September 14, 2023 Dear John, The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has received yet another blow to its survival, with a federal court again ruling yesterday that the executive branch exceeded its authority in creating the program. But with litigation likely to continue for years, it is attrition that is actively reducing the reach of a program that prior court orders have closed to new entrants, as Migration Policy Institute analysts Julia Gelatt and Ariel Ruiz Soto note in a new commentary out today. There were 579,000 active DACA holders as of the latest data available, down from a peak of more than 700,000. Most unauthorized immigrant youth are now entering adulthood without the program’s protections. MPI estimates 179,000 unauthorized immigrant children under age 18, as well as 329,000 youth ages 18-23, entered the country too late to be eligible for DACA. Current DACA participants represent about half of the 1.2 million noncitizens who MPI estimates met the program’s age, age at U.S. entry, years of U.S. residence, and educational requirements for immediate eligibility in 2022 under the original rules. The commentary examines the shrinking group being protected by DACA, offering data on program participation rates, the characteristics of current recipients (including country of origin, age, and places of residence), and a look at what the program has meant for integration outcomes.
“A decade of research has demonstrated the benefits DACA brings to recipients, their families and communities, and the U.S. economy,” Ruiz Soto and Gelatt write. “Pressure again falls on Congress, which has debated relief for Dreamers since 2001 without ever accomplishing it, to seriously consider offering durable protections for unauthorized immigrants who arrived as children—as only it can.” You can read the commentary here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/shrinking-number-daca-participants. And for a data tool showing the numbers of DACA recipients by state, as well as their countries of origin, click here. Sincerely,  Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications and Public Affairs
Migration Policy Institute | 
