair and proper processing of immigration,” Edlow said.

Even those who submit their renewal applications four to five months as recommended are still facing delays that have forced them out of their jobs.

Yenifer, 27, submitted her renewal to USCIS on Nov. 29 for her work permit that expired on March 11.

The Mexican immigrant, who was brought to the U.S when she was 5 months old, has been on a leave of absence for a month from her work providing behavioral therapy to kids with autism. Yenifer says that lack of consistency disrupts her patients’ progress.

Six months have passed since Vicente, a DACA recipient from Venezuela living in Florida, submitted his renewal application.

The firefighter paramedic said he’s called USCIS several times and the agency has not provided a timeline for his approval. He said he had to resign when his work permit expired last week.

“You do everything right, and you still can’t even get an answer or any kind of update,” Vicente said.

In December, USCIS announced it would pause the review process for pending applications for benefits from immigrants from countries on Trump’s ban list, including Venezuela.

Several Democratic lawmakers and congressional staffers said they have seen an increasing number of calls from DACA recipients in recent months for help obtaining information about their pending renewals, and want USCIS to publicly acknowledge whether the hold applies to DACA recipients.

Even with lawmakers’ intervention, USCIS hasn’t expedited most cases or provided a timeline of the delays, they said.

“Right now, what we have is a train wreck,” said Rep. Lou Correa of California. “It would appear that the administration, again, has figured out another way to administratively cut down on another group of immigrants.”

Correa said the calls are also coming from employers of DACA holders worried about having to fire them. He and Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia of Illinois on April 9 spearheaded a letter to Mullin and Edlow about the cases they’ve heard of DACA recipients having to wait more than six months for their renewals.

Not knowing how long she’ll have to be out of work has damaged Yenifer’s mental health, she said.

“This whole administration is not taking in consideration how much it’s affecting us,” she said. “Not only financially, but like, mentally. It’s exhausting to check on a daily basis that portal and seeing the fact that your case is still being processed.”