Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an American immigration policy implemented by President Barack Obama in 2012. It defers, or delays, the deportation of undocumented immigrants from the United States if they arrived in the country as children and meet certain other qualifications. These include having entered the United States before turning sixteen, having been physically present in the country on the date DACA took effect, being in school or having graduated from high school, and having not committed any serious crimes. All undocumented immigrants who qualify for DACA receive deferred action for two years and can then seek a renewal. These people can legally work in the United States during this time. While DACA had deferred the deportations of more than 750,000 undocumented immigrants from the United States by the spring of 2017, the decision was made later that year to rescind the program, resulting in legal challenges (which reached the Supreme Court by 2019) and nationwide debates over subsequent years.

Background

The Obama administration began devising the legislation that became DACA after the numerous failures of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act to pass in Congress. Senators Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch first introduced a version of the DREAM Act in the US Senate in 2001. The legislation sought to create a pathway to permanent residency in the United States for undocumented immigrants already in the country.

Under the DREAM Act, these immigrants would first have to obtain conditional, or temporary, residency by meeting certain requirements. Applicants had to prove they had arrived in the United States before they turned sixteen and then live in the country continuously for five years, have a high school education, pass a criminal background check, and display upstanding moral character. If these conditions were met, the individual would receive conditional residency.

People who lived in the United States as conditional residents for six years could then apply to become permanent residents. They would be granted permanent residency only if they were attending an institute of higher education such as a college or had been honorably discharged from the US armed forces after at least two years, passed more background checks, and continued to display strong moral character.

The DREAM Act failed to pass Congress several times between 2001 and 2011. In 2010, a revised version of the bill passed the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate. Durbin attempted to pass the bill again in 2011, but, by this time, several Republican members of Congress had withdrawn their support for it.

The DREAM Act was controversial in the American public because, to some, it appeared to reward children who had entered the United States illegally. Critics of the law claimed this would encourage more undocumented immigrants to travel to the United States. Supporters of the DREAM Act asserted the law would protect the children from suffering for the illegal actions of their parents. After witnessing the DREAM Act fail in Congress in 2010 and 2011, Obama started preparing an executive order, a law issued directly by the president and not requiring congressional approval, designed to address the matter of undocumented immigrant children.

Overview

The Obama administration announced the executive order Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, referred to as DACA, on June 15, 2012. In general, DACA authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to determine which undocumented immigrants in the United States should be considered low priorities for deportation. Low-priority immigrants would have their deportations deferred. Deferred action is not the same as amnesty, which is an official legal pardon for offenses committed, such as entering a country illegally.

Individuals had to apply to be considered for deferred action under DACA. They would be eligible to apply only if they had arrived in the United States before they turned sixteen; were younger than age thirty-one on June 15, 2012; had continuously lived in the United States since June 12, 2007; were currently in school or had completed high school or had been honorably discharged from the US military; had never been convicted of a felony, serious misdemeanor, or three or more standard misdemeanors; and did not present a risk to US national security. Individuals would be granted deferred action for two years and could then apply for a renewal. These people could legally work in the United States after receiving an employment authorization document, which they would have to renew along with their deferred action status.

To apply for deferred action under DACA, individuals had to mail a collection of forms and copies of other documentation to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services office in their home state. The forms collected applicants' personal information—such as mailing address, physical attributes, and criminal history—for processing. Applicants had to submit a total fee of $465 along with these forms. This fee included $85 for a background check and $380 for an employment authorization document. The documentation required proving an applicant's date of birth and US residence since 2007 could include a birth certificate, passport, school identification card, school records, medical records, financial statements, pay stubs, or various other official documents featuring the individual's name and a date. Individuals could apply for deferred action only for themselves; no one could apply on behalf of another person.

