Effectiveness of DACA in Helping Young Undocumented Immigrants in the United States

Introduction

The United States has many immigrants from different countries. As a result of the increasing number of young immigrants, president Joe Biden reinstated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in January 2021. The policy has helped provide young undocumented immigrants who have been residing in the U.S for over 6 years and who arrived in the country as children. DACA not only protects them from deportation but also helps them attain the legal benefits upon meeting the requirements (Alulema, 2019). (Research also shows that DACA has increased the employment status and wages of eligible immigrants and has also led to improvement in their mental health (Mallet-García & García-Bedolla, 2021). The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is one of the best immigration policies that has helped young undocumented immigrants by differing the deportations temporarily and improving their lives socially, economically, and educationally.

Main Goals of DACA and Population Served

Some of DACA’s primary goals include making sure that the recipients have access to many opportunities like getting to higher education, work permits, and working legally in the country. The recipients can then apply for loans to cater to college funds and further their education. The benefits will enable immigrant youth to participate actively in society, open their dreams of what kind of life they wish to have, and begin preparing for their futures (Alulema, 2019). The plans were going smoothly until a Republican won office and decided that the United States needed change. The notion that all immigrants were thieves and killers and lazy was the attitude taken towards immigrants. Not hard-core evidence but outright disrespect, discrimination, and hate fueled the rage of the most powerful man in the world. The protest started to happen in response to the news that dreamers could soon begin to be deported. It was time for action to be taken against this vulnerable population.

The population covered by DACA includes all undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. Approximately 690,000 teens and young adults receive protection under the DACA program. At the same time, 34,000 other applicants are still processed. For eligibility, applicants should have arrived before 15 and stayed in the nation since mid-2007. Most of this population comes from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. If individuals’ DACA protection expired from March 6, 2018, or had not applied for renewal, they would be subject to deportation (Shabad, 2017). This warning was given after the president announced that the DACA act would no longer protect President Obama’s dreamers in 2012. All immigrants would be at risk for deportation if they were not United States citizens. This fear drove people to hide for their safety.

No funds have been any set aside for immigrants from the government. However, several nonprofit organizations have stepped up to help DACA people. Up to date, United We Dream has joined with over 26 associates in 17 states to organize at least $900,000 in supporting DACA Restitution Grants for at least 1800 young immigrants (DACA, 2018). With these funds, they help pay for the renewal cost, which is approximately five hundred dollars per person. Many immigrants save up for this fee, meanwhile making low wages and supporting their families.

How DACA has Improved Lives and the Challenges Faced

The lives of undocumented immigrants are full of nightmares and dreams. Parents have dreamt of improved futures for their children and themselves. Teenagers brought to the country as children are becoming U.S. inhabitants. Despite the thoughts, there are also nightmares. Children have awakened from dreams of immigration attacks in which their undocumented siblings and parents are taken from them all of a sudden. Alulema (2019) alludes, young adults who always believed they were Americans get themselves “awakening to a nightmare” after they learn that they are undocumented, cannot have access to a driver’s license, acquire college loans, or working legally, and living under the risk of being deported.

Living in the United States has always been a dream of many people not born in the country. The United States is described as the land of opportunities for all. Over the past few years, this vision has changed, though. Although things and opportunities are not the same, the positives outweigh the negatives in many instances. President Donald Trump was overtly racist and made the lives of people of color, immigrants, Muslims, and anyone who is not a Caucasian hard. One of the first things he changed when he became president was President Obama’s immigration policy in 2012 for DACA (Alulema, 2019). When the president came into office, he wanted to change the immigration policy by eliminating the illegal and legal immigrants in the U.S. The president proposed to fund building a wall high enough to keep anyone out from crossing into the United States from Mexico illegally.

Despite the challenges faced by immigrants in the U.S., the policy has met most of the DREAMERs’ needs. The policy under DACA has improved DREAMers’ admission to higher education by making it easier for them to pay for tuition fees once they gain legal work authorization. DACA has also affected access to higher education. It has done this through increased aspirations and motivations of immigrant students, greater accessibility to personal allowances, better receptivity of colleges to immigrant students, and a more sense of belonging and security (Alulema, 2019). DACA has brought positive outcomes to individuals receiving it. Many would love to be a part of it but must meet a specific criterion to be granted. DACA has given its recipients high hopes of going further in life with better education and better wages, accounting for a better life.

The protection from deportation and funding opportunities for undocumented immigrants, opened by DACA, can deliberate great mental health assistance to people receiving it. The health outcomes need to be reflected by investigators and policy creators to assess the broader well-being outcomes on immigration policy (Venkataramani et al., 2017). The immigrants’ adverse effects were never taken into consideration and how there could be long-term damage. Prolonged and increase stress can lead to a depressed immune system for all individuals involved. The risk of deportation affects not only the people that are taken but also those left behind. Families being split apart is never a good or easy process.

Alternative policies will help DACA people, but time is limited because of the present issue of immigration. There are several options that DACA recipients are advised to try, including applying for permanent resident status, immigrant visas, register for temporary protected status, and apply for other nonimmigrant visas (Alulema, 2019). There is no policy currently in place that meets immigrants’ needs and does not guarantee them residence in the United States if they are legal citizens. Therefore, many groups and organizations are currently fighting to change the issue and keep DACA and dreamers in the United States.

References

Mallet-García, M. L., & García-Bedolla, L. (2021). Immigration Policy and Belonging: Ramifications for DACA Recipients’ Sense of Belonging. American Behavioral Scientist 1(1), 0002764221996777.

Venkataramani, A. S., Shah, S. J., O’Brien, R., Kawachi, I., & Tsai, A. C. (2017). Health consequences of the U.S. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program: a quasi-experimental study. The Lancet Public Health, 2(4), e175-e181.

Alulema, D. (2019). DACA and the Supreme Court: How We Got to This Point, a Statistical Profile of Who Is Affected, and What the Future May Hold for DACA Beneficiaries. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 7(4), 123-130.

Shabad, R. (2017, September 06). How the decision to end DACA affects “Dreamers.” Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-decision-to-end-daca-affects-dreamers/