It has been 12 years since the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program began. President Joe Biden commemorated the anniversary by announcing legislation that would provide some pathways to citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants.
Biden announced protections for spouses of undocumented U.S. citizens on Tuesday. The new rule – called “Parole in Place” – is intended to grant work permits and prevent deportations to partners who have lived in the U.S. for at least ten years, were married on or before June 17, and do not have a “disqualifying criminal history” or pose a national or public security threat.
Biden also announced a streamlined process for DACA recipients and other undocumented people to apply for waivers and temporary visas, such as H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. Nonimmigrant visas will also be issued to people who have graduated from an accredited institution of higher education. Other immigration reforms included additional temporary protected status designations and pathways to citizenship for children with disabilities and their parents.
“The solution to granting Dreamers permanent citizenship and protection is legislation that has been two decades overdue and blocked by Republicans in Congress,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, said in a statement. “The 2024 election is about existential issues for Dreamers and is becoming clearer by the day: it’s protection or deportation.”
In 2012, the Obama administration announced the creation of the DACA program, which allows more than 800,000 young undocumented immigrants to live, study and work in the United States—for many, the only home they have ever known. Five years later, Trump tried to end the program by limiting the number of new applicants, as the number of recipients declined and Dreamers feared the complete end of these protections. Conservative states like Texas have also recently tried to eliminate the protections.
“With the possibility of the DACA program once again ending up before the U.S. Supreme Court, this 12th anniversary is a reminder of DACA’s fragile, uncertain future and of the responsibility of President Biden and Congress to ensure that DACA does not end without permanent protections for all immigrants,” the Home is Here coalition said in a statement.
According to a recent Gallup poll, immigration is a major issue ahead of the November election. Nearly 30 percent of Americans cite it as their most important issue. The US-Mexico border keeps making headlines: bipartisan border protection legislation stalls, conservative governors continue to lock migrants in “sanctuary cities,” Republican candidate Trump speaks in racist and xenophobic terms, and Biden’s latest controversial executive order gives the executive branch the power to deny asylum.
DACA, created to provide temporary assistance to undocumented youth, remains in place for former beneficiaries, but congressional inaction and legal uncertainty threaten the program’s existence. The majority of recipients entered the program as high school and college students and have established careers (with median incomes increasing sevenfold) and families more than a decade later, advocates noted.
Immigration rights advocacy groups said today’s population of DACA recipients looks “very different” than it did a decade ago, but that’s largely because the program itself hasn’t changed in the past decade — not even the cutoff date for applicants to enter the U.S. has been updated. FWD.us estimates that as many as 600,000 young people are eligible for the program but are unable to apply due to court orders.
With the program hanging by a thread, advocates say its end could cost hundreds of billions of dollars in economic and societal impacts. According to a recent report from the Coalition for the American Dream, nearly 1 million people – including citizens and children of DACA recipients – could be at risk of family separation if protections end. An estimated 120,000 children could fall into poverty and lose the benefits they are entitled to through their parents’ participation in the program, the report said.
According to the report, the U.S. workforce could lose approximately 440,000 DACA workers and nearly 200,000 DACA businesses, resulting in future economic losses of up to $648 billion.
“Because this population is relatively well-educated and young, DACA recipients could be significant contributors to the U.S. economy for decades. Their loss would exacerbate existing labor shortages in many industries,” said Francesc Ortega, who authored the report and is a professor of economics at the City University of New York.
The average age of DACA recipients is 31, and many have lived in the country for at least 25 years. According to an analysis by FWD.us, the majority of them have completed high school and almost half have a college degree. 83 percent are part of the American workforce.
The analysis also found that there was little difference between DACA recipients and their U.S.-born peers. Both groups earned a similar median annual income of $40,000. The analysis also found that 88 percent of program participants live in mixed-status families, where at least one other member of their household is living in the country without authorization.
“Without DACA, I would not be where I am today,” said Diana Pliego, federal prosecutor strategist at the National Immigration Law Center, in a statement. “Thanks to DACA, I was able to continue my education, start a career and live free from the fear of being sent to a country I don’t know. The future of so many people is at stake.”