DACA was mostly successful in accomplishing its goals. By March 2014, 86 percent of the approximately 643,000 applications submitted under DACA had been approved. The Pew Research Center originally estimated that about 950,000 undocumented immigrant children would be immediately eligible to apply for DACA. The organization speculated that the $465 fee may have prevented more than 300,000 individuals from applying.

Businessman Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in November 2016. One of his campaign promises had been to terminate Obama's executive orders on undocumented immigrants. Therefore, in the months leading up to Trump's inauguration in January 2017, supporters of DACA urged Obama to alter the program to protect undocumented immigrant children more permanently. Obama claimed he had done all he could.

Trump, however, once he took office, did not immediately revoke DACA. Instead, his administration increased the number of offenses that could lead to an undocumented immigrant being deported from the United States. Individuals who had been charged with a crime, convicted of a crime, or committed acts considered to be unlawful offenses were prioritized more highly for deportation. Trump claimed he would manage DACA with compassion, but his administration maintained that any undocumented immigrants who had received deferred action were still subject to deportation at any time.

On September 5, 2017, it was announced that the DACA program was officially being rescinded. According to the new policy plan, new applications for legal status dated after that day would no longer be accepted or considered. At the same time, current DACA authorizations would be honored until their expiration dates two years after the initial acceptance. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stressed that DACA had been unconstitutional, and Trump, in a following speech, explained that the program would be wound down and Congress would have a chance to act upon instituting a legal solution. According to officials, those in the program whose expiration date fell between September 5, 2017, and March 5, 2018, would have until October 5, 2017, to apply for renewal. Protests erupted around the country, with critics arguing that ending the program would hurt young immigrants who had been brought into the country illegally through no fault of their own. Reportedly, by October 4, close to fifty thousand eligible individuals had failed to apply for renewal of their DACA status, and no significant congressional steps had been taken to replace the program.

In the following months, cases brought before district court judges in various states dealt with arguments regarding how the effort to end the program was mishandled and how the administration had not shown just cause for the rescission. In early 2018, in California and New York, district court judges delayed the ending of the program by issuing preliminary injunctions ordering the administration to continue allowing DACA individuals to renew their status. In response, by May, a number of states, including Texas and South Carolina, had begun a lawsuit in district court to officially argue the unconstitutionality of the program. The judge in that case ultimately decided not to halt DACA renewals for the sake of individuals who would be negatively impacted. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled to uphold the California court's injunction in November, and by February 2019, the Supreme Court had not yet taken up government appeals, leaving the program active for the time being.

As debates and lower-court litigation continued, the Supreme Court ultimately agreed in June 2019 to hear the DACA case. After first hearing oral arguments in November 2019, the Supreme Court released its majority decision in June 2020. In its 5–4 ruling, it was detailed that the court had found that the government had not provided sufficient enough reasons to justify the rescinding of the program. While the decision seemed to leave open the possibility for the government to attempt dismantling the program in a different way, it meant that the protections could not be ended at that point.

Though the judge of a federal district court ordered that the US government resume accepting new DACA applications in December 2020, disagreements over the constitutionality of the program persisted, and in that same month, Texas and other states petitioned a federal judge once again to decide in favor of what they perceived as the unlawfulness of the program. The debate was further spurred by the change in presidency following the November 2020 general election. Shortly after his inauguration as president in January 2021, Joe Biden, who supported immigration reform, issued a memorandum charging the DHS secretary with fortifying and preserving DACA. Following federal judge Andrew Hanen's ruling declaring DACA unconstitutional in 2021, once again halting new applications, Biden's administration filed an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which ultimately upheld Hanen's decision in 2022. However, in an attempt to legally fortify DACA, the DHS proceeded with an official program regulations process and issued a DACA Final Rule that same year that then went to Hanen for consideration; in September 2023, Hanen ruled against the program once more, arguing that the new regulations did not sufficiently address legal concerns.

Still seeking to expand protections for those in the DACA program, Biden announced a rule change in May 2024 that enabled DACA recipients to access health care under the Affordable Care Act.

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