CMS Announces New Study "Beyond DAPA and DACA"

CMS Announces New Study

Beyond DAPA and DACA:
Revisiting Legislative Reform in Light of Long-Term Trends in Unauthorized Immigration to the United States 

New York, NY – The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) announces the release of a new study revealing dramatic changes in unauthorized immigration to the United States in the past two decades.

Based on new estimates of the unauthorized for 2013, the authors – Robert Warren and Donald Kerwin – highlight several trends, including:

• The decline in arrivals to the US unauthorized population since 2000 to levels not seen since the early 1980s, and of Mexican arrivals to levels not seen since the 1970s.
• The rapid increase in the percentage of long-term unauthorized residents: in 2000, 26 percent of the unauthorized had resided in the United States for 10 years or more, but by 2013, this figure had reached 60 percent and is likely to continue to grow.
• The growth of nonimmigrant visa overstays in constituting this population: since 2008, the number of annual arrivals into the unauthorized population due to visa overstays has substantially exceeded the number of arrivals due to entries without inspection.

The study also provides estimates of those who would be eligible for the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programs, and finds that more than one-half of persons who are potentially eligible for both the DACA and DAPA programs are long-term residents who arrived prior to 2000.

Among other policy recommendations, the study argues for the need to reform the legal immigration system, advance the “registry” date in order to legalize a large percentage of the unauthorized, and effectively monitor and respond to nonimmigrant visa overstays.

“Beyond DAPA and DACA: Revisiting Legislative Reform in Light of Long-Term Trends in Unauthorized Immigration to the United States,” is now available in the Journal on Migration and Human Security. Interviews with the authors are available upon request by contacting Rachel Reyes at (212) 337-3080 x. 7012 or [email protected].