Policy & Research/Policy Brief/News/Dreamers/Immigration

DACA 12 Years Later
From students to careers and families

DACA has helped undocumented young people build careers and families in the United States.
As DACA reaches its 12th anniversary, the policy is under immediate threat in the courts.
It is long past time to provide certainty to recipients and their families with a pathway to citizenship.

June 10th, 2024

Aliento's founder, Reyna Montoya, smiles as she considers how life-changing DACA has been for many Dreamers on the 10-Year DACA Anniversary.

“Hundreds of thousands of these young people still live day to day facing the overwhelming uncertainty around their future in a country they have called home for decades.”

Twelve years after the Obama Administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, DACA recipients have grown in many ways: youth who started as mostly high school and college students are now building careers and establishing families.

When President Obama announced the DACA policy in 2012, he described prospective DACA recipients as “young people who study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, are friends with our kids, and pledge allegiance to our flag.” For years, elected officials and media outlets highlighted DACA recipients’ youth and the fact that they’d been educated alongside their U.S. citizen peers. Today, DACA recipients are no longer children; the protections afforded by the policy have helped them to build their lives in the U.S., graduate from school, grow their careers, and establish their own families. But even while DACA recipients have grown and changed, the DACA policy has not kept up, and it has been less effective over time because of court challenges resulting in closures of the policy for new applicants. Today, hundreds of thousands of these young people still live day to day facing the overwhelming uncertainty around their future in a country they have called home for decades.

When the DACA policy launched, DACA recipients were generally younger people who were in high school, or who were just beginning their college education or their careers. According to FWD.us estimates, the average age of DACA recipients in 2012 was 21 years.¹ At that time, nearly half (45%) of approved applicants were enrolled in high school or college, while a slight majority (60%) participated in the labor force. For this first group, only slightly more than two-thirds (77%) had graduated from high school, and roughly a third (35%) had attained some college education. As many were in school or just beginning careers, DACA recipients earned a median income of only $4,000 per year.

Twelve years later, DACA’s beneficiaries have built families and careers in the U.S.

Initial DACA recipients in 2012 with active DACA status in 2024, by year

Note: DACA recipients based on eligibility for DACA in 2012.
Source: Augmented 2012 and 2022 American Community Survey data.

On the 12th DACA anniversary, and the overwhelming majority (at least 88%) of this initial group of DACA recipients from 2012 now participates in the labor force, while a small share is enrolled in a college or university program (less than 10%). Nearly all DACA recipients—99%—have graduated from high school, and about half (at least 49%) have attained at least some college education. This first cohort of DACA recipients has increased their median income sevenfold since 2012, and since DACA’s start has contributed well more than a hundred billion dollars to the economy as well as tens of billions in combined taxes. Many are now building families too: nearly half (42%) of DACA recipients in this cohort have married, and half (50%) now have at least one child in the home. ²

Reyna's Story

Over the last twelve years, Reyna Montoya, part of the initial group of DACA recipients, has graduated college and now supports her community as a teacher. Reyna shares how DACA has created opportunities for her, and explains why Congress can and must do more.

Without question, DACA has been life-changing for the more than 835,000 young people who have qualified for its work authorizations and protections from deportation at some point in the last 12 years—but much more work remains to be done. DACA was meant to serve only as a temporary policy offering immigration relief for young people, but it’s now become a permanent reality for DACA recipients, their families, and their employers as Congress has failed to pass permanent legislative protections.

Today, more than 500,000 DACA recipients are building careers and growing their families across the U.S.

As DACA reaches another anniversary, today’s DACA recipient population looks very different than it did 12 years ago. That’s part because DACA hasn’t changed over the last decade or so, even to update the cutoff eligibility date by which applicants had to have entered the U.S. The result: the DACA-eligible population is largely the same as it was when the policy was announced in 2012. But of course, these individuals are now 12 years older—and even more deeply ingrained into the fabric of American communities. Looking at the current DACA population—of which that initial cohort remains the majority—it’s clearer than ever that DACA recipients urgently need and deserve the certainty that a pathway to citizenship would provide.

