What happens if DACA ends?

Each and every business day for 2 years, 1,000 more U.S. jobs will be lost

A critical aspect of DACA, and a driving force for much of its success, is that DACA provides recipients access to employment authorization documents, allowing them to pursue employment in the United States, as well as making them eligible for certain benefits like a driver’s license. If DACA ended or renewals were restricted, current DACA recipients would lose their work authorization and all ancillary privileges that allow them to travel safely and take care of vital daily activities, like driving their kids to school or taking family members to doctor’s visits.

Because DACA renewals are granted on a rolling basis, local communities would almost immediately feel the impact if renewals were blocked. An estimated 22,000 jobs would be lost each and every month for two years—about 1,000 jobs each business day—at a time when workforce shortages are already hurting families and driving up costs across the country.

If DACA renewals are halted, this means that each month for two years, some 1,600 DACA recipients working in healthcare, including doctors and nurses, 800 educational professionals like teachers and teacher aides, and 600 personal care workers in child or senior care would be forced out of their jobs, which would be devastating to communities across the country.

MONTHLY WORKFORCE LOSSES IF DACA ENDS

Even now, the number of people protected by DACA is shrinking. The policy is closed to new applications due to legal challenges, prohibiting nearly 400,000 Dreamers who should be eligible to receive DACA protections from applying for them. For example, some 93,000 new, initial applications for DACA are pending adjudication at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services because their processing has been halted by the courts. Currently, only renewals are being processed, and even then, the rules for age and arrival date have remained unchanged for more than a decade, meaning the DACA policy is largely frozen to new applicants. Consequently, while DACA recipients who received protections early on, many as students, are now building careers, the post-DACA generation of Dreamers is entering adulthood with far fewer opportunities. For example, FWD.us estimates that only a quarter of the 100,000 undocumented high school graduates in 2022 would be eligible for DACA if new applications were being processed.

California and Texas, home to the highest numbers of DACA recipients, would suffer the highest number of job losses if DACA ended, with an estimated 6,000 monthly job losses in California and 5,000 in Texas. In Texas, this means 400 healthcare workers and 300 teachers would be forced out of their jobs each month. Among other top states of DACA recipients, the monthly job losses would amount to 1,000 individuals in Illinois, 800 in New York, 800 in Arizona, 700 each in Florida and North Carolina, 600 in Georgia, and 500 each in Washington and Colorado—with terrible ripple effects for DACA recipients’ families and broader communities.

Because the DACA renewal period is 24 months, job losses would continue and compound over those two years. When the last DACA recipient’s work permit expires, the U.S. will have lost more than half a million jobs, and the U.S. economy will lose as much as $11.7 billion annually, or roughly $1 billion monthly, in wages from previously employed DACA recipients.

Each and every day for two years, 1,000 more U.S. citizen children and spouses of DACA recipients will face separation

Economic losses from DACA’s ending would represent only the tip of the iceberg. Because most DACA recipients have lived in the U.S. for two decades or more, losing DACA would hurt families across the country, with far-reaching harm for nearly every community in the U.S. DACA recipients have deep roots in their local communities. Most are in their thirties or will soon be approaching them. They own homes here, have started businesses, and are raising their kids and building their families. Critically, many DACA recipients have children and spouses who are U.S. citizens.

If DACA renewals were halted, DACA recipients could lose their protections from deportation, putting them at immediate risk. This means an estimated 25,000 U.S. citizen children each month would be living with a parent at risk of being torn from their families and deported to a country they likely don’t even remember. Similarly, an estimated 5,000 U.S. citizens have a spouse who would lose deportation protections. This means each day for two years, nearly 1,000 immediate U.S. citizen family members will see a loved one at immediate risk of deportation.

MONTHLY NUMBER OF U.S. CITIZENS WITH A DACA FAMILY MEMBER LOSING DEPORTATION PROTECTIONS IF DACA ENDS

This would mean 6,000 U.S. citizen children in California and a further 5,000 in Texas would have a parent becoming eligible for deportation each month for two years. It would mean that, each month for two years, 1,500 U.S. citizen spouses of DACA recipients in California and 1,000 in Texas could see their spouses deported. Even these large numbers tell only part of the story. Living with the threat of deportation places an enormous burden on family members and children, compromising their ability to concentrate at work or school and adding terrible stress and fear to their daily lives.

Congress must pass a permanent legislative solution in 2022 to protect Dreamers

The threat to DACA recipients is real, and it’s right in front of us. While Dreamers have long been stuck in a precarious position, the current legal threats to DACA have put the policy in greater danger than ever. Congress must pass a permanent legislative solution in 2022 to protect Dreamers, or Dreamers’ futures in this country, and the futures of their families and communities, will be in great peril.

Ending DACA would severely damage businesses across the country. Hospitals would be unable to serve as many patients. Classrooms would lose their teachers. And families of all backgrounds would experience the enormous stress of losing loved ones to deportation.

DACA faces the imminent risk of being ended, threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people. It is imperative that eligible DACA recipients continue to renew their DACA as soon as possible, and that Congress act this year. We urge all parties to do their part to support these crucial efforts.