Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was created through an executive action by then-President Barack Obama in 2012. The program has been ensnared in back-and-forth litigation since the Trump Administration attempted to rescind it in 2017.
The legal battles have largely barred any new applicants, known as “Dreamers,” from accessing the program that was created to provide work authorization and temporary relief from deportation to immigrants who were brought to the country as children.
The temporary program must be renewed every two years and is not a permanent pathway to citizenship.
DACA is still in place but “living on life support” as current litigation is expected to land before the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
“The program is very much under threat,” Gelatt said.
The incoming administration of President-Elect Donald Trump will most likely hasten DACA’s end, as Trump previously tried to unwind the program at the beginning of his first presidency, Gelatt added.
Despite that pressure, polling has shown that Americans are largely supportive of giving Dreamers a pathway to citizenship. A 2022 poll of Democrats and Republicans showed nearly eight in 10 in support, with more than half strongly supporting it.
What are the requirements for DACA?
In order to be eligible to apply for DACA you must:
- Have come to the U.S. before turning 16 years old
- Have been under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012
- Have continuously resided in the U.S. since June 15, 2007, and up to the time of filing your DACA request
- Have been physically present in the U.S. on June 15, 2012, and at the time of filing your DACA request with USCIS
- Had no lawful immigration status on June 15, 2012, and at the time of filing your request.
- Be currently enrolled in school, have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a General Education Development (GED) certificate;
- Or, are an honorably discharged veteran of the United States Coast Guard or armed forces of the United States
- Have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety
How many Dreamers are there?
The program has provided temporary relief to over 835,000 immigrants in its 12-year existence.
There are currently 535,030 active DACA recipients in the U.S., a decrease from the program’s peak of over 700,000 recipients, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data.
There are estimated to be about 625,000 immigrants who were eligible but not protected by DACA as of 2023, according to MPI estimates.
In Delaware, there are 1,150 active DACA recipients. There have only been 7,909 DACA applications approved to date in Delaware as of June, according to USCIS data.
There are nearly 900 Delawareans who were immediately eligible for DACA, under the original 2012 rules, but not protected by it as of 2023.
Who are Dreamers?
Following the 2017 effort to unwind DACA, new applicants have been mostly locked out of the program, while existing recipients are still allowed to renew their protections every two years.
This has led to an overall decrease in the number of recipients who are also increasingly getting older.
Today, more than three-quarters of DACA recipients are 31 years old and older, according to USCIS data.
There are now less than 100,000 DACA recipients aged 30 and younger as of August, and nearly 15% of current recipients are over the age of 40. The number of active DACA recipients has decreased by nearly 155,000 from 2017 to 2024, per USCIS.
The majority of recipients were from Mexico, followed by El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and South Korea. The states with the largest number of DACA recipients are California, Texas, Illinois, New York, and Florida.
What is the impact of DACA on me?
Roughly 343,000 DACA recipients were considered “essential critical infrastructure workers” by the Department of Homeland Security in 2021, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP). That included people who work in health care, education and food-related industries.
The number includes:
- 34,000 health care workers providing patient care
- 11,000 people working in health care settings keeping facilities functioning
- 20,000 educators
- 100,000 people working the food supply chain as food goes from farms to tables.
About 300,000 U.S.-born children have at least one parent who is a DACA recipient and 1.3 million people share a home with a recipient, according to CAP.
Households with DACA recipients pay $6.2 billion in federal taxes and $3.3 billion in state and local taxes each year, according to a 2021 CAP analysis.
After taxes, the households hold $25.3 billion in spending power with $760 million in mortgage payments made each year by 68,000 homeowners who are DACA recipients.
Additionally, recipients who are not homeowners pay $2.5 billion in rent each year.
Timeline of DACA
- June 15, 2012: Then-President Barack Obama announced the creation of DACA through executive action.
- September 5, 2017: Then-Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke announced a wind-down of DACA by rescinding the 2012 DACA memorandum
- January 9, 2018: A federal judge in California issued a national injunction and ordered the Trump administration to restart DACA
- June 18, 2020: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration’s attempt to rescind the program was unlawful, meaning DACA would remain in place
- July 16, 2021: Federal Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled DACA unlawful and blocked any new applicants. Current recipients could keep their status while the case went through the appeals process.
- August 30, 2022: The Department of Homeland Security published a Final Rule to preserve and fortify DACA in an effort to replace the original 2012 memo that created the program.
- October 5, 2022: An appeals court upheld Judge Hanen’s July 2021 order that said DACA, as created in 2012, was unlawful.
- September 13, 2023: Judge Hanen rules against the Final Rule from DHS, but leaves current protections in place. The Biden Administration is expected to appeal the ruling with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the case is widely expected to end up before the Supreme Court.
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