More than 500,000 individuals make up the current DACA population, according to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Although most DACA recipients (81%) were born in Mexico, they live in communities all over the U.S. The largest share of DACA recipients (28%) lives in California, followed by Texas (17%); the rest are scattered in every state of the country.

Note: Metro areas are based on 2013 Census Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) borders. Age and years in U.S. adjusted to reflect 2024. All other characteristics are likely minimums since base data were collected two years earlier in 2022. DACA characteristics in states with less than 10,000 recipients are unavailable. DACA population estimates rounded to 1,000.
Source: Population figures for U.S. and states based on number of active DACA recipients at the end of 2023, as recorded by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. All other estimates are based on FWD.us analysis of augmented 2022 American Community Survey data.

“After having lived nearly all of their lives in the U.S., today’s DACA recipients differ little from U.S. citizens of similar ages.”

Most DACA recipients have only ever known the United States as home. Among current DACA holders, taking into account more recent enrollees and those who left the program, the average age is 31, and the average DACA recipient has lived in the U.S. for 25 years.³ The overwhelming majority has graduated high school, and nearly half have attained some college education. Most DACA recipients are working: more than three-quarters of DACA recipients participate in the labor force, contributing nearly $14 billion to the U.S. economy each year. Meanwhile, about a third are married, and more than a third have at least one child at home.

Having largely grown up in the U.S., and now many with families of their own, nearly all (88%) DACA recipients live in mixed-status families, meaning at least one member of their household is not a DACA recipient or an undocumented individual. For example, about one million U.S. citizens live in households with a DACA recipient, according to FWD.us estimates. We estimate that nearly a fifth (17%) of DACA recipients—90,000 people—are married to a U.S. citizen. Similarly, more than 300,000 U.S. citizen children live with at least one parent who is a DACA recipient.

FWD.us analysis also shows that after having lived nearly all of their lives in the U.S., today’s DACA recipients differ little from U.S. citizens of similar ages with respect to demographic and economic contributions. For example, the majority of both DACA recipients (87%) and U.S. citizens (85%) ages 25 to 34 participate in the U.S. labor force.⁴ More than half of both groups, DACA recipients (54%) and U.S. citizens (69%), have attained some college education. Additionally, both groups earn similar median annual incomes of around $40,000 annually. DACA recipients within these same age ranges are more likely to be married (32%) or have children (35%) than their U.S.-citizen counterparts (27% of whom are married, and 26% of whom have children).

“FWD.us estimates that as many as
600,000 people currently without DACA status are eligible to receive the policy’s benefits but cannot have their applications processed
because of court orders..”

Congress and the administration must urgently do more for DACA recipients

DACA has provided life-changing benefits for young, undocumented people who came to the U.S. as children. Without this policy, hundreds of thousands wouldn’t have accessed higher education, started careers, or enjoyed the relative stability to start their families. At the same time, each passing DACA anniversary highlights that DACA protections remain precarious, and DACA recipients continue to live with tremendous uncertainty. The Trump Administration attempted to strip DACA recipients of their protections; an attack on the policy that continues in the courts today.

In fact, FWD.us estimates that as many as 600,000 people currently without DACA status are eligible to receive the policy’s benefits but cannot have their application processed since U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen vacated the 2012 DACA policy memo in July 2021 and further found in 2023 the Biden administration’s rule making on DACA to be illegal. Although current recipients are permitted to continue renewing their DACA status, the terrible reality is that DACA could be voided in further court action. The DACA policy is under active litigation threat and DACA renewals could be stopped as soon as this year. If renewals were to stop, FWD.us estimates that as many as 1,000 jobs would be lost each business day and more than 1,000 U.S. citizen family members of DACA recipients would face family separation each and every day for two years. This is why it is now more urgent than ever to provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients. Unless Congress acts, DACA recipients who have relied on its limited protections for more than a decade could have no way to secure their status in the United States.

