03/14/2016 Tungol Law Documents, Immigration, Research "CMS Reports DAPA and DACA Populations Part of American Society"

A report released today by the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) offers a statistical portrait of the potential beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program, the original Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program implemented in 2012 (“original DACA”), and the expanded DACA program announced in 2014 (“DACA-plus”). The report illustrates the degree to which these populations have become embedded in US society, finding that the great majority of DAPA and DACA recipients enjoy strong family ties, long tenure, and high employment rates in the United States.

Major findings in the report include:

Of the DAPA-eligible

• 89% are parents of US citizens only
• 7% have lawful permanent resident children only
• 4% have both US citizen and lawful permanent resident children
• 20% are married to a US citizen or legal non-citizen

DAPA and DACA recipients who have lived in the US for 10 years or more

• DAPA: 81%
• Original DACA: 85%
• DACA-plus: 72%

DAPA and DACA recipients in the labor force that are employed

• DAPA: 94%
• Original DACA: 89%
• DACA-plus: 90%

DAPA and DACA recipients who have at least a high school degree

• DAPA: 47%
• Original DACA: 93%
• DACA-plus: 95%

DAPA and DACA recipients who speak English well, very well or exclusively

• DAPA: 49%
• Original DACA: 91%
• DACA-plus: 83%

DAPA and DACA recipients with access to a computer and internet

• DAPA: 68%
• Original DACA: 74%
• DACA-plus: 73%

CMS derived its estimates on the DAPA- and DACA-eligible from statistics on the foreign-born population collected in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). It first derived detailed estimates for all undocumented residents, and then used the characteristics of this population (e.g., year of entry, age at entry, etc.) to tabulate the numbers who would be eligible for DAPA and DACA in 2014, which is the most recent year available.

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