DACA Leaves Recipients Vulnerable to Status Changes

Xavier Vazquez Baez is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient who was brought to the US at age 13 in 2003. Now, he works at a nonprofit that helps immigrant communities. Vazquez Baez said, “We want to give back to this country that has given us so much.”

In recent years, people like Vazquez Baez have dealt with stress over their legal status more than ever. As it stands, DACA has left recipients vulnerable to the amendment of their temporary legal status as presidential administrations change.

What is DACA?

The Obama administration implemented DACA as an executive order in 2012. It grants people who were brought to the country as children without legal documentation temporary lawful status if they meet certain requirements. Since its implementation, the constitutionality of DACA has been contested, and various bills have been proposed in Congress as solutions with relatively little success.

DACA provides protection from deportation for young people who were brought to the U.S. as children. It also provides them with the ability to obtain work permits, driver’s licenses, and more affordable higher education. A 2018 survey showed that after receiving DACA, nearly 78 percent of recipients got their first driver’s license, and about 62 percent got their first state ID card. Additionally, almost 40 percent of DACA respondents in a 2018 national survey were enrolled in secondary or postsecondary education. 

Once granted DACA status, recipients could apply to renew their status every two years. To qualify, applicants had to meet the following requirements:

• They must “have entered the country before the age of 16 and be under the age of 31 on June 15, 2012.”
• They must “have continuously resided in the U.S. since June 15, 2007.”
• They must “be at least 15 years of age and be in school, have graduated high school, received a GED or have been honorably discharged from military service.”
• They must not “have been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor nor multiple misdemeanor offenses.”

More than 800,000 people have been granted DACA status since the start of the program. In 2020, about 643,560 people are DACA recipients. Their median age of entry into the United States was six years old. Most DACA recipients are Latino, and 79 percent are from Mexico. To see a map of where DACA recipients live by state, click here.

Are DACA Recipients considered Dreamers?

When the topic of DACA comes up, people often mention “Dreamers.” The terms are often used interchangeably, but there is a slight difference between the two. 

The nickname for “Dreamers” came from the DREAM Act of 2001 (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act). This bill was sponsored by senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) during the administration of President George W. Bush. The bill would have created a path to legal status for immigrants who were in the country without documents, but it did not pass. Since then, it has been proposed several more times in Congress.

DACA was created by President Obama as an executive order in 2012 after the DREAM Act did not pass in Congress in any of its iterations. So, while DACA is technically separate from the DREAM Act, DACA recipients are still referred to as Dreamers. DACA recipients are the group who would have been impacted by the DREAM Act.

What is the problem with DACA?

Despite the opportunities that DACA offers for undocumented individuals who came to the U.S. as children, it does not provide a path to citizenship. This has left DACA recipients vulnerable through election cycles as their status has been contested.

In 2017, President Trump announced that he was going to end DACA. Congress was tasked with passing a bill that would replace DACA, which would move the question of DACA from the executive branch to the legislative branch. But Congress was unsuccessful. In June 2020, The Supreme Court ruled in favor of DACA recipients and stated that the Trump administration did not have the legal power to end the program.

The fate of DACA remains in limbo with the 2020 presidential election. Under the current regulations, no new DACA applications are being accepted and current recipients must renew their status every single year. Candidate Joe Biden claimed in the third presidential debate that if elected, he would immediately create a path to citizenship. 

With the news that Joe Biden is now the president-elect, only time will reveal whether he will follow through on his promise to secure a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. The nation must also wait to see whether newly-elected members of Congress will collaborate on a bill offering a path to citizenship. Without a path to citizenship, DACA recipients will remain vulnerable to changes in their status under future administrations.

In a coming article, I will explore solutions to the issue of DACA. The article will cover some of the legislation that has been proposed in the past and look to the future for possible solutions to a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. People like Xavier Vazquez Baez, who contribute to their communities and want to give back to the only country they have known, deserve to have peace over their status in the United States.

Information for current DACA recipients, including how to renew DACA status, can be found at United We Dream’s DACA renewal resources or the University of California at Berkeley’s DACA FAQ.

For more on immigration, check out these posts:

• What is it like to live undocumented? Five Lessons from “Living Undocumented” by Victoria
• Misconceptions About Immigration by Grace A.
• How to Get Your Green Card: An Overview of the American Immigration System by Emma F.
• Immigration During Coronavirus Explained by Grace A.