WASHINGTON, DC — The future for unauthorized immigrant children graduating from U.S. high school each year is becoming increasingly uncertain as federal and state policies narrow pathways to college, work and security. In its latest analysis of this population’s size and characteristics, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates close to 90,000 unauthorized immigrant students reach their final year of high school annually, with 75,000 graduating. Texas, California, Florida and New York are home to nearly half — 48 percent — of these students. Mexico is the top country of birth, accounting for 21 percent of these students, followed by Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Venezuela. Drawing on a methodology developed by MPI researchers in partnership with demographers at The Pennsylvania State University and Temple University that permits assigning legal status in U.S. Census Bureau data, the analysis offers the most current national and state-level estimates of unauthorized immigrant youth completing high school — and how policy changes are reshaping their prospects. No current high school students are eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program; other protections, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status, have been restricted during the second Trump term. Policy changes or litigation in states including Florida, Oklahoma and Texas have rolled back in-state tuition eligibility, reversing two decades of progress in college access for unauthorized immigrant students. And the removal of restrictions on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations at or near schools has led to higher absenteeism in some districts. In California districts where immigration enforcement actions took place in early 2025, student absences were up 22 percent over the same period a year earlier. The absenteeism rate rose to 25 percent in Durham, North Carolina in the wake of November immigration operations. As the fact sheet, Graduating into Uncertainty: Unauthorized Immigrant Students in U.S. High Schools, notes, these developments create an increasingly precarious environment for unauthorized immigrant students and their families. This is even as public support remains strong: 85 percent of respondents in a 2025 Gallup poll backed a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers (the name for unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children). “Unauthorized immigrant students face a complex set of challenges that threatens their ability to complete high school and raises questions about what comes next after graduation,” analyst Jeanne Batalova writes. “The 75,000 unauthorized immigrant high schoolers who graduate each year also face higher barriers today to pursuing post-secondary education or employment. With DACA unavailable and some TPS designations and other statuses being terminated, many of these graduates will lack work authorization, making them ineligible for most formal employment and professional licenses and creating a significant waste of human capital,” she adds. The fact sheet is part of MPI’s ongoing research on unauthorized immigrant populations and was commissioned by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. Read the fact sheet here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/unauthorized-immigrants-high-school. For detailed socio-demographic profiles of the overall unauthorized immigrant population at U.S., state and top county levels, click here. | 
