DACA 13 Years Later
From students to careers and families

Thirteen years after the Obama Administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, DACA recipients have grown in many ways: youth who started as mostly high school and college students are now building careers and establishing families.

When President Obama announced the DACA policy in 2012, he described prospective DACA recipients as “young people who study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, are friends with our kids, and pledge allegiance to our flag.” For years, elected officials and media outlets highlighted DACA recipients’ youth and the fact that they’d been educated alongside their U.S. citizen peers. Today, DACA recipients are no longer children; the protections afforded by the policy have helped them to build their lives in the U.S., graduate from school, grow their careers, and establish their own families. But even while DACA recipients have grown and changed, the DACA policy has not kept up, and it has been less effective over time because of court challenges resulting in closures of the policy for new applicants. Today, hundreds of thousands of these young people still live day to day facing the overwhelming uncertainty around their future in a country they have called home for decades.

When the DACA policy launched, DACA recipients were generally younger people who were in high school, or who were just beginning their college education or their careers. According to FWD.us estimates, the average age of DACA recipients in 2012 was 21 years.¹ At that time, nearly half (45%) of approved applicants were enrolled in high school or college, while a slight majority (60%) participated in the labor force. For this first group, only slightly more than two-thirds (77%) had graduated from high school, and roughly a third (35%) had attained some college education. As many were in school or just beginning careers, DACA recipients earned a median income of only $4,000 per year.

Thirteen years later, DACA’s beneficiaries have built families and careers in the U.S.

Initial DACA recipients in 2012 with active DACA status in 2025, by year

Congress and the administration must urgently do more for DACA recipients

DACA has provided life-changing benefits for young, undocumented people who came to the U.S. as children. Without this policy, hundreds of thousands wouldn’t have accessed higher education, started careers, or enjoyed the relative stability to start their families. At the same time, each passing DACA anniversary highlights that DACA protections remain precarious, and DACA recipients continue to live with tremendous uncertainty. The Trump Administration attempted to strip DACA recipients of their protections; an attack on the policy that continues in the courts today.

In fact, FWD.us estimates that as many as 500,000 people currently without DACA status are eligible to receive the policy’s benefits but cannot have their application processed due to ongoing court decisions. The DACA policy is under active litigation and DACA renewals could be stopped as soon as this year. If renewals were to stop, FWD.us estimates that as many as 1,000 jobs would be lost each business day and more than 1,000 U.S. citizen family members of DACA recipients would face family separation each and every day for two years. This is why it is now more urgent than ever to provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients. Unless Congress acts, DACA recipients who have relied on its limited protections for more than a decade could have no way to secure their status in the United States.

While only Congress can provide a long-term solution, the Trump administration has legal policy tools at its disposal to provide certainty to DACA recipients and other Dreamers.

Critically, hundreds of thousands more undocumented young people cannot access DACA because they entered the U.S. after the policy’s cutoff date, and thus aren’t eligible for its deportation protections and work authorization. For example, even if USCIS were processing new DACA applications, nearly all undocumented high school graduates would be ineligible because they entered the U.S. after 2007. Their undocumented status hinders their ability to live free from fear and uncertainty, and blocks them from contributing more fully to their communities and our economy. Congress must act to provide these young Dreamers with immigration relief.