CMSOnAir | Daniela Alulema on the Contributions of DACA Recipients

This episode of CMSOnAir is the first in a series featuring academics, policymakers, and advocates who have written for the Journal on Migration and Human Security (JMHS). 

Created by the Obama administration in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program offers certain young immigrants who came to the United States as children work authorization and a temporary reprieve from deportation. As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the Trump administration’s efforts to terminate the DACA program, CMS released a paper offering detailed estimates about DACA recipients, their economic contributions, and their deep ties to US communities. The paper found that:

• 83 percent of DACA recipients is in the labor force. From this pool, 95 percent is employed;
• 346,455 US-born children under the age of 18 have at least one DACA parent; and,
• 81 percent of DACA recipients has lived in the United States for more than 15 years. 

The paper, which also features testimonies of several DACA recipients, was subsequently published in the Journal on Migration and Human Security (JMHS), CMS’s peer-reviewed, public policy journal. 

In this episode, Daniela Alulema — author of the JMHS paper and herself a DACA recipient  — describes the paper’s findings and shares the stories of the DACA recipients. She also outlines potential policy directions for the DACA program, given the Supreme Court’s decision that the way the Trump administration ended the program was unlawful and the Biden administration’s support for the program.