Migration Crisis in the United States:

In recent years, the United States has made it increasingly more difficult to seek asylum in the country. With growing human rights issues, war, pandemics, access to food and clean water, etc. there are more people immigrating than ever before. Many people need to immigrate in order to survive and at the moment the wait to be approved for asylum in the United States can last months or even years. This doesn’t leave people any choice but to try to enter the United States unlawfully.

What is DACA?

DACA, short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a policy established by President Barack Obama in 2012 that protects around 800,000 young people. DACA provides a pathway to opportunity. Many people also know of the program as “DREAMers”. The program protects people who entered the United States unlawfully as children. The program does not alleviate all of the stress of being a migrant in the United States, as it does not grant them “official legal status” or a direct pathway to citizenship, but it does allow Dreamers access to a social security number, a driver’s license, and a work permit.

There were repeated attempts to try and dismantle the DACA program under the Trump administration. In December of 2020, a federal judge allowed first-time DACA applicants to apply after the halt in applications under the Trump administration. This disturbed the flow of DACA applications and changed how many people have access to the program now. Attempts to dismantle the DACA program, not only meant that young people faced the risk of deportation, but they also would lose the ability to work and receive an education in the United States. In this project, I will examine if states with higher levels of DACA recipients correspond to educational enrollment rates and the number of DACA recipients employed.

Read more about DACA with the following link:

https://www.boundless.com/immigration-resources/what-is-daca/

Map of DACA Recipients and Eligible Population:

The following map shows active DACA recipients per state as of December of 2021. In the United States in December of 2021 there were 611,470 active DACA recipients. The Migration Policy Institute estimated that there were 1,159,000 people eligible to be active DACA recipients in December of 2021. The website shares “Estimates refer to the individuals who could have become eligible for DACA under the program’s original 2012 rules. Federal courts kept DACA alive after the Trump administration acted to terminate the program in September 2017, but limited eligibility to those who currently or previously had DACA status. In January 2021, the Biden administration reopened the program to first-time applicants.”

Map of Global DACA Recipients and Eligibility Per Country:

The following countries show how many people from each respective country are eligible to become DACA recipients. Similarly to the map above, eligibility was decreased under the Trump Administration. This map highlights the hotspots for immigration into the United States. There is a very large concentration throughout Latin America.

DACA Recipient Secondary and Post Secondary Education Per State:

Education is a crucial aspect to opportunity growth in the United States. Without DACA, many young people in the United States would not have access to public or private education. An article from Migration Policy Institute shares, “DACA recipients are almost as likely as U.S. adults in the same age group (15-32) to be enrolled in college (18 percent versus 20 percent), they are far less likely to have completed college (4 percent versus 18 percent). Forty-four percent of DACA holders have completed secondary education, but are not enrolled in college. Another 20 percent remain in secondary school. Female DACA recipients are more likely than men to be enrolled in college (20 percent versus 15 percent), but less likely to be working (48 percent versus 64 percent)”. The following bar chart illustrates the top ten states for secondary and post secondary education for DACA recipients in the United States.

Employed DACA Recipients Per State:

Employment is another key aspect to the DACA program. Without DACA, people cannot apply to jobs in the United States as they do not have a social security number or the ability to apply for a work permit. Many migrants who enter the country unlawfully have to turn to cheap labor to make any sort of income. In the United States, the cost of living in many places has become very high. Without the ability to apply for a work permit, many migrants can end up homeless, hungry, or dead. The following bar chart shows how many DACA recipients are employed in the top 20 States for DACA employment.

Findings:

California and Texas have the highest number of DACA recipients. California is the tenth state for educational enrollment and Texas is not in the top ten. As for employment, California is number one and Texas is number two. To me, this means that there is probably a higher emphasis or necessity for employment among DACA recipients.

Conclusion:

With the growing migration crisis globally, it is not going to work any more to just turn a blind eye to the problem, build up a wall and shut people out, or keep people locked up like criminals at our borders. There needs to be real solutions and DACA is a good start. While it is not realistic to be able to let everyone into the country, there needs to be more ways to sort through asylum cases and help the people who really need it. DACA acknowledges the problem of the lack of opportunity for the children of unlawful migrants in the country and provides them a more fair opportunity in life. This is a program that should not be dismantled, and there should be more programs like it created in the future.