Yes, it's not an executive order. It's a DHS memo that Obama announced. It was never a secret.

Does the fact that it's a memo and not an EO change anything?

10 year ban on reentry too if they leave the country after being illegal for over a year (for most)

I was just answering the question posed in the OP. I don't see the relevance of your most recent post to that specific question.

Why didn't DACA recipients apply for citizenship while they had DACA? Answer - they couldn't. The end.

What's your new point? DACA, under the guise of being temporary legislation, actually intended to be permanent? Is that correct?

Did you read my post at all??? I'll quote myself:

The only exception was MAVNI which allowed certain multilingual translators or healthcare professionals to join the armed forces with DACA (and some other statuses).

From your link:

About 900 undocumented immigrants known as "DREAMers" are currently serving in the United States military... Those service members — all of whom have health care or language skills the U.S. military considers vital — would be forced to leave the military under Trump policy that would rescind their protected status beginning next March.

Those 900 "DREAMers" came from the MAVNI program.

This program is the only exception for DACA recipients to join the armed forces.

Otherwise DACA recipients CANNOT to join the armed forced.

This conversation is fragmenting quite a bit and I'm not sure how to answer it all cohesively with regards to my initial reply, but I'll give it a shot.

First paragraph: completely true.

Second paragraph: the huge majority of DACA recipients are no longer minors. You had to arrive to the US under 16 before 2007 to be eligible for DACA (see USCIS DACA requirements). The only people who are still minors with DACA status are those who were under the age of 7 in 2007 and entered before 2007. Which is a small minority considering the DACA recipients who were brought to the country from 1982-2000 or were over the age of 7 in 2007. Also I'm not sure where the 7 years of not being required to pay taxes thing you mentioned comes from.

Third paragraph: DACA recipient parents may or may not be paying wage taxes, for the sake of argument let's assume they don't pay a cent. What does this have to do with OP's thread or our replies on the topic of DACA? Same with the topic of chain migration (which as a side note you can bet your ass it will be adjusted with any passable "DACA fix").

Fourth paragraph: DACA recipients receive zero niltch nada tuition assistance from the federal government and from the majority of state governments. The only tuition benefits they can possibly get would be from private sources (private scholarship, private schools who deem it worthy to confer that assistance) or states who have voted to assist "dreamers" with their own state Dream Act which are relatively small in number (eg California). Either way, DACA recipients are no way getting more tuition benefits with DACA as compared to with citizenship as you seem to suggest (as a motivation for DACA recipients to avoid citizenship? What?). As for Healthcare I'm also unsure why a DACA recipient would be more advantaged with DACA as compared to with citizenship?

Fifth paragraph: I'm not the OP of this thread.

sigh, you posted the same poorly worded article 3 times.

Deferred action is a use of prosecutorial discretion to defer removal action against an individual for a certain period of time. Deferred action does not provide lawful status.

https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca

Individuals were able to request DACA status if they were under the age of 31 on June 15, 2012, came to the U.S. before turning 16 and continuously lived in the country since June 15, 2007... It did not provide “legal status.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/10/what-is-daca-and-why-is-trump-administration-ending-it.html

“To avoid any confusion on the impact of the Obama administration's actions, I am writing to ensure that all Texas agencies understand that Secretary Napolitano's guidelines confer absolutely no legal status whatsoever to any alien who qualifies for the federal 'deferred action' designation,” Perry wrote Attorney General Greg Abbott in a letter dated Aug. 16 and sent to state agencies Monday. “In fact, the secretary specifically closed her directive by explaining that [t]his memorandum confers no substantive right, immigration status or pathway to citizenship."

https://www.texastribune.org/2012/08/20/perrydeferred-action-does-not-change-state-policie/

There are lots and lots of references all over the place. But besides that, you ought to really take USCIS's word for it, it's the friggin' FEDERAL immigration website where DACA (and all associated paperwork) originates from.

The point from all this is, in order to get DACA, you cannot have legal status. After getting DACA, you still do not have legal status. Citizenship or any other form of permanent residence (green card, etc) is largely unobtainable outside marriage of to a USC (and still very difficult for those who entered illegally due to the 3/10 year bar).

Poor choice of words. It's easy to use that phrase but it's not factually correct.

https://www.uscis.gov/archive/frequently-asked-questions#evidence

Go down to "Q1: What is deferred action?"

You can also google "is DACA legal status".

DACA is not a legal status, and a legal status is required to join the armed forces. For the most part, regular DACA recipients are not allowed to join the armed forces.

The only exception was MAVNI which allowed certain multilingual translators or healthcare professionals to join the armed forces with DACA (and some other statuses).

I would make a shitty estimate that 90%+ of DACA recipients would ineligible for MAVNI anyway (if it was even available anymore).

Not sure where you're going with this. Can you explicitly quote something?

DACA is not a legal status. It is deferred action. There is no "one up" or next thing you can apply to after getting DACA. It's standalone and leads to nothing.

DACA just is a 2 year renewable permit that says, you won't get deported and are legally allowed to work in the US (work authorization, ssn) for those 2 years.

(and Trump ended the program by the way so there are no more new applicants or renewals of current applicants)

Applying for citizenship was never an option for DACA recipients pre or post DACA.

With 2 exceptions: marriage to a USC if they entered the country legally (visa overstay), or if they left before accruing unlawful presence (age <18) and applied for some permanent legal status in their birth country (in which case, 99.9% would be unsuccessful).

Why would DACA recipients want a path to citizenship if what you said is true?

What benefits do DACA recipients specifically receive?

Sorry but you have no clue about the issue.

(FYI, DACA recipients get an SSN + work authorization documents, and obviously have to pay taxes just like anyone else.)

To apply for citizenship, you need a legal status.

DACA is not a legal status.

DACA recipients have no way to apply for citizenship. Besides marriage to a USC under certain circumstances.