The Impact of DACA and Its Impending Status on Recipients

Title: DACA Recipients’ Livelihoods, Families, and Sense of Security Are at Stake This November

Source: Center for American Progress

 Authors: Tom K. Wong, Sanaa Abrar, Claudia Flores, Tom Jawetz, Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, Greisa Martinez Rosas, Holly Straut-Eppsteiner, and Philip E. Wolgin

In a recent article published by the Center for American Progress (CAP), Tom Wong and collaborators published the results of a survey on the economic and educational outcomes of individuals protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.

The national survey has been fielded every August for the past five consecutive years, eliciting 1,105 DACA respondents in its most recent iteration. Results suggest DACA provides favorable outcomes for its recipients, with 96 percent currently employed or enrolled in college.

New data collected from the survey reveals the consequences recipients fear should DACA be terminated and they be deported. Ninety-three percent of DACA recipients indicate healthcare, food, personal safety, and homelessness were significant concerns they and their families would encounter in their country of birth. On average, recipients were six years old when they arrived in the United States, and nearly seven in 10 reported that they do not have a relative presently residing in their country of birth.

Given the status of DACA, these survey results are timely. President Trump rescinded DACA in 2017 but it has been kept alive by court decisions, leaving Dreamers in a political and legal limbo. ACE, along with 43 other organizations, filed an amicus brief Oct. 4 with the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments Nov. 12 on the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA.

Click here to read the article, and visit the Protect Dreamers Higher Education Coalition web page for more information on the issue.

—Darsella Vigil