Thursday, January 26, 2017

DACA safe for now

The LA Times reported on Monday that for now, USCIS appears not to have changed protocols for DACA applications. In his ABC news interview this week, the President indicated that a policy review was coming within 4 weeks, but that “Where you have great people that are here that have done a good job, they should be far less worried,” according to Breitbart.

DACA is available only to a particular set of birth cohorts of unauthorized immigrants who arrived young and who are either in school or have a high school degree or GED (or who have served in the military). My work with Francesc Ortega suggests that unauthorized immigrants with a much broader set of characteristics appear to contribute to our nation's economic well-being. The apparent near-term focus on border security and criminal activity among unauthorized populations seems to recognize this.

Fortune has published a brief article discussing some estimates of the economic impact of DACA.