City Hall aide loses work authorization as DACA faces new attacks

Jupiter Peraza had barely settled into City Hall before the paperwork around her own job began to unravel. The 29-year-old, who started last month as Mayor Daniel Lurie’s community liaison to the Tenderloin neighborhood, lost her work authorization as her DACA renewal stalled, leaving a visible San Francisco employee unable to keep working.

Peraza’s case puts a local face on a policy fight that has unsettled hundreds of immigrants across the Bay Area and beyond. San Francisco’s own profile of Peraza describes her as an undocumented trans woman activist and DACA recipient whose organizing centers on immigrant rights and voter mobilization. She graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in international relations and a minor in political science, worked as a 2021 Feminist Policy Fellow with the Women’s Foundation of California, and was appointed to the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee on July 26, 2023.

DACA, created in 2012, gave eligible undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children temporary protection from deportation and work authorization, but not lawful status. After a Jan. 17, 2025, Fifth Circuit ruling, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it would keep accepting and processing renewal requests and related employment-authorization applications, while not processing new DACA applications. Current grants and employment authorization documents remain valid until they expire unless individually terminated.

But in April, the delays have stretched long enough to force some recipients out of work. A fundraiser posted that as of April 10, Peraza was legally unable to work until a new permit is issued. Another emergency fundraiser for her was scheduled for April 28 at Mother in San Francisco.

Her situation mirrors a broader pattern. NOTUS reported in April that a firefighter, a child behavioral therapist, a city council member’s staffer and a video game tester were among the DACA recipients who said they had lost jobs because renewals had not been processed. USCIS reported a median DACA renewal processing time of 2.3 months, with 80% of cases completed in 3.5 months.

For San Francisco, the case is more than a single worker’s administrative delay. It shows how federal immigration decisions can reach directly into City Hall, disrupting local government operations and the people who help neighborhoods function day to day.