DACA Holders Set to Begin Losing Protections in Growing Numbers Next March, Reaching an Average of 915 Per Day through March 2020

Fact Sheet Also Offers Educational and Workforce Profile of Current DACA Recipients

WASHINGTON — With the phaseout of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program moving into full force next spring, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that an average of 915 young unauthorized immigrants per day will lose their work authorization and protection from deportation beginning on March 6, 2018 through March 5, 2020.

Expirations would peak in January – March 2019, when approximately 50,000 individuals would lose their DACA protections each month.

Beyond predicting DACA expirations, a new MPI fact sheet out today examines the educational and workforce characteristics of the nearly 690,000 current DACA holders, offering data on their school enrollment and educational attainment, labor force participation, and top industries and occupations of employment. In addition to looking at the national picture, the fact sheet provides data for the states with the most DACA recipients.

Among the top findings:

• While DACA recipients are almost as likely as U.S. adults in the same age group (15-32) to be enrolled in college (18 percent versus 20 percent), they are far less likely to have completed college (4 percent versus 18 percent).
• Forty-four percent of DACA holders have completed secondary education, but are not enrolled in college. Another 20 percent remain in secondary school.
• Female DACA recipients are more likely than men to be enrolled in college (20 percent versus 15 percent), but less likely to be working (48 percent versus 64 percent).
• Fifty-five percent of current DACA recipients are employed, amounting to 382,000 workers. They account for 0.25 percent of all U.S. workers. Most DACA participants (62 percent) who are not in the labor force are enrolled in school.
• One out of three DACA recipients who are enrolled in school also work—a rate roughly equivalent to that of the U.S. young adult population.
• DACA holders are much less likely than young unauthorized immigrants who are ineligible for deferred action to work in construction jobs and are more likely to work in office support jobs, showing that DACA can be a means to occupational mobility.
• While significant numbers of DACA recipients are employed in professional occupations, the most common industries of employment are hospitality, retail trade, construction, education, health and social services, and professional services.

“Our analysis shows that DACA recipients are a largely middle-skilled population, either enrolled in school or working or both,” said Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at MPI. “DACA recipients are widely dispersed across industries and occupations, and so are integrated into many different parts of the nation’s economy.”

Using a unique MPI methodology that permits the modeling of the size and characteristics of unauthorized immigrants in U.S. Census Bureau data, the fact sheet provides new estimates on key characteristics of DACA participants. MPI previously released analysis of some of these characteristics for the DACA-eligible population. But data released for the first time by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service in September on the age, gender, origin country and state of residence of program participants have allowed MPI researchers to update their methodology to better reflect the DACA-participating population.

The fact sheet, A Profile of Current DACA Recipients by Education, Industry, and Occupation, can be read here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/profile-current-daca-recipients-education-industry-and-occupation.

For MPI’s estimates of the DREAMer populations that could be covered under various bills pending in Congress, see: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/differing-dreams-estimating-unauthorized-populations-could-benefit-under-different.

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The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels.