There are an estimated 6,675 Indian American DACA beneficiaries.

When President Donald Trump announced the scrapping of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA, it put the future of close to 800,000 people in jeopardy, including thousands of Indian Americans.

The program, put in place by Trump’s predecessor, President Obama, gives certain undocumented immigrants that entered the country as children protection from deportation and gives them eligibility for a work permit.

As reported earlier, it is estimated that about 7,000 Indian American immigrants living in the US will come under the direct impact of the announcement made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday, which underlined the rightwing agenda of the new administration.

The Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will open a six-month window during which it will accept the final round of application for DACA, which can be filed by current beneficiaries whose benefits will expire on September 5, 2017, and March 5, 2018. The applications should be filed by Oct. 5, 2017.

Undocumented immigrants enrolled in the DACA program were eligible to get the work permit, social security numbers and even college tuition in certain US states. They have been living in the US without the fear of deportation.

“I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents. But we must also recognize that we are nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws,” said White House before Attorney General Jeff Sessions while reading out a statement written by Trump.

The DACA protected immigrants, who are often called “Dreamers,” are people who entered the US illegally since June 2007 before turning 16.

The total number of Indian American DACA beneficiaries is 6,675. Majority of them live in the states of California, Texas, Florida and New York and they come under the age group of 15 to 36.

There are 450,000 undocumented Indians in the United States, according to Pew Research. The USCIS statistics show that India is in 12th position on the list of countries of origin of Dreamers.

Since the news of scrapping came out, pro-DACA rallies have been taking place in Southern California, where an estimated 130,000 DACA immigrants live.

Similar rallies were held in Los Angeles, Irvine, San Bernardino and Santa Ana, and other popular places.

According to a CNBC report, the move could end up costing the US economy hundreds of billions of dollars over a period of 10 years.

The report said that the economy will suffer when DACA workers lose jobs. The worst affected states will be California and Florida with the largest share of Dreamers.

Out of the 800,000 DACA recipients, Mexico accounts for the largest number when it comes to country of origin with number touching more than 618,000 individuals.

According to the USCIS figures, California accounts for the largest number of DACA participants with their number touching 414,969. It is followed by Texas, Illinois, and New York with 203,783, 69,571 and 63,209, respectively.

In 2016 USCIS received 192,860 new DACA requests out of which 9,016 were rejected and 183,844 applications were accepted.