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Although the history of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy might make the policy appear controversial, most Americans are in support of granting legal status to undocumented individuals brought into the United States as minors. In 2021, nearly three-fourths of Americans surveyed by the American Civil Liberties Union were in favor of granting permanent legal status to immigrants who were brought to the US illegally as children, and almost two-thirds were in favor of the passage of the Dream Act.” While DACA does not grant permanent legal status, it does provide temporary relief from deportation and offer work permits to those individuals. The policy was established through executive action by Obama in 2012 after Congress failed to pass the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which had been introduced in 2001. DACA recipients are still often referred to as “dreamers” and must meet other criteria apart from being brought into the United States as a minor, such as arriving in the United States before turning 16 and continuously residing in the country since 2007. However, this additional criteria will greatly restrict the impact DACA can make. Since 2012, there have been over 800,000 DACA recipients nationwide, but the timeframe criteria will greatly reduce the number of recipients in the future as the majority of undocumented children today were born after 2007, making it impossible for most of them to meet the requirement of having continuously resided in the US since 2007.
The Obama administration attempted to expand DACA to those who had been present in the US since 2010, but Texas and 25 other states filed lawsuits claiming the policies were unconstitutional because Obama’s unilateral actions were overstepping Congress’ authority. In 2015, a Texas district court approved an injunction supported by a federal appeals court, preventing the expanded policies from being implemented. A 4-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2016 affirmed the decisions made by the lower courts, and the Obama administration issued a memorandum rescinding the DACA expansion.
After Obama, DACA was thrown into additional volatility when the Trump administration sought to end the program. Through the work of DACA supporters and activists, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear three consolidated petitions concerning DACA's preservation. In June 2020, it voted 5-4 to stop the administration from ending DACA, not based on the constitutionality of the program but rather due to the Court's finding that the Trump administration's termination process was unlawful. In 2021, the Biden Administration expressed continued support for DACA and disagreement with Texas’ attempts to nullify the policy but did not move towards any expansion.
However, without any expansion, the policy is set to phase out either way because of the stipulation that requires DACA applicants to have been continuously residing in the country since 2007. While DACA is not specifically for minors and anyone born after June 16, 1981 (under the age of 31 in 2012) can apply, the phasing out of this policy for minors is worrying, as undocumented minors are a particularly vulnerable group. By the end of 2025, anyone who has been residing in the US since 2007 will have to be over the age of 18, meaning that minors would no longer qualify for the program. According to the President's Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, 80% of the nearly 120,000 undocumented children who graduated high school in 2023 do not qualify for DACA; “they arrived in the U.S. after June 15, 2007.” Without the tenuous protection from deportation that DACA offers, hundreds of thousands of children are subject to deportation from the only country they might have ever known at a moment's notice. Additionally, without the access to legal work authorization offered by DACA, these individuals are more likely to resort to having to work in illegal, exploitative work conditions.
There are currently two bills introduced in Congress that would expand the availability of legal status for undocumented immigrants brought into the United States as minors. The American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, passed in the House, would grant legal permanent resident status. The Solution for Undocumented Children through Careers, Employment, Education, and Defending Our Nation Act (SUCCEED Act), introduced in the Senate in 2017, allows undocumented children brought into the US as minors to apply for conditional permanent resident status for five years and apply for permanent resident status after ten years as a conditional permanent resident. These pieces of legislation could affect 2,763,000 and 2,035,000 undocumented individuals, respectively, and elevate them from living as second-class citizens.
The views expressed in this publication are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Rice Journal of Public Policy, its staff, or its Editorial Board.