While only Congress can provide a long-term solution, the Biden administration has legal policy tools at its disposal to provide greater certainty to DACA recipients and other Dreamers, particularly in the event that the DACA policy is ended by the courts. These include expanding access for DACA recipients married to U.S. citizens, numbering an estimated 90,000 individuals, to request parole in place. Additionally, expanding Temporary Protected Status to additional, qualified countries could permit as many as 50,000 individuals to access an additional layer of protections similar to DACA. And streamlining processes for securing nonimmigrant employment-based visas could encourage several thousand more DACA recipients and other Dreamers to pursue those pathways to legal—albeit still temporary—status. Finally, since more than a third of DACA recipients are parents of U.S. citizen children, an administrative rule permitting them as caregivers to access an affirmative process for their cancellation of removal could help those for whom their removal would impose exceptional and extremely unusual hardship on their children. In all, about half of DACA recipients could have better or alternative protections through these potential administrative policies.

Critically, hundreds of thousands more undocumented young people cannot access DACA because they entered the U.S. after the policy’s cutoff date, and thus aren’t eligible for its deportation protections and work authorization. For example, even if USCIS were processing new DACA applications, the majority of undocumented high school graduates would be ineligible because they entered the U.S. after 2007. Their undocumented status hinders their ability to live free from fear and uncertainty, and blocks them from contributing more fully to their communities and our economy. Congress must act to provide these young Dreamers with immigration relief.

“The only permanent solution for DACA recipients, their families, their colleagues, and other undocumented individuals is for Congress to pass legislation providing a pathway to citizenship.”

Also, many DACA recipients live in families where other family members are also undocumented. This means that even if Congress passed a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, the risk for family separation would still be great. Congress has the opportunity to keep millions of families together by not only seeing through on their promise to DACA recipients, but also providing a pathway to citizenship for their families and the rest of the undocumented population.

In his speech announcing the policy, President Obama declared of DACA, “Precisely because this is temporary, Congress needs to act.” Twelve years later, Congress has failed to meet that call. While a solution is long overdue, it’s not too late. Congress can act with urgency to provide permanent legislative protections to hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients.

The passing of another DACA anniversary affirms a critical point: the only permanent solution for DACA recipients, their families, their colleagues, and other undocumented individuals is for Congress to pass legislation providing a pathway to citizenship. With the termination of the policy possible through the courts, there is no more time to waste. DACA recipients have been forced to live their lives in two-year increments. The time is now to provide certainty to DACA recipients, their families, and the communities who rely on them. Congress must act without further delay.

Notes

This initial group of approved applicants is based on the total DACA recipient population as of the end of 2013. Data analysis is based on augmented 2012 American Community Survey data using a random selection method of likely DACA recipients based on their social and economic characteristics, age in 2012, age of migration, country of birth, state of residence, and gender.
Analysis of 2024 DACA recipients who could have initially been approved for DACA in 2012 and 2013 is based on augmented 2022 American Community Survey data, selecting a synthetic DACA cohort who were eligible to apply for DACA in 2012. Respondents were randomly selected based on social and economic characteristics, age in 2012, age of migration, country of birth, state of residence, and gender. Since data was collected in 2022, two years were added to ages and years in the U.S. of selected respondents. Education, labor force, and family estimates should be considered minimums, as two additional years have passed. Also, the 2012 synthetic cohort does not include those who would have adjusted their immigration status during the past 12 years.
Analysis of the 2023 DACA population is based on augmented 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) data. These numbers are slightly different from the 2023 DACA population that was initially granted relief in 2012, as new recipients have been added over the years and some have not renewed. Respondents in the ACS data were randomly selected based on DACA eligibility requirements, social and economic characteristics, country of birth, state of residence, and gender. Since data was collected in 2022, two years were added to ages and years in the U.S. of selected respondents. Education, labor force, and family estimates should be considered minimums, as two additional years have passed.
Ages 25 to 34 was selected as it represents the middle 50% of the current DACA population, and thus a useful comparison of the median DACA recipient to U.S. citizens of a similar age.

Phillip Connor

Senior Demographer

phillip@fwd.us

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